What I've Been Up To!

This year has been busier than most for me, but in a good way. :) Just weeks ago, I have started my own business selling cookies and so far, it has been a success! It's a very small business, being run mostly by me and my husband (I do all the baking and the work, and he helps out by bringing them into his work and selling them to his coworkers), but it's really off to a good start. I'm so excited that I'm actually getting requests and orders of a dozen!! However, since the whole thing is fairly new, it still has lots of room for growing and improvement. I've just ordered some business cards and I still need to get some pastry boxes and a Costco membership so I can start buying ingredients in bulk for a good price to help me earn profit. This will be very important, especially if I'm going to branch out to Korea (my brother is stationed there and has ordered cookies from me and soon will be helping me sell them where he works as well). It's going to be a lot of work, but I think I'm on the right track. I just need to give it time and be patient is all. In the mean time though, I'm really having fun doing this, as I really love to bake and it just feels so good knowing that people actually look forward to the days I sell cookies! ^_^

It's kind of funny, the reason why I actually started this little business... I've always wanted to run my own bakery, but my love of baking isn't what spurred this idea into action. The real reason behind it was actually so I could help fund my newest hobby of Pullip (and Dal, respectively) collecting. xD For those of you unfamiliar with them, Pullip and Dal are both Asian fashion dolls that are part of the same line and company (they were originally being manufactured by Jun Planning, but are currently manufactured by Groove). They've got rather large heads and slim bodies, and have an almost anime-like quality to them. There are also a few others in the Pullip family as well; their names are Isul, Byul, Taeyang, and the newest addition, Yeolume! I think they're such beautiful dolls and I've become quite captivated by them! I've even started a new blog dedicated to them to (hopefully) attract Pullip lovers from all over and to write reviews on the dolls I personally own! If any of you are interested, please check it out at iheartpullip.blogspot.com! 

My Dog Is My Hero!

Surprise! After what seemed like forever, I finally convinced my husband to get us a dog! We got ourselves a handsome and dashing golden retriever puppy, Odin, just a couple of months ago, and have been loving every bit of our time together since then. In the short amount of time that we've had Odin, he has already saved me from my anxiety just by keeping me company and having me focus on things other than my fears when I'm alone and my husband is away on missions. He has already become so dear to me and Odin and I have forged an amazing bond already, so much so that even my husband believes that Odin truly is my dog, since he and I are pretty much inseparable and the fact that he listens to me over him. xD Aside from my husband, Odin's the only real friend I have, but he's starting to change that, too, it seems.

 Lately when I take him out for walks, we have been getting approached by many people, some of which we now encounter regularly. At first, it all started out as small talk about Odin and their own dogs, and then escalated into talking about ourselves and getting to know each other better. For a shy girl like me, this is almost like a miracle. I've always had trouble talking to other people and tended to keep to myself, and now I find myself opening up more and more, all thanks to Odin. To think that he could bring so many positive changes into my life in such a short window of time is just incredible to me and it blows me away. What is it about dogs and their magical powers that can change someone for the better?

He blinked!

Snow Day!

I woke up this morning thinking that I heard it raining hard outside. I dragged myself out of bed and sluggishly walked over to the window, and to my surprise, it was snowing! I became so excited that I ran out to the porch and stuck my hand out to confirm whether it was really real or not. xD I was in disbelief, because I've never ever lived in an area where it snowed before, so seeing it just seemed so surreal! 

Throughout the day, I kept checking outside to see if the snow was letting up or not, and each time I looked, the trees and the grass became more and more covered under a sheet of white. The snow flakes from the sky kept falling toward the ground more rapidly and in larger amounts. I was counting down the minutes waiting for my husband to come home from work so we could play outside together. ^_^

Luckily for the both of us (since my dear hubby felt the same way I did about wanting to go outside), my hubby was let off of work early, and almost immediately as he walked through the door, we both started to put on our coats and mittens and head out the door! We were like little kids, running around, throwing snowballs at one another, and rolling around on the fresh snow~!  We then decided to try to make snowmen, something we've always wanted to do but never had done. We had tried to attempt making one once before, but the snow was too hard and just wouldn't stick together to form a ball. :( It turned out to be awful... This time around, however, was much more successful! It was incredible how easy it was to form a giant snowball with freshly fallen snow. ^.^ It made such a huge difference. :3 It took us about an hour or so to finish up building our snowmen, but we are both very pleased with how they turned out in the end. ^_^

My snowman, standing roughly around 3 feet tall

My husband's snowman. His is probably around 1/2 a foot. It's cute though!  I think it has lots of character!

