[Japan]: Nov 2017 - Food and Shopping Haul~
Hello again!~ 
As promised here's part two of my Japan trip this month, namely the food and shopping haul.
God! How much I've missed Starbucks Japan!!!!!
I still receive their newsletter every now and then and so I always see what I miss!!! That's so mean! ;___; ...
I know it's not healthy, but ... you just need this sometimes!
The Raspberry & White Chocolate was delicious, not too sweet.
There was also something new from Starbucks in the conbini shelves, namely banana milk. And oohhh this one was very good! (well, as long as you like banana milk)
And then I saw what's coming up next and I missed this by just a few days. So sad!!! I'm sure I would have loved this!
I'll be back in Japan in a bit more than a week (more about that some other time), but I'm not sure if I get a chance to go to Starbucks.
If I do, I'll try that FOR SURE!!!!!!! (*___*)b .....
I love yuzu! Some regions are famous for yuzu and then you can buy yuzu-everything in the souvenir stores.
I went for yuzu juice. Bitter, but oh so good. It's a citrus fruit similar to oranges and lemons but yet different.
Definitely try it if you ever get a chance to! :)
(Btw. the yuzu tea at Starbucks is sooooo good!!)
Of course, I had to get my share of sashimi as often as possible!
Oh, how I missed good sashimi!!!
My favs are still salmon and tuna - always will be! :)
I like the menus where you get to try different dishes.
Here I was in a sushi restaurant where you can order directly when you sit at the counter and they'll prepare it right in front of you.
You can go on ordering whatever you like after finishing what you just ate.
I did two rounds and tried various sashimi. Also got uni - expensive but good!
However ... one of the fish in the photo above must have still contained a fish bone as I lost part of my tooth while eating it.
It's not that bad. It's more like a big scratch really. I already went to the dentist a few days ago and they just polished the tooth.
But wow! Gotta be careful when eating sashimi from now on. (O___O''') .....
What shall I say? ...
I know it looks like I only ate seafod all the time, but that's not true. XD
I just mostly took photos when I ate seafood, that's all! I swear!
This dish I got in Jogashima which is famous for maguro and maguro don.
I contemplated what to take, but in the end went with the recommendation of the restaurant which was a bowl containing all the fresh fish they caught on that very day. :)
Sea bream ochazuke. So good!
It's been ages since I last had ochazuke, forgot how much I loved it! ^^
So unhealthy ... but, oh, so good!
C'mon! Sometimes you just have to!!!!
Mehari-zushi! :)
Not my first time having it as it wasn't my first time in the region where this is famous: Kumano / Shingu (Mie / Wakayama)
This is just a very small selection of food photos. I kind of got lazy this time, sorry.
Moving on to the shopping haul:
As always, I made sure to book a flight where I was allowed to take two checked baggages.
What I've been doing in the past few years is that I enter Japan with one luggage (and just have my travel bag folded away in there) and then I travel back with 2 pieces filled with goodies. XD
I flew with British Airways for the first time and they actually allow you 4 x 23 kg theoretically.
I say theoretically, because besides your 2 checked baggages you could take a handbag and your carry-on luggage at 23 kg each, but that's simply impossible. How can you fill up a tiny bag with that much weight? XD
But it still helped me a lot as I just squeezed all the heavy books into my backpack without having to worry about the weight .... well, my back DID worry ... as it was SO HEAVY, but ... you know what I mean!! ;)
Saw these in Harajuku and really had a hard time resisting, but I managed.
Still ..... I want one of these!!! (*___*)b
I don't know why, but I ALWAYS run into Free!! in the most random places.
This was in a shop in Harajuku for underwear and on the 2nd floor they had anime goodies. XD
In Laforet in Harajuku they currently have a Sailor Moon shop.
In the pink part you can buy various accessories, stationary etc.
And in the blue part you can purchase clothes.
Unfortunately a very small selection, far too small in size and expensive. ^^;
Also the Liz Lisa stuff .... most of it too girly for me, but what's more is that I sometimes have the feeling I just entered a shop for children.
Sizes too small .... way too small.
And that my shoe size doesn't even exist in Japan, I don't have to tell you anymore ... *sigh*
On the right photo, the typical stuff at Donki.
No visit to Japan without going to Donki where you can find pretty much everything!~
I finally bought a "school uniform"!
As I couldn't find anything in my size in Harajuku, I finally got lucky in a Donki (I think it was in Akiba).
I didn't buy a blouse, because the blouses in Japan are too small for me and I can find it more easily back home.
