In just over a week I'll be moving to Thailand and that is both exciting and terrifying, I'm still not quite sure if I've organised everything but I'm hoping everything will go as planned. I will definitely continue blogging about my adventures whilst I'm over there and I've still got lots more to share about Japan and Seoul coming up to so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for daily updates and also YouTube as I'll be uploading some vlogs, I hope everyone had a month now let's do some awesome things in April!
Japan has lot's of adorable theme cafés and we visited quite a few different ones during our travels, these are only a few of the many cafés there are to visit in Japan and there are new ones appearing every day for everything you could imagine so I thought today I would share some of the cute Sanrio related ones we visited and the yummy food I ate there to.
Gudetama Café
Gudetama is EVERYWHERE in Japan and probably more popular than Hello Kitty at the moment! The Gudetama Café opened on December 19th 2015 in HEP 5 in Osaka and we visited a couple days after so there were big bouquets of flowers outside, surprisingly it wasn't that busy either and we managed to get a table right away. I loved the egg shaped chairs they had there, all the Gudetama plushies and egg butts everywhere, I still don't understand why Gudetama has a butt but I love it and find it hilarious. There are lot's of delicious foods and drinks to chose from on the menu all looking like the egg himself so I decided to go all out and treat myself to the most expensive thing on the menu the french toast and lucky it did not disappoint with it's strawberry chocolate flavoured fake bacon. As with all theme cafés there's a little shop by the till where you can buy souvenirs of the characters but the selection is always quite small however we did get a free cute Gudetama Café sticker to commemorate our visit.
Cinnamoroll Café
The Cinnamoroll Café is a pop-up café inside Parco in Shibuya, it was supposed to be there for only a few weeks in December but it was still there in January when I left so they must have extended their stay however this one was kinda a pain to get in and after waiting a few hours on our first attempt and getting no where close we decided to visit again on a quieter day but the wait was still a few hours, you don't have to stand in line for hours though you just take a ticket with a number on and come back when you number is called so we decided to go shopping around Shibuya and came back later. They had quite a few interesting options on the menu one being a blue curry with cotton candy but I decided to play it safe and get a soda and we shared a cake which was surprisingly big, it also came with a free cup and my soda came with a free keychain and we also got some cute coasters to take home to. The cake was nice, not too sweet but nothing really special it's mostly about the cuteness rather than the taste, probably not worth the long wait but I still enjoyed it and all the silly photos we got!
Pom Pom Purin Café
The Pom Pom Purin Café was the first theme café we visited and it was decorated in cute Christmas decorations, this one is on Takeshita-dōri in Harajuku and a permanent fixture, it was mostly empty on the day we visited to so we got a table right away and rested for a while after a busy day of shopping. I ordered what I think was the Pom Pom Purin parfait and it was a lot bigger than expected in fact I didn't manage to eat it all which is kinda shocking for me also it was a bit weird and had some sour and quite bitter things in it (no idea what) but the pudding was pretty good! Sidenote the toilet was super fancy and had a lot of different buttons to play with which was kinda fun and interesting.
Hello Kitty Snacks
There is a Hello Kitty Café in Tokyo but unfortunately we didn't have time to visit it although we did visit one on our trip to Seoul in Korea which I'll be posting about soon so here are a couple of the Hello Kitty snacks I bought the first one was strawberry popcorn which was from a machine inside the Sanrio Shop in Shinsaibashi Osaka and the second a matcha sundae from the Hello Kitty shop in Odiaba both of which were delicious although I will pretty much buy anything with the Kitty on, Kitty has all my monies!
Since coming back from Japan I've rekindle my love with all things anime, it has been quite a while since I watched an anime series and I kinda felt like a fish out of water wandering around stores like Animate because the only things I recognised were Sailor Moon and Attack on Titan but I'm slowly getting into the groove and starting to find new series to watch and love so I thought I would share a few of my current faves.