After we finished up our snowmen, our faces were stinging from the cold, our clothes were soaked, and our noses were dripping, so with that, we figured we'd best head back inside. We took a quick bath and then right after, got cozy under the kotatsu! Let me tell you guys, those things are made for days like these! During the other days, it seems like our kotatsu tries to cook us alive, but coming in from the snow, it seems so comfortable underneath it that I can almost fall asleep huddled under it. x3 It's really the perfect way to end the day~!

New Years Shrine Visit!

On New Years Day, my husband and I thought it would be a wonderful experience to visit a shrine! We found one near our area called Shinmeisha Shrine, which happened to be only a few minutes away by car! ^_^ However, it didn't exactly have an address, so we kind of got lost a bit trying to get there, but we managed to find our way there. When we arrived, we were amazed with how beautiful it was, and how many people were there! 

There was a huge line waaay outside of the torii gates just for people who wanted to say their new years prayers, but it moved at a fairly quick pace. Once we made it to the entrance, we noticed that people were stepping out of the line and making their way to what looked like a fountain or a well of water with ladles next to it. They scooped the water with the ladles and poured it onto their hands. Following their example, my husband and I did the same. We later found out that this is actually customary when visiting a shrine, and it's to purify your hands. We then moseyed our way back into the line and observed our surroundings as we waited. There were many miko (shrine priestesses) who all looked so beautiful in their red hakama serving tea and selling charms, incense, and small statues of snakes in honor of the year of the snake. We really wished we could have taken close up pictures of them, but we didn't know whether it would be awkward for us to ask them, and plus, we don't exactly know how to say "can we take your picture" in Japanese quite yet. ^^; (We really need to learn that one!)

We also had noticed a fire pit near the altar, where people were throwing what looked like thick, braided rope into it. We're still unsure about what it's for or what it may symbolize, so we are planning on asking someone to help enlighten us on the practice. My husband and I found it to be fairly fascinating, so we really want to know about it!

As we drew closer to the front of the line, we closely observed the actions of those who have made it to the prayer altar. We took note of how they first put an offering of yen into the offertory box, rung the bell (called a suzu) that was set up in front of the box, bowed twice, clapped twice, said a short prayer, and then bowed once more before leaving. We made sure to have it memorized before it was time for us to go up, and mimicked it. 

When we walked down the steps of the altar, we found ourselves in an area of the shrine where New Year fortunes could be drawn for 100 yen! We decided to give it a try, and we both drew our fortunes, though we don't exactly know what they say just yet. xD We'll have them translated by my husband's friend soon though! I really hope neither of us got bad luck! lols! We both were very familiar with drawing fortunes, though. We're both really into anime, and shrine visits are quite commonly seen in countless different series. It was very fun to actually be able to participate in something like that!

On our way out, we spotted a taiyaki (fish shaped cakes usually filled with either sweet red bean paste or custard) and takoyaki ( round balls made from batter with octopus at the center of it and topped with things like Japanese mayonnaise, bonito flakes, green onions, and sometimes other toppings)stand set up just in front of the exit, so we landed up grabbing a couple of taiyaki (we got the red bean ones) to enjoy. They were perfect because they were very fresh and hot and they kind of helped keep our hands warm as we were eating them. xD

I really loved our visit to Shinmeisha Shrine. I hope that we get to go again next year and the year after! 

Here are some pictures we got of the shrine, too! Please enjoy! ^_^

Caretta Shiodome

We took a trip out to Shiodome last night to take a look at the Caretta Illumination Show! It took us roughly an hour and a half to get there by train. At first we weren't sure we had the right directions to get there, but we made it! It was much easier to find than we expected. xD  There were tons of people there waiting for the light show to start. We literally had to push and shove our way through people to get as close to the front as we could! O_O We couldn't get too close, however, so we weren't really able to see the whole setup... It was insane how big the crowd was (we visited on a bad weekend, since it was the emperor's birthday and everyone pretty much had a long weekend), but nevertheless, the show was still worth it! The whole set up was gorgeous! Thankfully, we were able to take many pictures! <3

We even recorded some of it! You can see the video here! It was really beautiful! We had a lovely time... until the show ended... Everyone was pushing and shoving to leave the area, and we and a lot of other people almost fell over and on top of each other. =_= We were exhausted once we managed to get out of there, and thankfully no one was hurt or trampled! It was pretty scary!

