In shopping coma…

My dear, where do I start.

Today I got to see my lovely Japanese friend, who lived and studied for 2 years in Germany, again. She left Germany in summer last year, so we hadn’t seen each other for half a year. I was so happy to see her again and she was so sweet and took me to the city. Because I was clever (correction: I thought I was) to only bring one old pair of shoes to Japan, so that I can throw them away and buy many Japanese shoes and still have enough space in my suitcase – I’m in the need for new ones, because my old ones are nearly broken >.< (I actually do have 2 more pairs, but they are only for hot sumer days). So finding shoes was the main aim of our shopping trip. And no, I didn’t buy any. It is quite hard to find shoes here that 1. don’t have at least a 15cm heel and plateau, 2. are not overpriced (the cheapest ones I found were around 50€), 3. the sizes seem way smaller compared to Germany (I do wear size 37 in Germany, which is considered small-normal), but most of the shoes were either too small or slim for me. But enough about shoes.

We went to so many shops, malls and districts that I completely lost orientation. It was amazing and you could possibly spend all the money you earn in a lifetime in one afternoon here. Japan really is, as the prejudice says, a paradise for shopping. Like my friend said, “Everything is tempting. The shops really know how to catch you. Everything looks delicious, fancy, expensive, luxury, Japanese, cute, breathtaking, … I could go on and on.

Enough text – now here are some pictures – everybody loves pictures, right? 🙂

 They do sale Hello Kitty in Kimono on postcards! 😀 But what would be Japan without Kittychan…

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Because Japanese restaurants often provide a plastic version of the food they serve, you can buy some very authentic looking fake-foods. I found this tangerine extraordinary good, it looks very realistic to me. And with 1.600¥, 12,30€ pricey enough. The Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) beneath appears highly realistic as well.

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There are then many many food shops/stands, and everything looks so fancy, colorful, unfamiliar and delicious.

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Ok, maybe not always. This one is a チョコレートコロッケ. It also says: “一度食べてみたい” which means “You have to try it at least once”. So this チョコレートコロッケ means ‘Chocolate croquette’. And that means potatoes with chocolate, and then… it’s fried. Who told me that Japanese cuisine is the healthiest one on earth? 😉 😀 Didn’t try it though so I won’t be judging it. If you tried it, let me know! If you didn’t, you can still let me know, too! 😉

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Again – I won’t be judging as I didn’t eat. But it seems to be a baby octopus with a quail egg inside his head… 1 for 2,70€. Do I need to say anything more?

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Later my friend wanted to show me her favorite café. Do you see the line? People (including us) waited more than 20 minutes just to get seated at “the best Matcha restaurant in Kyoto”. It actually had 2 floors but still people had to wait. Apparently 20 minutes are nothing, you often have to wait much longer as my friend told me. So the expectations were high…

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This is what I ordered. 1.102¥ equals about 8,50€, but consider that you always get tea for free so you don’t have to pay for your drinks. As you can see, this parfait contains a huge variety of ingredients. For westerners they might seem strange or unfamiliar, because chestnuts and sans are considered savory. But if you ever tried some of these (nor only Japanese, many Asian cuisines create desserts of ‘savory’ ingredients), you’d know that it is absolutely tasty. 

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And here it is. Doesn’t it look absolutely amazing? I mean seriously. Have you ever seen a better dessert?

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This pretty Kit-Kat creation was in one of the department stores. You can actually buy all kinds of Kit-Kat there, such as Matcha, Sakura (Cherry Blossom) and many more. 

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Of course you have to try the famous vending machines for drinks, the 飲み物の自動販売機　(のみもののじどうはんばいき, nomi-mono-no-jidou-han-bai-ki) (und da sagt noch einmal einer, deutsche Wörter wären lang!). Pretty self-explanatory but very high tech, don’t you think? As you see, I pressed the button for some ‘Aqua’ looking stuff, thinking I was getting some water. Nope, it was an isotonic sports drink 😀 anyhow… still got something to drink!

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I sneakily took a photo in the bus on my way home. Unfortunately you can’t see a lot though. But the driver (as all drivers in Japan do) wears very chic white gloves. People can enter the bus and pay when they go out. Because it doesn’t matter how long you ride the bus, you will always put 230¥, 1,80€ into a machine when you get out. And because the streets in Kyôto are all arranged straight it is pretty comfortable as the bus doesn’t shake a lot. I really enjoyed the bus ride! 

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People who know me are aware of my love to stationery. Especially when it is cute and special. So I had to buy a few things. There will surely accumulate many more in the next months… 😉

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I have actually never seen a ‘marking tape’ like this before. It reminds me of the Tip-ex, a marker that whitens out written mistakes. But instead of whitening them out, you can decorate your notes with pretty designs!

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Gotta buy some lashes when you are in Japan! Some are way too long, and even more are way too short. First-world-problem! Still found some good looking ones.

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Please, my dearest reader, tell me how you like my blog so far. Do you like the content? Would you like to see more of something in particular? Just let me know! 〜

I’ve been to Japan for not even 3 days and I already feel like I have never been somewhere else. Even though everything is different and fascinating, there are a lot of positive things and so much to learn!