Penpal Haruka

So back in November 2014, a girl in Japan liked my Bath & Body Works Haul on my Instragram. She really wanted soaps but there's no store in Japan. I DMed her asking if she was interested in a goods swap. I sent her Bath & Body Works hand soap and she'll send me Japanese makeup. Our spending limit was $20USD. I bought her 2 hand soaps and 5 mini hand sanitizers along with some Christmas chocolate from Ghiradelli. I included a hand written letter introducing myself. I noticed she liked stickers so I added some of those in the package too. She posted two photos on her Instagram pic 1 and pic 2.

Here's her package she sent me!



3x Pure Smiles Facial Masks
Canmake Lip Gloss
Canmake Nail Polish
Canmake Eyeshadow. I already did a review of this product here.
along with a hand written letter introducing herself and she even included cute pictures of her family Awwwwww ^__^//



My penpal's name is Haruka. She's 27, married with a cute baby boy! ^_^/

Pre-order Liz Lisa, Tralala, Penderie, JugeETTA 2015 Fukubukuro

It's that time again. Pre-orders for fukubukuro / lucky bags begin Dec 1 in Japan. Sunday night for U.S. At first, everything went smooth. I had the Stripe Carry + 3 way bag set in my cart, entered card info, hit proceed, then the site crashed. (*0*)/ OMG I kept hitting refresh. The site kept crashing whenever I was at the credit card processing point. I was getting frustrated and mad haha. This didn't happen when I ordered last year's fukubukuro. An hour later, it went through YAY!


Liz Lisa


*WEB LIMITED*
Rose Ribbon Embossed Carry
¥25,000 -> ¥27,000 with tax
6 items

 

Colo Stripe Rose Carry
¥15,000 -> ¥16,200 tax
3 items
  


Pure Big Tote Pink / White Tote
¥20,000 -> ¥21,600 tax
5 items each


Pure Big Tote White
Casual set 5 items
¥2,000 -> ¥21,600 tax


Pure Big Tote Pink
Sweet Set 5 items
¥20,000 -> ¥21,600


More 3 Way Bag
2 items ¥5,000 -> ¥5,400 tax


Happy Stripe Rose Trunk Carry + 3 Way Bag Set 
5 items ¥20,000-> ¥21,600 tax



Liz Lisa 109 store
In-store exclusive fukubukuro.


Liz Lisa x My Melody Carry link
9 items ¥30,000 -> ¥32,400 tax
Fur Coat • Scallop Blouse • Skirt • Cardigan • Top • Lace Sukapan • Floral Onepiece • My Melody Pouch • Blanket
You can make 3 different coordinates with the clothing!

Colo Mini Stripe Trunk Carry (Pink)
3 items ¥15,000 -> ¥16,200 tax



Penderie

Sweet Happy Bag
6 items ¥15,000 -> ¥16200 tax



Dolly Happy Bag
4 items ¥10,000 -> ¥10,800 tax
Coat • One piece • Cardigan • Top


Tralala

Girly Happy Bag
4 items ¥10,000 -> ¥10,800 tax
Coat • 2 Tops • Jumper Skirt


JugeETTA

2015 Fukubukuro
Original Carry Bag
8 items ¥30,000 -> ¥32,400 tax
Top • 2 Knit • 2 Bottom • Onepiece • Jacket or Coat • Accessory



Thoughts:
This year Liz Lisa definitely raised the prices with less clothing inside. BOO. The big totes aren't cute. Just a plain canvas bag. Where's the ribbon and frills? Hopefully the clothing inside will makeup for the plain bag. I kinda wish they replaced the Rose Embossed Luggage with mini carry design.



Seems like LL is getting lazy. I don't like the black handles. 2013 design looks better.

So what did I order? 
I ordered the mini carry & 3 way set and the LL x My Melody luggage with Tokyo Pirates.

Birthday, Thanksgiving, Black Friday

New post, old date.

I didn't want this posted in December so I set the date it back in November.

Birthday

Another year old. Yay *sarcastic* I wasn't too happy celebrating this year. Since graduation, I'm still looking for a job. I got a few offers but it wasn't towards my major at the time so I wanted to keep looking. When it got closer to holiday season, I applied for mundane part-time jobs. No call-backs maybe cause I'm too over qualified? WTF! I shouldn't be picky anymore. I'll take anything at this point.

