Happy "hebi" year (福袋!)

Happy new year everyone! I wish you a healthier, happier and fabulous year ahead.

 Haha, never thought that my first meal of 2013 was instant noodle.

Received from my taiwan friend recently, it tasted pretty good, ho jiak!

 What Japanese usually do on the first day is going to temple to pray , called "hatsumoude"

 (初詣). I went to the temple for our first pray of the year with my friend, it' s a long queue,

 had been queueing for quite a long time.

It's common to do something like drawing an omikuji ( (御神籤, a fortune-telling strips) from the box to see your fortune of the year after praying. And, I got the chukichi (中吉) for 2013, it means good but I dont think they will put in the daikyou (大凶）in the box since it is the first omikuji drawing for everyone. People need good advice, encouragement and positive energy to begin another new year. To believe or not, depend on you.

 

Another thing in the to-do-list during new year was grabbing the fukubukuro (福袋)! I couldn't understand why people would go to the shopping mall in the earlier morning before the mall opened, until I accompanied my friend to queue for their lucky bag last year. [ Lucky bag I got last year ] This is the one I bought from Jeanasis.

We went to Parco this year, also in the early morning around 8am, there were already many people queueing in front of us roughly 300-400 people. And, guess what those who were standing right in front of the entrance were all guys! Dun say only girls crazy for shopping, haha.

As the door opened, everybody was rushing here and there to the shops they aimed. All the elevators were not in service at that time, may be they afraid of occuring of accident when people are rushing into the shops.Since the escalator were stucked with people, I chose to use staircase, many people were running up the staircase, I was just able to run until 5th floor coz I could hardly catch my breath hahaha... then I walked up. I think this is the most fun and exciting part of what to do in the beginning of the new year , like a race to get the things you want since the number of the fukubukuro is limited per shops.

And, this is the content of my fukubukuro. Love it ~

This is the fukubukuro of my friend grabbed from Moussy, cost around 10500yen and there are 10 items stuffed inside including a pairs shoes. This why people are so crazy about fukubukuro, the items inside always cost more than the price you paid. I saw an uncle holding 3 bags queueing for their daughter, well done uncle!

Happy Dragon Year!!

oh, this is my first post in 2012. I was thinking to say happy new year to y'all on 1st Jan but I went to a shopping mall to grab a lucky bag! haha... that 's the only day that I could have my holiday since I came back to Japan. Labbing for all weekdays and weekends, morning until night. I truly believe that shopping could help to alleviate a stressful mind. Most importantly, grabbing a lucky bag ( 福袋 at the beginning of the year might bring you luck for the whole year (according to my friend, personal opinion hehe..). So, that day we went to the shopping mall early in the morning around 8am and you could see there were people lining up in front of the shopping mall. Everyone was there for the lucky bags.

 When the clock hit on 9am,everyone was running into the target shops haha... It's running! One of the craziest thing I did in Japan. My friend grabbed the last 10,000yen  lucky bag and I chose the 5000yen one.

 The reason why fukubukuro so attractive is because the items inside the bags are 50% or more off the list price of the items. Like this one, cost 5000 yen but the content worth more than 25,000yen.

Sometimes it also depends on luck, coz you might get the unwanted item, which you dislike, one way to solve it, exchange with your friends!

This CNY may be one of the memorable CNY. No celebration for the CNY this year, not at all. I have been burying myself in the lab  for the whole new year. But after all these stressful days and nights,  I have finally finished all the experiments and just submitted my thesis few days ago. But there are still many things hovering in mind...

I'm not ready to go home yet, what can I do?

New Year Mode part 2

3 Jan 2011 : The first day of Parco sale, I've never seen so many people

in Parco before!

One of the reason of why so many people squeezing into the shopping mall is to grap the lucky bag ( 福袋 ). You don't know what is inside the lucky bag, the price of the goods inside is always 3-5 times cheaper than the price you pay when you buy them respectively, like this one (taken from the internet).
 
Speaking of lucky bag doesn't necessarily mean that it's only clothes, different stores released different types of lucky bag, some are shoes, electrical appliance, snacks, necklace, hair ornament...

Three of us shopped from morning until 3:30pm, we completely forgot to eat and drink! Until then, our body alarming us and we finally we regained some conciousness to EAT! haha... I thought we're lost in the sales. As we arrived the newly opened restaturant, the waiter told us we had to wait for another 90 minutes to be seated. okay, we just needed some time ro rest before eating.

Paying around 1400 yen and then you can eat-all-you -can , just looking at the photos you could see there are varieties of cakes and desserts, which are the "leading role" in this restaurant. Of course to satisfy your appetite, pasta, rice, udon and sandwich ...etc also available.

What a fattening winter break... -_-''

New stuff and cute stuff

This is what I recently found in the store, it looks like the ice cream cup at the first glance or something like ice blended drink stuff...It's actually a shaker for the hairdye. The application method is similar to the general hairdye, what different is the ingredients, which the powder and base water are used and with a little shake of of the mixture in this lovely designed cup can make your hairdye process to be easy breezy...

Meow, meow...This is the cutest packaging of any facial product I've seen so far.I gotta say that I'm not a hello kitty fans, I think there's no one not saying 'this is cute'. These products released sometime ago, but they are always distinct from the facial products on the rack and catch my sight.

This white one is for horny layer care, the pink one is for dry skin type washing foam and the blue one is washing foam for acne prone skin.

Hello Kitty is everwhere... exists in everwhere in different forms, from soft toy to facial product.... and kitchen cookware.I found this in the crane game machine, if you want this, just give it a whirl with just 100 yen and you might get this Hello Kitty pot back home. Coz there are some limited Hello Kitty products you can't buy them , you gotta win them by the crane!

Can't help buying them...

You may see this Choco product often appears in Crayon Shinchan anime. Actually, I've been seeing this for a long time ago,but they have Shinchan key chain as gift this time but not in every box . Just try my luck haha..You might think, why don't I just buy the key chain directly instead of buying the product with a very tiny odds getting the key chain. I can tell you , in between opening the box and hoping something you want will be inside is amusing. This is a scene where Shinchan gulping down all the choco biscuit.

As a result,I didn't get the key chain but the sticker of  his classmate ,hehe..

The other cute stuff, ta..tang...the Snoppy handtowel This one comes with the Oolong Tea. There are four designs .I wasn't minded to buy them, these stuff are really cute and don't have to pay extra money to have them, so why not?!

There are many Japan fashion magazines  come with various of gift, bags,handkerchief, cosmetic bag , hair band... Every month, the magazine collaborates with different brands..A pretty common gimmick to attract people to buy their magazine meanwhile to promote the brand itfself, double benefits.

Milk Fed is intended for those who favors California, Simple and Cute girly look .

Lowry Farm , this brand more inclined to casual style.

Frankly speaking, Im also one of those who just want the bag not the magazine. haha