Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Japan (Part Four)

Previous Post: Japan (Part Three)

While traveling, I love to wake up early and wander around the surrounding before actually execute my itinerary, just so I could accidentaly found some interesting place that wasn't planned to be visited before. So on my second last day in Tokyo, I woke up at 5 and then wander around and around. My hotel was at Chiyoda-ku area, and I heard that Tokyo Imperial Palace is around the area. So I walk along the neighborhood until I found Tokyo Imperial Palace, and luckily, I stumble into Kitanomaru National Garden. A vast and beautiful garden in the heart of Tokyo, people say that this garden is at its best while Sakura is blooming, poor me even though I travel in spring, but the The Sakura was already fall in Tokyo. Here is some pictures I capture along my morning wander. 


Kudanshita Station, The Nearest Station from My Hotel, Grand Palace Tokyo


In Front of Spring Water Gate, Kitanomaru National Garden




Area of Tokyo Imperial Palace

Imperial palace, where the imperial family reside, is surrounded by stone walls and moats, and inside the stone walls it is again surrounded by a vast garden. The imperial palace is originally located at Kyoto, but then moved to Tokyo at 1868. The palace is not open for public, but its East Garden is, and in the above picture I posed in front of East Garden entrance. East Garden consist of memorial, garden, and Museum of The Imperial Collection which I really want to visit, but when I arrived it had not opened yet and I had itineraries coming up so it was impossible to visit the museum, well next visit, I hope! 

Gosh as I write this, you can not imagine how much I miss the feeling to be wandering around  and feel Japan's spring air, the cold wind and breeze, while absorbing the divine architecture and strong tradition of Japan. And the next thing on my itinerary is Asakusa Temple. So here we go...





Dress (tailor made), Sweater (Marks & Spencer), 
Shoes (Yongki Komaladi), Bag (Charles & Keith)

Asakusa Kannon Temple located in Asakusa, it is a Buddhist temple. Asakusa Kannon Temple itself is Tokyo's oldest temple. I entered the temple from Kaminarimon, the outer gate of the temple and symbol of Tokyo. After the gate, inside I can see the temple main hall and a five storied pagoda. When I arrived there,  a lot of people was praying in the main hall. Just outside the main hall, I found a lot of fortune kiosk which I really want to try, but the fortune that was written at a piece of paper is in Japanese and too bad I do not know how to read it. Fuh. 

Anyway, if you ever heard about melon pan, which is a soft bread that tastes like melon, here in Asakusa, just before Nakamise - dori, you would find the best melon pan. Just find kiosk with the longest queue and you will not be mistaken that it must be that oh so famous melon pan!



Shops and Crowds along Nakamise - dori

Nakamise - dori is a street that we have to walk along before the main entrance of Asakusa Kannon Temple and it hosts a lot of souvenir and traditional Japanese food and cookies shops. I can not get enough with every little shop there! Just make sure to try every snacks and foods you want while feeling the atmosphere of Tokyo. I found a lot of ningyoyaki shop which is a cake with read bean paste filling and I am happy just to look at the process of the making of ningyoyaki while eating it fresh and hot from the oven. 


Sanja Matsuri Festival

There are three biggest festivals in Tokyo, Kanda Matsuri, Sanno Matsuri and Sanja Matsuri. I am that one lucky traveler who do not know that I travel in the appropriate time where Sanja Matsuri was being held at Asakusa. 

The Sanja Matsuri is an annual festival in the Asakusa district that takes place over the third full weekend in May. It is held in celebration of the three founders of Sensoji Temple. The Sanja Matsuri features about one hundred mikoshi, portable shrines, in which Shinto gods (kami) are symbolically placed into and paraded about the streets to bring good fortune to the local businesses and residents.


A Glance of Odaiba 



 






Hello Disney Sea!

I do not have much time in Japan, so I have to choose between Disney Land or Disney Sea, and truly it actually is breaking my heart… And with this is mind I finally choose Disney Sea: there is only one Disney Sea in the whole world, and it was there, in Tokyo. Disney Land? I could visit it later when I have the chance to travel to Paris, maybe? 

And, by the way, I heard that Disney Sea offers a lot more variety of foods and restaurants than Tokyo Disney Land. And, I loveee foods! The architecture of course is divine and dreamy like you would imagine. This theme park consists of seven area: American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Lost River Delta, Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon, Mysterious Island, and Mediterranean Harbor. But what makes me really happy is its vast area; I love getting lost inside, enjoying every corner, every restaurant and the different smell that come from inside the restaurant, looking at every piece of the souvenir they provide, sitting at a table and sip a cup of coffee while observing my surrounding, taking pictures, well lots of them. Well, you could say I'm not a fan of attraction, and those things above is what I do at theme park. 