This is one of the cutest animes I have watched in a long time and although the animation is quite basic it suits the super cute theme of the anime quite well. Itoshi no Muco is all about a cute Shiba Inu called Muco and her owner Komatsu-san and that's basically it, if you love dogs or are having a bad day and want a giggle this is definitely one to check out, I absolutely adore it!
I started watching this one because my crush was staring in the musical version of it and I wanted to see what it was all about, it did not disappoint and I ended up watching both seasons in less than a week although it kinda made me even more sad I was missing out on seeing the musical! The anime is a post-apocalyptic supernatural revenge/love drama and has elements in it for everyone whether you love classroom dramas or epic battles and the characters are awesome I loved seeing their relationships develop so much and the ending, I won't spoil but THE FEELS!!
If you haven't already noticed I'm a big fan of the supernatural/mystery anime genre and this one came highly recommended to me. This series is intense and even the first episode had me clutching my pillow and screaming at my screen! The storyline and concept is so interesting, I don't want to say too much about it because I don't want to spoil the suspense but it instantly reminded me of the movie The Butterfly Effect, I just can't wait to see how the story unfolds, I can definitely see why it's on so many people's favourites list.
WTF right!? Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking when they made this but I watched it and I laughed so much I absolutely loved it, it pokes fun at so many of the anime high school tropes and little Levi in his cleaning outfit is just too cute. This whole mini series blends my love of super cute anime and supernatural anime into one show and as random as it is it's just so good!
Sensoji is one of Tokyo's most popular attractions with hundreds of people visiting every day and the day we visited was no exception. We had visited quite a few temples by this point on our travels but Sensoji was our first temple visit in Tokyo and although I heard it was a popular sight I wasn't expecting quite so many visitors especially so late in the day when we arrived.
Visiting the temple just as the sun was setting made it all the more beautiful I loved the vibrant red colours and the smell of incense is made me feel somewhat calm in the middle of all the hustle and bustle and despite the many visitors to the temple there were still places you could find to just sit and relax away from the crowds.
From Sensoji you can enjoy a view of the Tokyo Skytreein fact it's so big you can often spot it from different places around Tokyo, I didn't realise quite how so big it was until I was right there underneath it, it's twice the size of Tokyo Tower and even more awesome to celebrate the recent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens the Skytree it was lit up like a giant lightsaber, pretty damn cool!
How did your town celebrate the release of Star Wars?
Nara Park is famous for its deer inhabitants so during our visit to Osaka we though we would take the short train ride over to Nara to go visit them and make some new friends. The deer here are completely wild they're not kept in fences or cages and free to roam as they please in fact one of the first deer we saw was in the middle of the road munching on some grass.
The deer here are quite tame and used to the many people who come to visit them in fact they don't really bother you unless you have some "deer crackers" to feed them with and some of them have even learned to bow to get a cracker which is the cutest thing ever, you can see my video of them doing it below.
The deer are still wild creatures and they can get a bit pushy when it comes to getting crackers as I learned after one started to headbutt me but once I gave him a cracker and swiftly walked away he didn't bother me, lesson learned be quicker to hand out the foods!
There are also lot's of temples in Nara park but we got so distracted by all the pretty deer we only managed to visit one and at about 3pm after we had fed ourselves, bought some cute souvenirs and walked back to the park the deer (and cracker sellers) had all disappeared back to the woods... Sidenote I also had the best mochi of my life in Nara so if deer aren't your thing Nara is still a beautiful place to visit for the day.
New Years is a crazy time of year in Tokyo and after days of non-stop bargain hunting it was time for a break for our minds and our purses so we decided to visit a little know place, Nezu Shrine. The shrine isn't too far away from Ueno Park but isn't as popular as Sensoji or the Meiji Shrine but definitely worth a visit.
After being caught up in the new years sale madness and surrounded buy a sea of humanity all pushing and shouting I thought a break at a quiet temple was exactly what we needed and although the temple still had a line of visitors all waiting to give their prayers for the new year thankfully it wasn't nearly as busy as the other shrines we had visited.
