But, I wish they had peppermint syrup in Japan!

So, the tree went up on November 2nd. Yep. We're awesome. But, being the family Christmas Geek, it is only fitting, don'tcha think? Anywho, we've gone with a Disney themed for our tree this year. we even hung some of our Sega World prizes up as ornaments. :)

It's so cute~~~

A few days ago the sunset was so freaking pretty. Lots of vibrant colours and I was just so entranced that I wanted a picture. BUT, my camera was at home. Hence, the crappy iPod photo. Sorry. Still looks lovely, though!

So, the new Arashi album 'LOVE' came out a week or two ago. Ai-sensei bought it for herself and she surprised me with a copy for me! I was so touched~ We're both pretty big Arashi geeks, so we talked about the album a lot these past few weeks. It's actually, not a bad album. I think I prefer Beautiful world more, but it's still pretty good.

On Wednesdays we have our Mommy and Me class~ One of the mum's was away a couple weeks ago and it turns out her family went to Guam! I was saying good morning to her little one, and she handed me a pack of chocolate covered macadamia nuts! Sweet~ They were pretty tasty! It was a nice little treat!

On Saturday, I went to pick David up from work. He was just working in Natori, but I had stayed home that day and wanted to go out for a bit. Now, on the weekends I tend to put a little more effort into my appearance. Since I wear jeans and a t-shirt all week at work, I like to wear skirts and pretty things in my off time. And even though we only went out to McD's for dinner, I still wanted to look nice... Except my hair wasn't co-operating! T___T I've taken to french braiding it and pinning it in either a side bun or wrapping it at the base of my skull. But, for the life of me, I couldn't get it to braid nicely. So, I just stuck it up in a bun. I wish I had've been able to do something nice with it. T~T

And then on Sunday, I went out for a lolita date with the girls. Kazue's birthday was a really bad time for us to have a party this year: She started her new job that day, I was working and Mika and Melissa both had work obligations, too. So, we never properly celebrated. However, we planned a little surprise date yesterday which was fun! Mika, Melissa and I ended up meeting up on the train. We had decided to go into Sendai early, because of the high winds. We didn't wanna risk being late. So, we popped into Loft while we were waiting to buy a card. And it was there that I stumbled upon the most amazing card ever. For those in the audience who knows what Red Pants means, you will understand my glee at seeing this card.

Hahaha. After we found a (different) card, we ended up at Starbucks, since we still had time. I ended up with a caramel white mocha, which wasn't bad. But, I wish they had peppermint syrup in Japan! I just totally wanted a peppermint mocha! Oh well~

We met up with Kazue and went off for lunch. Kazue had requested we go for Thai, so that's what we did. I have never really tried Thai before, but I was told to get the Green Curry. It was cheap and came with a salad and soup. Sadly, however, I wasn't a fan... The salad was obviously fine, but the soup tasty like soy sauce and I just wasn't a fan of the curry. But, no big deal. Melissa and Kazue took one for the team and ate mine for me. And Melissa paid for me, which was nice.

Kazue opened her gifts while we were there, too. She loved the card we got her and she got an Angry Birds hat and a Bratz doll. She was sooo happy~ It was cute how excited she got over the hatr. She really likes Angry Birds.

After lunch, we ended up going shopping. I was in the market for a new winter coat and the girls wanted to shop around. I ended up with 2 new coats! Both were 1500yen and one is for when I wear lolita or fancy dresses and the other is for everyday. It's a pretty cool coat, if I do say so myself. I'll have to take a photo of it later. But, I really like it. We also checked out Glass Forest and Hikari, the owner, was kind enough to take a group photo for us. And then I asked Melissa to take a quick outfit shot of just me.

At this point, we decided that going for tea would be a good idea, so we popped over to that fancy cake/tarte shop I keep posting pictures of. I ended up with Tiramisu tarte and earl grey tea. It was freaking delicious~~~ Tasted a lot like Bailey's though! Not that that's a bad thing. Hahaha. It was so yummy. And the place was all decorated for Christmas, which was nice~

On our way home, we popped by the SPAL Christmas tree thing. You go into the tree with a friend or lover and press your hand against the screen and then it takes a photo and adds goofy purikura things to random people. Mika and Melissa went first and they got a Masamune helmet thing. Kazue and I ended up with a Christmas cake! It was cute!

And then we all went home. It was a fun day! But, today wasn't so much fun. Work wasn't bad, but my voice has gone all wonky. I can't talk properly and I can't yell or whisper. If I talk for more than like 2 words I get all squeaky. So, at work I was pretty much just the moral support who wore a mask. I'm surprised my voice didn't desert me entirely, but I'm hoping it comes back tomorrow. Hahaha. Oh, I saw an Arashi billboard in the station on my way home. Yay~ And I won a Snow Miku plushie at the Game Station for 100yen. First try! Lucky!

Although, they were playing Christmas music for some reason.

...Guess who forgot to write the Tokyo trip post?

Oops.

So, to begin~ David and I went to Tokyo for our Obon Week vacation. It was really nice to get away and we always like Tokyo, so wooo! We took the shinkansen there and back, so we didn't spend much time in transit. We ended up in a hotel near-ish to Disney. The hotel offered a shuttle there and back, so that was a perk. We ended up getting into Tokyo way too early, so we dropped out bags at the hotel and decided to go out and do some exploring.

