Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Negative Energy

Been having a lot of negative energy lately.
I feel like I have so many complaints and when something is bugging me, I can't move on until I let it out.
On the other hand, I feel extremely guilty when the matter is around someone I consider to be close with.
So then I began to wonder, have I done something wrong?
Have I made myself an ugly person, because as much as I hate to admit it, I was essentially gossiping?
Am I being hypocritical and judgemental?
I wouldn't want others to think badly of me after they hear my rants.
However,I can't take back what I've said (although it's not thaaaat bad),  so I can only strive to be a better and more forgiving person from now on. Afterall, I do understand that nobody is perfect.

Anyways, enough about that. Had an amazing chilled day with B.
We went to Leslie's Cafe for cheap but yummy lunch.
Then onto Cafe Princess for a drink and more chatting/blogging (Bella).
I ordered a coke float and when it came, it literally exploded like those baking soda&vinegar volcano projects. = ="
We ended up coming home to do our nails and more chilling and talking. LOL we talk so friggin' much! At like 10:30 ish we finally decided we need to get dinner, so we went to Owl's.

at Cafe Princess. Unimpressed bears are unimpressed.
Was trying to take a picture of Bella while she was blogging, but she said no.jpg
I love chilling with B because she's so chilled. and she gets me. (at least I hope)

---
Went to Guu Sakabar on Sunday. Food was amazing although I'm disappointed that their sushi ball dish is off the menu.

sweet frigging jesus... .jpg

It's hanami season soon and they changed their decor a bit.

桜が咲いた!
I'm obsessed with cherry blossom.

After dinner, drove KK home to get the lovely Mr. Brownie.

aww Mr. Brownie why you look so sad?

.... I think he was just sleepy.
Once again, we are thinking of going on a short trip in April.
Will the plan work out this time? heh we'll see.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Beautiful Days in Japan - Osaka Romanesque 3

Time for another Japan post!
This is the last of the Osaka Romanesque series, in which I will talk about Namba (難波・なんば) and Kobe (神戸).
However, there will be more Japan posts to come!

You can read part one here: http://ilivelikethis.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-in-japan-osaka-romanesque-1.html

and part two here: http://ilivelikethis.blogspot.ca/2011/12/beautiful-days-in-japan-osaka.html

難波の庭園好きだったね
二人ではしゃいだ観覧車から
神戸まで見えたあの日が続くと信じてた...

I haven't really been sightseeing in Namba nor Kobe in my last two trips, but I stayed in Namba because it's really convenient.
Namba is a district located in the southern part of Osaka. It also includes Shinsaibashi and Doutonbori featured in my last Japan post (part 2 of Osaka Romanesque)
Many major train and subway lines pass through Namba, which is why I always choose to find accommodation in this area. Also, there's train service from the airport straight to Namba, so it's super quick and easy! LOVE IT!
Nankai Namba station & Takashimaya Department Store


南海電鉄ホーム - Nankai train platform (train goes to the Rinku outlet and airport)

四天王ラーメン Ramen shop near the Namba station #sweetjesusface.jpg

 There's many cool places in Namba that's worth exploring.

Den Den Town (Kansai's version of Akihabara, for electronics and anime fanatics) - although I haven't been there myself, my travel guide books told me that there's a lot of electronic stores, and a Mandarake (a chain anime/manga store) there. I've been to Mandarake in Amerika-mura and in Shibuya (Tokyo) and they were awesome! There's also lots of JE related goods like uchiwa, live tour pamphlet, tour goods, and pictures. I always have fun digging through that section.

Takashimaya (department store) - my mom loves shopping at the sales section, just digging for good deals. She got some makeup pouches and hankerchiefs for herself and as souvenirs.
My fav. part was the food section, which is in the basement. There are so many different stalls selling sushi, ALL kinds of salad, croquette, bentos...you name it. One time, we bought lots of food from the basement of Takashimaya and we had an epic meal in our hotel room. #megusta
potato croquette

daddy chose this sushi set for me even though he doesn't eat raw fish <3


Namba Walk is an underground shopping district that is connected to the Namba station. One time I missed my own exit because my attention was on the shopping district exit /laughs/. I ended up shopping there for a little while before heading back to the hotel.


Another interesting place worth visiting is the 千日前道具屋筋商店街 (sen-nichi-mae prop street). Ever been to Japanese restaurants where they have those yummy looking food models on display? You can most likely find them on this street! Even if you don't own a restaurant, you might be able to find some weird/funny things as souvenirs for your friends and family.

There are more places in Namba that I haven't been to, but I will definitely check them out when I go there again.

The final place that concludes this series is Kobe.
I've only been there for an afternoon+evening. I met up with Angel there during my trip in 2010, and had the time of my life there!
Although I didn't sightsee, I did everything I wanted to do in Japan in that afternoon/evening.
First, we went to karaoke - my first time in Japan! Although we only went for a short while (about an hour), Angel let me sing more since she has way more opportunities to do it. I got to sing most of the songs I wanted and I was super satisfied.

Then we went shopping! Although I had been shopping a lot in Osaka too, it's always nice to shop with a buddy. Angel called that street "The Cursed Street" because she and her friends always end up spending money there. Of course, we also did a little damage that day. It was hard to resist when things were on sale!

a recent picture of me with a top i got that day.
When the stores started to close down, we took a quick look at China town.
cute panda vending machine


I'm not really a fan of the overly stereotypical decors of China town, so I didn't really take pictures (except for the above two).

