Japan Trip: Fukuoka and Dazaifu

Playing: Take My Advice-Wild Party
Reading: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

We took a flight from Okinawa to Fukuoka in the middle of Typhoon Neoguri, which was mildly terrifying for me. Luckily, we got to Fukuoka safely and we were the only Okinawan flight to not be canceled that day. Tina and I heard that the typhoon was supposed to follow us to Fukuoka, so we crammed in some sightseeing on our first day in Fukuoka, thinking we wouldn't have the next day. Our first stop was Fukuoka Tower because we heard that it had a spectacular view and I have to agree. Fukuoka Tower offers views of the ocean, of multiple rivers and of Fukuoka itself for a price much lower than that of other towers like Tokyo Skytree.

Once again out of fear of the typhoon, Tina and I felt the need to do all of Fukuoka's most famous activities the first day we were there. Apparently, Fukuoka is well known for ramen, so we tried Shin Shin due to its high ranking on Trip Advisor. While Shin Shin was inexpensive at 500 yen a bowl and the food came out quickly, I wasn't overly impressed with it. Everything about the ramen was pretty standard.

Fortunately, the typhoon didn't come on our second (and last) day in Fukuoka, so we took a day trip to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, which is rather beautiful. Other than the flocks of snap-happy tourists, Tina and I both enjoyed the temple plus the area around it.

By way of an elderly local, we discovered Komyozenji Temple, which is extremely easy to get to from Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine. You literally turn down one street and walk straight. (Ask any of the locals and they should know.) While we were at this temple, we found a map detailing other touristy places to look at like a pagoda, so go try that out. You'll get to see some things that are still touristy, but not touristy enough to attract all those snap-happy tourists I aforementioned.

Before heading back into Fukuoka, Tina and I got lunch along the main street leading from Dazaifu Station to Dazaifu Tenmangu Temple at a quaint restaurant called Oshinagaki. The beautiful garden located in the back was the main feature that attracted us to this specific eatery. We both ordered the mixed soba plates, which featured regular soba along with pickled plum and green tea soba. Although it was a bit pricier than I would've liked, I enjoyed my dish and would go back.

Before I leave for New York, I wanted to host a worldwide giveaway for all the things I bought for you guys during my time in Japan. If you win the giveaway, you will receive:

• 1 Rilakkuma Tote Bag
• 3 Bath Bombs in Yuzu, Lavender, and Pine Tree
• 1 Face Mask in White Rose
• 1 Lip Mask in Peach
• 1 Pack of Point Pads in Strawberry
• 1 Rilakkumagazine
• 2 Matcha Green Tea KitKat Bars
• 2 Pompom Hair Scrunchies
• 3 tokidoki Pins

To enter, here are the rules:

1. You must be a public follower of this blog and comment below with your name and email.
2. For an extra entry, you may blog about this giveaway and comment with the link to your post that mentioned my giveaway.
3. For an additional entry, follow me on Instagram @this_is_audrey and comment below with your Instagram username.

This means that there are three entries available. Step 1 is the only mandatory one, but to do steps 2 and 3 you must do step 1. The winner will be announced on August 15 and will be chosen by a random number generator after I add up all of the entries. The winner must respond to my email within four days (August 19) otherwise I won't be able to mail the prize because I will be too busy moving across the country.

Want

Playing: Call N' Return-Hellogoodbye
Reading: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

It seems like every one of my posts lately either starts or ends with an apology for not blogging regularly, but that's ok. With school in session, I don't have as much to do whatever it is that I do. I quickly compiled a short list of pieces that I've found really cool. These are the items that will catch everyone's attention and immediately up the cool factor of your outfit.

• Aeon Elysium Hoodie-I like the way it contrasts a standout print with a casual cut. It would be such an easy, but cool outfit to pair it with white skinny jeans and boots.  Pretty much all of the other accessories pictured above would look good with it too. (If any of you read Joel's The Hallowed Ground, this brand is by him.)
• Marc by Marc Jacobs Wallet- This simple wallet is made a little more special than expected due to its holographic material. I've had my eye on the silver version of this wallet for a few months now, but it's still a bit too expensive for me to justify buying it.
• Alexander Wang Lia Purse-I've tried this purse on at Barney's Co-Op many times and it looks great with almost every outfit imaginable. I like the signature Wang studs on the bottom and what a bright white it is. The only problem I have is that considering its size, it doesn't fit much. The leather sides don't budge much, so it's difficult for me to fit my wallet, iPhone, and camera in it.
• Alexander Wang Racketeer Sling-This is easily one of my favorite purses that I've seen in awhile. I love how it has several compartments and looks like an accordion folder from the side. I was originally going to buy this purse, but Barney's Co-Op never got it in stock, so I bought Le Dix from Balenciaga instead. However, if any of you get the Racketeer Sling, I will envy you tremendously.

