Archives for June 2016

5 Instagram-Worthy Coffee Shops in Tokyo

June 11, 2016

The Crafty Tokyoite’s Guide to Japan is a weekly (or an attempt to be) feature I post about recommendations of places to visit in Japan (mostly Tokyo). I know this is a tourist heavy country and if I can help in any way with anybody wanting to take a trip out here, I would love that more than anything. Sometimes they’re lists, sometimes they’re photo logs of places I’ve been to, and sometimes they’re just a simple blog post with something I want to share about the city I love the best. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave any comments or feedback about places in Japan you’d like me to write about!

We all know we do it for the ‘gram a lot of the times and y’all know coffee photos get the likes coming. Tokyo has some of the cutest coffee shops in the world – so I compiled a list of some of the most photogenic coffee shops in and around Tokyo for your coffee enthusiasts. Enjoy!

1. Nem Coffee&Espresso

A photo posted by M A S A K O (@masafii) on May 23, 2016 at 12:21am PDT

One of the newest coffee shops to hit the streets is Nem in Hiroo. Built in a 50 year old home, it’s got a cute rustic and industrious feel with wooden beams and white walls. The coffee is an absolute treat – a definite must go if you’re in the area.

Address: 4-5-6 Minamiazabu, Minato-ku Tokyo
Open: 8:00 am – 6:00 pm

2. Frankie Melbourne Espresso

If you miss genuine long black(americano) in Tokyo, this is where you should go #frankieshimokita . It tastes exactly same as the nice one you used to have in #melbourne . 美味しいロングブラックが飲める店 #frankieshimokita 下北沢だよ。内装にばっか金かけてうっすいコーヒー出す北参道のおしゃカフェよりずっといいよ。 #coffee #tokyo #shimokitazawa

A photo posted by Sho Yoshida (@sho357yoshida) on May 23, 2016 at 10:19pm PDT

Frankie is a coffee shop 1 minute from Shimokitazawa Station. The vibe they’re going for is a Melbourne coffee shop – with a mix of modern and classic. They serve cold-pressed juices in the mornings as well! Winner!

Address: 2-12-16 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku Tokyo 155-0031
Open: 10:00 am – 8:00 pm ; Closed: Mondays

3. Reissue

A photo posted by Hannah Davidson (@davidson.hannah) on May 1, 2016 at 12:41am PDT

When my friend texted me a photo of one of the 3D foam-art lattes from Reissue, I squealed. What is this cuteness?! I’m not usually a big fan of the “kawaii” culture but this blew my mind. My friend and I swung by the shop while L was getting his hair cut in Omotesando. The store is easy to miss as it’s up a narrow staircase on the side of a building. It gets super crowded so you might have to wait, but it’s well worth it.

Address: 3-25-7 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku Tokyo (2nd Floor)
Open: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

4. Sidewalk Stand (no website)

A photo posted by LokseJay (@loksejay) on Apr 20, 2016 at 11:58pm PDT

I actually happened to stumble upon this shop last weekend when L and I went to a sunglass sample sale in Nakameguro. I have always loved this neighborhood as they have the cutest little boutiques, bars, restaurants and stores. This shop was no exception. Sandwiches, craft beers, and good coffee. L and his friends got the craft beers, while I got the coffee. Absolutely delicious. The Reuben was also super tasty! Not much space to sit but a super charming little coffee shop, just as the name states, on the corner of a sidewalk.

Address: 1-23-14 Aobadai, Meguro-ku Tokyo
Open: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm

5. Camelback

A photo posted by CAMELBACK sandwich&espresso (@camelback_tokyo) on Feb 13, 2016 at 9:08pm PST

A few blocks from Yoyogi park lies Camelback coffee. This cute little shop serves “the best egg sandwiches” with an assortment of other foods and beverages. Everything from their storefront to the paper cups they use to serve their coffee is absolutely adorable. It helps that the coffee is absolutely delicious as well. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area (which, if you’re visiting Tokyo, you will find yourself in the neighborhood anyway;))

Address: 42-2 Kamiya-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Open: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm ; Closed: Mondays

6. (BONUS) Pretty Things

Coffee & a walk in the park with my two favorite boys (not pictured: ? Alfieboy)

A photo posted by t i n a (@thecraftytokyoite) on Feb 11, 2016 at 12:30am PST

(Yes I totally used my own photo teehee) My personal favorite coffee shop in my neighborhood. It’s more suburb-y than the rest of the locations, but definitely an adorable little store if you’re in the neighborhood. L and I often walk our dog in the park neighboring this coffee shop on the weekends, and this shop is dog-friendly so we always swing by on a nice day. They often have pop-up shops by different stores/artists and they sell little trinkets in the store like badges and books, and if you’re lucky, you can grab one of their delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Address: 5-19-10 Komazawa, Setagaya-ku

Well, that about wraps it up. If you guys like this and/or posts like this, let me know in the comments below and I will do my best to continue posting more lists similar to to this to add to my little hand-dandy guide of Tokyo! Enjoy and stay caffeinated, my friends!