Once we caught our breath, we decided to grab some dinner in the area. Caretta Shiodome had a big variety of restaurants to choose from, that we were having a bit of trouble trying to decide where to go. xD Eventually, we all settled on Indochine. The food looked delicious, and the price was moderate, so it seemed to be a good choice. ^_^ 

What I ordered - So yummy!

Cashew chicken -  Hubby's dish

What the mother-in-law ordered - it looked so good!

We were all pretty happy with the service and the food. :D We left completely satisfied~! After dinner, it came time to make our way back home. We didn't make it back until 10:30 pm! That may not seem too bad to most people, but it's kind of rare for us to stay out so late. xD We were so drained, that we all pretty much were on the verge of falling asleep on the couch. ^^; It was a very fun trip though, and I'm so glad that we did it!

Catch up~!

It's been over a few months now that we've been here in Japan, and a lot has occurred in that short amount of time. So much had happened within that time period, that I didn't have much time to post about it all! So here in this post, I will be updating you all on everything (well, at least on all of the biggest highlights, anyways) that had went on so far up to now! ^_^ Brace yourselves, this is probably most likely going to be long! Here we go~!

Oct. 6, 2012 -

This is the day when we first took a trip to Harajuku, Japan's fashion district! I scheduled a much needed hair appointment at Watanabe Hairdressing and had booked with Kenichi. We got lost trying to find the place, and we had to resort to asking people in Japanese if they could speak any English and for directions on how to get there, and thankfully someone had pointed us in the right direction. ^.^ We managed to make it there just in time.

We had to walk through this sea of people to get there. O.O

The entrance to Watanabe! We made it!!!

My experience over at Watanabe was hands down the best experience I have ever had at any hair salon by far! The staff was very kind and attentive. My husband and I were offered tea once we had walked in. The shampoo process was very relaxing, as they massaged my scalp and were very gentle throughout the process. Then, once that was done with, I was escorted to a chair where I received yet another scalp massage, this time with essential oils added to my hair. Following that was a neck, shoulder, and arm massage, and then came time for the haircut! Kenichi was great at listening to what I wanted, and seemed to be very knowledgeable with what would look good with my face shape! Needless to say, once he was finished cutting and styling my hair, it looked fabulous! My hair was so soft and shiny, and even when the wind blew it all over the place once we left, it fell perfectly back into place. I felt like a pampered princess~! I'm definitely going to be a regular customer there as long as I'm here in Japan!

Other than Watanabe, Harajuku has some of the coolest and cutest clothes and accessories I have ever seen! I never thought I would see stores like H.Naoto, Angelic Pretty, Liz Lisa, and so much more with my own eyes! It was so exciting! (Too bad I didn't take pictures of them though... Too many people hustling past us. Hopefully on my next trip, we can get more pictures!) They also had a lot of neat stuff being sold outside of the brand name stores, as well. A lot of the stalls out in the streets had so many things for sale that I wish I could have bought~!

Loooove these shoes! I don't think they'd fit me, though. I don't think they carry 9's... TT_TT

To my surprise, there was also a building dedicated to Tamagotchi!!!! I was so curious as to what was in there, so I begged my husband to go check it out. x3

There wasn't too much inside, but it did have a lot of gashapon machines with Tamagotchi related items in them, a little game center, lots of posters, and a Tamagotchi ID L with items that can be downloaded onto your own tamagotchi that you can't get anywhere else. I thought that was pretty cool, and I regretted not bringing my tamagotchis with me.... TT_TT

Oct. 24, 2012 -

The day of my dear hubby's birthday! We decided to celebrate at home, so while he was away at work, I worked my tail off in the kitchen preparing a surprise! I thought it would be fun to maybe add in a celebratory Japanese dish for the occasion, so I had prepared some osekihan (basically, it's a glutinous rice prepared with adzuki beans and topped with gomashio, which is black sesame seeds mixed with salt). As a bonus, I had also baked a Pikachu cake with pokeball cupcakes. <3 That was probably the most difficult part for me, because cakes aren't my strong point when it comes to baking. In fact, Pikachu's face tore right off when I tried to remove the cake from the pan, but somehow, I managed to salvage it. Once I frosted it, it wasn't even noticeable! See?