Don't forget to enter my Burberry headband giveaway! Not many people have entered, so the probability of you winning is pretty high right now.

Last Saturday

Playing: Compromising Me-William Beckett
Reading: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I love going to the beach during the off season, when the crowds have dispersed and/or returned home. There's something about a deserted beach that is particularly lovely, so when Jiyoung asked me to go to Corona del Mar for his art project, I couldn't say no. The Santa Ana winds were going on at the time, which gave everything a Los Angeles worthy haze of sunshine and dust. If it were not for the fact that both of us had a lot of homework to do, it would have been nice to go swimming. Instead we grabbed an early lunch at the Lemonade that opened up at Fashion Island before heading home. I hope you enjoyed some of the photos I took and don't forget to enter my Burberry headband giveaway, which is open until the end of October!

Burberry Headband Giveaway

Playing: All I Ever Wanted-The Airborne Toxic Event
Reading: Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus

For every fifty followers I get, I like to host a giveaway for all my lovely followers. This time I kind of upped the giveaway game by purchasing this Burberry headband. The headband is new without tags because I lost the tag, when it slipped off the headband, and I don't know where it went. It's one size fits all and measures from an inch to two inches think. It's a soft beige color with grey, periwinkle, and maroon details. (If you're wondering how much a Burberry headband goes for, it goes for anywhere from $40-$170 on eBay.)

This giveaway is open to anyone in the world and will be open until the end of October, so all entries must be in by Oct. 31! To enter, here are the rules:

1. You must be a public follower of this blog and comment below with your name and email.
2. For an extra entry, you may blog about this giveaway and comment with the link to your post that mentioned my giveaway.
3. For an additional entry, follow me on Instagram @this_is_audrey and comment below with your Instagram username.
4. For the final entry available, you must already be a follower of mine on Instagram, but you can repost a photo of the headband on your Instagram and tag it #hkittygirlgiveaway. You must keep that photo on Instagram until the giveaway is over in order for me to count up the total amount of entries.

This means that there are four entries available. Step 1 is the only mandatory one, but to do step 4 you must do step 3. The winner will be announced at the end of October and will be chosen by a random number generator after I add up all of the entries. Good luck to everyone that joins and thank you for continuing to read my blog!

250 Follower Giveaway-Closed

Playing: Yellow-Coldplay
Reading: Harper's Bazaar March 2013

Hello readers! I'm pleased to let you know that I reached 150 followers (153 to be exact), so I thought it was time to hold a little giveaway to thank all of my followers. There are two prizes. The first includes a floral pouch, mamegoma erasers, mamegoma stationary, and a Rilakkuma key chain, while the second includes a polka dot pouch and two glittery nail polishes.

You must be a public follower of this blog. To follow this blog, just click on the bar on the right that says "Join this Site" under "MY SECRET LOVERS." This will get you one entry.

To enter leave a comment to this post with the following:
1.) Your name:
2.) Your email:
3.) Which prize you would prefer or let me know that you would like either one.

To get a second entry, blog about my giveaway or link it and leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

This giveaway ends two weeks from now on March 14th and is open to anyone in the world. There are two winners and the winners will be announced on my blog and emailed. If the winners don't reply within a week, I will choose another winner. Good luck everyone!

I Rather Be at the Mall

Playing: No More Love Songs-Lacrosse
Reading: Harper's Bazaar June 2012
Last Friday, my school had an early out for Memorial Day, which was originally created for Civil War veterans and then extended to anybody that had fought in a war. Interesting fact, there. Well anyways, for early outs I usually hang out with friends and bum around my town, but different groups of people asked me to hang out and then the plans fell through due to lack of rides, money, etc., so I went to South Coast Plaza with my brother instead.