The skirt was the biggest problem .... I got the LAST one in 2L (= XL) and I'm actually quite slim. How is it that I barely could fit into a XL skirt, Japan??????
That's always so frustrating. ^^;;; ......
But most of my stuff I bought at "Shimamura" like these cute cat socks.
Yeah ... the socks are 23-25 cm and I'm 27, but while it matters for shoes, it's not so much of a problem for socks. ;)
At least I can have socks!!!!
It's crazy! :)
I ALWAYS find something in "Shimamura". This has been one of my favorites when I still lived in Japan.
I still have lots of clothes I bought back then that I wear nowadays.
The only problem is that Shimamura is rarely found in bigger cities. This is more for the inaka and smaller cities.
There are a few in Tokyo and Yokohama, but not many!
And Shimamura is also quite cheap.
Most of these tops were around 1500-1900 yen. :)
Some even cheaper!
Rilakkuma sweater!
This is so warm and comfy and perfect for sleeping in winter or as comfy home wear. :)
I found this adorable Hello Kitty hoodie at Donki and just couldn't resist.
Not only matches it my car, but look at the hearts on the sleeves!!! :3333
I even found this extremely cute floor mat at Shimamura.
When I first moved apartments in Germany I was looking for days and days online to find a cute one with cats. Found nothing - or only super expensive stuff.
FINALLY I have one!!!! (*___*)b
I got some Christmas cards because Japan has some hilarious ones.
My favorite is this one which I got for my brother. I hope he'll like it. XD
Grabbed nengajo as every year. Convenient when you're in Japan every year right when they come out after Halloween. ;)
Oh, ... and I bought this "Smart Canvas" Hello Kitty watch! .... It's so cute!
It changes the pictures every hour, there are different layouts as well!
Smart Canvas by Epson offers many other characters, too, such as Rilakkuma, Snoopy, other Sanrio characters, NGE(!) ... and some normal ones.
I found it in the Sanrio Store in Ikebukuro ..... but to be honest I think the "floral" ones are the best. :)
Every single year .... I'm staring at those stickers in Loft, Tokyu Hands etc. ... EVERY SINGLE YEAR! ... but with the Sanrio collab they finally got me! XDDDD
I grabbed some cute stationary (not of all I have photos).
They had hilarious cat stickers in Akihabara. I was able to resist, though.
(*_________________*)b ............................... but don't worry, I didn't buy it! XD
No spoliers, don't worry.
But season 2 didn't really reveal that many secrets and it's sooooooooooooooo hard to wait for season 3 (which is supposed to come out in summer 2018, I heard) .....
I had a hard time resisting buying the manga.
The one in the picture is actually not a good deal. I found all the individual volumes for 108 yen.
Some day ...... some day, but not now!
I always stay away from shonen / action / sport manga. As for anime, that's my preference, but for manga I usually go for shoujo (and a bit BL) only.
Why?
There are several reasons.
For shonen, action, sport I prefer it to be animated.
Many shojo stories are never made into an anime, so that way I get to know a lot more stories than just reading manga where I've already watched the anime.
Also, as I read before going to sleep, shojo are usually a lot easier to digest before falling asleep and not thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat exciting that you can't stop reading. ;)
Also, the really good shonen / sports series have sooooooooooooooooooooooo many volumes, how am I going to take them all home with me? ;)
I was trying to complete a few series where I was just missing a few volumes yet (haven't started reading those as I wanted to wait until I had the full set). One of them is LDK.
Even after this trip I'm still missing the last 3 volumes because I was too greedy to spend more than 108 yen per volume and the last few ones usually run at 360yen+. T___T ...
Next time!!!!
And I also grabbed a few new ones as well.
Am looking forward to reading them. :)
I haven't even finished all of the stuff I bought last year .... (^___^'') ....
I bought a lot more than what you can see in the photos above.
I think all in all over 100 volumes.
After all I had more than 23kg to fill up. ;)
As every year I also did some doujinshi shopping.
This year, I didn't really have anything particular in mind.
I just randomly grabbed Levi x Eren (and vice versa) last year and liked it a lot, so I thought I should grab a few more this year.
And I think this is also the pairing where I bought most doujinshi of this year.
The Free! selection is getting smaller and smaller every year. :(
I'm a huge fan of Rin x Haru, but .... like I mentioned in previous years ... for some reason Haru x Rin is a lot more popular.
Generally ALL pairings with Rin have him as uke. WHY???? ;__;
But those are still good, so no worries. XD
For Haikyu I don't really have a favorite pairing.
