Hokkaido 2- Otaru

For my third day in Hokkaido, I went to Otaru (小樽市) , a small town that is 40 mins train ride from Sapporo. It's a town famous for musical boxes, glasses and sushi. Apart from the three things there isn't much to do in this town. There is a small fisherman's market near the train station but there are just so many places in this town I want to try, I chose to skip the market as there is a bigger fisherman's market in Sapporo. And I just had breakfast before heading to Otaru. 

minced salmon rice set with onsen egg. Salmon is always the safest choice. You can't really go wrong with Salmon sashimi. 

minced tuna rice set with onsen egg. Their tuna is a lot better than the tuna in Canada. I am very picky about my tuna. If it's a little fishy I can't eat it so basically there are only a handful of restaurants where I will have tuna in Toronto but I didn't have problem with any of the tuna in Japan. 

There are two very famous sushi restaurants in Otaru. One being Mazasushi(政壽司) and the other is Asahi Otaru Sushi (旭壽司). Both are well recommended by people but from what I know Asahi offers better quality sashimi as they have rights to the fish before other sushi stores in Otaru. They serve as one of the fish brokers in the market.  Another sushi restaurant I wanted to try was 握壽司 but it wasn't located in the "Sushi alley" and the map in my guidebook was wrong. They got the coordinates wrong so I was off by a few blocks so I had problem looking for that place. So in the end I only went to Asahi. I do want to try Mazasushi but since it's also available in Tokyo, I would probably go try it when I'm in Tokyo.

A local fish (八角魚)that could only be found in Otaru.  It tasted very fresh and but I didn't find it sweet enough for my taste but it's wasn't that special. I wouldn't order it again next time I visit Otaru. 

According to my boyfriend all the sushi tasted amazing especially for the wagyu sushi and toro sushi. The only piece I tried was the crab leg (real crab leg, not the fake ones) sushi and I love it. Japanese crab tastes so good. 

I do love sushi but I love donburi more. The set I ordered is a much better deal than the one my boyfriend got. 

Uni, salmon roe and flying roe don. The only complaint is there wasn't enough uni. The uni was fresh, it tasted so much better than the ones in Canada. The salmon roe is very fresh and wasn't salty at all. All the salmon roe I tried in Canada were relatively salty probably because the salmon roe in Canada isn't as fresh as the ones in Otaru. 

My set also came with a bowl of assorted sashimi. They were all good. No complaints! 

Ice creams! Can I say Japanese make better ice creams than North Americans. Their milk ice cream are creamy and yummy and not overly sweet. 

Lavender, milk and melon flavour ice cream.

Mine had mango apple, grape, melon, milk and lavender flavour. The grape flavour tasted more like sherbet than ice cream. But others were very creamy. The lavender flavour tasted better than I expected.  I didn't know what to expect from a lavender ice cream. 

There was an ice cream store that I couldn't find. They serve 28 flavours of ice cream including uni and squid ink ice cream. I'm curious I actually wanted to try out the uni and squid ink flavour ice creams. 

Otaru is also the home to a very famous dessert place. LeTao is from Otaru and they make different kinds of cakes and sweets. I don't like cheesecakes but I do love the cheesecake from LeTao. A few of my friends call their Double Fromage cheesecake the best cheesecake in the world. I do admit it's the best cheesecake I've ever tried. I had three slices during my trip. 

There were so much to do in Otaru by the time I got to LeTao their cafe was already closed and I wanted to try their cakes so badly I ordered takeout and brought it back to Sapporo with me. Since I bought dessert so had to head back to Sapporo early for dinner. 

Double Fromage cheesecake from LeTao. Best cheesecake ever!!!

I chose to have ramen again and this time I chose Shirakaba Sansou Ramen(白樺山莊).  This tasted a lot better than the one I tried on the first day in Sapporo. From the noodle to the broth, it was better in every way.

boyfriend tried the Miso pork ramen. It was a little oily but acceptable and it wasn't too salty. 

Mine was the salted pork ramen as I am not a big fan of miso ramen. Surprising to find 4 pieces of pork in the ramen as most places normally only give you 2 pieces. 

We also got the chinese style dumplings. It was good but nothing too special. 

Sephora and Asian Beauty Haul

First up is my free mini Sephora haul. Just went there to redeem my beauty points! I feel so proud of myself for not spending any money in Sephora. I always end up buying new toners or blushes whenever I go to Sephora. Ever since I heard about the Josie Maran Argan Essentials beauty insider rewards, I've been trying to get it. I just couldn't find it at any Sephora stores I went to. For the longest time all the rewards they had didn't appeal to me. I have over 1,500 points sitting in the beauty account with nothing to redeem. The last time I redeemed my points was for the Philosophy skincare set which was at least 2 years ago. I've always wanted to try Josie Maran products so I wanted this set badly. I've been to the Sephora at Eaton Centre, Bloor Street, Fairview and Yorkdale, they were always out of this set or their stores haven't received it when I went. I never expected I would be able to find this reward in store. I thought of ordering the SK-II mask in lotion so that I can redeem my beauty points.

