toronto mini haul

My family and I went on a day trip to Toronto on Tuesday. My dad also had some business there so it's like hitting two birds with one stone! It was a lot of fun and I obviously bought some things, as much as I tried to control myself, some things just cannot be left unclaimed.

Items that were calling my name.
The first item that I bought was this adorable Solar Bear mirror. Those of you who read this post will know how much I love Solar Bear and how impossible it is to find its products. I went to Japan and I didn't see any so you can imagine how I reacted when I saw it.

IT'S MINE!!!
I mustered all the grace I could and politely while sweating bullets, anxious that someone was going to come and steal my mirror, told the store owner that I'm interested in the "bear" mirror when in my mind, I was screeching, "DIS IS MEINE!!!! GIMME GIMME!!!" I should be presented with a gold medal in keeping up appearances.

Yay! Now I can bring Solar Bear with me everywhere
My mom was buying a bunch of re-ment items for my sister and asked if I wanted anything. The actual re-ments that I wanted cost more than what she was getting my sister and I didn't want my mom to spend more on me so I choose this Mickey Mouse food one.

Mickey Mouse Re-ment Prize
I also bought this adorable puppy re-ment. Most of the possible outcomes were adorable so I decided to get one since the odds of getting an ugly one were lower. And guess what?

I GOT THE ONE I WANTED!!!!! YAAAAARGH!!!

The stars must've been aligned again just like in this post when I bought my sleeping sheep!

My re-ment prize, the shiba inu!
My sister bought one also, and she was really happy with her prize. She opened her's first being the less patient one and she had gotten the adorable little Corgi wearing the police hat. That is, until she saw what I got.

Eeeee! Look at this face :D

Obi obviously tried to steal it.
I also bought a Japanese magazine that I fell in love with when I visited Hong Kong 5 years ago. It's called ViVi and they make a Hong Kong edition of it but the Japanese version is obviously better. It's also way more expensive though. The Japanese issues cost between $20 - $30 while the HK edition ranges from $10-$25 depending on how old the issue is. But I found this one for $9 at T&T Supermarket. I just look at the pictures anyway since I can't read a word of it (or character).

ViVi July 2012 Hong Kong Edition

Inside look about rainy day fashions
Last but not least, I purchased not one, but two Japanese ceramic lucky cats, also known as maneki-neko. My parents told me that they bought one and I wanted to check it out as well. I ended up buying one for my office in hopes that my kawaii selling, will improve and one for my room, for my personal life.

Golden Maneki-Neko
This one is for my office. The right paw is lifted signifying that the cat is pawing money towards me. The treasure chest means that it'll collect and keep all the money safe. The gold reinforces all the symbolism so it's super lucky if you want to look at it that way.

Back end
The eggplants mean that all my wishes will come true concerning my career and Mt. Fuji represents good money. So if this kitty does work, I'll be able to buy all the kawaii and clothes I want!!

This one is for my room. The eggplants mean the same as before as well as Mt. Fuji. The turtle represents longevity so that I'll live a long and healthy life while the cranes represent good relationships with friends.

Back end
The bag is pretty much the same concept as the golden one except that it's not meant for collecting money. The colourful bag is so that everything will be kept together meaning that all this amazingness will stay with me forever.

If both these kitties work, I'll pretty much have the perfect life! But they only work if I put money in them, and they both have to be facing a window so that the kitties can "rake" in the money, happiness, good health etc. Here's hoping!

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toronto goodies

My trip to Toronto was a lot of fun! My family and I (minus my sister who had too much homework) left at around 8 AM and we arrived at around 1:30 PM. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant that we usually go to called, "Congee Wong." After lunch, we went shopping and I went on a mini shopping spree.

Goodies purchased from TO.
Here is a picture of all the goodies that I purchased from Toronto. Although they had a lot of stores that sold kawaii, I was disappointed with the selection since a lot of it were fakes. There were tons of fake rilakkuma, totoro and other kawaii character items. Worst of all, they weren't even good fakes, I could tell right away that they weren't the real deal.

But a lot of new shops opened up in the mall that we usually go to and we haven't been to Toronto in a long time so I still managed to spend a good 3 or 4 hours shopping. A lot of Asian makeup stores has opened up, my sister would've loved it. I, on the other hand, am too lazy to learn to apply makeup well so it didn't mean much to me unless it's creams or cleansers.

Kitty/Doggy Hand Cream
So it's not unusual that I bought this! The packaging obviously caught my eye so I went into the store to inquire more information about it and there was a tester and it passed! It didn't leave any stickiness behind. I hate it when creams leave a sticky residue. I bought a Korean brand hand cream and it feels disgusting after you put it on. Plus, it doesn't even work!

There isn't much but you don't need to slather a lot on her hands for it to work either.

