Happy Splashes!

Hello everyone! So I'm attempting to get back into the swing of blogging regularly. As usual, I would like to thank my latest follower:
Mizuki
Thanks so much!

Last Friday Lin and I took a trip to the OC to go to Soak City. I had a free ticket, and she wanted to go with her coupon from work.

We decided we wanted to get pedicures before going there, and it was relaxing! The nail salon is a local one, and they had Beyonce's "I AM . . ." tour on DVD. I also ran into an old friendly co-worker there. My only gripe is that the young lady who did my pedicure kept giving me mix signals as to what she wanted me to do with my feet, and she had a bit of an attitude! Which is very rude considering they had my wait so long before they started working on me.

Anyway after pedicures and a quick lunch of delicious fake Chinese food, we headed out to the park. Unfortunately traffic was pretty bad, but not as bad as it could have been.
When we finally got to the park we were lucky we didn't have to struggle too long for a space!


Once we paid and entered it was time to change into our swimwear. Now, let me say this: For all the money that Knotts makes on  Soak City, you would think they'd invest some of it into better changing rooms! I don't know about the men's room, but the rooms for women were gross! While they were big and filled with lots of showers, it was horrible hot in there. It was sticky and humid, and the floors were filthy. Also, while I know it's a water park, the changing room floors were extremely wet and I almost tripped twice while walking.  I felt bad for the poor attendant who was working the changing room. I'm sure she was trying hard but it was still horribly uncomfortable and again dirty dirty.

I made as speedily a change as I possibly could and met Lin outside. We headed over to the lockers and put all our things away. The one nice thing about the lockers is that they will give you back $5.00 when you return your key, so make sure to hold on to safely! It knocks the price of a regular size locker from $13.00 to $8.00. Not bad.

Once we were changed and ready, it was time to get wet! I wanted to go to the tidal pool first, but for whatever reason,they shut it down temporarily so we decided to go on the lazy river instead, It was so nice and relaxing, just bobbing around in the inner tube and playing around. Soak City always has a a very 'Feel Good' track of music playing in the background, so I spent most of the river bobbing along to the music and harassing Lin.

Once it was over we headed back to the Tidal wave pool, since it was open again. The whole thing with the tidal wave pool is that it lures you into a false sense of security. It starts out as being calm and docile like a little lake, and then suddenly to hear a siren from no where and it's ALL WAVES AND SCREAMING. I kid you not, and these are little pish-posh baby laps either. I'm talking like actual potential danger of not coming back up, waves. Unfortunately we couldn't get a inner tube and that makes up like 85% of the fun, so after the first round we left.

Please do not be fooled.

Lin wanted to get onto one of the big slides, so we stood in line for the Storm Watch. All the tubes are super windy so you never know where you're going to splash out of! It was actually my first time on a high velocity twisty water slide. When I came out of the end I was not completely pleased, and I had water in my nose.

This thing is a MONSTER.

When we left storm watch, Lin wanted to go on Bonzai Falls as our last major ride. It wasn't really to my fancy, and the wait line was very long. Also, of course they make you take off your shoes/sandals while you wait in line, and the icky ground made me feel so gross.

:| Worst attraction, ever.

Once we finished that, Lin took one last dip in the tidal wave pool, and I tried to dry off a bit before heading back to the germ breeding women's changing room. We then bid farewell to Soak City and headed home for dinner. I was craving ramen, so we went to this great local place called Mottainai.
If you are in the local to the Gardena area, and looking for a great chill back place to enjoy some good ramen, Mottainai is it! Like all the reviews say, it's clean, delicious, and the service is great. Also the portions they give you are huge. I always have some to take home the next day. Whenever I go back I want to try more of their side dishes.

And that was our Friday at Soak City! Before I close this post out, I'll leave you with some pictures I took on Saturday, and my latest magazine haul! Lots of inspiration to be found here!


Okay guys! See you around!

Labels: friends, fun, outings

As some of you know my birthday is one week before Christmas, falling on Dec.18th. This past year I just turned 22, and I was fortunate enough to share it with some awesome friends. Lin took me to one of my favorite haunts, Little Tokyo in downtown LA. One of the good things about having my birthday in late December is that nearly everywhere I go, everything is decorated in beautiful lights and ornaments! It always makes my birthday a little more special and Little Tokyo was no exception!

The tree in the middle of Japanese Village Plaza

This is beautiful site that will greet you when you walk into the main square of Little Tokyo. It was so pretty I just had to get a picture of it, of course! Sadly none of the presents under the tree were real. Or for me. :| What's up with that Little  Tokyo?

