Little Stories 212 : Nice Surprise + Tokyo Guide

I'm passing the Tokyo Guide to people who are planning on visiting Tokyo city. As you can see in the tab on the right with the list of next Tokiyo Hunters. Because I know I won't be visiting the city  again any time soon so I thought that I should make the book useful for others as well. 

You can also get your copy here, she just reprinted it and currently taking orders.

So, last month, Kiwa contacted me and said she wanted to borrow the book. *I know her from her awesome blog. It was a last-minute meeting, but we managed to meet up at the train station after I ran at the gym. It was an awkward meeting - as always, I didn't plan on meeting some strangers at first. But she was leaving soon so we had to meet up.

She was in Japan for 18 days, and I was happily stalking her Ig for those few weeks during her travel. Even though she didn't post as much as I expect her too >.< 

Several days ago, I received a medium sized pink-polkadots envelope. I thought it was the book that I ordered and I was wrong because it was my Tokyo Guide and some little omiyage from her as well ! I cried with joy and happiness, showing all the nice little things to Af. I had to wait for the weekend to get my gears up and take some photos and put it up here because I love them so :

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There are some cute-cute mini stickers, a mix of washi tapes,

postcard, and a personally written letter :

I didn't expect for anything and it was such a nice surprise.

Thanks Kiwa, I hope you had a nice fun time at Japan and will post updates on your blog again ! >.<

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Oh yes, I also asked her to put a tiny sticker on the list of places that she managed to go from the Tokyo Guide. So it looked so cute now. Mine is the cute rabbit and hers is the black cat. I hope the next Tokyo hunters will participate in this tiny quest as well ! :D

Little Stories 211 : Toilet

School holiday has started. 

We share our office with a company that does trainings and workshops. Since it is a school holiday, they started having coding and fun computer classes for the kids around age 7 - 12. So we've been having hyperactive kids everyday. Ha. 

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I was having stomachache since the morning and been visiting the toilet several times. During my third visit, there were 2 girls entered the toilet with me. So I chose the first toilet and one of them chose another one. They were still chatting and I kept silent, listening to their conversation.

"Do you know that grown-ups can take a really long time in the toilet?", one girl shouted right in front of my door.

"She can hear you, you know", the one in the toilet replied.

"Yeap, I know".

=.= 

 *So it reminds me of this.

 

Run : 2015 Running Journey

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Running is still the only active outdoor activity that I do, so I'm keeping track of my progress throughout the year. There are several things that I managed to achieve :

• Running minimum of 200 km in a year
• Increase my running distance

There are 3 phases of running in my 2015 :

• 3 - 5 km : during the early half of 2015
• 5 - 7 km : in October 2015
• 7 - 10 km : in November 2015

Things I learned from the running activities :

• There will be a point when my body starts to feel nothing after working out. What I had to do is either increase my pace, increase my running distance or variation of running styles. What works for me during my weekly running routine are increasing the distance and running variations. I started with 3-5 km in each run, 5-7 km for the whole month of October and started my 7-10 km in each run in November. 
• It's always about the mind and body, when you have 1 goal in your mind you need to stick with it until you achieve it. Your body will adapt to it if you can turn it into a routine. Then you can start on a new goal afterwards. One step a time :)
• I can't increase my running pace without getting headaches afterwards, so I had to cross that one out at this moment.
• What I do in my 7 - 10 km? I usually change my pace from 5.5 (jogging) and 7.0 (running) every 500 meter. That way, my body won't adapt too quickly with the constant pace. Sometimes I do sprint too, but it's not my favorite :|
• Running on a treadmill can be boring, especially when I run for 10 km (around 1 hour 30 mins). I need to find things to distract my boredom. What I tried : experimenting with running pace and how long I took to recover from it.
• I crave a lot and I am constantly hungry. It's supposed to be normal, because I started running almost daily. I need to remind myself to eat healthy stuffs all the time and this is not easy. I am still struggling with this issue.
• Don't think, just go. Bring your running clothes to work every day. 
• I ran more than 100 km since I bought the Groupon coupon to the gym. The money spent on paying for the gym is my main motivation for now. I realized that running events costs too much lately and it is no longer worth it. Comparison : RM 59 for unlimited run in the gym and RM 60 for 1 time 10km event. I am cheap, so I chose the unlimited run every week.

