(HER ●) @ Don Quijote (aka DONKI, a discount chain store where you can find anything) in Yokohama, I found half of the 2nd floor full of FAKE EYELASHES. Lovely! SUGOI! I have been wearing fake eyelashes since 6th grade. I used to have trouble finding the best ones since there weren't many companies making them, but now I see very high competition! Through my 9-10 years of experience with fake lashes I have learnt that the key to beautiful looking fake eyelashes is the GLUE.
Japanese fake lashes have a thick base (where the fake hair starts) so it tends to take time for the lashes to get flexible so that it fits the shape of your eye (I think Japanese lashes have a thick base just for better quality. I used to be able to use a pair of Japanese lashes for 6 months). Thick bases are good for quality, but sometimes the lashes get too heavy, or the base starts hurting your eyelid. The lashes I've bought in the US tend to have a thinner base making it flexible and easier for use, but of course they don't last long as long. Fake eyelashes are extremely popular now in Japan from various age groups (even 50+ year olds!) due to the great variety and types they sell. They are also easily accessible since even pharmacies and convenience stores sell them! The cheapest fake eye lashes you can find is probably at Donki, where 1 pair is only 99 YEN (1USD). They also have packs of several lashes for a great price too!
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(HER ●) We decided to go to Zushi beach. A beach very close to Kamakura Yuigahama beach! ...Not just a normal trip though....An ultra budget trip. As you can see we have a new category now, "Japan With a Budget". Train to Zushi station from Yokohama station and back : 660 YEN each Drinks and snacks at the pharmacy/supermarket in the picture below: 450 YEN for the both of us (1 canned drink, 1 two liter bottle of Pocari Sweat, icecream and 1 bag of cheese snacks.) Only 885 YEN each! Zushi beach turned out to be a nicer beach compared to the one in Kamakura. Nicer sand and nicer water. The area near the beach had very interesting cafes, restaurants, and beautiful traditional Japanese shops. The reason why we decided to go to Zushi instead of Kamakura is because Zushi beach was known to be calm and quiet a couple of years ago. Today, the whole beach has transformed to a party scene. Music was playing loud at every beach house, people were shouting and screaming and people my age were partying like crazy. What happened to the old Zushi beach?! I guess I have to go all the way to Okinawa to have that relaxing and soothing time at the beach! Okinawa Beach below.
Below is a song by Moriyama Naotarou, a famous Japanese singer singing "Hana" (flower). Japan has many cute and stylish iPhone covers! In Boston I see that the iPhone covers are more concentrated on durability. Most of these cute and stylish iPhone covers sold in Japan are less durable. Yes, Boston sells similar types of covers but I find the quality to be very poor (you can see the glue that they used to stick on the stones) and despite the quality looking poor, they are usually quite pricey compared to Japanese ones I usually find. This cover I bought was only 1,900YEN (20USD)! They offer a great variety of colours and design everywhere in Tokyo/Yokohama for different kinds of phones.
The 1-day-all-you-can-ride-tokyo-metro pass is definitely worth paying 710YEN for. It can absolutely take you ANYWHERE in Tokyo. Not only anywhere but also very quickly. We found ourselves jumping into the train once we got to the platform every time. No wait time! You can purchase these passes on the subway ticket machines or from an employee.
(Her)●Ramen (noodle) museum. You can experience different bowls of ramen from famous restaurants in a showa period environment. You can get in the museum for only 300 yen (like $3.80) and enjoy various bowls at your own expense. They offer mini ramen bowls for those who want to get a taste of many bowls only for 500 - 600 yen. Yum! We ended up getting quite full with one mini bowl but forced a second mini bowl - because you just can't resist it! Those with an appetite (the boys in our group) could have probably had another mini bowl though. Yum! You can also get a yearly pass so you can enjoy the museum for lunch if you work nearby. Nice idea!
The typical soups that Japanese ramen stores usually offer are tonkotsu (pig bone) soup, shoyu (soy sauce) soup, shio (salt) soup, and miso soup! Different regions in Japan have different specialities when it comes to ramen. For example, Hokkaido is known for their miso ramen. It will be fun to go around various cities in Japan to taste the differences! By the way, my favorite soup is miso. I love thick and fatty soups! Popular ramen shops usually have queues lasting for hours every lunch or dinner. I've personally never lined up to eat ramen because I hate queues but I bet it's worth it! I wonder where the best place to eat ramen is in Yokohama... Will investigate and update you all later! Watching "NEWS ZERO" - a news show on NTV( http://www.ntv.co.jp/zero/ ). News channels still show the effects of the tsunami which hit back in March. Parents in the severely affected areas of Japan worry about their children as they seem to have been traumatized by the tsunami. Children play "Tsunami" with their small cars as they vividly remember the time when the tsunami devastated their entire town. Most children also have lost the opportunity to go to school as their school was destroyed. Many of those who stayed in the severely affected areas have lost their closest friends as most families chose to move to different prefectures in Japan. Preschools seem to be working hard to get those children back together as going to school seems help give children hope. According to NEWS ZERO, even parents in Tokyo are still worried about the radioactivity in the air, in the soil, and in the water. One of the parents being interviewed said that when she calls the radiation information center all they say is that there is no need to worry. Who knows if that is 100% true? They set up a group for parents in Tokyo who have the same concerns and decided to act upon the radioactivity that still remain in the city. They have been trying to get rid of the radiation by washing it away with water (for radiation that remains on the concrete). They have also tried to replace the surface soil (which contains high radiation) with the soil that lies underneath to prevent children from getting affected. Overall, they have seen great improvement with the levels of radioactivity - in Fukushima prefecture they saw the radioactivity levels decreased by 75%. They really are trying hard to get back the comfortable lifestyle they had. On a happier note, Japan has very reasonably priced and great quality makeup everywhere! I usually go to a pharmacy