Photo Diary Archives - the crafty tokyoite

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 4 [Phuket to Koh Samui Travel Day]

June 29, 2016

The day finally arrived!! L and I were so excited to go to Koh Samui – we googled photos non-stop before our trip and it looked absolutely dreamy. To be perfectly honest, we were kind of really over Phuket. Maybe it was the fact that we didn’t get to see all of it, but it was just too raunchy and full of partiers that it wasn’t the relaxing vacation we had hoped for. We woke up early in the morning, packed our bags, ordered in a breakfast via room service and decided to spend our morning at the beach that our photographer Jaran took us to for our engagement shoot – Paradise Beach. Absolutely beautiful. We arrived early enough that there weren’t that many people, and we got awesome beach chairs right by the water.

Weekly Round-Up: June 20 – June 26

June 27, 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 past week’s theme for me was basically the LAST week of pre-school and health consciousness. I successfully went to the gym every day this week and have been doing everything in my power to eat and be healthy. Turning 28 was a turning point for me. I can’t do 10 push ups a night and look good for the Saturday turn up anymore ? I also powered through the week with pre-school for our last week before summer. We had a trial kid on our last day who looks like she will be enrolling come September.

June 20th would have been my mom and dads 42nd anniversary. L and I wanna keep the day special for her, so he went and picked up some flowers and champagne for her. She was so happy. I guess it was quite bittersweet day for us. Always hard to celebrate these kinds of days when the other half isn’t around anymore.

The weekend was quite uneventful but enjoyable nonetheless. L and I tried to get to the gym on Saturday morning but our regular parking lot was full. All other lots close to our gym cost about $3.50 for 12 minutes. ….what?? Yeah. Crazy. So we decided to grab breakfast instead ? we went to our local bakery, which has the best pastries in the world. So worth it. We mozied around the rest of the day and ended the night at a yakitori izakaya restaurant in our neighborhood. It was our first time going but we loved it! Love discovering new places in and around our neighborhood! Sunday night, my Japanese side of the family came over for dinner. My cousin just got married so we wanted to celebrate him and his new wife! We don’t get to see them much, especially since my dad and grandma’s passing so it was really nice to have them come over and catch up under happy circumstances.

This week is officially my summer break! Which isn’t really a break since I have to interview 3 candidates for a teaching position for summer school, a potential family who’s thinking of enrolling, plan for summer school, and plan for the next school year. But it’s a good break from teaching, I guess! Will miss the kids but looking forward to a productive, heathy summer ahead.

Weekly Round-Up: June 13 – June 19

June 19, 2016

Quite a hectic and quick week for me! Started off strong, going to the gym every morning before pre-school. Been treating myself to convenience store iced coffee, which isn’t really half bad. I love Japanese convenience stores – they truly are the definition of ‘convenience.’ So clean, and always fully stocked of delicious foods, drinks and even stationary!
Second to last week of school this week – last week for one of our kiddos before he headed off to the Philippines with his family for the summer. We decided to have a little outing for our two older kids to celebrate summer and we decided to go to the aquarium since we had been learning about dolphins. We went to Epson Aqua Park in Shinagawa and it was absolutely amazing! Stay tuned for a “Guide to Japan” post about it 🙂

Tried catching up on Project Life this week but didn’t get too far. Completed maybe 2 spreads of April before jumping into a new project (our California mini-album from last Christmas/New Years). Yesterday was an incredibly hot heat wave. Literally didn’t leave the house except to go eat some cold soba, which is especially refreshing on hot days like yesterday. L and I cleaned the filters to the AC around the house…tried to make ourselves useful. Today was a rest day for me regarding the gym, so we decided to go have brunch at a famous brunch-spot close to our house in Futakotamagawa. Post about that outing coming up in the coming weeks, too! The last photo in the collage is the last Father’s Day I spent with my dad before he passed away. We had spent the day at Kinuta Park, walking Alfie and just hanging out. I remember that day, 4 years ago so well. I miss him so incredibly much, especially days like today, but I really do miss him every day. He was such a wonderful dad. I’ll definitely have to make a layout about this day and all the things I love and miss about him.

Well, that’s a wrap for the weekly round-up! I’m so looking forward to summer break and getting away. L has been super stressed out at work, too, so it’ll be a much deserved/needed break. Can’t wait to catch up on a bunch of projects I’ve been working on, too, so I’ll be sharing a lot more crafty stuff in the coming weeks! Talk to you guys then!

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 2 [Phuket Engagement Shoot]

June 14, 2016

Day 2 in Phuket was quite the exciting day! Back in Tokyo, L and I had been talking about hiring a photographer in Thailand. We wanted beachy photos, but not overly corny – photos that showed our true colors. That’s when we found Gina Smith from Gina Smith Photography. We fell in love with her website and portfolio and booked her right away! We talked over e-mail about ideas, then chose a date and a time to meet once we were in Phuket. Since we were only there a few days before moving to Koh Samui, we prayed the weather would co-operate with us since our photoshoot was set to take place in the morning. We were pretty bummed when we woke up to an overcast day, but we had faith the weather would clear up. We decided to spend the early morning eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant and lounging by the pool before cleaning up.

Needless to say, the breakfast was mmmmmm delicious. And the coffee? HEAVENLY.

