Thursday, April 28, 2011

Japan Part 3! ♥

Went to Japan back in September 2010 and I've put off completing the Japan series of posts long enough.

Alas, part 3- Tokyo! Here's Part 1 & Part 2.

Upon arrival in Tokyo, we headed to the Asakusa district of Taitou city, Tokyo. A popular tourist area in Asakusa is Nakamise street. It is literally a street with rows of shops on both sides selling a variety of snack foods and trinkets.


My brother and I walked along Nakamise and found it too crowded and boring so we headed out to the adjacent streets nearby. I noticed afterwards that the entire tour group had spent their 2 hours hanging around Nakamise street only. Be more adventurous people!


The shops along these inner streets had some of the same stuff being sold at Nakamise for a fraction of the price. So if you do find yourself touring Nakamise, don't spend too much time there. Walk out onto the other streets and check out more stuff.


I drank too much Evian while I was there. It was only 120 Yen a bottle :P


We later went to Ginza to get our shopping fix. Most of the ladies in the tour group only wanted to check out Burberry's Blue label (a line exclusive to Japan that's also more affordable than the original Burberry Prorsum line). I find the Blue Label line's bags to be a tad...ugly. Well, the ones I saw there at that time were.


Headed to Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku for dinner. Again, I apologize for the lack of pictures. All we had was a very bulky and hard-to-use DSLR camera and most of the pictures were taken by my brother, who was really lazy to take pictures. If only I had my own camera back then :(






Stayed at Keio Plaza Hotel, not too far from the Shinjuku area. That's the view from our room.


The following day, we went to the infamous Tsukiji fish market. It was pretty crowded as the streets were narrow. We had lunch there at this really small eatery that only seated a maximum of 8-10 people at a time! Best Anago donburi I've ever had though. Sashimi donburi are recommended as the seafood is as fresh as it gets.


We bought a lot of Japanese grapes, peaches and persimmons. There was a specialty bunch of grapes that cost 3000 Yen (that's RM100+) and they were apparently rare and in season at that time. They tasted sooo good. Flesh was plump and juicy and they were seedless.





After Tsukiji we went to Harajuku. There, we checked out Takeshita street.



Extremely crowded. Mostly boutiques and little cafes line the street. If you're into Japanese fashion trends, there is a boutique called WonderRocket that you would love to check out. The wonderful Tutuanna boutique is also located on this street.


Takeshita street is apparently famous for its crepes but we didn't have any :(


My brother must've spotted these group of uhm, cosplayers? Haha.

Well there isn't much to see at Takeshita street really. I wish we had the chance to check out Shibuya and Omotesando but we were so pressed for time, grr. So if you are going to Tokyo, do not waste your time at Nakamise and Ginza. Even Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku was boring.

I blame the tour agency for coming up with such a sucky Tokyo itinerary! :(



Our last stop before flying off the following day was Narita. We had dinner at a buffet-style family restaurant. You grab raw marinated cuts of meat and grill them at your table. There are other Japanese foods as well. I particularly enjoyed the DIY crepe station. I'm quite good you know :P


Since we were all so special and deserving of a treat, my dad decided to pre-order Kobe beef and Kurobuta (lit. Black pig) meat for the group. These were bought outside of the restaurant and we just grilled our meat there- after requesting permission of course.


I've had enough Kobe beef to last me a lifetime. 4-5 pieces is all you really need because the meat is so rich with all that marbled fat. Eating too much in one sitting just leaves a greasy feel in your mouth. And the fatty beefy taste lingers on. For a few hours. Or days depending on the severity of your Kobe beef fix.


Flew off the following morning. I miss Tokyo city so much! I wish we never had to keep to the itinerary because there's so much of Tokyo left to be discovered...


I wish I had a camera back then! Ugh think of all the pictures left untaken...and uncaptured memories...


I will return to you, Japan. Soon...real soon.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

30 Random things about me

Never really did any of these "things about me" posts but after seeing it on some other blogs, I decided to have a little fun with one.