2016 Project Life | January Spreads

June 10, 2016

This is my first attempt at photographing my PL spreads with my DSLR – the lighting might be a little off since it was a really overcast but if anyone has any tips on how to better the photos, please let me know!

We rang in the new year this year in SF – visiting L’s family! I’m obsessed with these Kelly Purkey for Studio Calico foodie cards – TOO CUTE. I wish I had an unlimited supply of them. I include so many food photos in my album it’s a liiiiiittle ridiculous.

Our last day in SF, we had breakfast at this little restaurant close to L’s parents house. I ordered the “central American” breakfast filled with food I’ve never had before. It was all so tasty – L was surprised I was able to eat it all! Yay for new experiences! Saying goodbye to his family was rough but L was staying for a few days so that was nice for his parents. I was super excited to come home to my Alfie-boy! Unfortunately when I got wifi on my flight home, I had gotten a message from my cousin saying that my grandma on my dad’s side had passed away that morning. She was 94 years old and the most lovely grandma anyone could have asked for. I went to see her in the beginning of December, which I was so glad we did. My heart was hurting the whole flight home.

January 7th is Nanakusa no Sekku in Japan – people eat porridge with seven different kinds of herbs to bring longevity and good health. We never do this, but we were reminded of it when we saw it on the news so decided to celebrate this festival this year. Also included two photos of grandma’s funeral in the spread. Maybe a little morbid, but it was such a beautiful ceremony. I didn’t want to take away from the photos so I added some hidden journaling with a tab behind one of the photos.

The night before L’s return to Tokyo, we invited my (other) grandma over and had sukiyaki – a traditional Japanese dish! She’s in a nursing home right now and she complains ALL. THE. TIME. about how the food is not enough, and too healthy. Hahahaha. So she wanted MEAT. Oh, grandma. The photo that’s blurred out is three instax polaroids of some of my students. The other side of the spread isn’t complete – wasn’t sure where to add the journaling so for now, just photos it is. L, some of my best guy friends and I went to go see Jamie XX when he had a show in Tokyo. We had a great time – love my boys! I might just leave it as is – not much to say about it other than it was a blast and I’m pretty sure the photos are enough to depict that.

Crazy snow day this week – with L not being able to get to work for hours. Clearly, Tokyo is not used to snow….at all. I cancelled pre-school so I was cool with a snow day 😉

Left side of the spread = girls’ dinner at the best damn yakiniku restaurant I have ever been to. The girls had a reservation for months at this place so I was super lucky to have snagged one of the last seats! Super pricey but so worth it. The right side? Wellll, L helped me build this new storage unit for my PL storage. How did I get so lucky? As for the journaling strips, I blatantly stole the idea from the ever talented Juli from Juli Makes Things. Love, love, love how it looks but I don’t think I’ll be doing this again for a while. Takes too much time for my lazy butt.

My final page of January is a photo of my cute-as-a-button pre-schoolers and burgers. Noms. I need to add more journaling to that bottom 4×6 card to write about how we had the most amazing time at the Nike Employee store! We got lucky to get tickets from one my students’ dads who knew L was the biggest Nike fan there ever was. I scored a pair of Air’s and L got a lot of goodies, too. Can’t believe how many spreads I have for January, but I wouldn’t change a single thing. Love this low-key freeflow of documenting. Next week, I’ll post my February spreads. Will work on my photography skills… 🙂

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 1 [Travel + Patong]

June 8, 2016

The first set of posts from this series is our trip to Thailand in 2015. This is about to get personal, but bear with me. Last summer, L and I were planning on taking a trip to Europe and road-tripping along the coast of France and Italy. Unfortunately, we had to scrap that plan since L couldn’t get enough days off to make the trip worth it so we’ll probably save it for our honeymoon. We surfed the net to see what the most affordable flights out of Tokyo were and we saw a flight to Bangkok was pretty reasonable. 3 years ago, my father suddenly passed away while he was on a business trip to Bangkok so I knew I didn’t want to really spend any time there. I’d also been there before and I’m more of a beach girl when I’m on vacation so I wasn’t really interested in going back. L wanted to go to Bangkok but he was understanding and we decided to go see Phuket and Koh Samui – two places I really wanted to see. We booked an Air Bnb at each place, booked our inter-island tickets, and got ready to depart on our Thailand adventure!