I tried a few last year ... I already have read enough Hina x Kageyama, so I went for some other pairings again this time.
I got a LOT of the circle Omega-2D this time (not only for Haikyu, but for pretty much all other series as well) - as I LOVE their drawing style!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!! Whenever I spot a K2 Company (Kodama Kazama) douji I can never resist.
Too bad that she rarely supports pairings I'm interested in ... but I just looooooooove her so much, can't resist. (*_*)b
And .... I just kinda like Kuro x Kenma ... ^^
Not one of my favs, but ... yeah, works.
You know how I feel about Yuri on Ice.....
Yet, I wanted to get a few doujinshi because I'm just curious.
It wasn't that easy to find good ones. And it was IMPOSSIBLE to find CHEAP ones with the Russian Yuri!!! :((((( .... Maybe next time. T_T
But OMG!!!!! I found a K2 Company Victor x Yuri doujinshi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So precious! It wasn't cheap, but Kazama-sama!!! Who cares????
As for Naruto I only went for KakaIru as always.
Only got Hi-Liang stuff as she's my favorite .... although it's getting more and more difficult to find ones that I don't know yet.
I also found ONE cheap of Naruto's parents. :)
There were some interesting-loooking Sasu x Sakura ones, but they were all so expensive .....
Not as expensive as Vegeta x Bulma .... but still too expensive...
And then just some very random stuff ... mostly Omega-2D again.
Bakuman because I was interested in it. :)
Boku no Hero academia stuff was still too expensive in general ... and I'm not into any pairings, so I just grabbed one out of curiosity.
K is always good. ;)
And I managed to get only ONE Kuroko no Basket douji this time. Yay. XD
I am amazed that there are still Minami Ozaki doujinshi of Captain Tsubasa out there that I haven't seen yet. Wow!
Can't wait to read them! (*___*)b
Okay, that's it.
I know, I've been saying this for the past 3 years, but I do intend to sell all of the doujinshi and manga once I've read them.
There's so much stuff by now from the previous years as well ... and I worked on getting up my typical LJ sales entries right before my departure.
It's just ... there's so much and it takes sooooo much time, but I do intend to have it all up some time earlier next year, so certainly stay tuned.
You can also have a look at what I bought in 2016 and in 2015 to get an idea of what will await you. XD
Thanks for reading.
Stay tuned for more!~
As promised here's part two of my Japan trip this month, namely the food and shopping haul.
God! How much I've missed Starbucks Japan!!!!!
I still receive their newsletter every now and then and so I always see what I miss!!! That's so mean! ;___; ...
I know it's not healthy, but ... you just need this sometimes!
The Raspberry & White Chocolate was delicious, not too sweet.
There was also something new from Starbucks in the conbini shelves, namely banana milk. And oohhh this one was very good! (well, as long as you like banana milk)
And then I saw what's coming up next and I missed this by just a few days. So sad!!! I'm sure I would have loved this!
I'll be back in Japan in a bit more than a week (more about that some other time), but I'm not sure if I get a chance to go to Starbucks.
If I do, I'll try that FOR SURE!!!!!!! (*___*)b .....
I love yuzu! Some regions are famous for yuzu and then you can buy yuzu-everything in the souvenir stores.
I went for yuzu juice. Bitter, but oh so good. It's a citrus fruit similar to oranges and lemons but yet different.
Definitely try it if you ever get a chance to! :)
(Btw. the yuzu tea at Starbucks is sooooo good!!)
Of course, I had to get my share of sashimi as often as possible!
Oh, how I missed good sashimi!!!
My favs are still salmon and tuna - always will be! :)
I like the menus where you get to try different dishes.
Here I was in a sushi restaurant where you can order directly when you sit at the counter and they'll prepare it right in front of you.
You can go on ordering whatever you like after finishing what you just ate.
I did two rounds and tried various sashimi. Also got uni - expensive but good!
However ... one of the fish in the photo above must have still contained a fish bone as I lost part of my tooth while eating it.
It's not that bad. It's more like a big scratch really. I already went to the dentist a few days ago and they just polished the tooth.
But wow! Gotta be careful when eating sashimi from now on. (O___O''') .....
What shall I say? ...
I know it looks like I only ate seafod all the time, but that's not true. XD
I just mostly took photos when I ate seafood, that's all! I swear!
This dish I got in Jogashima which is famous for maguro and maguro don.
I contemplated what to take, but in the end went with the recommendation of the restaurant which was a bowl containing all the fresh fish they caught on that very day. :)
Sea bream ochazuke. So good!
