Tokyo Driftin' | LA Trip Day #2

Hello Cuties~

     I've been dying to write this blog post!  On day #2, or as Nhu fondly called it "Asia Day", we took on Little Tokyo and Koreatown!  Throughout the day as I took pictures I kept thinking to myself "omg I can't wait to share this with my Cuties~" ♥.  Nhu's not the "taking pictures type", plus she was there with me the entire time!  No point in showing her the pictures lol  But anyway, onto Sunday's adventure!

Day 2

✿ Rundown ✿

• beret - offbrand
• cardigan - BDG (thrifted)
• top - thrifted
• skirt - Liz Lisa
• shoes - Gianni Bini
• accessories - offbrand

     Himekaji~ my old faithful~  I had a tough time when it came to narrowing down outfits to pack.  I wanted to dress cute and gal, but also pack smart.  You can't really do both lmao well you can but it was hard as I mentioned. Next time I'm only packing one pair of shoes. ┐( ˘_˘)┌

     Four or so years later and the watch joke continues ┐(´∀｀) lol.  In the picture below you can kind of see my makeup for the day.  I kept it basic for this trip and took one eyeshadow palette with me.  But not to worry, you know I took 4 of my favorite pairs of lashes and lenses.

     Our first stop was Little Tokyo Market Place.  We bought snacks and drinks in the grocery portion before venturing through the rest of the building.  It was more like a mini mall, there was an arcade like spot upstairs along with restaurants!  Aaand a Daiso!! I bought a few things there (you'll see at the end of this post).  I spotted cute little Brown bear~ If it weren't for the caution barricades, I would've taken a selfie with it. Ah well~

     So upstairs is where we had breakfast.  Nhu said "on Asia day, we will only go to Asian places and eat ONLY Asian food".  I had no problem with that, but I still can't believe we were eating udon at 11am!  I picked shrimp tempura udon.  The amount of seaweed they put in it pleases me so~  You can't even see my noodles. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡

     Upon leaving the market place, we began walking to our next destination but we had to make a pit stop when I saw JapanLA!  I follow their shop on instagram and I've been fantasizing of the day I'd finally get to shop there.  So obviously I ran when I saw the shop.

     The cashier was adorable!  She contrasted the bright pastel interior of the store with her all black, gothic style, platforms and bold makeup.  She just exuded such a cool, confident air~  She saw me taking pictures of the store and said "you can have your picture taken right here!  They have cute little props to use too!"

     I had so much fun being a goof and talking about my favorite Sanrio characters with the cashier.  We even fawned over each other's style~

     After a bit more walking we reached the Little Tokyo Mall.  Nhu was excited for me to see this place, she told me that she knew I'd love it.  I thought for a bit "what exactly could be in here that would make me freak out with excitement?"  That is until I saw all the stores and peered into their windows.

     I still remember Nhu shouting "let's go in here!" and agreeing before wheezing "this might be a bad idea".

     FIRSTLY.  LIZ! LISA! Fickle Wish was split up into two sections.  One side was kawaii, pastel, sweet Japanese fashion.  A lot of the displays were Liz Lisa which almost brought me to tears. I wanted to splurge, I really did but I knew it would be tough to stuff into my suitcase.  Plus some of these dresses were over $100.

     Now the other side of Fickle Wish is quite the opposite of frilly, pink Liz Lisa (they had Milklim too!)  This portion was very dark.  Most of the clothing was black and had cool art on them.  I didn't get to peak at the brand items for this side but I'm betting Sex Pot Revenge or Glavil was there.

     I got to talk to one of the employees and he told me that Fickle Wish not only sells Japanese brand items, but also independent artists' clothing, art and jewelry!  I thought that was awesome!  I believe a lot of it was local but I could be wrong.  The jewelry was REALLY intriguing.  I saw many pieces that would work with yamikawaii fashion.  Some of the items had things like resin models of human hearts and brains, pills, razors and syringes.

     And then I saw this glorious table!!!  Menhera-chan!  They were doing preorders for these sailor collars.  I just wish they had more menhera chan clothing in store.  I would've cracked for sure and bought a shirt.

     There were plenty of little cosmetic and beauty shops around.  I saw so many cutesy sanrio makeup items I wanted to buy them all!  I wanted a face mask but my skin is sensitive and tends to breakout with things like this.  (ˊ̥̥̥̥̥ ³ ˋ̥̥̥̥̥)

     Our next big stop was the Sanrio Japanese village!  I was beyond excited but it was so packed in the store I didn't spend much time inside.  The picture I took doesn't show it but trust me, there were too many people.  I didn't even purchase anything!  But everything was also pretty pricey so that contributed to it lol.

     My childlike heart swelled when I saw all of the familiar and my favorite Sanrio characters.  I was super happy to see Aggretsuko on the walls too!  Her rage faces appeared too (≧∇≦)/

     Sanrio had a tokidoki x hello kitty wall at the back of the store.  You know, I was never too crazy about this collaboration but . . .