We went to one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Nello Cucina, for lunch. To start off our lunch, we got an order of bruschetta, which was delicious. Served on freshly toasted bread and topped with shaved parmesan, it was absolutely wonderful. The parmesan was really a nice touch that I haven't seen at any other place.

For lunch, I got the Calamari Giovanni with Pasta in the red version, which was tasty, but the calamari was a tad too chewy. I really like how you can specialize any of your orders at Nello Cucina, if you ask politely. You can even order off the menu, if they took an old item off the menu and you want it. I usually order the cheese and pasta rolls with pancetta that's no longer on the menu, the actual Italian name is escaping my mind right now.

We crossed over the bridge to the main part of the mall, so that I could look at all the designer store. I love the glamorous window display at Gucci. Frida Giannini really created a strong collection for Spring Summer 2012 with the art deco look and the clean lines. That jacket is such a statement piece and is perfect for dressing up the simplest, all black outfit.

I love Burberry's all-white display and that trench coat should hop into my closet asap. It would feel right at home there. Also, look there's a sale at Burberry! Took all my will power to not beg my parents to get me something, even though I wanted everything. I need to save up my tutoring money, so that I can buy exactly what I want from here.

Whimsical umbrella chandelier at Baccarat is whimsical. Wouldn't it be so much fun to carry this around for your umbrella, when it rained? Of course, only if you didn't need to worry about breaking anything and about it being heavy...Although Baccarat leans towards the gaudy side of taste, I do like their whimsical, avant garde creations like the upside down floor lamp and their gothic chandeliers. They should be in Beetlejuice or in one of Tim Burton's other films. (Everything relates back to Tim Burton!)

Before we left, we wanted to grab something to drink from Antonello's Expresso Cafe. I really liked these sparkling juices from Galvania. They actually taste like fruit and are slightly sour, so very refreshing in my opinion. I definitely would buy these again, if I ever get the chance and I highly recommend these to you. Plus, they're organic, which means they're hopefully better for you than normal sodas.

Oh and if you like super cute stationary, please enter my giveaway here! You have until June 16th to enter!

200 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY

Playing: Together-Patrick Wolf
Reading: The Blogiverse Goes Wild for Pani Jurek's Scientific Illumination by Agnieszka Le Nart
It's happened. I now have 200 followers for my blog! I'm so thankful for all of you that have continued to read and comment on my blog, so I wanted to share with you my stationary collection plus have a little giveaway for all of you.

I love stationary. I love writing letters to my friends and receiving snail mail from my pen pals. I just like writing a lot to everyone in my life. I'm that friend, who replies to your letters fairly quickly and will use cutesy stationary whenever they get the chance. My favorite stationary to receive as gifts are these letter packs, which I'm running low on right now...I just like how they come with everything and it makes matching stationary so easy!

My friends know how much I like stationary, so they'll always give me little notepads or notebooks. I used to be really into Rilakkuma stationary, so I have mostly notepads with pudgy, adorable, Japanese bears on them, but it's alright. No one seems to dislike Rilakkuma right?

I really like these larger note pads that come with five to eight different patterns inside. The problem with me is I get bored using the same stationary, so I tend to get bored with the stationary before I run out. These notebooks solve that problem by having multiple patterns plus stickers. I wish the designer stationary wasn't so expensive. I'm willing to pay for nice stationary, but not over a hundred dollars...I would love to have the Lanvin set, especially since Alber Elbaz's designs are so whimsical and cute.

Here are some of my random stationary goods that don't really have a theme. Some fancy schmancy envelopes and my $1.89 envelope steal plus other various notepads. Since I love stationary so much, I want to share some of my collection with all of you, which is where the giveaway comes in.

You will be winning over 80 sheets of adorable stationary with characters like Rilakkuma, mamegoma, and Hello Kitty, plus so many more plus a cute envelope and a set of Hello Kitty paper bookmarks. Even if you don't like writing letters, you can use this stationary as decoration or for notes in class!

Rules:

You must be a public follower of this blog. To follow this blog, just click on the bar on the right that says "Join this Site" under "MY SECRET LOVERS." This will get you one entry.