I love the blend of Western Christmas with Traditional Lanterns

And this is how it looks on the walk ways up throughout the plaza! The center keeps up the lanterns until after New Year's, I believe. They add to the festive feeling, and look so pretty at night when they're lit! Since Lin and I had some time until Alexa arrived, we decided to walk around the square and explore. We had some quick snacks at the Mitsuwa, and then of course true to myself I dragged her into the local Sanrio store.

I would like it all on my doorstep by 3:00pm tomorrow, please.

I was able to ninja a quick photo of the inside of the store. It's actually a very large store and sells great variety of Sanrio and some San-X items. The staff is usually very friendly and helpful, and I could browse around for so long. One thing I was sad to hear is that they wouldn't be doing their yearly fukubokuro (Lucky Packs) on as grand a scale as they had before. The sales girl informed me this may change on New Years Day, but I shouldn't hold my breath. SADNESS. They were however selling mini-mini lucky packs for $5.00 so in the spirit of things I picked one up.

Bonus Cinnamonroll trinket holder!

We'll find out what's in there at the end of the post! ;3 After the square, we decided to take advantage of Max Karaoke's happy hour! At the time we went it was only $5.00/hr per person. Lin absolutely loves karaoke and is amazing at it! I usually end up derping around to anime openings, 90s pop, or whatever random thing I can find and sing. XD; Alexa arrived just when Lin and I were finishing up karaoke. I went to meet her and we walked around the Little Tokyo "mall". One thing I always take advantage of when I'm there is the nearly always open Para-Para machine.

The songs are pretty much older from the early 2000 era, but still so much fun. Unfortunately since I only had my cell phone camera, none of the pictures of the arcade came out right. (It's so dark in there!) I apologize guys! Much to my defeat I couldn't trick convince Lin nor Alexa to try it out, so after I spent up my tokens we left, and had some delicious boba at Cherry on Top. It's a fusion Boba/Frozen Yogurt place.

The inside has great lighting, and the staff and atmosphere there is super friendly and fun. Plus they have SUPER old school Mario on a Sega Genesis for customers to play and nice variety of board games. When we got there some girls were loudly playing Candy Land.

It was delicious!

Their drinks and their yogurt are both great! I ordered the passion fruit (one of my favorites) and even I was surprised by the nice portion size for a regular. Of course no trip to a fun place with great indoor lighting would be complete without a little cam-whoring! X3

Obligatory My-Space angle is Obligatory.

Just this one, I promise! Behind me you can see Alexa, enjoying her drink and leaving me to my own "En Vouge" devices. I love her for putting up with all my silliness. Once bobas were drank it was time for us to have some real dinner, and I suggested the best ramen place on earth Daikokuya.  For those of you who are near one of their locations listed on the website: GO AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY! It is seriously, some of the most delicious food and ramen ever. The staff is attentive and friendly, the portions are huge, and did I mention how delicious the food was? I did? Okay good. Delicious delicious delicious. Of course since the place is so wonderful, there was a waiting list. We were number 38 and they were just calling number 25!

;___;/ Ahh, the things we do for dinner. Since that left us with more wait time, we did the old school Gal thing and hang out some steps and chit-chatted. Alexa and I had a nice talk about the era when Gal was monkey-squatting while putting your make up on in public, para-para routines, and chunky boots. Ran Kotobuki Days

We were finally called in and ordered. The inside of Daikokuya is just as great as the food. The moment you walk in, you're hit with the happy bustling environment of the restaurant. The decor pays homage to 60'-80's Japan with his array of nostalgic posters, ads, and wall hung knick-knacks. They even play Japanese oldies everything from Enka to Pop.

I swear to you guys, Daikokuya has in no way paid me for this post. And enough of my rambling, have a food picture!

I want some right now. Seriously.

 I took this with Lin's ipod since my phone had long since died. (Androids, I love you, but yeesh that battery life stinks!) I ordered their traditional ramen combo with the donburi bowl. After dinner it was time for us to go home, and we took Alexa back to her car and bid her adieu. Once I got home, I was happy and exhausted and eager to open my presents!

Packaging!

Inside!

Look at all these great things! moko-moko socks, Victoria Secret, nail art supplies, AND make up. Seriously, Lin is after my own heart. Btw, those socks are amazing. I wish I could have everything made of out that material.  And then Alexa presented me with some amazing gifts as well!

Aaaaaahhh~! *explodes into hearts*

My first pair of Diamond eyelashes! And they're bottom lashes at that. I can't wait to crack these open and try them out, also some great Kyary eyelashes, facial mask, make up and a jewelry compact! I was so upset that when I showed my mother the awesome eye shadows, she dropped the compact and some of the make up broke. *weeps* both of the lip balms smell delicious and feel great on my lips!

So, remember that baby lucky pack I spoke of earlier? Well, here the contents!