There are four products in this beauty reward. The sizes of the products are quite generous when it comes to the 500 points rewards. I still remember the 100 points rewards used to be so tiny that I wasn't interested in redeeming at all.

There is facial wipes, cleansing oil, Pure argan oil and lip treatment in the beauty reward with the lip treatment being a full size product. I haven't tried any of the products yet but I will try them soon. I will probably try the Bear Naked wipes first. I love face wipes. I use them on my lazy days which is at least once a week.

I use japanese cleansing oils when I remove my make up but I would love to see if the argan cleansing oil is better.

Pure argan oil that could be used as a daily moisturizer. I've never tried using oil on my face as a moisturizer as I don't have dry skin and I'm afraid of having break outs but I will try to see if I like it.

Lip treatment, I do like it as it's a full size product and I like the scent of the lip treatment but I hate lip products that come in a jar. I don't dab my finger in my lip balm or any other products, I always use a brush or a spatula. I will have to use a lip brush which means this won't be a product I carry around with me.

I also used my points to redeem a Bliss the youth as we know anti aging cream. it's a deluxe sample with 10ml. I love products from Bliss. I love their mask so I would love to try their face cream. The cream I'm currently using had been discontinued so I'm searching for a face cream.

I received two packages in the mail today and they are things I've always wanted to try.

Give & Give skin care serums. Will these two products become my holy grail skin care products? 

I've first heard of Give & Give about half a year ago. It's a product from Japan and I went to Japan last year but couldn't find it at all in Sapporo. It was available in two other cities in Hokkaido but not Sapporo. From their Japanese site, they don't ship outside of Japan so I had to get these products through their Taiwanese dealer. 

They are both all in one beauty skin care serum. You can use it to wash your face, not for removing your make up, more for using as the last step of cleansing. You can also use it for massaging your face, use it as a toner and a serum.  For the venus serum you can also use it as a facial mask. 

The main ingredients in the serum include EGF, hyaluronic acid and collegen. Both contains EGF, it's just that the pink bottle has a higher EGF content level. There are two other serums from this company. I will try them if I like these two serum. 

From the guides they sent me, I'm supposed to use it to wash my face in the morning to remove the dirt and oil on my skin. And it's supposed to make your skin feel soft, smooth and healthy glow. Yes, they suggest you using serum to wash your face. I've never thought of using serum to wash my face. But I will give it a try.

The next item I received in the mail is the Iony cream booster. It works like the Talika cream booster but it's 1/3 the price. This is an ionotheraphy device that uses micro current to deliver the active ingredients into your skin. It makes it faster for your skin to absorb the cream. It also vibrates at a rate of 8000/min that helps improve blood circulation. There is also another function- to test out which part of your body is dry. There are no switches on the Iony. You hold onto the metal part and once you put it on your skin, the device turns on automatically. However, if your skin is too dry, it doesn't turn on. I used it to test out the moisture level on my skin. My face and neck both passed the test without problem. But my body didn't pass the test and I think it's because I never have the habit of using body cream on a regular basis. I only use body cream when my skin is very dry. I guess its telling me I need to start using body cream on a daily basis now! 

 

Hokkaido Trip 1

I went to Hokkaido for 10 days last year. Didn't expect to go to Japan as I always planned on going to London again. I never get bored of England, I can go there every year and never get bored. I decided to go to Japan as I haven't been there for over 10 years. Last time I went I was 14 and I went with my parents. I chose Hokkaido over England was because of the food. I just love all kinds of Japanese food.

Hokkaido is in the northern part of Japan. I chose Hokkaido as the food is fresher than Tokyo. The seafood in Hokkaido is the best in Japan. I only went to the central part, western and southern part of Hokkaido. But I heard the northern and eastern part have better seafood. I will go back in a few years time. The northest part of Hokkaido, Wakkanai ( 稚內市) they have the freshest and best uni ( sea urchin) but for that city most of the shops only open during the summer months. most shops only operate during the months of April- September!!!

Even though I have 10 days 9 night in Hokkaido, it's still not enough. I wish I went for a full two weeks.

Day 1- Nov 18, 2012
I left Toronto on Nov 17 and it took me 18 hours to arrive at Sapporo. There is no direct flight to Sapporo so I had to change flights at Tokyo. With all the flying, flight delay at Tokyo and time zone difference, I didn't arrive at Sapporo until late at night. So one day wasted.

