Kamakura + Enoshima Cave

Last Sunday I was taken on a 'surprise' date to the beach. Surprisingly, the weather was nice and being a thick skinned Brit I was confused at the amount of well wrapped up people in Winter clothing complaining it was cold. Well; it wasn't cold enough to stop the surfers. I love Yokohama, it reminds me often of Cornwall in the UK and it's Surfer theme. Yokohama has both Surfer and a Hawaiian take, (in the right areas).

It was my first time being at the coastline of Japan, so we wanted to make the most of it. After a few hours driving through a really nice town we arrived at Kamakura. Parked up the car and went on our way, well not so soon, I was stopped by Children screaming which made me look back to the car park. I saw two cats, and two boys; both with sticks. I'm not sure if it's the fact I'm some "scary foreigner", or the fact I shouted at them - I couldn't stop myself!!
(_ _|||) But they quickly evaded the scene like guilty little buggers and one cat remained.

Assuming she was a she, she was really tame and instantly approached us which made me wonder if the young boys used the same technique? Either way I got to stroke a cat before she happily went on her way to watch the people fishing close by.

We went on a boat ride to visit Enoshima Caves, which I swear was a mental test since I HATE open waters, I HATE boats like the one we traveled on and I just wanted to cry the entire journey.
My Partner is fully aware of my phobia of open waters - especially the ocean, but did nothing but record the journey and my (possibly) constipated and scared face full of dread and fear. To make matters worse, I was in charge of keeping all our belongings and my instant mindset was to panic and to clutch my bag till my knuckles turned white. (T A T)

Enoshima is a small island, aprox. 4km which we walked from one end to the next - including small touristy things like visiting the ACTUAL caves which was really fun and thankfully some of the signs were in English so it was educational too.
It was REALLY warm - despite this being the 1st of December, I really have not adjusted to this climate yet.

View from inside the caves.

After a long-long walk, and a halfway point for beer and a magic act we headed back to the car and stopped off halfway to pick sea shells on the beach. (Which I still need to clean, oops) Then we headed home; well I assumed so, but we stopped off at Toys R US to buy a Christmas Tree!!! Super happy, even if it is tiny-small-what. My Partner favoured purple over the traditional green and red decorations, so we got some purple tinsel to keep him satisfied.

☆ November in a Nutshell.

Well, it is ALMOST December, so I'm going to round up November as a whole. It also prevents me leaving the apartment; and trust me, I do not wanna go outside in this weather. Hot and windy? UGGH. However I've not been outside in a few days now, totally a hermit!

Mt Fuji in the distance during sunset.

   I am finally settled into our new home. Albeit a few things I am nitpicking at like storage boxes, and I avoid one room here like the plague, which I am basically leaving it up to my partner to rearrange. Men and their gizmos!! For someone who suffers from OCD it's rather difficult setting a new 'routine' with someone who just... likes to destroy any order I have created. (_ _ ||)
 
We celebrated D's Birthday a few weeks ago, actually D is the 'last' of the Birthdays this year - in Japan - because my Father's is next. So I hope to send him something back home on time! There was a large-ish earthquake during the celebrations, and everyone seemed keen to see my reaction. I'm strangely never phased?

   My Partner and I have been congratulated endlessly over the month, and finally was the end of my visa application which had been granted! (*^ω^*) It was difficult, but not impossible? I will write a more detailed blog about the entire application etc soon!

Disney GOAL!! Christmas Stitch!

   After finding out Yokohama has a Disney Store I pretty much demanded we went to find it. Traffic was insane for a Sunday which always seems to be deemed a holiday. I'm glad we have a car now.. even if I have to put up with One Direction. (￣□￣;) But the shopping center is full of Christmas spirit which I love! We visited a couple "Import Stores" as there is a current mission to find... gravy? We ended up with chocolate and C-R-I-S-P-S. It's (unwisely) agreed we learn British English and not American English, thus it's crisps not chips.

   We also went out one evening and I was introduced to a couple more Friends and I was actually the youngest in the group. ( ´艸｀) We ate okonomiyaki which was my first time eating it and then we went to karaoke which was horrible because due to health reasons (another topic) I can't drink, so while EVERYONE else was drunk I was just so quiet and timidly on the verge of an anxiety attack.

I post photos often to my Instagram, however my account is currently private.

My ID: PINPIKO

★ DIY Memo Board！

Being left home unattended, I often get 'itchy paws' and my creativity ideas/thoughts just seem to spew out uncontrollably. I had seen this DIY task before and since I had the free time I thought I would take the challenge in my own way!

( ´θ｀)ノ What I used:

♪ Memo board; cork is recommended.
♪ Decorative tape. I used two types of tape.
♪ Ribbon!
I also used:
♪ Black felt.
♪ Glue & Pins.

(*‘ω‘ *) Total cost:
★ 735 円
-- all items were purchased from 105円 shops making this a really cheap but creative craft.

 

First have a nice dedicated working area, usually a floor is best or large table depending on the size of your memo board. I first taped around the edges of the frame using a patterned masking tape. Any kind of tape will work obviously depending on your theme even electrical wire tape will work! 