The cake, sekihan, and a Sena Kashiwazaki figure (a gift I bought for my husband)

It turned out pretty well, but the frosting was a little hard to work with, since it kept crusting over and it came from a tube.... I couldn't find any food coloring at our commissary, so that was my only option. ^^;  Still, I need to work on improving my cake baking and decorating skills! I don't work on it nearly enough. :P The important part of it all though was that my husband was ecstatic when he came home from work and saw everything! All that hard work paid off in the end. ^.^


Nov. 28, 2012 -

We FINALLY got our beloved kitties back to us! We drove 2 hours one way to get to Narita Airport, but of course it was well worth it. We were just so happy to have them back with us after months of not being with them. It honestly felt like forever! To think that we could have possibly had to go even longer without them is just crazy! We really wouldn't have been able to get them back when we did without the help of our friends and family members. They contributed so much, so I'm really grateful! ^_^ We really missed Blair and Sundae so much, and now everything feels so complete again now that they're here. I'm also so happy that they remembered us still despite having been away from us for quite some time. :)



Dec. 14th, 2012 -

It was back to the airport yet again, only this time, it was to pick up my mother-in-law! xD She was (and currently still is) visiting us for the holidays. She was sick with bronchitis for the first couple of days she was here, but thankfully she's a lot better now. We've been showing her around base and off base, taking her to our favorite restaurants and hang out places. She seems to be enjoying herself, but she's also still in shock by how different everything is out here compared to the US. She's so used to just striking up conversations with random people, but she finds that to be rather difficult over here for the most part. ^^; We've also been teaching her some simple but useful Japanese phrases to kind of help her along and to get by, and she's been doing pretty well considering she didn't know anything about Japan before she came out here. :) She's gotten used to thanking people, greeting them, and responding  with "hai!". Lols! She also fell in love with Purikura booths out here (which I totally understand, since I've fallen in love with them, too! They pretty much guarantee that you'll look flawless). She even managed to drag my hubby in the booth with us to take a picture today!

My mother-in-law's first purikura pic! (Taken a couple of days ago)

Me, my husband, and my mother-in-law (Taken today!)

Dec. 22, 2012 -

Today, we picked up an assortment of Christmas cakes from Cozy Corner at Seiyu! They just looked so sweet and delectable, we couldn't help but get them and dig into them right away, even though Christmas is still a few days away. xD They were too irresistible! 

So that's what I've been up to as of late. Looking at it now, it doesn't really seem like I did much, but it felt like of done a lot this entire time. O.O Funny how that turned out.... ^^; Anyways, I should be posting more tomorrow, since we'll be taking a trip to Caretta Shiodome for the Shiodome Illumination! So I'm looking forward to that and sharing pictures of it here for everyone to see!

Oooh Boy....

I can't believe I haven't been posting lately.... 0_0 It's not that I've forgotten to, it's just that in the past month, things have been extremely busy, and not in a fun way. Our furniture came in a few weeks ago, so we had to do lots of unpacking, reorganizing, and have been trying to piece back our life and home together little by little. It's looking so much better now though, but the work was so exhausting! x_x Still, we aren't quite finished yet. There's still some little things that need to be taken care of (mainly just buying a few things that we need to replace our old furniture that we weren't able to take with us, restocking our cabinets, figuring out where to place our gaming systems, etc.), and one big thing.... we still have to find a way to bring our cats here.... It's taking much longer than anticipated. We know that they're okay where they are staying at the moment, but we miss them like crazy! I miss Blair following me around everywhere and sitting in my lap for hours on  end, and I miss Sundae's constant meowing (I never thought I would say that). In the little time we have had them, they've become such a big part of our lives and we have come to  love them very dearly. We can't wait until they're back in our arms again!