Weekly Round-Up: May 30 – June 5

June 6, 2016

Weekly Round-Up is a weekly post about things that have been going on in my life. It’s a more personal side of my blog that I’ve decided to document to look back on as I work on my memory-keeping process. So… it’s mainly for me than anything else, but if someone enjoys it along the way, that’s awesome!

This week was a week of getting back into shape. This time last year, L and I were going to the gym religiously to get into shape for our upcoming trip + engagement shoot in Thailand. Well… let’s just say once we got back from Thailand… we were wasting quite a bit of money on our gym membership. We’ve started going back again these past few weeks and it feels really good to get back into the gym. I’ve also been cutting back on fatty foods and focusing on eating really healthy. Let’s just say it’s been a struggle. Other than that, it’s been the usual: pre-school and crafting. I’ve been working on the blog so much this past week that I haven’t been able to do much hands on crafting except playing with this Thermoweb Deco Foil. Holy cow, this thing is absolutely amazing! I am planning on writing up a whole blogpost about this product and how much I love it!

The latter half of the week (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) was so much fun for us. Friday night was date night with L! I love date nights with him because my job keeps me at home all day, while his job requires him to work late, so we don’t get to spend too much time together during the week. One of my English conversation class kids’ dad works with an event production/planning company, and he invited us to check out the Veuve Clicquot pop-up event in Roppongi Hills. Veuve is a champagne company that just released a new drink called “Veuve Clicquot Rich,” which is used more as a mixer than a champagne. The drink isn’t available in stores for another year or so, but this was the launch event. We had such a blast and got complimentary drinks and appetizers, which included all kinds of fancy ingredients (like foie gras – YUM). Afterwards, we had a quick dinner at a yaki-tori (chicken skewers) restaurant in Roppongi Hills and called it an early night because we were going to drive to FUJI SAFARI PARK early on Saturday!

You guys. Fuji Safari Park is probably one of my favorite places in all of Japan. I will have to write an individual post on it for my Guide to Japan categories. Anyway, before getting there, we decided to visit my dad’s side of the family’s graveyard, which also happens to be where my mom’s grandma is also buried at. It’s a really far drive for us as it’s closer to Mt. Fuji, so we decided that we should visit as long as we’re on that side. It was lovely and L was very sweet, buying flowers for both graves. We lit some incense, said some prayers, and headed off to the animal park. We had the best time ever – the weather was a little overcast but ain’t no thang. We cuddled capybaras, alpacas, and kangaroos, witnessed a lot of love makin’ thanks to bears and meerkats, and cooed over the baby cheetahs and lions. Highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it. We left Fuji area around 4:45 PM and were back in Tokyo by 6:30 PM. Picked mom up and hit up our neighborhood Okinawan restaurant. Overall amazing weekend and am already looking forward to next weekend. Every day is closer to summer break than the next!! Woohoo!

12×12 Thailand Scrapbook Pages

June 5, 2016

As an avid project lifer + mini album maker, I’m often not too good at journaling a lot on my scrapbook layouts. I’ve started doing that a little more after listening to Tracie Caliborne & Tiffany Lowder‘s podcast, The Scrap Gals Podcast (a must listen!) though. But these Thailand scrapbook pages were inspired by Marcy Penner’s minimalistic style. I am truly unashamed about scrap lifting as I’m not too confident about my scrapbook layout skills yet, and I feel like I’m still finding my style.

I love this photo of L lounging in the infinity pool at our Air BnB. I’m so sorry I don’t remember most of the products used but this was my first time using my sewing machine. Clearly, I’m not trying that again. It’s actually a hand-me-down from my grandma and she can’t find the pedal sooooo it’s kind of an acrobatic maneuver to use it. If you guys could see me, you’d probably be laughing.

I haven’t blogged about our time in Samui yet but it was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. We had SUCH an amazing time and it’s definitely on our would-go-back list. This Studio Calico alpha stamp is by far my favorite alpha stamp for layouts these days. Love how skinny, yet bold it is. And can we talk about this acrylic flamingo?! TOO CUTE. We didn’t see any flamingos, but whatever, it matched the layout. #deceptive

Todoroki Keikoku | 等々力渓谷

June 4, 2016

As the summer months approach, Tokyo is getting hotter and hotter every day. If you know anything about Tokyo summers, you know they are quite miserable (at least for me). Humidity + no breeze + crazy hot heat = June, July, and August in September. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit or that you should only stay indoors these months! In fact, L and I discovered this amazing spot last weekend, thanks to my mom. Apparently while I was living in Hawaii, she would walk Alfie here during hot summer days. Say hello to Todoroki Keikoku – a hidden gem in the ‘burbs of Tokyo. It’s literally a 5 minute drive from my house and one of the most beautiful, serene and mystical places I’ve been to.