As I enjoyed the park, I realize that crowds of people were starting to sit around the lake in Mediterranean Harbor area, oh it must be that famous parade that they're waiting for. You could see at my last picture above, how dreamy and spectacular the show was. It was a beautiful closing to my second last day in Japan. And now I hope that I could go back there, soon… Who would not?

Friday, July 24, 2015

Bye Bye Dark Circle

Lately I've been working at one of the state hospital's emergency room, so I guess it is imaginable how much stress it puts to my mind and my body. It is hard to look radiant when I have dark circle under my eyes, so then I've looked into some product that can get rid of it. There, then I found Timeless Truth, a beauty brand originally from Taiwan which specialized in mask. They have a wide variety of product, including face, eye, and breast mask. Luckily, I was able to get two of their products, which are apple lifting correction eye mask and orchid extract whitening mask. Now that the urgent matter is my dark circle, I should try the eye mask first. 


Product: Apple Lifting Correction Eye Mask, Price: 150.000 idr (for 5 pairs)
Orchid Extract Whitening Mask, Price: 50.000 idr/piece 

The apple lifting correction eye mask contains apple extract, arbutin, and green tea extract. While apple  extract is good for skin metabolism, able to prevent early aging, and able to maintain the smoothness of the skin, arbutin plays its part at reducing pigmentation. So, together they claimed to be able to provides a great effect on dark circles under the eyes. Great news, just exactly what I  need! Let's see how it will affect my dark circle. 

How to use the apple lifting correction eye mask:
  1. Cleanse the face.
  2. Open the sachet and take out the eye mask.
  3. Gently place the mask under the eyes. 
  4. Remove mask after 15-20 minutes, gently massage the remaining essence under the eyes, post cleansing is not needed.

Before using Apple Lifting Correction Eye Mask
(I do not wear any make up, except a little lip cream)


How the eye mask looks like:
 It comes with bio cellulose mask that contains lots of extract liquid on it. It smells good, feels cool and refreshing once applied to the skin. After 20 minutes, it still is feel cool and refreshing.


After using Apple Lifting Correction Eye Mask:
I do not see any significant difference, but of course my eye looks a little bit more fresh. I guess it has to be worn a couple of times if we want to see maximum effect.

Based on my opinion, this product is worth to try, but it is best to buy one package and wear it regularly, after that then maybe we could see the maximum effect. The price is not expensive at all as you can see above, it is easy to get just by one click away at its web, and is easy to use for it only takes 15 minutes per session and we do not need to cleanse after using it. And for me, this mask does not give me any pimples or skin break out post-usage. I like to wear any kind of mask at night, for our skin is in optimum condition to heal itself at night. To conclude, I give 4 stars out of 5 :)
So, let me try the face mask and write another review while you can start to click Timeless Truth web and browse your desired product, shall we?

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Judge a Book by Its Content

Some of my friends say why should we waste money on face treatment or skin care while we're still young? They say at this very age we do not need any face treatment to prevent skin aging. To dear friends, let's just agree to disagree, shall we? For me, I believe that what we do today will bring impact later on. Our skin may look okay, but it's the cover that we see, we do not know what happening inside, while actually it is also as important as how it looks like from the outside. Just like a book, the content is actually as important as the cover. So, shouldn't we have to design the content precisely and carefully?

I've been using this product that contains nutrition to hydrate my skin and prevent it from aging, but after I do some studies I found that there are some other similar product that contain the same nutrition but with better improvement: free system (paraben etc free), whoa what a bonus! I guess I should share it with you then.



Secret Key (Originally from South Korea)

I guess you already heard it before, so do I. But I never really do some research about this brand before, not like this time. Secret Key Indonesia claiming to be all natural, yes yes I know that a lot of brand is also claiming to be so. But, what capture my heart the most is its Starting Treatment Essence that contains Galactomyces, that they claiming to be one of the yeast ferment filtrates, plus 7 free system (this is what really capture my attention!): paraben, mineral oil, benzophenone, alcohol, animal oil, color, spice free!  If you do not know how important is this 7 free system, I give you one explanation, paraben is a preservative used in cosmetic product, so to have a nutritive product without paraben is like owning a high quality book with top content. There might be some other brands that contain Galactomyces, but this 7 free system, not every product have it, I guess. 


Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence 
Rp 199.000,00 at Nihon Mart

Speaking about the Galactomyces, like any other product with Galactomyces in it, is very useful for whitening and reducing wrinkle, hydrating, and even up the skin color. This starting treatment essence should be used first before any other skin treatment at our daily skin treatment routine. And for me, once I use a product like this I would like to put the essence in my hand and directly apply it to my face without cotton, because I do not like the product being absorbed by the cotton. 