It's been ages since I last had ochazuke, forgot how much I loved it! ^^
So unhealthy ... but, oh, so good!
C'mon! Sometimes you just have to!!!!
Mehari-zushi! :)
Not my first time having it as it wasn't my first time in the region where this is famous: Kumano / Shingu (Mie / Wakayama)
This is just a very small selection of food photos. I kind of got lazy this time, sorry.
Moving on to the shopping haul:
As always, I made sure to book a flight where I was allowed to take two checked baggages.
What I've been doing in the past few years is that I enter Japan with one luggage (and just have my travel bag folded away in there) and then I travel back with 2 pieces filled with goodies. XD
I flew with British Airways for the first time and they actually allow you 4 x 23 kg theoretically.
I say theoretically, because besides your 2 checked baggages you could take a handbag and your carry-on luggage at 23 kg each, but that's simply impossible. How can you fill up a tiny bag with that much weight? XD
But it still helped me a lot as I just squeezed all the heavy books into my backpack without having to worry about the weight .... well, my back DID worry ... as it was SO HEAVY, but ... you know what I mean!! ;)
Saw these in Harajuku and really had a hard time resisting, but I managed.
Still ..... I want one of these!!! (*___*)b
I don't know why, but I ALWAYS run into Free!! in the most random places.
This was in a shop in Harajuku for underwear and on the 2nd floor they had anime goodies. XD
In Laforet in Harajuku they currently have a Sailor Moon shop.
In the pink part you can buy various accessories, stationary etc.
And in the blue part you can purchase clothes.
Unfortunately a very small selection, far too small in size and expensive. ^^;
Also the Liz Lisa stuff .... most of it too girly for me, but what's more is that I sometimes have the feeling I just entered a shop for children.
Sizes too small .... way too small.
And that my shoe size doesn't even exist in Japan, I don't have to tell you anymore ... *sigh*
On the right photo, the typical stuff at Donki.
No visit to Japan without going to Donki where you can find pretty much everything!~
I finally bought a "school uniform"!
As I couldn't find anything in my size in Harajuku, I finally got lucky in a Donki (I think it was in Akiba).
I didn't buy a blouse, because the blouses in Japan are too small for me and I can find it more easily back home.
The skirt was the biggest problem .... I got the LAST one in 2L (= XL) and I'm actually quite slim. How is it that I barely could fit into a XL skirt, Japan??????
That's always so frustrating. ^^;;; ......
But most of my stuff I bought at "Shimamura" like these cute cat socks.
Yeah ... the socks are 23-25 cm and I'm 27, but while it matters for shoes, it's not so much of a problem for socks. ;)
At least I can have socks!!!!
It's crazy! :)
I ALWAYS find something in "Shimamura". This has been one of my favorites when I still lived in Japan.
I still have lots of clothes I bought back then that I wear nowadays.
The only problem is that Shimamura is rarely found in bigger cities. This is more for the inaka and smaller cities.
There are a few in Tokyo and Yokohama, but not many!
And Shimamura is also quite cheap.
Most of these tops were around 1500-1900 yen. :)
Some even cheaper!
Rilakkuma sweater!
This is so warm and comfy and perfect for sleeping in winter or as comfy home wear. :)
I found this adorable Hello Kitty hoodie at Donki and just couldn't resist.
Not only matches it my car, but look at the hearts on the sleeves!!! :3333
I even found this extremely cute floor mat at Shimamura.
When I first moved apartments in Germany I was looking for days and days online to find a cute one with cats. Found nothing - or only super expensive stuff.
FINALLY I have one!!!! (*___*)b
I got some Christmas cards because Japan has some hilarious ones.
My favorite is this one which I got for my brother. I hope he'll like it. XD
Grabbed nengajo as every year. Convenient when you're in Japan every year right when they come out after Halloween. ;)
Oh, ... and I bought this "Smart Canvas" Hello Kitty watch! .... It's so cute!
It changes the pictures every hour, there are different layouts as well!
Smart Canvas by Epson offers many other characters, too, such as Rilakkuma, Snoopy, other Sanrio characters, NGE(!) ... and some normal ones.
I found it in the Sanrio Store in Ikebukuro ..... but to be honest I think the "floral" ones are the best. :)
Every single year .... I'm staring at those stickers in Loft, Tokyu Hands etc. ... EVERY SINGLE YEAR! ... but with the Sanrio collab they finally got me! XDDDD
I grabbed some cute stationary (not of all I have photos).
They had hilarious cat stickers in Akihabara. I was able to resist, though.