Covered with greenery and a beautiful stream that runs through the valley, Todoroki Keikoku is a beautiful sanctuary if you want to get away for the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s so much cooler than up on the streets and in the sun, as it’s tucked away under the trees that provide shade, and it’s lower than street level – the stream definitely adds the “cooler” feeling this place gives off. If you love greenery and nature, this spot will be a haven to you. The trail is pretty long – I think one way could easily take up to an hour but we only walked about 30 minutes and turned around since our dog was pretty pooped and L is still in recovery from his broken leg. Regardless, I highly recommend making a pit stop if you have a free day during your visit to Tokyo.

Things you should bring with you:

Mosquito Repellent
Water
Comfortable, non-slippery shoes
A camera

Onwards for a picture-heavy post! Hope you guys like green because this is hella green.

2016 Project Life Process + Title Page

June 3, 2016

I’m well into my 2016 Project Life album and I’m not too far behind (currently working on April spreads) which I’m super excited about but I realized I haven’t written about my process and/or logistics about how I’m doing it this year. Last year, I was working with a 12×12 album and you can read about that more at this post. After almost completing 2 12×12 albums (I have December left – but I’m letting it go since I made a December Daily album), I decided to give Studio Calico’s 9×12 albums a try.

I have to say I’m loving this size. They easily fit on the shelves in my room and the gold… drool. I’m using the gold album and I’m a sucker for all things golden. I’m sticking to a monthly spread, but it seems as though I’m a creature of habit and most spreads end up being weekly but whatever, I’m not going to stress about it. I’m still printing at home, and using Studio Calico’s pocket pages. I’ve been trying to print photos as I take them, not really worrying about the orientation or size as I’m trying my best not to let those things stop me or slow me down. I’ve found that this process has been working the best for me and has kept me on track for the most part.

Now for my title page. I received this overlay in A Beautiful Mess’ Messy Box I got a while ago when they were doing a free shipping promotion. When you’re an international crafter like me, you know those deals are ALWAYS worth it. At the time I received it, though, I wasn’t crafting 9×12 so I didn’t know what to do about the overlay. When I decided to work on my title page, a lightbulb went DING! and the angels sung.

The actual title page consists of the photos I loved the month from the past year of me + L, Alfie, and our little family. The journal cards are the New Years Goals by One Little Bird for Studio Calico and they are unfortunately sold out but I was obsessed with them. I added some simple wood veneer, embellishments and alphas to spell out my One Little Word this year, which is “enough.” Another post on that coming later. I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how it’s come together. Will be back to share January spreads next week

Blog Re-Launch, Instagram Shop + GIVEAWAY!

June 1, 2016

To whoever is reading this – thank you. Thank you for giving this blog another chance. I’ve been working hard towards this June 1st relaunch and am happy to say we are ready to go LIVE! I’ve changed things up this time around, including the theme (layout), post categories and focus. I have a lot up my sleeves regarding content and I’m hoping you’ll all find something useful or entertaining within the posts of this blog. To get into the swing of things, I decided to host a giveaway to start things off on the right foot! This giveaway is hosted at my instagram – over at @thecraftytokyoite.

The Rules (dun dun dunnnnnn)
This giveaway is open internationally
You can join the give away TWO ways (do one or both, no worries)

***doesn’t include scissors nor stapler

1. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for the blog! Monthly – so don’t worry about being spammed. Then comment on this post to tell me you’ve subscribed 🙂

2. Repost the photo on this post and tag @thecraftytokyoite on Instagram. The photo is also on the instagram account – more specific rules regarding this method is on instagram.
You must follow @thecraftytokyoite and @shoptct

That’s it! You might be wondering, ‘What the heck is @shoptct?’ – well that’s the good news. I’ve also decided to launch a instagram sale partly to commemorate the re-launch of the blog, and partly to make some extra cash to purchase a mirrorless camera! I’ve had my DSLR for almost 12 years (crazy, I know) and I think it’s about time for an upgrade. So – if you don’t have instagram and you don’t want to create an account just to shop from the account and/or you don’t win the giveaway (unfortunately there will only be one winner), then you’re more than welcome to just e-mail me at thecraftytokyoite [at] gmail.com with the subject INSTAGRAM SALE and the description of the item you’re eyeing and I will send you a quote based on where you live. Simple!

Good luck to everyone entering the giveaway and thank you all for whoever has stumbled upon this page. Boookmark, follow, do whatever to keep watching this space for regular updates and goodies heading your way!