At the time I study about Secret Key, especially about its Starting Treatment Essence I stumble upon Nihon Mart Kosmetik Online, and surprisingly this web which specialized in providing Japanese and Korean Brand, sells Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence in a very reasonable price. I once visited another web and they sell Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence, please note that it is not The Rose Edition, Rp 220.000,00 which is way more expensive than the one I saw in Nihon Mart. So, I think I should buy one at Nihon Mart, of course. Well well, do not judge a book by the price, even Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence doesn't cost high, it contains 90% Galactomyces so I believe that this product will be an effective skin nutrition. Let me just end this post and directly go to Nihon Mart to save my self one Starting Treatment Essence, may I?

Neither Beaches Nor Highlands

I think I already told this couple of times, if I were asked to choose which leisure time I prefer: enjoying the sun in the current famous beaches or waiting the sun to rise in  the chilly atmosphere of some beautiful highlands? I choose neither. Wandering around a city, accidentally found an old pier or impulsively visiting a gallery is still my favorite. 





Museum Angkut, Batu, Jawa Timur

So, I was more than happy to be able to spend some rare moment with the person whom I love to share with in my kind of favorite wandering spot. Rare moment should I call it, because if we meet, we always be haunted by time, limited time. I already told in my previous post that we live in a different city and he has his job and dreams to pursue and so do I, so it is not easy for us to spare some time together. We even ever meet for only an hour, (while at that time we haven't met for about five or six months), in the airport in Tangerang, while I wait for my next connecting flight. So, this rare moment where we can talk and walk all along without having to look at the clock nervously, this is the time we cherish the most.



Museum Angkut, Batu, Jawa Timur

Speaking about Museum Angkut, this is a museum which hosts various kind of transportation, from pedicab to racing car, and sort and placed them based on their origin country. So, in this museum you will see a thematic country display, designed with the famous landmark of each country. A decent place to study about transportation and take some good picture, plus talk a good conversation while walking all along the museum with the one you love to share. Do open the link above so you can take a look at Museum Angkut official website.



Top (Tailor-made), Skirt (Tailor-made), Shoes (Kate Spade), Bag (Charles & Keith)

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Let's Aim High



A quiet rare moment where me and him are able to celebrate birthday together in the appropriate right time. Because we live in a different city, it is not easy for us to be present at every of each other birthday. I am so satisfied to celebrate his birthday at Melati Restaurant, Hotel Tugu. The staffs are really supportive and well trained, not to mention how perfect the ambience and the food are! So, happy birthday to the one I love and respect. It would be cliche if I write "I love you", so instead I would rather say "Let's aim high". If people love each other, I believe that they will provide each other backs and aim high, together. 


I am wearing (details will be posted at the next post):
 Dress (Something Borrowed, bought from Zalora), 
Shoes (Kate Spade), Bag (Michael Kors)

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Beauty is Effort

Beauty is pain, some old line told us. But I'd rather more agree with this line, beauty is effort. A lot of people do so much effort to take care of their weight and body shape by choosing the best food to consume. But unfortunately, people often forgot to choose the best food to feed their face skin. Yes, it looks like some of us will start a treatment to heal our skin once it had acnes, or had a dry condition. But when our skin looks okay, we often forget to feed it with the right nutrition. Do we even forget that even our skin looks okay, it actually is the first shield of our body and mind? So, start from this very young age, I want to start to be committed to my skin, to feed it the right amount of nutrition it needed so that as my age grow, my skin will stay young.  

So recently I've been researching some products available to find the one which will give my skin the right amount of nutrition it needed. I am aware, that hydration is the most important thing to keep my skin from this most scary thing: dry skin. So, that's where I am looking. I am looking for products that will hydrate my skin and this is where the story begins, I finally met Laneige. Yes, that well known brand from South Korea with Song Hye Kyo as its face. While doing my research, I accidentally came into Nihon Mart, an online beauty store which start its operating from 2011 and focusing on Japan and Korean beauty product and so happy to find that they also sell original product from Laneige.


(Price: 295.000 idr, at Nihon Mart)

I know I do not have to think twice when I found Laneige, since this brand is famous with its Laneige Advanced Water Science, just the right thing that I needed the most! And I am not surprised when I found that in Nihon Mart, its Laneige Water Sleeping Pack is the most best selling product. Like what the banner said, this product contains of three main usage, in which I needed the most: strong hydration made by Beta-Glucan, exfoliating and brightening made by Hunza Apricot Extract which will eliminate harmful oxygen radicals and Chestnut Extract which will peel off dead skin cells, and Sleepscent for Deep Sleep which will make my skin relax to improve skin regeneration. The product is also easy to use by the way, I just have to apply it before sleep and I do not need to wash it off, I just can directly doze off while enjoying Laneige Water Sleeping Pack relaxed me. I'm so glad I found this product in Nihon Mart, yeay! 