or Don Quijote which is a discount chain store. From the left, lip gloss/stick, eye shadow, eye liner, mirror, and top coat for nails - All of this for only 6,500 yen! ($80 with today's rate) First off - the liquid eyeliner. The line comes out black as charcoal. I usually use Clinique's cream eye liner since it never comes off (even when I was snorkeling and swimming in Okinawa), but this eye liner made me change my mind. To be honest, I get lazy sometimes with the brush that comes with the cream eye liner. I forget to wipe it as I am in a hurry, it hardens up and it gets harder to use. This eyeliner comes out black-BLACK the moment it touches my skin, and it just does not come off! You may think then it must be hard to remove? No! hot water that is hotter than 40 celsius will remove this eye liner easily. You don't even need eye make up remover...and it only costs 1,500 yen ($19 at rate now). Lastly, the top coat for nails. Gel nails are very popular here in Japan right now (I think they call it Shellac in the US?). The shiny plumpness is just adorable to have on your nails (The photo shows an example of gel nail here in Japan). It makes your nail art look brand new for weeks on, and most of all, it doesn't wear off like normal manicure! Getting your nails done could become pricy here in Japan. I remember paying more than $150 once just for gel nails + design once. So what if I feel like getting simple gel nails myself at home? For only 900 yen ($11 at today's rate), you can get a gel nail top coat which really turns your nails beautiful! All you have to do is colour your nails yourself, and use this as a top coat. It dries very fast! In a few seconds after applying the top coat, you will be able to touch your nail and feel the plump gel. I always fail doing my nails at home since I start touching things while my nails are not completely dry. This top coat has changed my life! I took a shower few minutes after application and my nails came out completely fine :) (check out the pic for the result) By the way, did you know Groupon doesn't have a good reputation here in Japan anymore? ●When he and I first landed here in Japan at Narita airport, the first thing we realized was the great effort in conserving energy. At terminal one of Narita airport they closed off one of the two exit gates resulting in half of the arriving section of the airport to be dark and closed off. It seemed odd looking at those efforts for me since I had never in my life seen Narita airport dark as I saw.
My mother was warning me how hot Japan is - even in stores and malls due to the energy conservation efforts (they are trying to set the AC temperature to 27 Celsius or 28 celsius when normally they set it to 23 celsius to 24 Celsius or even colder!). I was afraid that he was going to have go experience a hot summer wherever he went in Japan, but the stores and malls are not deadly hot, it is still nice and cool, thank god. large malls are just setting the temperature higher in large public areas in the mall. In addition, Yokohama and Tokyo are every cool right now due to the typhoon that is passing by :) Other than that, whenever we go to stations, malls, parks, etc, we see that every other light in large hall ways are turned off, big signs that usually are lit very brightly are off, which results in everything in Yokohama and Tokyo to be slightly darker. I personally like it this way, I always thought that the busy areas if Tokyo (e.g. Ginza, Shibuya) and Yokohama (Yokohama station area) are always just too BRIGHT!!!! So what are the negatives of these energy conservation efforts? People are given warnings that they really have to be careful of heat strokes since the number of deaths resulting from heat strokes is going up, and crime seems to be going up (specifically mugging) around residential areas which are now darker than usual in the night. What are the benefits of these efforts? First off, obviously the fact that we are able to avoid blackouts due to the lack of energy from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Other than that, I think there are many business opportunities that open up. I see many products being sold which focus on cooling people down. For example, large pads which contain cooling gel inside which you lay on and help you keep cool throughout the night (it also comes with a pillow version), neck towels which are made out of special material that soaks water and in turn makes it ice cold. People wrap these around their necks. We have also seen clothing which keeps you cool and dry (specifically from UNIQLO). On TV, they constantly show us how we can conserve energy and other tricks on how to stay cool with a higher AC temperature setting.(Japanese TV is extremely informative on EVERY channel, we will expand more on this later) Ive never seen people in Japan so conscious about conserving and I feel like people and large businesses are starting to realize how important energy is for us. Large businesses are also promoting the fact that they are conserving as much energy as they can through TV commercials and the Internet. I guess it is a great chance for them to improve their image!:) So how would you conserve energy? Few days ago it was announced that 6 cows which were radioactive were sent out to restaurants and supermarkets (4 times more than average). Now they think that it was 400+ cows. The reason why these cows were more radioactive than usual is because the farmers fed them grass that had been contaminated with radiation. Workers from Fukushima who work to supply the meat are saying on TV that they are trying their best to check for meat with high radiation, but of course this is hard since they need the equipment which is very expensive. BBQ restaurant owners were crying as they felt guilty for supplying meat to their customers which was contaminated (they were also angry because they did not know that it was radioactive meat until now).
We will be careful when eating domestic meat now, though in Japan it is typical to avoid American meat (due to the mad cow disease) and domestic beef is considered to be delicious and high quality. As I hear news about radiation, I began to worry about the radiation in the air. The amount of radiation in the air seems to be stabalizing (not Fukushima area but the other areas). I checked this website : http://atmc.jp/. It seems like the average in Kanagawa prefecture is usually between 0.035μSv/h to 0.069μSv/h. In Tokyo, the numbers are similar. Now, you can see the radiation levels around the world if we go here. When the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was having trouble back in March, Tokyo/Kanagawa recorded radiation levels that were as high as New York's normal radiation level (like 1.0 to 2.0) and people were panicking. Should I be worried about natural US radiation levels in the air? |