Junie Moon

Yesterday I was in Shinjuku and visited MaruiONE. I always love to check out a shop called Junie Moon because they have lots of handmade, unique, and ever-changing products out for sale.

They also always have gorgeous and cute doll displays up! This time it was a collaboration featuring Imai Kira, who is one of my favorite artists.

The dolls were both sooo detailed and beautiful. Junie Moon was also selling large, shimmery printed posters of each illustration and I was extremely tempted to pick up one. Might have to make a return trip soon :P 

All I ended up buying was the cute elephant berry phone charm below because it was too cute to pass up!

Creamy Mami Signkai & Goods

Quite awhile ago, back in March, I was able to meet the lead voice actress for the Creamy Mami anime. I didn't really know the anime too well and had only seen a few episodes, but she was so cute and nice and we talked about the anime a bit before she signed a pre-selected piece of paper for me.

 Since the signkai (sign meet) I kind of accidentally became a big fan of everything Creamy Mami. After I finished watching all of the episodes, I wished I had bought more things when I had the chance at Shinjuku Maruione.

But, luckily, Maruione's online shop, as well as Lolii's online shop, have both stocked limited supplies of more Creamy Mami goods!

The hand mirror and pearl strap I had seen back in March, but didn't purchase either of them at the time.  So when I saw them both readily in-stock at Lolii's online shop I jumped at the chance!

I've been wanting a new hand mirror for awhile, to replace the W♥C Kumatan one I've had for years and years. The quality is very good and it is super sparkly~.

Angelic Pretty recently stocked more Creamy Mami collaboration jewelry as well, so if anyone is interested in ordering anything from any of the shops please check out my Japan Shopping Service details~!

And I leave you with some shots of some of the cute things I've eaten recently :D Nana's Green Tea parfait and the famous caramel Tokyo Banana (both are so delicious!) ♥

Ghibli Museum

On Monday I was finally able to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It's been on my "want to do" list forever. It was crowded since it was a holiday, but the museum was amazing and I went with my boyfriend, who had surprised me with the tickets earlier that month, so it was an amazing day nonetheless :)

The outside of the museum is covered in ivy and greenery. It's actually next to (inside of?) a forest/park in Mitaka so the atmosphere is really natural.

"Let's goooo~!"

Totoro welcomes you at the "ticket counter". But actually you have to buy your tickets in advance at Lawson (a Japanese convenience store) :P

Going towards the entrance doors. Everything covered in green.

You can't take pictures inside, unfortunately, but I'll just say that it is definitely, definitely worth reserving tickets for if you ever get the chance! There were so many interesting pieces and interactive parts to the museum. Plus there is a special short movie about Mei and Catbus that only plays at the museum.

Also a cute cafe outside with ice cream and such.

Up on the rooftop. Almost couldn't find the exit to it!

Getting darker~

There was really beautiful and detailed stained glass for some of the windows and doors.

Of course had to pick up some souvenirs before going home :)

Matching museum mascot keychains <3

Necessary updates~!

Hi everyone, this post will mainly be an update sort of post so I'm sorry about that!

First, just wanted to let everyone who didn't already know that I was in and out of the hospital last week, with my final appointment tomorrow, due to some medical issues that came out of nowhere. I haven't ever really been sick like this before so it took me off guard and I had to put all shop and shopping service orders on hold while I tried to recover. For anyone that was inconvenienced by that I am so sorry and please let me know if you would like a free gift with your next order or anything, I would (seriously) be happy to oblige so feel free to ask or tell me if you are upset so I can fix it!! :)

Second, I will be back to taking orders on Monday (tomorrow), but will not be traveling to Harajuku/Shinjuku/Tokyo area until later this week. If you have an urgent request for the Tokyo area, I'm so sorry, but right now I'm trying to stay healthy. So the Yokohama area is all I can manage at the moment.

And, I am changing the service fees again because I noticed that a lot of people were unhappy with them. So I definitely don't want that to be the case! And I apologize to anyone who was upset about them. I'll most likely do a system similar to others with the whole basic percentage thing~ the shop is still open and taking orders, however.

Lastly, the giveaway has been extended since, while I was sick, it was neglected. So now it will run until April 3, 2013. If you forgot to enter or didn't get a chance to yet, this is your last chance ^^

Okay that's it for now, sorry about that everyone but hopefully everything will be back on track now, thank you! <3 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nagano trip

Last week, as most of my facebook followers know, I was in Nagano. My boyfriend was born and raised there, and so I went to meet his family for the first time :)

To start off, Nagano, and nearby Gifu prefecture, has some really gorgeous sights. And the weather was so nice that it was perfect out with just a jacket on. Among the places we went to visit included Takayama, shown above and below, where we shopped, ate, and made our own senbei!

I'm going to cook you to delicious!!!

We also visited Shirakawa (shown above), which is a World Heritage sight, for good reason. It was charming and showed a lot of history. I wish I would have taken more photos there!

We were also guided around Nagano city by my boyfriend's middle and senior high school tutor. She was so nice treated us to everything that day. We found out she will be coming to Yokohama soon to visit so we plan on returning the favor :)

The symbols on the temple do not mean what some of you might be thinking they mean!! :P

On the last day we stayed at a hotel in Matsumoto and visited the Matsumoto castle nearby.

They even permit visitors inside of the castle and so we, of course, took the opportunity.

It was a really unique and amazing trip. I was able to see more traditional Japanese sights, which is nice after being in the Yokohama city area for quite awhile. And my boyfriend's family was so welcoming and friendly despite the fact that my Japanese language abilities still aren't what they should be. I'll study harder this semester so I can have more conversations with them next time I visit. I was informed that they really liked me though so I was very happy about that! And I was given some really cute parting gifts before I went home to Yokohama so I'll take that as a good sign ;)

All in all a great trip! ♥