Birthday Teddy Bear
This one my parents actually bought me and it was funny because I was planning on buying it and I kind of ruined my own surprise. The store that was selling it had a huge display of these cute little bears. I thought it was super cute and although I'm normally not a fan of these birthday toys, I couldn't resist this cute little bear. But to my dismay, April 27th was all gone! They had a whole bunch of other birthdays still available but mine had been all snatched! I asked one of the saleswoman who worked there and asked if she had anymore of April 27th, she said that she'd go check in the back.

I also happened to run into my dad about 5 seconds later (we had split up) and he asked what I was looking for. I told him the teddy bear, then he asked which date and I told him my birthday. He gave me a look and said,"Already bought it for you." and proceeds to take it out of his shopping bag and gave it me.

So soft too!

There was a store that sold a lot of Shinzi Katoh goods and other unusual items. I was surprised that they had a shop like that since the majority of the mall sold fake kawaii goods, car parts, copied DVDs, and Asian makeup. They had so much Shinzi Katoh! They were reasonably priced too (as far as Shinzi Katoh items go for anyway).

Ugly Duckling Tin Pencil Case
I thought this was really cute but Alex told me that it's super depressing. My brother agreed. They said that every time I need to get my pencil/pen, I have to look at the sad ugly duckling I don't think he's ugly at all!). I told them that it'll remind me to not judge things by their covers. They still insisted that it was depressing.

Inside.

Bottom.

Sheep Earrings.
I also bought a pair of sheep earrings from the same store. I normally get an allergic reaction to the cheaper earrings because of the metal or paint that they use, but I asked the girl and she said that they're titanium so they won't give an allergic reaction. I hope she's right.

Kapibara-san Gashapon
There used to be a lot of gashapon shops in the mall but I guess they weren't doing really well since there was only one left. It was a small one and they toys were ugly! I couldn't even remember what they were but they did have a kapibarasan one :)

Kapibarasan Screen Cleaner.
I usually don't buy collectors' toys or figurines but this one is cute! The figurines are sheep and I had previously bought one of these (but a different collection, I forgot what it was) when I was in Hong Kong 5 years ago.

They're dream sheep. The text on the box didn't make any sense but I'm guessing it's sheep that grant your dreams' wishes or something.

Possible Toys.
This series is the horoscope collection. I like the Taurus and Virgo ones the most. You have a 7:8 chance of getting a white sheep, which are the ones with pictures and a 1:8 chance of getting a black sheep, which are the question marks.

What's Inside?

OMG I GOT THE TAURUS ONE!!!!!!
DJFKAJFKLDAJFKDSJFKDSJDFLJSAFF IT'S THE TAURUS ONE!!!!! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?! THE STARS MUST BE ALIGNED WITH THE PLANET NEPTUNE AND IT MUST BE THE RIGHT TIME TO BUY THESE DREAM SHEEP!!!!!

In case you didn't know, Taurus is MY sign and it's the one I wanted! I can't believe this! On my first (and only) try too!

MY ACTUAL BIRTH DATE TOO!?
And that's not all, my actual birth day is printed on the bottom of the sheep. WHAT IS THIS?! THIS IS DESTINY! THE SHEEP AND I ARE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER!

Apparently, it's a game and it came with this paper. I'm not going to use it but here it is just to show you guys. OMG THAT SHEEP AND I ARE SOUL MATES! I DON'T NEED THIS SILLY PAPER GAME TO TELL ME!

Instructions that I'll never use because WE CHOSE EACH OTHER!
Last but not least is Alex's birthday present for me! At the Shinzi Katoh store, I was debating on whether I should buy this adorable tote (since I have a lot of bags, I'm a plush and handbag addict). I left the store without it and decided to think about it. Within an hour, I decided to get it, life is too short! It was then the cherry on top of an awesome day when Alex offered to get it for my birthday (even though it was over our budget, we had decided to get each other small gifts of $10 so that we can get amazing gifts for each other in Asia). He said that he didn't mind going over the budget as long as it made me happy (awwww!).

Shinzi Katoh Doggy Tote.

Front/back.

Bottom.

Yummy curry fish and beef balls.
At some point during the day, my brother got hungry so we went to buy some delicious fish and beef balls. Every time we come to Toronto, my brother feasts on these. I wanted to get escargots too but they ran out. We had ordered much more but Alex and my brother were like vultures and ate a lot of them before I got a chance to take a picture.

Baby Polar Bear.
I didn't buy this little guy in Toronto but he was purchased a few days before we went. I found him in an outlet candy store and there was three of them lined up together. Although all 3 were cute, my eyes were immediately drawn to him. After little deliberation, I decided he was coming home with me. Alex, on the other hand, bought some chocolate almonds.

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