principal sponsors wedding favors

I have already incorporated our rustic/travel theme in a lot of details in our wedding. To break the monotony, we thought of non-travel/rustic related thank you gifts to our principal sponsors, Bestman and MOH.

We initially thought of giving them Alamid coffee – The Philippine Civet coffee, tagged as the world’s rarest brew. But owing to a number of reasons, we had to select another option (will post a separate entry about this coffee). Other than looking for a good calendar for our guestbook, one of our goals for my March Japan visit was also to look for a good principal sponsors wedding favors.

Found the perfect one in Keikyu Kamiooka. Lupicia.

They have this pretty set that’s perfect for giveaways. The flower ornament is just so pretty(!!) and almost-rustic. We chose Sakurambo (cherry) flavor.

The loose tea leaves are inside the round canister. What made us finally make a go for this as our giveaways actually is that you can customize the lid of the canister. They have a number of designs for different occasions and among the designs available for weddings, I chose this design, for obvious reasons. You can just imagine how giggly I went when I saw the colors on this design. As for the font, it would be too long if we specify “Atsushi and Marjorie”, hence, we settled for a simple “A & M”. And of course, the date has to be inscribed on it as well.

It comes with a matching Sakurambo (cherry) flavored tea honey.

Now the one thing missing in this set is the tea ball for the loose tea. They were selling some in the shop but it was at 400yen each. I looked for one in Gourdo’s in Manila as well and found a very very pretty lime-green colored tea diffuser. Perfect accessory to complement our colors. Except that it was at 300pesos. haha. Found this one in another mall though and I couldn’t be any happier.

It looked so pretty on the VIP table.

And oh, another thing that made me all giggly with this set is that the package comes with a paperbag that has our colors. Yep, both orange and lime green. The lime green came off as pistachio green in my phone camera though. Look at the odd color of the hand haha. In real life, they are colors that would definitely make a bride giddy.

Perfect. Just perfect.

my Kanji flashcards

I just love it everytime the intercom buzzes and when I pick it up, the voice on the other line would say a cheery “takyoubin desu!” or “youbin desu!”. This means “package delivery!”, by the way, or something similar to that.

Got my beginner Kanji flashcards. Ordered online by hubby from Whiterabbitpress. Recommended by Apple, a friend I had through W@W; Apple will hopefully be taking her JLPT level N1 this December. Isn’t she just amazing?! I wonder when can I take the JLPT level 5 or 4 haha. Anyways, for now, I-am-so-excited for these!

Of course I opened my pink case first. ~sheepish grin~

And the lessons continue. 😀

 

furniture leg socks

When our dining set was delivered to us, Watanabe-san put some thin brown cardboard on the bottom of each table and chair leg so as to protect the wooden floor from any scratches when we move the furnitures during usage. Alas though, it appears it wasn’t enough.

So I finally bought our furnitures some socks. I wanted the brown-pink pattern, consistent with our house motif, but the packs the shop has for the pretty brown-pink pattern weren’t enough to cover all our dining chairs’ legs. Hence, I opted for this one.

I tagged this as “only in Japan” since it was in Japan that I saw these first, some 7 years ago I think. I do believe though, that these socks are already available in Manila.

 

fusion

Japanese and Filipino food fusion also comes great.

Bicol Express. The coconut milk I bought though is not so creamy.

Shredded nori. Bought it at an unusual price at 102 yen. Unusual because normally, pricing is at 5yens so it should have been 105yen.

Bicol Express peppered with nori. It may not look much, but it definitely tasted great.

Pardon for the blurriness of the pictures.

 

An afternoon with Okasan

After my medical check yesterday (that one in itself is blog worthy if only I was able to take photos of the hospital), I met up with Okasan who was here in the Kanto area for some business. As Hubby has to be in the office till 6, Okasan and I were left to our own devices for 3 hours or so. Even though I only know for now very few Japanese and Okasan as well is learning English, still, we had a great afternoon.

After coffee break with the spectacular view of Minato Mirai splayed before us and after shopping (thank you Okasan!), we headed to Cosmo World to ride the Kanransha (big clock ferris wheel). It takes 15 min for the big wheel to make its complete round hence we were looking forward to some relaxing sightseeing. Along the way however, we stopped by one of the puri kuras or picture booth. Fun! The type we got though is not the sticker type. Hence, i’m using my half of the photo print as bookmark on my Nihongo Breakthrough book. 😀

My 100-yen coin purse gave up on me two days after I bought it, 2 months ago. So yes, not all 100 yen stuff are durable.

I never really got around to replacing it though, busy as I was (before). And anyways, it was still functional. It was just as good though as Okasan’s omiyage from Yamanashi was just right for me. I loved the Yamanashi Inden-ya coin purse Okasan gave. Loved tha lacquer-embossed flower.

It also has two pockets to put folded bills on one and another where I can put my alien card and train pass. Perfect to bring for short errands out of the house. Just what I was looking for.

Now i’m so glad I procrastinated on buying another poin curse. 🙂

Thanks Okasan! And mata ne. 🙂

the ugly duckling

Bought my first Japanese book last weekend – Walt Disney’s The Ugly Duckling. It was the only kiddy book whose story I know about that was on sale in Kinukuniya bookstore in Kannai hence I picked it up. Minikui Ahiru no Ko in Japanese.

Tried to start reading it while we lounged in Yamashita Park.

 

Quite a view, eh? But I almost didn’t notice it as I worked my way through the first sentence. Took me more than 30 minutes to work throught the first sentence.

All it said was that, “In the roots of a big tree lush with green leaves on a green coutryside, there was a duck’s nest.”

Aja! Oopps, Korean pala yan.