I do love beauty rituals before sleep. It's an effort I love the most. It's the time when I can enjoy and appreciate my self and my mind, while also taking care of it. Beauty is effort. Without an effort from ourselves to take care of our body and mind since the earliest time possible, I doubt that we can maintain the most optimal condition of it all. Because things don't just happen, it happens with the presence of effort, doesn't it?

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Spend Wisely

Some people say, it is forbidden to spend too much money on complimentary stuff, such as fashion brands, or monthly traveling agenda. But, I agree to disagree. The one which forbidden is this: to not work as smart and as hard as we could to be able to enjoy the world. This is what I believe, it is okay to spend as much as I would, and could, as long as I also try my hardest to earn. Earn much, spend smart! So, since I believe I have work my ass off to earn, I deserve this shoes I get from Zalora, and a quick escape once in a while to enjoy the world. So there am I, on my last trip to Malaysia, standing in The Petronas Skybridge at 170 meters above street level, to enjoy the world. 



The Little Things She Needs (bought from Zalora)


Top (Tailor-made), Skirt (Tailor-made),
 Shoes (The Little Things She Needs bought from Zalora), Bag (Charles & Keith)

Speaking about spend smart, I just realize that this early month, Zalora is smartly held a Warehouse Clearance Sale! You could always get the best price from a Warehouse Sale, couldn't you? So, this is just the right time to spend wisely, after a long day of working hard! Since Zalora provide great brands in their store, and by that it means a great product, and now? With a great price! This is just the right time to spend, anyway. I feel like I have to rush to open Zalora's web now because it's only held between April 6th-12th, oh no! 


Go click Zalora Warehouse Clearance Sale now,  CLICK HERE!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Japan (Part Three)

Previous Post: Japan (Part Two)


Even the parking area of Mt Fuji 5th Station has this beautiful view of snow and clouds


Komitake Shrine

In Japan, you could easily spot shrine almost in every corner of the country. And Komitake Shrine is no exception. Stand 2300 meters above sea level, at the 5th station of Mt. Fuji, this shrine gloriously welcome me as I arrived there. Even if the weather was too cold for me since I am not wearing any coat, just a wool jacket, I can't stand my self not to explore the 5th station of Mt. Fuji. There, we could easily find magnificent view of cities below and clouds above! Well, is this how heaven look like?


Dress (Tailor-made), Jacket (Marks & Spencer), Tights (Marks & Spencer),
 Belt (Unbranded), Shoes (Yongki Komaladi), Wool Hat (Classic)


My mom with a really close view of Mt Fuji's peak


Melon Pan

Mt Fuji 5th Station hosts restaurants, shops which sell hiking stuff, and souvenir shops. For hiker, this is the last station where they could stock up foods and hiking gear, while for tourist, this is the last station in which we could see Mt Fuji's peak at the closest distance possible. I can't imagine how cold  it is in the peak, since I already find my nose hurt by the cold weather here. But nevertheless, the cold can't beat how happy I am to be able to explore this area! And I've been hearing about Japan's famous melon pan (which the most famous one can be found at a shop in Senso-ji Shrine in Tokyo), but accidentally found this in Mt Fuji do make me so happy. If I judge the book by its cover, then I could bet that those melon pan tastes divine. And what makes me even happier, it really does taste divine! Now I know why this snack is so famous, it is worth the fuss anyway.


Train Station at Kawaguchi


Have you ever spotted white sakura? I capture it on my way back from 5th station to Lake Kawaguchi


Where I ate lunch, a restaurant in the second floor of a souvenir shop which I do not remember the name, in Misaka-Michi Road


Ice cream booth at first floor of the restaurant


What I ate for lunch: sashimi, cold soba, and udon in the hot pot 


Shops along Misaka-Michi Road

After spent enough time at Mt Fuji's 5th station, we went back to Lake Kawaguchi to have lunch. We had our lunch in a restaurant in the second floor of a souvenir shop with glass wall so we were able to enjoy the view of Lake Kawaguchi while we ate, a memory I will cherish and miss for the rest of my life, definitely! And of course I did not want to waste my time by not strolling around Lake Kawaguchi. I walk along Misaka-Michi Road while enjoying its ambience. There are a lot of shops, mostly restaurant and gift shops around Lake Kawaguchi.


Shinjuku


The super crowded pedestrian crossing in Shinjuku at night



Now off we go to the busy, buzzing, and crowded Shinjuku in Tokyo! We went back to Tokyo by bus, at the evening, my mom and me spent our time wander around Shinjuku. Just to enjoy the ambience, the crowded pedestrian walk, the buzzing and busy corner of Shinjuku, the never ending fashion, book, groceries shops, and all kind of restaurant on every corner of the street. Tokyo is just diverse, yet divine. I love the way I understand a little part of my self I never knew before, or found crazy ideas in the middle of places I am not familiar with, in the middle of strangers whom I don't even fluent in talking their languages. I guess it's true that some people say, travel is a journey to find ourselves while we're lost.