• I still love running, after years of it. ♥

And I live to the idea of running for myself, a dedication of constant efforts in living my live to the fullest, one step at a time : 

"All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.” H.Murakami

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Little Stories 210 : Awan's New Enemy Part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 :

It's been almost a month after we launched the Plan B on Awan *using Frontline Combo Spot - On. I can't believe it! I combed Awan several times and never found any cat fleas. We didn't receive any unwanted random bites on our body. It actually worked!

So I highly recommend it! 

Again, it is super expensive - RM 65.70 for 3 pipettes in a box and it needs to be used once a month. We just started our first month and saw huge improvement :D I will continue this as well to avoid any future infestation :

• Weekly vakuum
• Daily sticker scroller on bed sheets and pillows *you can buy the sticker sheets in Daiso
• Showering Awan with Machiko shampoo every 2-3 weeks

This was yesterday.

See how all her nails were trying to grab something, anything. She refused to be showered and it is still one of the toughest thing to do, which is why Azmi is still the one in charge of it :D

I gave her some wet foods and cat treats afterwards ♥ ♥

Now she smells like all flowers and nice herbs ♥

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Illustration : Customized my Phone Casing

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I'm still using my 4S, it's been 3-4 years *I lost count. It's really hard to find the casing nowadays, I used to buy the clear casing from Daiso but even Daiso stops selling it now :( So I searched for a local custom-made casing and sent my Kuroneko illustration to be printed on the 4S casing. I found one! 

Here it is :

It costed around RM 59 for the iPhone 4S phone casing customization. 

Honestly I'm not really satisfied :

• Thin lines on the illustration seem a bit blurry, so I concluded that it is not a high-quality printing
• They mentioned that they will send me the final design before they print it on the phone case, but I didn't receive or approve anything. Just a poslaju notice stuck on my door several days later.
• There are whitish unfinished printing on each curve side *like in the picture below, including the end side that can be seen front the front part of the phone 

I'm a bit disappointed because it costs RM 59 for a black & white printing, and the finishing is not even nice. It's decent to be seen from afar, but not so in detail. I thought I might like it and I probably can sell it in my Etsy later, but I think I'll keep this just for myself. It's not worth the price :)

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Remember my air plant from MAHA2014 ? 

Well, it still lives in the glass ball next to our kitchen window. The easiest plant to keep because it only needs to be watered once a week. I put it in the water for 5 minutes and it will bloom beautifully. I will go to the next MAHA next year to find more air plants. 

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Tokiyo Trip 10 : Our 8-days Budget Trip to Tokyo, Japan

We managed to spend RM 1,000 per person while we were 8 days in Tokyo, Japan. 

I brought extra of RM 1,000 while AF brought RM 500 for our back-up money in-case there's an emergency. We put aside these money in a secure place before our trip. The plan was to stick to RM 1,000 in a week, just to experiment whether it is possible to survive that long in the so-called "one of the most expensive city".

Note : During our trip, the rate was about RM 1,000 = 27,000 - 28,000 yen. So that means we can use up to 4,000 yen per day while we were there. In our plan, every extra money that we didn't use for the day will be put aside and kept for later.

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Pre-Trip :

The return Airasia flight ticket + insurance + dinner + baggages ( RM 900 per person + ) bought 7 months before the trip and for the accommodation, we rented a studio apartment in the outskirt of the town in Asaka ( RM 440 per person - 7 days 6 nights ), we booked 2 months before the trip. So this happened before of the inflation. Thank God for that.

Why I exclude the return flight ticket and accommodation ?

Because it was already planned, booked and paid many months before the trip. And usually flight tickets and places to live depend entirely on your preferences and several aspects to consider : whether you want insurance or not, extra foods, staying with partners or groups or solo, etc.