Nezu Shrine reminded me a bit of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto with it's Tori Gates and fox statues which was one of my favourite places we visited in Japan so I enjoyed our little visit to Nezu Shrine as it gave me some sense of peace after days of craziness it was like I could breathe again and I enjoyed just watching the koi fish swimming around the waterfalls and the peacefulness around me.
I always enjoy seeing the wishes that people leave at the shrine although most of them are written in Japanese I did spot a couple in English and Thai, one of our favourites was one written by a kid who said they wished to become an idol, that made me smile, I hope they get their wish!
What are your favourite places to visit to feel a sense of peace?
After 7 awesome years of sharing and selling my crafts with the world my Etsy shop will be closing for good next month. If you follow me on social media this news will come as no surprise to you but I haven't shared the reason why and don't worry it's for a good reason.
I'm moving to Thailand! Ok so it's not 100% yet but the tickets are booked and important meetings are being arranged, the only question is will everything go as planned so I can stay or will I be using my return ticket in June? I of course will keep you all updated and let you know everything once I know for sure myself but this move and everything that goes with it means I won't be able to maintain my Etsy shop hence it will have to close.
So I'm having a bit of a closing down sale, I've already reduced prices on lots of items, I've extended my Lucky Bag sale and you can get a further 15% off all purchases by entering the coupon code below at checkout.
Now is your absolute last chance to get any of my cute scarves or jewellery from me so please don't hesitate because after April everything will be gone! I have loved selling on Etsy and would totally recommend it to my fellow crafters so if you've ever wanted to test the site out and open your own shop just click on THIS LINK and you'll be able to get yourself 40 free listings when you open up your first shop.
Thank you to everyone for your amazing support it has meant everything to me
Japan is famous for it's theme cafés and we visited quite a few during our stay there but the one I was most excited about and my absolute favourite was Polar Bear's Café which is based on the anime of the same name and happens to be one of my absolute favourites as it's super cute and funny, you can even watch it for free on Crunchyroll so you have no excuse not to watch it, it will seriously brighten your day!
Unlike most other theme cafés in Tokyo this one is actually permanent fixture located in Takadanobaba which is an awesome name and really fun to say really fast. The café has a really relaxed vibe and most of the people were happily working away on their laptops, then enter moi...
Yeah... I was more than a little excited to visit this place and I wanted to play with all the things luckily the staff and the other patrons didn't mind so much and probably had a good giggle watching me running around playing with all the hats and glomping Panda-kun! If you've been following me for a while you'll know I adore Pandas and even spent a month in China living with them, so of course Panda-kun is my favourite from the anime so of course I had to order the Panda Parfait!
I also ordered a green tea latte and both were delicious, in fact I think that was the best parfait I had whilst I was in Japan and compared to other theme cafés we went to the prices were very reasonable. If you order a drink or parfait there you also get the chance to roll a dice to get an exclusive coaster which I think changes designs based on the season on my first roll I got Grizzly-san which was the one I wanted the least but on my second roll I got the one I wanted most with the main trio YEY! I would have loved to visit this place again if we had time the food was great they had all sorts of cute merchandise and gashapon, there were pandas everywhere and of course you could watch the anime ALL day which is my idea of heaven!
Whilst on my travels I collected quite a few cute little bits of stationery to giveaway to all my lovely readers out there who have supported my blog and enjoyed reading about all my adventures, this is my little way of including you guys on my trip and as I'll be going on another adventure very soon I thought this was the perfect time to giveaway just a few of the things I have collected before I disappear again.
The Prize
♥ Cute bear holiday stickers
♥ Baby dinosaur pencil tin
♥ Panda poop notepad (yep it's made of real panda poop!)
♥ 2 Hello Kitty Thailand memo pads
♥ Swimmer Japan drawstring pouch & stationery
If you want to be in with the chance to win all these goodies just follow the instructions in the widget below. Giveaway is open from now until midnight March 31st and remember to leave me a valid email address for me to contact you should you be the lucky winner.