We went to have dinner afterwards. We decided to go to a yakitori place which ended up being Torikizoku. I was super excited because it is owned by my favourite favourite man (Okura-kun from kanjani8)'s family and I have always wanted to try it! It was fate because Angel probably didn't do it on purpose, but she made my dream come true! The food was really yummy, and many ikemen (good-looking)servers. #eyecandy

We had fun time catching up and enjoying nice food + drinks.

menu ♡

my drink that Angel chose for me, some calpis-based drink - super yummy

yakitori!!!

some rice dish in the bkgd and fusion pho?!
 I was going to buy a Torikizoku logo phone strap but I forgot :( I better get to go there again!
To conclude the night, we went for some purikura but I'm too lazy to dig it up.
Karaoke, Shopping, Izakaya, Purikura - everything I love about Japan all in one day!

I'll be back with more Japan posts - hopefully with better, more interesting pictures. /laughs/

Saturday, March 17, 2012

♥♡ MY BIRTHDAY (✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ) ♥♡

MAR10. BIRTHDAY.
another year older.

Coincidentally, the theme for March is party...and my tacchon bb is holding a red heart balloon. #megusta
My guys are celebrating with me ・:*:・(*/////∇/////*)・:*:・

Not that I really care about birthdays, but since I did take some pictures and received some gifts from my sweet sweet friends, I guess I would do a post on it.

My lovely lovely cousin treated me to a grilled brazilian dinner at Copacabana. It was delish!
It's basically all you can eat meat - like ALL kinds of meat. steak, pork, sausage, lamb, chicken etc. you name it. Guys come around with sticks of meat, and if you want some, they will cut off a piece for you.
They also had a salad/side bar, where you can get some salad, fruits, and stuff like pasta/mashed potato/rice. Although starch is really filling, I couldn't help it, I had mashed potato.
Since it's near Yonge and Eglinton, where my fav. macaron/sweet shop is located, I went there earlier to get some macarons for my cousins and my friends.
Cousin got me the naked2 palette as well. My cousin spoils me ♥

chipmunks and naked 2 from Heidi  +(*´∀`)b

Next day, I went to Inakaya with some friends.
I had a high expectation of the place because I've heard good reviews about it.
However, as it turned out, it's not really that special.
Although there's nothing wrong with the food, it really wasn't THAT amazing.
Worse yet, we ordered about $35 of food per person, but we were not even half full when we left.

part of the food we got (the ones I have on my phone)

In the end we got takeout wings & fries as round two. /laughs/
sweetjesusface.jpg

Bella also came over (temporary release from house arrest), and we had wings and cakes.
Then we split up and half of us (Joie, Bella, KK and I) played pictionary, while the rest were playing their usual drinking games.

b-day cake!

pictionary team ♥
♥♡

drinking games team!

and of course, self-cam ---

Joie ♡
Bella (and her fab hair) ♥
KK ♡


It's nothing too out of the ordinary for us, but still special because I got to spend the day with my lovely friends. #somuchlove

More gifts ♥♡
Last time we (Ray Bella and I) went to Smart Maple, I was looking at the Hello Kitty pot below and thought it was cute. So Bella decided to get that for me and made me a "HK basket gift basket" with other HK cookware. #HKexplosion
(FYI I'm not a HK fan - but the pot is really cute!)

"disgustingly" matchy matchy HK cooking set from the gang
random but funny book from Pansy.

Lastly, my own gift to self. #foreveralone

can't wait to watch ♡

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Spring Break

The highly anticipated spring break finally came last week. Been out quite a lot (compare to my usual standards). Also because Bella finally came back from Korea <3<3<3

Sat 2/18
Volunteering in the morning, then went to watch The Secret World of Arietty with Ray and KK. I have been loving Studio Ghibli animation since I was a child so I was really excited to see it! Despite the story being a little bit too simple, I still enjoyed it a lot. #megusta

Sun 2/19
Went to Crazy Wing with Ray and Terri to watch the Knicks game. I went for the food though haha. At night, went to Take One for karaoke. Well, karaoke for me, drinks for Terri and the others :P I had the karaoke machine 80% of the time, and they expanded their J-pop library! They had a Kanjani8 song (My Home), some EXILE, and even an Atsushi solo song (いつかきっと). What's more, they had some less mainstream groups from LDH such as LOVE and Flower. Super super happehhhh!!

hubby#1, hubby #2, and Takahiro (EXILE)

Mon 2/20
finally got to meet up with Bella ♥ went for bubble tea in the afternoon, and then later Princess Cafe at night with everybody.
she got me a lot of gifts from korea + a mini Shelliemay from Japan...why so nice to me T_T
She had this shelliemay nuigurumi pouch that matches perfectly with my Duffy. so cute wtf.


Tue 2/21
Spent the day with Ray, Bella and Joie. We just went out for lunch - Chinese BBQ meat and rice/noodle!! #sweetjesusface
Randomly ran errands and grocery shopped. We made a homemade pizza at Joie's. NOM NOM NOM.


rose sauce-cheese-hicken-salami-green pepper-mushroom pizza


Wed 2/22
Volunteer @ JSS office. nothing special. but got a ride home from Mr. Maekawa. #whysonice

Sat 2/25
Last time volunteering for childcare. Gonna miss everyone. Sayaka, Atsumi, Noriko-san and her sons, Maachin and Hikaru. The other kids were so cute too. I usually leave with Sayaka. First time we attempted to leave, we had to return because she forgot to ask Chie-san for a certificate. Then after that we left again, but we had to go back again because she left her stuff on the table. =__=" She's so funny XD
雛飾り@ JCCC


Been spending so much time with Bella lately.
Her cats are so cute >w< nyan nyan~~!

featuring 3 3 this time ^^