(*_________________*)b ............................... but don't worry, I didn't buy it! XD
No spoliers, don't worry.
But season 2 didn't really reveal that many secrets and it's sooooooooooooooo hard to wait for season 3 (which is supposed to come out in summer 2018, I heard) .....
I had a hard time resisting buying the manga.
The one in the picture is actually not a good deal. I found all the individual volumes for 108 yen.
Some day ...... some day, but not now!
I always stay away from shonen / action / sport manga. As for anime, that's my preference, but for manga I usually go for shoujo (and a bit BL) only.
Why?
There are several reasons.
For shonen, action, sport I prefer it to be animated.
Many shojo stories are never made into an anime, so that way I get to know a lot more stories than just reading manga where I've already watched the anime.
Also, as I read before going to sleep, shojo are usually a lot easier to digest before falling asleep and not thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat exciting that you can't stop reading. ;)
Also, the really good shonen / sports series have sooooooooooooooooooooooo many volumes, how am I going to take them all home with me? ;)
I was trying to complete a few series where I was just missing a few volumes yet (haven't started reading those as I wanted to wait until I had the full set). One of them is LDK.
Even after this trip I'm still missing the last 3 volumes because I was too greedy to spend more than 108 yen per volume and the last few ones usually run at 360yen+. T___T ...
Next time!!!!
And I also grabbed a few new ones as well.
Am looking forward to reading them. :)
I haven't even finished all of the stuff I bought last year .... (^___^'') ....
I bought a lot more than what you can see in the photos above.
I think all in all over 100 volumes.
After all I had more than 23kg to fill up. ;)
As every year I also did some doujinshi shopping.
This year, I didn't really have anything particular in mind.
I just randomly grabbed Levi x Eren (and vice versa) last year and liked it a lot, so I thought I should grab a few more this year.
And I think this is also the pairing where I bought most doujinshi of this year.
The Free! selection is getting smaller and smaller every year. :(
I'm a huge fan of Rin x Haru, but .... like I mentioned in previous years ... for some reason Haru x Rin is a lot more popular.
Generally ALL pairings with Rin have him as uke. WHY???? ;__;
But those are still good, so no worries. XD
For Haikyu I don't really have a favorite pairing.
I tried a few last year ... I already have read enough Hina x Kageyama, so I went for some other pairings again this time.
I got a LOT of the circle Omega-2D this time (not only for Haikyu, but for pretty much all other series as well) - as I LOVE their drawing style!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!! Whenever I spot a K2 Company (Kodama Kazama) douji I can never resist.
Too bad that she rarely supports pairings I'm interested in ... but I just looooooooove her so much, can't resist. (*_*)b
And .... I just kinda like Kuro x Kenma ... ^^
Not one of my favs, but ... yeah, works.
You know how I feel about Yuri on Ice.....
Yet, I wanted to get a few doujinshi because I'm just curious.
It wasn't that easy to find good ones. And it was IMPOSSIBLE to find CHEAP ones with the Russian Yuri!!! :((((( .... Maybe next time. T_T
But OMG!!!!! I found a K2 Company Victor x Yuri doujinshi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So precious! It wasn't cheap, but Kazama-sama!!! Who cares????
As for Naruto I only went for KakaIru as always.
Only got Hi-Liang stuff as she's my favorite .... although it's getting more and more difficult to find ones that I don't know yet.
I also found ONE cheap of Naruto's parents. :)
There were some interesting-loooking Sasu x Sakura ones, but they were all so expensive .....
Not as expensive as Vegeta x Bulma .... but still too expensive...
And then just some very random stuff ... mostly Omega-2D again.
Bakuman because I was interested in it. :)
Boku no Hero academia stuff was still too expensive in general ... and I'm not into any pairings, so I just grabbed one out of curiosity.
K is always good. ;)
And I managed to get only ONE Kuroko no Basket douji this time. Yay. XD
I am amazed that there are still Minami Ozaki doujinshi of Captain Tsubasa out there that I haven't seen yet. Wow!
Can't wait to read them! (*___*)b
Okay, that's it.
I know, I've been saying this for the past 3 years, but I do intend to sell all of the doujinshi and manga once I've read them.
There's so much stuff by now from the previous years as well ... and I worked on getting up my typical LJ sales entries right before my departure.
It's just ... there's so much and it takes sooooo much time, but I do intend to have it all up some time earlier next year, so certainly stay tuned.
You can also have a look at what I bought in 2016 and in 2015 to get an idea of what will await you. XD
Thanks for reading.
Stay tuned for more!~