It made a great background! ✌(*･▽･*)

     Before this trip, Nhu asked me if there was anything I wanted to do while in Los Angeles.  I had about three things in mind, and one of them was purikura!  Puri machines were one of the reasons why Nhu wanted to bring me to this Little Tokyo Mall.  First of all, I had to break a 20 which was hard to do when all the shops say "no change" ;;.  Eventually I got some change and surprisingly Nhu agreed to participate.  She loves to poke fun at the cutesy, girly things I like so her reactions to the poses we had to do were hilarious!  The puri machine has a voice over that gives you pointers for very cute pictures!

     They turned out great!  And of course I had the most fun decorating the photos.  Nhu kept writing in "ew" or "bleh" over her pictures and "cute" over mine (≧∇≦*).  I don't think she'd admit such things but I'm sure she enjoyed the experience.  Unfortunately, because it was my first time doing purikura and I'm a dunce, I didn't notice the link at the bottom of our photos.  The link mentioned I could download our pics to my phone, but I noticed it too late.  After 7 days the link expires and you guessed it, I figured this out on day 8.

     Sooooo the scanned version of these teeny tiny pictures will have to suffice. huhu~

     Once I had my fun, Nhu was ready to have some fun of her own, which means food.  As I mentioned before she had an itinerary filled with places she really wanted us to visit and Chinchikurin was next on the list.  I knew Nhu had researched a lot before this trip, so when she said this place was good I knew she was right when there was a huge crowd outside.  There was a waitlist and she told me to go shopping to pass the time while she waited to be called.

     I think it's so funny how we're like an old couple, she bribed me with shopping to so I wouldn't whine about standing around and shooed me off.  But hey it's all good because I met a few cool people in one store around the BTS merchandise!  Her plan worked perfectly because by the time I looked around the entire store, goofed around with girls and contemplated on what I should buy, she texted me to come back to the restaurant.

     Chinchikurin is a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki restaurant.  Okonomiyaki incorporates many layers of ingredients and flavors.  It was my first time learning about this dish so getting to see them cook right before me was cool and quite entertaining.  We ended up with seats right in front of the grill!  Nhu ordered the chinchikurinyaki which we shared (more like 20 / 80%) and I had the takoyaki.

     The chinchikurinyaki has egg, fried noodle, green onions, cabbage and ground beef filling.  But you can't forget about the special otafuku sauce!  Overall it had a sweet taste, with the meat it became a savory sweet flavor.  It was an interesting experience I'm glad I got to try it!

     Here's happy little me a few minutes after leaving Little Tokyo on our trek to Koreatown.

     We had quite a few pit stops on our way to Koreatown, and the outdoor mall FIGat7th was one of them.  I was tempted to shop in H&M but I resisted.  Those butterfly earrings were $10, they're cute but not that cute lmao  We didn't find anything in any of the stores so we just kept it moving.

     It took us quite some time to reach, but eventually we arrived to Koreatown!  I remember expecting some huge archway with Koreatown on it after such a long journey, but I was happy nonetheless to finally be there.

      What brought us to Koreatown were two specific shopping centers and a restaurant.  Within the shopping center was Sul & Beans, a bingsu spot.  Bingsu is a shaved ice dessert that usually has various fruit toppings, but can also have more rich toppings.  Eating bingsu was one of my ideas on our itinerary so you know I was shaking with excitement when we got there!  There were so many choices but I really wanted one with lots of fruits on top.  The condensed milk and raspberries were my favorite parts!~

     Now you'd think after that I'd be satisfied?  I was, however there was a Somi Somi next door and I really wanted to try that too.  。･゜･(｡´ﾉω･`)  Somi Somi sells soft serve ice cream inside a goldfish cone, but the cone is a soft baked pastry with an inner filling.  It's inspired by the Japanese red bean bun dessert: taiyaki.  The set up is much like other ice cream places.  You pick a flavor, or swirl, toppings, and a filling for your goldfish cone.  I picked ube + milk swirl, graham cracker crust, macaroon, and red bean filling!

     Now after this we were supposed to eat dinner, which was supposed to be at a popular Korean BBQ restaurant.  It definitely lived up to it's popularity claim because when we got there, there was a long wait list.  So unfortunately we decided to go back to the hotel and just eat our instant ramen for dinner.  (*꒦ິㅂ꒦ີ)

     PHEW!~  So that was all of day #2's adventures.  Well almost all of it.  While in Koreatown the other shopping mall we went to had a K-pop store so Nhu and I could get BTS shirts.  But I ended up buying way more than just a shirt to wear to the concert. . . whoops?

     Gets from daiso, JapanLA, LT mall, and the music plaza shop!

• Daiso - cowboy hat, 2 daiso lashes, mango candy
• LT mall - decorative lashes (#13 and #16), 2 BTS posters, yakisoba noodles, eevee plush
• JapanLA - gudetama pins

     All of the shooky and Suga merch is for me, and the cooky merch are gifts to my little sister.  I spent too much money in Music Plaza but the cashier gave me freebies!  I got two sets of stickers, two photocards, and a Suga sign / fan!  (Oh and the exo patch it mine too ♥)

     Day #2 was definitely the busiest day we had while in Los Angeles.  The day was long but I wouldn't take it back, I had a lot of first experiences on that day.  If I had to change one thing though, I'd never walk in heels over hills again! (×__×;）

Until next time!

~ Love you! x Amiman ~