Enjoy!

1. I love BLACK. Be it a colour, shade, tone, undertone, or whatever black is, I love black. I can dress up in black from head to toe: black LBD, black leggings, black heels...even my hair's black.

2. I like reptiles. I find them cute. Their beady eyes and dinosaur-like features are adorable to me. Hence, I have 3 pet turtles. They are smart as hell, mind you.

3. I'm more of a tea person than a coffee person but I can tolerate strong black coffee on its own. The caffeine overload makes my lips dry though.

4. I'm a good female driver. Nah, scratch that. I'm a good driver. Period.

5. I'm 5'1 and petite.

6. I love wearing heels. High, high heels.

7. I'm almost fully Chinese. My mum's grandmother was Malay.

8. I'm supposed to be able to speak the Hokkien dialect, Mandarin and Cantonese but I can't. Not very well at least. If I had to make a comparison between all the languages/ dialects I know,

English > Malay > Japanese > Cantonese > Mandarin > Hokkien > Hakka


9. I LOVE Japanese food.

10. My favourite sashimi are: shake/salmon, hotate/scallop, abura bouzu/butter fish.

11. Dark chocolate is the way to go, for me.

12. I love electronic music: Trance, Electro, House, DnB, Psytrance. I love driving really really fast to hardtrance/ fast electronic music in general.

13. I had braces when I was 11. Yeah, the ones on teeth.

14. I find French and German to be sexy languages. I think the Brit accent on a guy is cute.

15. I love watching fashion shows on Youtube in my free time. Favourite designer shows: Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, McQueen & Elie Saab.

16. I'm especially clumsy and I hurt myself quite often. I bump into things and get bruises. Used to hit myself with the racquet whenever I played badminton.

17. I Melbourne Shuffle well to electro. I do it properly at least. And I don't look like I'm having a seizure unlike some people I've seen spazzing out on the "running man".


18. I, for the life of me, do not know how to use Photoshop.

19. As a kid, I used to cry all the time whenever I got my hair cut short.

20. I was featured in a Dutch Lady milk advertisement on a billboard in downtown Kuala Lumpur, when I was 4. Did other print ads as well and a TV ad for Hong Kong bank.

The billboard ad looked like this and that's me far right.


21. Liked Digimon and played with "Digivices" during my tomboy stage. Dropped a Digivice in the toilet bowl by accident and my Agumon died. Haha.

22. My first game console was a Gameboy Pocket with only one game: Pokemon Blue.

23. I've played the piano since I was 6. Received my Trinity performance certificate in 2010.

24. I used to draw a lot in highschool. Got really good too. I'm probably shit now though. Sigh.

25. Don't really have a sweet tooth and I don't indulge in heavy desserts like cakes, cupcakes and all of that. I prefer icy, not-so-sweet desserts.

26. I like tofu/ tau fu/ beancurd.

27. I can barely swim and can't float. In an attempt to float, I will curl into a ball and float to the surface with my face underwater and my bum poking out above water. Fail.

28. I procrastinate. I think I work best under pressure. Sigh.

29. I am shy around new faces. I open up easily with people I'm comfortable with.

30. I used to play chess competitively in school. *proud nerd moment*


If you read through the above, ...wow, thanks, lol.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Gorgeous: Sun Fei Fei

First saw her in the Dior FW '11 RTW show. Caught my eye and I eventually found her profile on style.com.


Louis Vuitton FW '11


There's something about her look that makes her stand out, especially among the other Asian models. Compare her to the likes of Liu Wen, Shu Pei, Ming Xi, Tao Okamoto and you'll get what I mean. Sun's gorgeous.

Dior FW '11



Marc Jacobs FW '11


She's definitely a rising star. Looking forward to seeing this fresh face open and close shows in the coming seasons.

The only other Chinese model who I can think of that has this same ethereal look about her is, Du Juan.



Sun's features seem more chameleonistic than Du's but they are both stunning nevertheless.

All photos credited to style.com