We decided that we'd do Odaiba that day~ It has the Giant Gundam after all and David was like little kid, he was so eager to see it. It was cute~~ We took the Tokyo Monorail out to Odaiba. It actually doesn't stop IN Odaiba, but it's a nice way to see the bay area and whatnot, so we took it anyway. It also had a massive banner with Arashi advertising something. (Nino didn't make it into the photo for some reason. P: Oh well~)

Once we got to Odaiba, we made a beeline for ze Gundam. David was so giddy~ I snapped a photo of him in front of it, then gave him my camera and told him to go nuts. Hahaha. He snapped a lot of photos!

There were sooo many people! It was nuts~ We wandered around the pavilion a bit and discovered there was a marble Gundam statue there, too. It was really fancy. I totally want for our garden when the time comes.

By this point, were were starving, so we headed into the mall to grab a bite. We just got Subway, but it tasted good, so awesome. After that we wandered for a bit. There was some type of Shonen Jump exhibit going on or something. There was a giant Goku statue there, so we got a quick picture.

After that, we decided to check out the Car Museum thing. There was a sign on the railing outside to remind us that striding over the fence of the walkway 2 floors up in the air is a bad idea.

My Sherlock fangirl senses also picked up this little gem~ Looks like Moriarty left a message for any of his henchmen who might be in Japan.

After that we wandered to Kawaii Paradise~~~ Mini Hello Kitty land! I love that place. The UFO catchers are super dodgy, but it's just a really cute place to visit. I grabbed a quick drink from the worlds cutest vending machine and took a few pictures of the waiting area~

Now, in Odaiba there's a massive ferris wheel. David and I love riding them, even though we're both easily freaked out when we ride them. Hahaha. Of course~ So, we decided to wander over and go for a turn. We ended up walking through a massive car showcase and a small dinosaur area. Kinda reminded me of Test Track in Disney World~ And I found the car of my dreams. The PIKACHU car! OMG~ I need it.

After getting to the Ferris wheel, we discovered that is was ridiculously expensive! Like, 900yen per person! Ouch! I'm too cheap to pay that, so we settled for going back to the hotel to check in. On the way back we had to transfer and we stopped near the NHK building~ They have a really cool Ghibli clock outside the building. I guess at certain times it does something, but we didn't wanna stay.

After checking in, we just kinda settled down for the night. It was a BAJILLION degrees that week. True story. We both melted. It was gross. So, we took like 3 showers a day just to feel human and not gross and icky.

The next day, Tuesday, we had decided to go to Tokyo Tower and then see what happened from there. We got the special Go-All-the-Way-to-the-Top tickets and up we went. Sooo many people~! It was insane! But, the view was just as nice as the last time~ Even better, actually, since it was a sunny day! David really enjoyed the view. It was kinda cute watching him walk across the glass floor tiles. He got a little nervous. And then there's me, just plodding across it like it's nothing. It was awesome.

We still didn't really have any big plans at this point, so I made the decision to drag David to Artnia. Let me just explain again how much I looooooove the Square Enix cafe~ I just wanna live there. It's amazing~ They didn't have any exhibitions on this time, but it was cool. Although, they were playing Christmas music for some reason. Yeah. No idea why. David got the Buster Sword parfait and an orange juice, while I got the honey latte and the caramel apple pancakes. Oh, and we split a potion. Mmmmmmm~ It was awesome. We also picked up a box of Chocobo cookies which was adorable AND yummy!

The plan after Artnia was to head to Ikspiari and hang out~ Ikspiari is basically the Downtown Disney of Japan. Lots of fancy shops and restaurants and it's located right there, so it's a nice place to do shopping if you have time. They also have a movie theatre, which explains the Star Trek movie posters we kept passing.  I was only really interested in one poster, though~

We wandered for a bit and then we both came to the conclusion that we really wanted to just GO to Disney. We had tickets for the next day, but still. We had time and we hadn't gone to Disney Sea in a while, so we bought a couple After 5pm tickets and off we went~

We bought ourselves and pair of headbands and explored. Disney Sea is sooo pretty~ It reminds me a lot of Epcot for some reason. Maybe it's the water shows? I dunno~ Still, it was nice. It was insanely busy, but that's to be expected. Like, every ride had massive wait times. We took the Electric Train and just relaxed and wandered. We did the Sinbad attraction~ Think of it like a Sinbad's Adventures version of It's a Small World. It's much cool, though. Sinbad has this adorable pet tiger, so that always makes things better.

The park is sooo pretty at night, but as I am constantly lamenting, my camera is crap at night shots. So, no pictures. Sorry. They're celebrating the 30th anniversary of opening this year, so there's lots of Mickey shaped balloon decorations everywhere. It's really cute! We grabbed dinner at the New York deli styled restaurant, and we got the special dessert. It was shaped like Mickey's hat from the 30th anniversary art. Cute~ However, it was mango and pineapple flavour. Yick. I'm not big on either of those things, so David ate it and I kept the souvenir plate.

We left at about 9:30ish. It was a nice night~ We kept joking that it felt like a real date. Just the two of us going to Disney Sea at night. How romantic. We popped into McDuck's Department Store before we left, though, so I could pick up a set of Duffy and Shellie Mae purse charms. Yay~ We caught the train back, too our evening shower and hunkered down with some anime before bed. It was a nice day.

And now, I'm going to pause. It's about midnight and I need to get up for work in the morning. Never fear, though! Angel has been harassing me for blog updates, so I will endeavor to update again tomorrow with the rest of the trip and then hopefully Friday with the latest happenings and whatnot post. G'night~