teaware.

I'll just put it out there so there's no confusion:

I really, really like tea.

I like to try different types of tea, I like high teas/tea parties/afternoon teas, I like tea sets.

Recently, a family friend inherited a whole lot of tea cups and saucers from her grandmother, who had sadly passed on a few years ago. Our friend didn't have much need for all those cups and things, so she kindly gifted them to me. Thus began my collection of teaware.

At the moment, it's a humble collection. I haven't really got the time or money to acquire such items. Still, I love every piece to bits. Here are a few...

Tea-for-one with pink polka-dots, a birthday gift from a family friend a couple of years ago. It's by far the one I use most often for its size and convenience. Because I'm lazy like that. It was also my first tea-for-one set.

Royal Albert cup and saucer, a birthday gift from a friend last year. The poor guy has never seen me in person without a wig on, yet he was nice enough to get me this for my birthday.

Tea-for-one with blue polka dots. A gift from my waifu. I don't think he realised how expensive it was going to be before he bought it. *_* The saucer is also gigantic and quite heavy, in case you couldn't tell. So more often than not, I will just leave it in the cupboard and use just the pot and cup...

Salisbury Crown China 3 piece set from the grandmother's collection. This photo really doesn't do it much justice - the design is so lovely.

Colclough 3 piece set. Bought this one from the Tea Room stand at the craft market that's on in Wellington every Saturday. I'm in love with the combination of gold and pastel pink.

baby, i'm not a monster.

I've been getting into BigBang in a big way recently. At midnight today they released a new song, Monster.

Somehow I expected the song to be really average, since everyone was making such a big fuss about it saying how wonderful it would be etc. As it happens, I was right and the song is not as mindblowing as the hype made it out to be. Don't get me wrong though - it's a nice song. When I showed it to my younger brother, who is the resident kpop expert in our family, he said 'it sounds like 2PM'. And he has a point. It's that average.

All that aside, the MV is wonderful. It's definitely my type of MV. You simply must watch it!

Taeyang's hair made me giggle, but other than that I loved their costumes and the general feel of this video. And T.O.P's hat+scarf ensemble reminded me of Toshiya's costume in Obscure - that's always a plus.

makeup.

I tried a different way of applying eye makeup. :D

Now, I don't consider myself at all good with applying makeup - I haven't even found a foundation that suits my skin colour - but I do like to play around with it. I thought perhaps I'd go for a 'cute' kind of look, because I don't think I've been thought of as 'cute' for a long time. xD 

Of course, the level of cuteness is subjective, but for someone whose makeup skill is 0/10, I think I did okay.

Really I just wanted an excuse to pretty myself up and try on the dress I bought from Bodyline whilst on my travels. Alas my lack of camera/photographer/adequate lighting makes for really crappy shots, but hey, selca can hardly be considered art anyway, right?

That pic up there. ^ I gave it my best shot, I really did.

Sadly cuteness is not something that comes naturally to me. However, looking dorky, creepy or spaced out...do.

Maybe one day when I perfect my technique I can start doing tutorials and things, but until then you can have lots of pics of my ugly mug. :3

Oh, and I did these glasses myself. Got a pair of old 3D glasses I know I'll never use again (call me old-fashioned, but I can't stand 3D movies) and popped the lenses out. Cover with glue and sprinkle a bag of seed beads over it, and voila! A funky new pair of glasses to (maybe) wear (someday).

Maybe I'll try adding other things next time, like bigger beads or other ornaments.

singapore.

I really do wonder if the Singapore leg of my journey is worth writing about. Really, I did nothing much in particular except eat and shop (like a real Singaporean, minus the working/studying-your-ass-off thing). So here's a bunch of photos I took so you can see just what I ate.

akihabara.

That's Akihabara station. I know it's not obvious, but that's what it is.

This one deserves a whole post to itself. We probably spent more time here than any other place in Tokyo. The bulk of the stuff I brought back home was also stuff I either bought from a store in Akiba or won from a UFO catcher or Gashapon machine. 

Disneyland.

Does every child dream of going to Disneyland? I certainly did. Of the children I knew, perhaps I was one of the lucky ones. This was my third time visiting Disneyland, and my second time visiting the one in Tokyo in particular.

Potato was a compulsory travel companion, obviously.

asakusa, ginza, odaiba.

Night view of Tokyo from Odaiba

These were three locations I had not visited on my previous trips to Japan. Waifu and I went to Ginza mostly to see how many things were out of our reach. I wasn't remorseful about it though - I don't think I have much use for a Hermes scarf that costs even more than my laptop does.

shibuya, meiji-jingu, harajuku.

Although my waifu is somewhat averse to shopping for girly things, he indulged me and took me shopping in Harajuku and Shibuya. Of course, we also took a quiet walk around Yoyogi park (albeit a very small part of it) and Meiji-jingu.

yanaka etc.

During my time in Tokyo, I stayed at Annex Katsutaro Ryokan in Yanaka. It's roughly a ten-minute stroll from Nippori station and is close to pretty much whatever basic stuff a tourist needs - combinis, small cafes/eateries and souvenir shops. It was decently priced too; every other time I've visited Japan, I stayed at the Hilton in Shinjuku, and though the ryokan didn't have the same level of pomp, the level of comfort was on par. The staff speak good English too, which saved me from utilising my terrible Japanese.
                                                                             

on the (rail)road and in the sky.

This trip was officially my first self-funded trip, where I did not travel with any of my family members. It was a pretty scary thing, but there's nothing like travelling alone to make you feel like a grown up. Especially since I always feel like a child no matter what I do.