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Itinerary

• Day 1 : Arrival late at night - Slept at the Haneda Airport
• Day 2 : Marunouchi, Airbnb Apt. in Asaka
• Day 3 : Shinjuku
• Day 4 : Harajuku, Shibuya 
• Day 5 : Ikebukuro
• Day 6 : Mitaka, Kichijyoji 
• Day 7 : Ueno Zoo, Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo Skytree
• Day 8 : Akihabara, plane back home at night

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Roughly, these were the money spent while we were there :

Train & Subway Rides : Pasmo : 6, 000 yen ( RM 210 +/-) and Metro : 1,500 yen ( RM 53 +/- )
Total : 9,000 yen ( RM 316 +/-) 

Parking for the bicycle : Total : 1, 700 yen ( RM 30 +/- ) 

The Foods : Total : 6,250 yen ( RM 220 +/- per person ) 

Souvenirs : Total : 10,000 yen ( RM 300+/- )
Consists of all Ghibli Studio items, magazines, and stickers :D 

Others : 1,050 yen ( RM 37 +/- )
Like the zoo, the monorail, gatcha-pon, etc.

I wrote down almost all the things that we bought and spent money on. There were some money used for little things that I might forgot to take note. But what I'm sure of is, I managed to spend every yen that I brought for the trip - without touching the back-up money. I remember our last 200 yen was spent on the gatcha-pon at the airport :D 

So, it is possible to survive with 28,000 yen ( RM 1,000 ) in a week in Tokyo :D

It all depends on if you want to stay far from the city or not, share room/dorms with people, eat home-made foods and ready-made onigiris everyday and can stop yourself from buying things that you don't actually need, avoid overpriced tourist attractions.

We spent quite a lot on the travelling part because we stayed in Asaka, Saitama, we also visited some far places from the main city like Kichijyoji, Tokyo Skytree, and the return train tickets to the Haneda Airport. Plus, we decided to rent the whole studio apartment for ourselves, equipped with our own personal bicycle. So yes, if it's on your budget, you might want to stretch some parts here and there for the things that you want to try, yeah :) Plus, the whole shopping spree at Ghibli's was worth it.

Conclusion - per person ( 8 days Trip ) :

Return Flight Ticket = RM 900+
Apartment = RM 440+
Survive in Tokyo = RM 1,000 

Total = Around RM 2,500 +/-

8 days trip in Tokyo felt too short for both of us. We will come again soon. I really want to try the unlimited 14-days JRpass one day, to explore the whole Japan by the bullet-train. Soon sooooon :D

Note : I updated all the links to travel, places and events here.

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Our next trip is on April 2016, 5 days trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Work Related : Good bye

I've been working in Damansara for 2 years of my life. 

I didn't even wait for the huge MRT station in front of the office to finish. I'll miss the long hours spent in the public transports - reading book of the day, I'll miss those food stalls alongside of the road and lunches with Ally and Nicole, I'll miss those familiar faces, the guards, the cleaners, the makciks, random coffees, and the silence.

I took back home one of my pet plants that I left at TRP. The Philodendron, it used to have 3 leaves when I first started taking care of it. It grew to 12 leaves now :)  I left Pothos, because Mandy said she wants to take care of it. I really hope they will try to keep it alive. It grows so fast and it might need some trimming or bigger vase and more zeolites.    

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On my last day of working, I went down to have my final lunch with my ex-colleagues. We already planned for pizza the day before. Even though we did farewell lunch before when I left TRP a month ago, I still wanted my final lunch in Damansara to be with them :D 

The atmosphere was good, the pizza was good, the timing was good, everything was good. I'll miss you guys, that for sure. Thank you so much ♥

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PS : Starting a new job today :F

Event : Komik Kon 2015

It was unplanned. Something I decided we should go for the weekend. I've been spending time at home alone for a week while everyone went to work, so I wanted to go out with Af. The event wasn't so far from our house, so we just took a motor ride to Maeps, Serdang :D I love Maeps - I wrote about the place in my : Post Urbanscapes 2013 & MAHA 2014

It was a really hot afternoon and I almost had my headache attack if it wasn't for the not-so-long ride to the event. We arrived and went to the ticketing booth to see the price. It was RM 35 per person :o As someone who isn't really into cosplay, superheroes, figurines, toys and western comics, the ticket fees was expensive. But we were there already, and I wanted Af to meet Oren - as he mentioned in his Ig that he will be there. So we just went through with it :D