Thanksgiving
My family decided to celebrate turkey day on wednesday so they can start shopping at Macys thursday evening haha.. capitalism. Wednesday night, Sho and I stayed up til 4am playing. He was playing League of Legends while I was online browsing. Thursday, we woke up afternoon time, took shower and got ready to head over to Sho's parents place for Thanksgiving dinner. They don't celebrate with turkey. Sho's mother made steak :)

Sushi & Turkey. The good thing about Thanksgiving is we can combine both American tradition with our Japanese heritage. Parents are from Hawaii so gotta have that hawaiian macaroni salad. Don't forget the chicken katsu and beef teriyaki. LOL.

Black Friday
Sho and I told ourselves that we would stay home on black friday to conserve money but we became sooooooo bored so we decided to check the mall out haha. Strolling around the mall, I honestly thought the sales weren't great compared to last years. The stores weren't even as packed. Maybe everyone got their shopping done earlier in the morning? We passed by Bath & Body Works I saw their "Buy 3, get 3 free" poster. Damn! I was hooked. I'm a sucker for their Pocket Bac and soaps.

props for Sho for setting this so nice for me

E.L.F. Mineral Foundation SP 15 Light Set

I was browsing around Target the other day with Sho. While he was trying to look for photo frames, I told him that I'll be in the beauty section. I always tend to buy e.l.f. products whenever I visit Target. I don't know why. It's decent quality for the price you're paying. This is why I try to stay away from 99cent, Target, or Daiso. I always buy something even when I don't need it BUT for this case I was really running low on my powder foundation so decided to get this to replace.

My desk+ Gifts

Been bored at home with some bad luck of finding a job. I found this Feng Shui book on the family bookshelf. I guess it was a gift to my mother from a co-worker.

Feng Sui is ancient Chinese practice of arranging physical objects around to gain positive results. The placement of objects in your room, house, or building affects the flow of your Chi (energy). Good chi means better life?


I thought to myself why not give this a try? What do I have to lose?
I'm no Feng Shui expert. I'm just basing it by this book and Google. 




I immediately wanted to fix my prosperity corner which is wear my desk is.

Things to use/have
Use of the colors purple, green or red to achieve greater energy.
Gold stuff enhances wealth area.
Symbols that resemble wealth or abundance like a piggy bank or pictures of wardrobe or fancy cars
Moving water to keep the cash flowing. Fountain preferred but pictures of water can work
Round-shape plants

Things to avoid
Dirt/Dust
Broken items
Reminders of broke/bad times
Trash cans
Dead plants
Fireplace and Toilets.


Definitely added some purple and Liz Lisa for materialistic purposes. Cleared out the junk and organized a bit. Wow. Now let's hope I bring home the bacon :)

------

Sho's mother came back from Japan. This was a short trip of 3 weeks. She said during her stay was typhoon season so she didn't go out as much.

Here's what she got us!



Lately Sho and I have been obsessed with the anime Yokai Watch! If you haven't heard of it, it's similar to Pokemon only 100x better! Yokai means "ghost or spirit". The main character Keita along with his yokai friend Whisper seek out other yokai's that cause trouble around town. The yokai coexists with the living and cannot be seen by them. Only Keita can see them by using a special watch. After completing the mission or battling the yokai, Keita befriends them and they in return give a "friend metal". In which you can call upon for their help next time by inserting the medal into the watch to summon them.  The interesting thing is they don't stay in the medal like a pokemon does in a pokeball. The yokai kinda does their own thing around town haha.

Yokai Watch was first released as a video game but it didn't do well until after the anime was released with all the merchandise. And boy those watches are selling like hotcakes. Whats cool about the merchandise is their interactivity. You can buy the medals through gatchapon or blindboxes. Each medal has a QR code on the back which you can scan with your DS and that Yokai will be uploaded to your database to play in the game. If you have the extra money to spend on the watch, insert the medals and it'll play a tune specific to that yokai. Marketing success.


Our favorite character Jibanyan. Ugh so cute!