Small but cute

I'm pretty happy with all the items that came in it! The stamper is adorable, the notepad will be very useful, and the pen in addition to being a writing tool also has a maze and a pin-ball inside it. I will be amused for days on end. While we were heading back from the restaurant, we decided to pop into one of the general stores, Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle. They're a decently sized store which sells everything from anime, manga, snacks, plushies, cooking utensils, make up and more! While we were in there, they had a sell on facial masks for $1.00 each!

Glorious.

The scent selection was really good, and I got: Lovely Strawberry, Juicy Pomegranate, Sweet Honey, White Rose, and Moisture Green tea. I can't wait to use them!

This December I had an amazing birthday, with wonderful people! I had a lot of fun and I can hardly wait until next year to do it all over again! Thank you Lin, Thank you Alexa! Next time, I'll be posting about my Christmas Eve! See you all soon!

Labels: friends, fun, life, outings

Hello all my lovely followers! How are you doing? I hope you can all forgive me for my super long absence! I feel so terrible to having neglected my blog for so so long! I really feel terrible!   However, I'm still on my Vacation for another week, so please expect a barrage of posts from  me over the weekend! I have such a terrible back log!  I have many things to post about, such as events, a huge month long shopping haul, my birthday, etc! But let's get started with this!

As always I'd like to thank my newest follower:
Kiki
I appreciate it so much!

As you all know a while back at the end of November Spank!, Bubble Punch,  Chubby Bunny and many other great artist got together to hold the Sweets Streets event at WWA Gallery in Culver City. I was dying to go and the amazing Sarah of Happiimilk agreed to let me go with her! It was wonderful finally meeting her and her friend Oli in person!  Well, when we finally got there, it was PACKED. The line was literally out the door and almost around the corner. We all had to wait for a while, but it did give everyone time to chat and make new friends! Unfortunately it also gave the weather time to change up and RAIN on us.  I think there was a lot of miscommunication and confusion going on with the organizers and the staff. 

However, finally everyone was let in and I was ecstatic to see all the wonderful art work!

There were so many people! And everyone had on such interesting clothes!

This was my outfit of the day! As you can tell, I've got some of my previous Gets on from earlier. I went with Pink, because I don't have to many Fairy-Kei type clothes.

Truly Outrageous! I love the crystals growing out of Jem!

The pink Totoro was adorable! Even while risqué, I really enjoyed the Princess inspired piece.

Some sexy and cute artwork from Beibadgirl! Rilakkuma milk!

There are never enough magical girls!

Speaking of magical girls, this photo has one of my favorites! Creamy Mami is always amazing!

I love her outfit!

Loved these two pieces of work! The colors and the art style were amazing to me! Also, I want those shoes!

These works were truly astounding to me. I loved how the artist was able to take inspiration from Traditional Japanese & Chinese  fashion and myths and combine them with modern pop and colors to create something utterly original and fantastic!

Of course, not only was I there to see the amazing art work, but I ran into some wonderful people as well!
It was a great event to meet and greet, and I saw some wonderful bloggers as well. Unfortunately, there were a little too many people, so holding a conversation was a bit difficult.

The ever beautiful Risa!

Two of the organizers of the event! I loved their hair! Such gorgeous, vibrant colors! and that Sugar Pill necklace is AMAZING.

I didn't get a chance to catch their names, but I believe the girl on the right was a model for the fashion show! Also, Big Bows and Start dresses!

So much cute pink! And those earmuffs!

Lindsay looking adorable as always!

After looking at all the beautiful artwork, it was time to go and shop! Chubby Bunny had an adorable mini shop set up in the back, and she was debuting some of her new pieces!

The shop!

Because the size of the shop was so tiny, there was another line to get in, but it was worth the wait! Even though I was toward the tail end of the line, there was still some adorable stock left! So thanks a lot Chubby Bunny! After I bought my items, Sarah was ready to go, so we bid adieu to the Spank! land, and went hunting for some late night eats. We ended up at El Pollo Loco, but it was still delicious!  So, what did I get?

This bag! So simple, yet so cute! I adore it!

The Haul!

Here's what's inside: Candy, a fashion pin, brochures for the event and the upcoming ones, and my adorable hair pins! I love them so much. I purchased three shooting stars, and one triple bunny pin! Cute and durable!
That sums up my time at the Sweet Streets gallery exhibit!

For more coverage and photos on the event be sure to check out these links:
Happii Milk 
Geeky Glamorous 
LA Weekly
ANZ Falcon
Defective Geeks

Thanks for reading guys! Sorry this is so behind! I'm working on my next post as I speak! Gonna get rid of that backlog I swear it!

Labels: events, fun, gets, outings