There were cosplayers *of course, a lot of toys and merchandizes, figurines and comics. I was searching for interesting zines and local comics/graphic novels that I might want. But I didn't found any. So I just bought stickers for my Touch&Go card to replace the old cover. We also watched the first round match of wrestling between 2 women, in 5 minutes, because it was awkward - people weren't cheering and we were all silent and awkward. Or maybe it was just me :|

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The highlight was of course, meeting Oren at his booth. We were both too awkward to try to greet and talk to him, so we spent sometime checking out his sketch book and the illustration that he was making at that time. At last, Af asked him whether if it was possible to draw both of us - the charge was RM 10 per person and he produced this :

T^T Maybe Oren didn't know how much it meant to both of us. We are both his kipas-susah-mati all this while. It was worth all the money spent for the event's ticket to just meet him and get his original illustration. I love it, we both love it. I framed it already :D

So my wall now consists of May Ann Licudine's original & printed illustration, Astronautboys super-nice illustration, Fadilah Karim's art-print, Ma's small original illustration and now Oren's illustration of us. All my favorite inspiring peoples. Waiting for a chance of Shaun Tan's and Craig Thompson's illustrations in the future :)

Little Things 209 : Survive without Makeups

There must be so many reasons for people who choose to wear makeups everyday to meet the world. I've thought about it often, and decided to just see it as the way people choose to wear their clothes, some simple, some grande, some fancy, some colourful, some people just plain and clean.

Honestly, for me I don't really like makeups :

1) partly because I'm still boyish at heart - I take it as man can appear as bare as they are and be honest with their appearances, so I want to do the same,

2) I'm comfortable with my flawed innocent nerdy face,

3) I still feel like there are thousands of unknown chemicals in those products,

4) I'm a noob. I don't know how to use it, 

5) I want people to know that this face that they are looking at, is the exact face when I'm at home, when I wake up, when I go places. That this is my face, and I don't need things to cover my natural flawed face.

I hardly use it. I don't even have it except for lipbalms. I survived my almost 29 years without the need of makeup and I decided to write this in case there are free-spirits people like me who wants to love their own natural look as they are and accept those flaws instead of covering it :) That it is okay to have tiny eyes or bushy eye-brows or flawed skin or eye-lashes like Snuffleupagus in the Sesame Streets.

Khaleesi from Game of Throne 

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If you are going to survive without makeup, you will at least need to have a clear healthy skin. So for the inner part, you still need to drink bottles of water, morning juices, eat fruits & veggies and also exercise. That's the basic part. Some people are born with flawless skin, and some people don't. Your part is finding ways to balance out those things :)

Oily skin :

Ma said that it is okay to have an oily face, *less tendency to have wrinkles, yeay! But then I hate it, so the must-have item with me all the time is the oil blotter sheets. I use it often, especially at work in the air-cond office. My favorite has always been the Clean & Clear Oil Control film - the one priced RM 9.90 for 60 sheets =.=  It is expensive *for me, but it works so well and I can't say no to it. I tried finding other alternative but I never found one that work like wonder as the one I'm using now. Oh well. But seriously, I used ALL THE TIME. 

Tips : Buy the promotion - Buy 1 free 1 packet.

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Exfoliate :
And because you are not using concealer and foundations, your skin can honestly tell you stuffs right-away. If you want your skin to look radiant and healthy, treat your skin with :

• Facial scrub every 2-3 days, you can DIY
• I also use peel-off mask once a week 
• Facial spa - if you have extra money, but I never tried one.

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Lips :

I use lip balm for the first base and coloured lip balm for the second layer. It doesn't really give colour to my lips, but that will do. Oh, I also exfoliate my lips once a week using wet towel while washing my face. 

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Scars :

I actually got monthly tiny pimples during 2 weeks before my period. I guess it would make me normal. And because all I get are tiny rashes and pimples, it is easier for my skin to blend in with the scars. Hardly anything prominent left as scars so I don't think I need to conceal anything using makeup. But my skin is definitely uneven and not flawless - and for me, that's okay. 