Day 2- Nov 19, 2012
This was a day dedicated to shopping. There is just so much stuff I want from Japan. With the limited suitcase space, I had a hard time choosing things to buy. Skincare products, I can find most of them easily in Toronto so I didn't buy much skincare products. I didn't buy any makeup products as I always ended up wasting them. I buy too much and never use them fast enough! The main items on my list were beauty gadgets. I picked up the Hitachi Hada Crie cm-n1000 cool and the MTG refa Carat. I also had my eyes on the Panasonic ion face steamer but there were too many kinds so I had problem choosing one. I'll leave that to my next trip to Asia.

Hitachi ion cleansing device!

comes in 100v power supply. Can use it in Canada without an adaptor 

MTG Refa Carat Vs MTF Refa Pro

Clothes I didn't buy much from Japan. The clothes are just um.. too Kawaii for my taste. they do have some lovely coats but none were made for Canadian winters. I only bought a cape/poncho and restock on pants from uniqlo.

Food was the main reason for going, so I tried my best to try out as many different restaurants as I can.
I love ramen or I should say I love soup noodles. It's my comfort food. So I chose to have ramen for my first actual meal in Japan.  As all shopping was done near the JR station, I chose to go to the Sapporo Ramen Kyowakoku 札幌ら～めん共和国トップ for lunch.  There were only 8 restaurants and I still had a hard time choosing. In the end I chose to try ひるがお for their shio ramen. 

Their famous Shio Ramen in chicken broth

Shio ramen with egg

Is their ramen that good? Compared to Toronto, it's better than a lot of places. But I find Sansotei's ramen better than this store. From the noodle texture to the broth, Sansotei taste better!

For Dinner, I stayed in the JR area. This time I chose Japanese BBQ.  Why don't we have it in Toronto? They have it in Vancouver and other American cities. All we have is korean BBQ which is something I hate. 

Gyukaku, they have it in a lot of north american cities but not Toronto. We don't even have anything similar. >_<

the meat for table cooking

veggie plate. All the veggie portions are relatively small. No wonder they have all kinds of veggie supplements.

beef tongue. 

Table cooking stove. The temperature is a lot hotter than Korean BBQ. 

After this meal, all I can say is the meat quality in Japan is so good. I never knew pork could taste so good!

Product Review: Lancome Bright Expert

I received this deluxe sample ( estimated price is $37 according to Lancome website) from the BA at my local shoppers after she saw the acne scaring on my chin. I don't normally have an acne problem, I only have one or two tiny pimples before my period. But after my trip to Hokkaido last November it changed. I started having acne in my t zone area mainly on my chin so I was having breakouts and acne scarring at the same time. I was also sick for a month so it made my skin yellowish and dull. So a good brightening product would definitely make me look better.

When I received the sample, I had high hopes as there are lots of great reviews on this product. I hoped it would work as this is a lot cheaper than my regular spot treatment. The bright expert retails at $78 for 30ml.

I tried this product for four weeks, applying it to my face twice a day, after toner before moisturizing serum and moisturizer and I saw no result at all. There is no difference on my skin. It didn't brighten my skin at all. After applying it did make my skin soft and smooth and I do love the smell. Well it didn't cause any new breakouts but as a skin brightener, it didn't do its job. I don't expect to see results immediately as there is no miracle product on the market, but for four weeks, I should at least see some results.

I can't use it as an moisturizer as it's not moisturizing enough so it's another product I don't have a use for. I won't be repurchasing this product.

Snow Day!

Had an unexpected long weekend because of the snow. Received a call from my coworker that morning telling me to stay in. She called before I got out of bed so I was able to sleep till noon! But with the amount of snow on the driveway, there was no way I could leave the house. My neighborhood is always one of the last to get shovelled.

this was the amount of snow in the front yard in the afternoon. You could hardly tell the driveway from the grass. They haven't shovelled the streets yet. 

three hours later the rock in front of the house was completely covered in snow

streets were finally shovelled but driveway wasn't so couldn't go out at all

Finally stopped snowing on Saturday

So I was stuck at home during the weekend. I did manage to get things done. I managed to get some knitting done. I'm almost done knitting Chart A for my Guernsey Wrap. 

This is the WIP on thursday night. 

The WIP after Friday night! This is the true color of the yarn. dark purple tweed yarn. Not the softest yarn available but I do love tweed yarn!

Birthday Haul

It's always nice to treat yourself to a shopping spree. When I go shopping with my friends I always get home empty-handed, so I prefer shopping on my own. That's when I can actually buy things I love. I've always been in love with Jo Malone products, nothing is better than buying something you love on your birthday.

I originally planned on going to Holts to pick up Vintage Gardenia and Blackberry and Bay. I didn't realize they discontinued Vintage Gardenia until today. So I picked up the red rose diffuser instead. 