To enter leave a comment to this post with the following:
1.) Your name:
2.) Your email:
3.) Additional entry for people that blog about this giveaway. Please leave a separate comment with a link of you sharing this giveaway.

This giveaway ends two weeks from now on June 16th and is open to anybody in the world. The winner will be announced on my blog plus emailed from my old business email to ask for their address. You must respond within a week otherwise a new winner will be chosen. The winner will be chosen using Random.org. Good luck everyone! And thank you for joining my first giveaway!

Rip Rip is Kind of Liking College

Mood: Worried
Playing:Daydream-One Night Only
Yay, for a real post! Hopefully, you will like this, since I skimped on my homework quality to do this. I'm also skimping on my History Day and Craft Fair work to do this, so you better like this! Haha, sorry for trying to guilt you into liking this post!

Rip Rip was so happy to get a visit from Pluck Pluck, his Mini Me, over the weekend.

Rip Rip immediately put Pluck Pluck to work cleaning my brother's and my brother's roommates' dishes! How dare they put these two cuties to work! Don't you love how their dishes are the throw away kind, but they keep on reusing them? Yay, for saving money!

Here the two of them are sitting upon the cereal and soda stack. When I go to college, I hope I don't drink that much soda! Mostly because soda makes me feel rather ill...

While Rip Rip was showing Pluck Pluck around the dorm room, they stumbled past this antique-looking Chinese lamp.

You might remember how Rip Rip enjoyed playing the guitar(click here, if you don't!), but he is now trying to learn how to play the drums!

Rip Rip went and visited the hotel I was staying at and loved how beautiful the marina looked. He used to love boating, until his motion sickness started to act up...

A little bit before the trip to San Francisco and Berkeley, Rip Rip took part in a political rally. You can see the police keeping him out!

By the way, Starry Eyed Bowtique and Hawaii Kawaii are hosting a giveaway with super Harajuku bows as the prize. You ought to go check it out and enter! If you're interested in it, click here! Also, Rebecca showed me this website called LOOKBOOK and I really enjoy looking at the styles, especially Nigel L's photos.

Scott Pilgrim and Tons of Desserts

Mood: Relieved
Playing: Nothing Currently
Yesterday, I went to go see Scott Pilgrim VS the World with Alexandra, Rebecca, and Rebecca's friend, Erica. This was my first time meeting Erica and Alexandra met Erica and Rebecca for the first time too! Our group worked out surprisingly well. We started off the day with lunch and Pinkberry! We got an extra large plain yogurt with milk chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, raspberries, and strawberries to share! Here are some pictures of it.

Doesn't it look super yummy? The plain yogurt had a lemon-y flavor to it, which tasted surprisingly good! We sampled all the flavors and none of them had much flavor, so we got plain, since it was the cheapest.

We were running out of time and we still had like half the container left. We grabbed a top for it and shoved it into Rebecca's purse, that way we could bring it into the theater. Since we were sitting in a row of four, we put half the yogurt in the top, so it would be easier to share.

Look at the theater! It's so empty! We were the only ones in the theater for awhile, but then five other people joined us. I thought Scott Pilgrim was supposed to be super popular. This was my first Michael Cera movie and I really liked him. He was so awkward that it was funny.

Later on, Alexandra told me how she had never had a funnel cake before, so Erica bought one for Alexandra, Erica, and me to eat. Alexandra chose raspberry topping. Turns out she love raspberries. We almost got a caramel apple to share that day, but we decided we had enough desserts for the moment...

By the way, Drop Dead Cute is having a super cute giveaway and I think you should go and enter. I'm not sure whether you have to be a follower or not...

Megumi's Day at the Pool

Mood: Anxious
Playing: Konstantine-Something Corporate
I took Megumi to the pool recently, just because I felt like it. Here are the pictures from the day.

Megumi was getting a tan, while drinking some of her favorite apple flavored soda. That button must give her a terrible tan line...

Megumi is such a little piggy. She decided a drink wasn't enough and had to go get chips to munch on! What a piggy...I never noticed how stubby her legs look, until I looked at this picture...

The sun got to be too much, so she moved into the shade. It took me awhile to get her to sit up straight. I'm starting to wonder how much food she brought with her. What a piggy...Tsk tsk tsk!

I'm entering Melludee's giveaway and I really hope I win! Wish me the best of luck!