photo diary Archives - the crafty tokyoite

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!

Fuji Safari Park | 富士サファリパーク

June 18, 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!

On Saturday, June 4th, L and I decided to drive out to Mt. Fuji area to visit Fuji Safari Park (富士サファリパーク). It’s one of my favorite places to go, and in L’s two and a half years living in Japan, he had never been so we decided to go before it got too hot. The weather was a little meh, but it was absolutely worth it! I wish one of us had brought our DSLR, but unfortunately we had a mishap: we forgot our SD card. Dun dun dunnnnn – so we had to use our iPhones. But it was just as well because we weren’t allowed to open our windows during the drive through the “safari” so we had that dreaded window glare in most of our photos. Regardless, we had an absolute blast and it’s highly, highly, recommended to anyone staying or going to Mt. Fuji area during a Japan trip.

Many of the “large” animals were viewed via your own car or by the Safari park bus. If you ride the bus, they have these caged windows that they attach raw meat to it, and the lions and tigers come RIGHT UP to the windows to eat it. It’s crazy-cool but this time we went through in our own car so none of that funky business for us. Instead, we settled for the awesome “petting-zoo” portion of the rest of the park. There is Dog House, a Cat House, and a Bunny House, where you pay ¥500 (~$4.50) to go into each of the “houses” to bond with the respective animals. We chose to go the closer-to-free route of paying ¥50 each to feed the alpaca (my favorite), the albino kangaroos (who didn’t even move, much less eat), and the regular kangaroos (THE BEST EVER, #1 BEST PART OF MY DAY). You can also go in and cuddle capybaras, and other little critters, as well as take photos with baby lions (seasonal). Unfortunately, the tickets to take photos with baby lions were all sold out (literally devastated), but it was all worth it to feed the kangaroos.

As you can tell, I couldn’t get enough of these guys. And they have little joeys (baby kangaroos) IN MAMA’S POUCHES. We were squealing (yes, even L). They’re hungry little buggers and we ran out of coins by the end of the day so I was literally picking up food off the ground that people had dropped to keep feeding these guys. I’m pretty sure I was single-handedly responsible for kangaroo obesity at the park, if they encounter that problem. As you can tell, this was such an amazing and unforgettable day for us. I cannot recommend it enough. It’s so different than a traditional zoo where your heart hurts seeing animals in tiny cages – and I know it doesn’t change that they’re in captivity, but we had such a wonderful time. Let me know if you have any questions!

Fuji Safari Park | website
Address: 〒410-1231 Shizuoka Prefecture, Susono, 須山字藤原2255−27
Phone Number: 055-998-1311
Open From Mar.16 to Sep.3 09:00 to 17:00
From Oct.1 to Oct.31 9:00 to 16:30
From Nov.1 to Mar.15 10:00 to 15:30
Admission: Adults (high school & older) ¥2,700
Children (4 to middle school): ¥1,500
Senior Discount (65+): ¥2,000
******I HIGHLY recommend you buy your tickets at a discounted rate at a convenience store******

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!

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

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!

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.

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.