It is such an easy and simple task! So easy that anyone can do it. At this point I had a blank edge which bugged me and my OCD ways - so off to the store I went again and purchased another tape with a similar theme and some black felt. 

I had some minor issues with purchasing glue - who knew it would have been THAT difficult? I settled for wood glue, considering cork and wood are similar. (´;ω;｀) RIGHT? Actually most of the products had pictograms of what the glue can be used on. Shoes. Plates. Car. Bike. MEMO BOARD?

(I forgot to rotate the picture, but) I finished the sides of the frame with ease and started to cut the felt to size. Yay! Using felt isn't actually necessary, many people leave the cork for show. 

 

FINALLY; attach your chosen ribbon in whatever pattern you like. A lot of guides wrap the ribbon around the board and pin it that way but I cut the ribbon to size and then pinned them down. I used the remaining ribbon for the hanger, which isn't strong enough so my next mission is to find a sewing kit and sew the knot in place. 

Bad point alert!! (╯⊙ A ⊙╰ ) The pins were too long for the board and as a result ended up sticking out the other side. Having thought the felt would help pad it out more and prevent this. I'm going to attempt to hammer/bend the pins around so it avoids damaging the wall when I go to hang it.

And there you have it!! A easy and simple creative task that anyone can do. If it wasn't for the second trip to the store (and the glue drying) this is easily accomplished within 30 minutes.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Just another cliche Halloween blog to join the rest posted today. So what did I do to celebrate? NOTHING. Unless I am suddenly dragged out within the next few hours remaining of this Halloween. Current time: 18:00. Woo! 

Spooky GETS! -- okay so the SCREME EGGS are from the UK and don't count as actual GETS I suppose. But yum~ Cadbury. Seriously I am having withdrawals. The Cat is actually a tea-light holder, but I am behaving and resisting the urge to buy candles due to being pyromaniac and the apartment lacking ANY sort of extinguisher. Great.

I am actually not a huge fan of Choco Pie, it has such a bitter taste, but that is coming from a Brit who grew up on sweet chocolate. ANYWAY; Japan is always crazy with themes, so the usual Choco Pie packaging got a spooky design. (I actually can't remember what regular Choco Pie packaging looks like..) Japanese stores don't do horror like the UK does (even though we suck and copied American style) I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, but my teeth are rotting from all the happy ghosties and pumpkins.

This was a cute purchase from a 100yen shop. I think the Boyfriend is relieved that I'm so cheap to shop with, although I don't believe it's right to call myself cheap either? To sum it up: I would rather have two felt coasters I will NEVER use for 100yen, than a bag of Halloween shaped pasta for 10x the price which I would HAVE to consume eventually with major regret. 

Today I went on a walk, I was HOPING to get discounted items which I found nothing, apart from cake. Strangely all the stores have taken or moved aside most of the Halloween stuff and gradually replacing it with Christmas items. (Which BTW; in the UK Christmas items have been on the shelf in Tesco since September).

I did see a House which was really decorated for Halloween, buntings, Pumpkins, little swinging ghosts -- actually I was nervous about walking by it because I was partially expecting something to jump out at me!

Where have I been?

I am becoming really bad at blogging again. ＼(°■。)／ But my excuse is it's mainly due to the fact the internet connection here is really bad some days! Also I have to upload photos from my phone so I encounter even more problems because hah I don't have the Godly amazing iPhone.


Quick catch up:
☆ My Boyfriend visited the UK around the end of September. Within the first hour this is what happened, yeah that lovely photo of my knees, (please ignore the filters as my legs are not my best asset) I threw myself on the floor at Heathrow Airport, in front of EVERYONE.
(´；ω；｀) Luckily, my Boyfriend didn't see me doing my Penguin impression.

☆ We did a lot of sightseeing, but not enough at the same time. There is a lot of the UK he wanted to see, but we couldn't cover it all. We did go to London with my Parents! My Parents had never been to the places I took them to but for me it felt a bit boring. But it was super fun, in fact the whole time my Boyfriend was here it was fun.

☆ There was also a lot of food to be eaten! I think some of the food we ate inspired him too. Either that or shocked his arteries. We also had a Party to welcome him, so he got to meet the rest of my Family, which was super nerve wrecking for us both.

< Cream Teas x Big Breakfast x Kebab x BBQ x Pizza x Chilli x Toad in the Hole >

☆ My Boyfriend finally bonded with my Cat! It actually took Mia some time to become convinced he was no danger to her (or me). It was heartbreaking that she wouldn't come into my room while he was there. But they eventually made Friends and it was super cute.

The days he spent in the UK were super fun and the weather was surprisingly good too! We did a lot of shopping and he even treated me to a couple things, b'aww. Traveling really knocks it out of you, we visited the seaside which was FREEZING. But it was so-so good to snuggle up with him again, and all that mushy stuff. Eventually my Cat decided to share the bed with us, which felt more like playing a game of Twister, but I wasn't complaining.