Thinking about our cats can't help but make me think of our guinea pigs and rabbits, too... It makes me feel awful that we had to surrender them... We would have had to give them up anyways when they got here, though, since we're only allowed to have two pets living on base. :( It hurts thinking about them, but I can only hope that they have found loving homes with people who can take care of them properly, especially the rabbits. They can't be kept in a cage all day and need their running space, can't be put under stress, need their areas cleaned at least once every two days, need to be petted and loved often so they don't shed and so they warm up to you, and need lots and lots of timothy hay to help their digestive system. Taking care of them is a lot of work, and I wonder just how many people have the time and dedication to do that on a regular basis. Some people eventually start to neglect their pet rabbits after the initial excitement of having them wears away too, or so I've heard. I don't want that to land up happening to them.... I can't help but be worried about them so much. My husband says to remain positive, but sometimes that's a bit difficult, especially when we don't know where they may be now. I wonder if I will ever stop worrying about them...

Machida!

Ahh.... So this post is kind of overdue... ^^; I got into one of those moments where I started writing, but then got distracted by something else and completely forgot about the whole thing! @_@ Anyways,we went to go spend time with my husband's friend and his family over the weekend! ^_^ They met us up at Machida Station, and then they took us out to see the lovely city of Machida. I don't know why, but every time we visit new place out here, it feel like I've stumbled into some magical world. There's just always so much going on, something new to see or to try... It's incredible! Each place we've been to offers up something different. :)

Walking out of the train station!

Le wild cosplayer appears.... :O

Their main goal was to show us this one store called Animate, which as the name might imply, stocks just about anything and everything pertaining to anime, video games, and manga. xD I'm actually amazed with just how many stores they have out here that are dedicated to nothing but anime. Though, maybe it shouldn't come as such a surprise since even convenience stores carry things like mini figures, manga, and even what looks like hentai magazines. :P It seems like almost anywhere you go, you'll find something anime. 

But yeah, Animate.... It's pretty awesome! My husband and I were walking around staring in awe over various items and drooling over them! It was so packed with things in there, that it was actually kind of difficult to move around. ^^; 

This is pretty much what you see as soon as you walk in Animate. You can kind of see how much is in there already, sort of. It's a little hard to tell with Sena the floor map in the way, but yeah, my husband really likes her for some reason and wanted a picture of her.

We really had to control ourselves while we were there, since there were so many things that we wanted! xD  We landed up getting a few things that we really liked though. ^.^ We got:

A chie figure....

The September issue of Newtype Magazine....

I screamed in delight when I finally found this! I've been looking for Newtype all over since we arrived here in Japan! xD I was such a fan of Newtype USA and had always made a trip to Barnes & Noble every month just to get it up until it was discontinued. It was so disappointing... :(

A P4 Poster of Rise...

Annnd.... This fan.... -_-

I swear this isn't mine. =_=

After that, we went over to my husband's friend's house (I don't want to give out his name, so sorry that I keep referring to him as "my husband's friend"....). We spent the rest of our time just talking and playing with their adorable son. :3 He really is a funny kid and made us laugh the entire time. xD He even made my husband wear this mask in the picture below:

We also landed up eating dinner over there, all prepared by said friend's wife. :D It was really delicious (we had rice, vegetables, and what seemed to be pork fried in a sweet sauce with sesame seeds, along with a couple of other dishes that I'm not very familiar with... all I know is all of it tasted amazing!) and we tried to practice our Japanese etiquette while sitting at the table. ^^; For dessert, we had the peach roll that we had bought from Cozy Corner! <3 Never in my life had I bought a cake with such fresh tasting fruit! :O  I also liked how it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, and how fluffy it was. I was really impressed! I'll definitely be going back to try out other things from them in the future. ^.^ If any of you are visiting Japan or are planning to, keep an eye out for this place! :D

*Ahem* Now that I've finished raving about Cozy Corner, back to our little adventure... There actually wasn't much to it after that, but we didn't land up leaving until 9 pm, and didn't make it back home until 1 am. O.O We accidentally had landed up getting on the wrong train, and had to take another one back... ._. We're still trying to get used to the whole train system out here, but we're slowly learning. Lols! It's a good thing I don't mind getting lost at all, because I'm sure we'll land up getting lost again on our next big trip. xD It makes it more fun, in a way. ^.^

So yeah! That pretty much sums it all up! :3 Everyday here so far has just been truly wonderful, and I'm really loving it! My husband is too! We're really considering permanently living here already. Lols! Anyways, see you guys in my next post!