Weekly Round-Up: June 6 – June 12

June 13, 2016

Can’t believe how fast this week flew by – felt like I just wrote one of these yesterday! Shows how much you really have to treasure each day. The hydrangeas have been blooming in full glory all around our neighborhood. These are the ones found at the neighborhood park we go to with the kids on nice days. Love them! I think the best news of the week was finding out my BFF is pregnant!! I’m so incredibly happy for her I can’t even start to describe my excitement 🙂 Such an exciting time for her! Otherwise, a regular week with the kiddos. We introduced the “doll washing” job and the kids love it – especially the girls! Funny how “maternal instincts” show so early on in life! Thursday was a fun day – got to reunite with my friend I’ve known since KG. She lives in Boston, though, and only comes home twice a year so it was lovely to see her. Mom and I took a couple snapchats while waiting for her and her mom. I’m kind of sort of obsessed with Snapchat… if you want to follow me, I’m at @oddlyjapanese. Not much crafty, more goofy 🙂

I found the most random thing at the grocery store the other day….a VENUS FLYTRAP! I’ve always been weirdly obsessed with carnivorous plants since learning about them in elementary so when I saw it on sale for about $4.00, I had to have it. It’s been quite an interesting experience so far. We had a trial student come in on Wednesday – he was so sweet and fit right in! Looks like he will be starting in September. Exciting stuff! After pre-school on Friday, mom and I headed out to Costco to pick up some stuff L wanted for a BBQ he was hosting on Saturday. He invited some of his co-workers over to watch the Warriors game. With the time difference, the game was at 10:00 am so it worked out to watch the game, then grill some burgers and hot dogs. The weather was absolutely beautiful (so HOT!) and the Warriors won so we were stoked. After we all ate and everyone left, we had the laziest Saturday ever. I’m not complaining – I love lazy days with loved ones.

We had an extra lovely Sunday this week. I’m taking the kids to a field trip this coming Wednesday, so we decided to drive out to the area we are going to, to make sure we know where parking is and how to maneuver the kids in the best way. So, we drove out to Shinjuku and had lunch at T.G.I.Friday’s. Totally ruined my diet considering I skipped the gym that morning but OH WELL, life is short. We explored the area a little bit, and the area is filled with super cute cafes and restaurants! Wish we had more time to explore but we had to get back in order to get ready for one of my mom’s friend’s daughter’s graduation party (phew, that was a mouthful). She just graduated from HS and is going to Berklee School of Music! So excited for her. The party was at Beacon – a totally classy and beautiful restaurant in between Shibuya and Shinjuku. L and I are maybe considering the location for a small reception in Tokyo when we eventually get married. The food was absolutely delicious and the all you can drink was pretty fantastic. I won’t admit I got totally wine drunk (yes, I did), but we had a wonderful time eating, drinking and dancing until 10:00 pm. Overall good week and hoping for another week as wonderful as the last!

Weekly Round-Up: May 30 – June 5

June 6, 2016

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!

Fashion’s Night Out : Tokyo

September 13, 2015

Saturday night was quite the doozy (do people ever say that in real life? I think it’s kind of hilarious). It was Fashion’s Night Out, which is a global shopping event hosted in various fashion capitals all over the world. You can read more about it here. Tokyo’s event was hosted in Omotesando/Aoyama/Harajuku area and it was an event that my friend Rio and I started going to years ago when it first started. Basically, it’s an event that encourages people to shop more and they do this by hosting stamp rallies, events, drinks and food. Naturally, I’m all over any event that serves free drinks.

This year, unfortunately Rio couldn’t make it because she was leaving that night on a flight to Spain/Ibiza (fancy, fancy), so I recruited L and my best friend, Hisaya, to come with me. I wasn’t sure what to expect with two boys but it ended up being a blast. I decided I wanted to share some photos from last night as this is definitely going to have its own spread in my album as well as possibly 12×12 page *gasp*.

Week in the Life: Sunday Photos + Stories

August 24, 2015

I can’t believe WITL documentation is already over! It has been such an interesting week and I won’t lie in saying that I’m a little relieved I can put my camera back on the shelf, instead of carrying it in my purse everywhere. But, I must say I learned so much during this week in terms of documenting, and in terms of our family. It made me see and appreciate how much my mom does for L and I, and how much Alfie really affects our family. I see how much I value the time L and I spend together during the week. Although limited, it means so much to be able to laugh ourselves to sleep. No matter what may get me down during the day, when I can go to sleep with my best friend with a smile on my face, nothing matters. It really is the little things that mean the most. Anyway, enough with the sappy, onwards with the photos!

Week in the Life: Friday & Saturday Photos + Stories

August 24, 2015

So far, these have been my worst days in terms of recording photos. But, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I think I deserve a good ole pat on the back for making it this far – and it’s my first year! I’m kind of nervous about setting up the album but fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

Sorry for the photo heavy post, but here is our Friday and Saturday.

Week in the Life: Thursday Photos + Stories

August 21, 2015

Glorious day today! Alfie didn’t need to go to the vet because his stats are coming back to normal and they figured with his progress, maybe it was a good idea for his mental health to give him a break from the IV. Woohoo! Slept in a little, then panicked because I realized I didn’t take any photos of my early morning. But, whatever, not gonna let it stress me out.