$85 for a diffuser is very expensive. But my last one lasted over half a year so I guess I can justify my purchase. It is an artificial fragrance, not like Neom Organics where they are essential oil. I find that Jo Malone makes the best rose fragrance in the market, it smells divine. It doesn't have the overwhelmingly fake rose smell like other brands. This one smells much more natural. I don't have the retail sizes of this perfume but I do have two 9ml bottles of the red rose cologne. 

Blackberry and Bay cologne is the newest cologne from Jo Malone. This is one of their fruity colognes. You can smell the blackberry and grapefruit. I like it but I don't like it enough to get the full size. I doubt that I can finish the full size. I find it being one of the less fruity colognes available. It's not overly sweet like Nectarine Blossom and Honey Cologne and Pomegranate Noir cologne. I normally use it alone or pair it with English Pear and Freesia. 

I also got myself a set of new interchangeable needles. This is my 6th set of interchangeable needles. Second set of Addi. You can never have too many knitting needles. Extra needles are always useful. You never know when you need to start a new project! It's the same old boring needle case. This time in brown not black. But it's still a boring color. Why can't they make the case in different colors?

This is the set with the shorter needle tips. They are 3" long compared to the 5" long regular tips. 

A trip to the yarn store is not complete without buying new yarn. Yarn is always the hardest thing to resist so I try my best not to step foot into any yarn store. Michaels doesn't count, they don't have yarn I like. I only go to Michaels for notions and tools. If I go to Michaels for yarn, it's probably for projects for people I don't love that much. 

So this time I came home with three kinds of yarn. 5 skeins of the diamond brand luxury collection Baby Alpaca sport. Don't let the "sport" fool you thinking it's a sport weight yarn, it's actually a bulky yarn between worsted weight and bulky. For a bulky yarn they shouldn't put sport on it. It's very misleading if you didn't look at the yarn before buying.  They retail at $14.99 per skein not cheap but it felt so soft. Just couldn't put it down. I'll be using it for a scarf for my boyfriend. I didn't expect my boyfriend to ask for a new scarf!!! 

Next are the two skeins of ruffle yarns from Rowan from the kidsilk creation line. I actually have a few balls of ruffle yarn I need to use up. I bought them before the ruffle scarves became so popular. They've been in my stash for three years now. But all the ones I have at home are made of nylon, not something I prefer. I know Rowan came out with this yarn sometime last year, Kidsilk Creation consists of 70% mohair and 30% silk, that's the best you can get for ruffle yarn. It feels soft and luxurious but at $25 a skein it's not something I'll get. As I already made something similar just with a different brand of yarn. But with the Kidsilk  Creation being 50% off, I got two skeins. One will be for knitting, the other will be used for crocheting.  

   

FO: Liliiflora Shawlette

Who doesn't love a little lace? I love lace. I've always have a passion for lace knitting. To me lace is the prettiest thing to knit. Whenever I get to choose a project, I always choose lace. Lace patterns are always challenging, it's never boring, you're always learning new techniques to make it perfect. With all the patterns out there and with the limited time, it's always hard to choose the perfect pattern. I made this shawl for a good friend even though she NEVER received this shawl. It was one of the two shawls that were lost in the mail.Canada Post wasn't able to track it down for me. All I knew was it NEVER left the country and NEVER arrived in Hong Kong.  Don't ever let me find out who stole my parcel I'll be so pissed. 

When my friend knits lace, she always chooses mohair yarn for her projects and mohair yarn are mass produced so when I was making a shawl for her, I decided to use something different. Different fiber and I opt for hand dyed yarn which is an all time favourite of mine. Ever skein of hand dyed yarn are different which makes them unique so every shawl will be a little different. I received this yarn as part of my yarn club subscription from Tanis Fiber Arts. The colorway is Cranberry. It was a yarn club subscription yarn so I only had access to one skein and I used it on a project that my friend never received. 

From the indoor lighting in the living room you can't really tell the yarn is variegated, it looked like a boring red yarn, it was actually a semi-solid red yarn. You can only tell the reds apart in the blocking pictures.  

This is a crescent shape shawl and had open lace work throughout the main body while you use short rows shaping.  This shawl is a little different from the ones I normally make. I normally start from the middle and work my way out to the edge, but for this shawl, I started from the edging and worked my way in. This was different from all my other projects. 

close up on the border of the shawl. the border is made up of vines and nupps. I'm not a big fan of nupps knitting, I often replace them with beads as I find them time consuming but I do find that nupps are great in this project. 

blocking of the lace border.

There were a few sizes from the pattern, since I only had one skein of yarn, so I chose 15 pattern repeats. From the instruction I should have enough yarn to work 16 pattern repeats for the edge nupps and vines pattern, if I started with 16 repeats, I would never be able to finish it. I started with 15 pattern repeats and I barely had enough yarn to finish the project. I only had a few yards left. 

Pattern: Lilliflora Shawlette by Lily Go

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight in Cranberry

Needle: 4.5mm

Yardage: 420 yards