I also use Fair & Lovely sometimes, and I think that helps with the scars. This is also my only lotion or moisturizer that I approve on my face. I'm tired of experimenting with this skin care products and never really continue afterwards because I'm just too lazy. I know the importance of moisturizer and spf thingys but my skin is just too oily :F

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At the end of the day, you will be seeing that exact tiny slanted eyes, bushy eyebrows, eyebags and pimple-scarred skin at the mirror. And you won't feel ashamed because that is you, as you. 

PS : Plus, see when you get married, your husband will imprint the exact same pure look in and out every single day in his memory, with no lies, no expectation, just flaws as human not trying to be more than what's there on you. Mihmihmih. Thank you Af for accepting the jongger in me :D

Tokiyo Trip 9 : Things I bought during the Trip

As anyone who went to Japan would understand, there are wide ranges of every little things in Japan that we never knew we needed. Ha. The Japanese are really good in making things and almost anyone will fall into the trap of buying *even though I am not really a spender. 

So these are the things that I bought in Tokyo :

1. Magazines

I went to most bookstores to find magazines to take home to, because what they are selling here in Kinokuniya KLCC are really-really expensive. This is solely for research purposes because I've been pinning so many designs from Japan in my Pinterest and having the physical copy for my keeping might be good. What I like about their designing style is the clean-minimal look with nice subtle colour combos and light use of patterns and objects.

I bought Oz Trip Magazine (593 yen) and Hanako (600 yen).
I LOOOOOVE them.

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2. A New Planner

I've been using the Muji Planner 2015 the whole year. I got no strong reason to replace it except that the year will end in 2 month, so I might need a new planner after-all :D Alasan kan. So I've been searching high and low, I like what they have in the Loft Shibuya - wide ranges of planners and affordable *below 1,000 yen.

And I found a Totoro version planner at Ikebukuro, the cover is detachable so I can re-use it again. It was wayy pricier than other planners (1,800 yen) but oh well. I bought it nonetheless, not proud of myself but very happy afterwards. Still am.

It starts from Oct 2015 - Dec 2016 (15-months). Added with several pages of lined-pages, empty pages, detachable mini memo, address pages and Tokyo Railway map. Every pages with Totoro, hah hah. That's how I'm embracing my adulthood, by holding on to my childhood memories :D

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3. Hankerchief

I bought one from Ghibli for 250 yen with Totoro and Susuwatari and sakura flower printed on a small handkerchief. Another one, a Wataoru Hamamonyo's thick handkerchief from Tsutsumu Factory in Shibuya for 540 yen. I'll probably keep these two and never use it because these are just too cute to be used for sweats and watery nose.

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4. Badges and Lapel Pins

• I bought 2 Gotochi Dayan : Wachifield's badges for Tokyo & Saitama - to put on our backpack. These were bought at Kichijyoji after we walked pass the park from Ghibli Museum.
• I bought one random collectible badge from Ghibli shop for 250 yen at Ikebukuro. I opened it afterwards and realized that I got the 1986  'Castle in the Sky' version. Too bad it wasn't Totoro or Kiki.
• There was a huge vintage wooden drawers in the Ghibli shop in Tokyo Skytree. I was bundled with joy T^T These lapel pins are too cute, too nice, with such a great detailings - I want to buy just one because it costed 500 yen, too expensive for a lapel pin you see. So there were several that I personally liked, but I choose the one with innocent-looking Totoro.

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5. Stickers

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For me, things that they sell in Japan can be a bit costly when you convert it to MYR depending on the current rate. Imagine 100 yen = RM 3.50 and for example a small badge is 250 yen, for them it seems like RM 2.50 - quite cheap but for us after conversion will be RM 8.90, which is super expensive. 

For example, buying things in Daiso will only costs 100 yen = RM 3.50. But in Malaysia, buying stuffs in Daiso will be RM 5.30 for each item. Buying tinned cafe latte is 150 yen while tinned latte here is RM 2.60. Magazines there is around 600 yen while in Malaysia it will be around RM 14. 

So, if you are planning on buying stuffs in Tokyo - make sure you plan ahead. I used around 10,000 yen during that time for shopping. And I didn't even bring back a lot of things except for tiny-tiny stationaries and magazines. 

:)