birthday swap with Ariel

Birthday Swap from Ariel

As promised, here's a kawaii post for you! Ariel and I share the same birthday (April 27th) and we decided to do a birthday swap this year! It was really exciting and tons of fun for me to pick out goodies for her. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the goods I sent her so we'll have to make do with what she sent me.

Birthday Caaaaaaaaaard

Let's start with the birthday card, because you're supposed to read the card before moving on to the gifts. She chose a stunningly awesome card for me (I'm a huge Disney fan). As you can see, the card features Micky and Minnie wearing brightly coloured glasses. The glasses stick out from the rest of the card.

Inside

And it's a pop-up card! How awesome! I haven't received one of these...ever but I've always wanted one so thank you Ariel for the wonderful card and very thoughtful message!

Little Twin Stars Café Poster

There's been a lot of kawaii character themed cafés popping all over Tokyo these past few months and Ariel is lucky enough to visit a lot of them (living in Japan really helps!). She thoughtfully got me a poster from the LTS café. I've been trying to find a nice frame to put this in but haven't had any luck yet.

Kapibarasan Café Leaflet

Another kawaii café was the Kapibarasan café. I LOVE Kapibarasan so when I found out Ariel was going to it, I asked her to pick up some goodies for me. Unfortunately, everything was totally sold out (should've known) but she included the leaflet she picked up for me. 

Inside

I'm guessing the inside tells you about Kapibarasan and his friends? And it probably tells you where the Kapibarasan store is (can't believe I forgot to visit that when I was in Japan). 

Leaflet Back

The back of the leaflet features all the goodies you could've purchased at the café (ʃ⌣́,⌣́ƪ)

Kawaii Kleenex

Next up are these two adorable Kleenex packs. I've gotten Japanese tissue packs before and they're amazing. The packaging is so cute so it makes everything better whenever you need to use it. I didn't open these ones but all the ones I had before had cute designs on the tissue itself so I'm almost positive the tissues are decorated with kawaii characters. 

My boyfriend is always hesitate to ask for tissues when we're out because he knows I only have kawaii ones. 

Back Designs

Animal Crossing New Leaf Kinder-Like Packages

This little box is actually just like a Kinder Surprise. Inside the box is a chocolate egg wrapped in tinfoil and there's a capsule inside with a toy. 

Ariel had given me Dr. Shrunk enclosed in his little capsule and she gave me another one in the original box so I get to experience the joy of seeing what toy I got from start to finish!

Available Toys

New Leaf Logo

They even made a hole in the shape of the New Leaf logo, talk about attention to detail. 

Chocolate Egg

Capsule with Toy

Who's This?

Dr. Shrunk & Kicks!

I had gotten Kicks! I'm really happy with my toy and the paint job and attention to detail is astounding, it looks exactly like them! The toys are also extremely easy to assemble.

Rilakkuma Stripes Bath Bomb

Yeeeeeeeah, Ariel got me a bath bomb! It's funny because Ariel was also the first and only person who could get me bath bombs about a year ago. I had asked her to pick some up for me (when she was still living in California) because I couldn't find them anywhere. I finally used them and right when I was about to ask her to get me more, she included one in our swap.

Possible Toys

Once the bath bomb completely dissolves, there's a toy hidden inside. I'd really like to get either Kii or the Korilakkuma with the furry hat.

Rilakkuma 10th Anniversary Bow Keychains

Gah! I love these two bows. I'm not too familiar with my Rilakkuma so I'm not sure if they're released as prizes or if you purchase these. But either way, I really like the design on both bows. They feature the Happy Natural Time designs.

Kiiroitori Bow

The character charm attached to the bow is Kiiroitori dressed as an owl, which is the Happy Natural Time line. 

Close-Up

Look how cute he is! And the bow's design features everyone dressed up as deer (except for Kii).

Korilakkuma Bow

Out of the two, I like this one better as Korilakkuma is playing is her little deer plush and the colour isn't as bright. I can already picture how cute this will look on one of my handbags.

Close-Up

Wafer Cookies?

I had mentioned to Ariel that if she ran out of ideas to include Japanese snacks. I love trying different things, especially when it comes to Japanese snacks. There's such a huge variety and for some reason, I couldn't find that I haven't tried yet back home while I was in Japan. But I also wasn't looking very hard （⌒▽⌒ゞ

I'm not sure what these are but I know they're chocolate flavoured! Are they wafer cookies? Regardless, they look delicious! I can't wait to try them (I haven't touched any of these snacks before I wanted to take pictures of them first and I haven't had time until now).

Chewy Candies!

I've tried Hi-Chew before but never in mango flavour! I love mangos so this is super exciting. And the pokémon one is pineapple flavour I think, which is perfect for the summer. 

Kumamon Pocky

Eeeee, Kumamon! He's really adorable and I know he's been featured on the box of a few pocky flavours. I think one might be chocolate milk? Maybe chocolate cookies n' cream?

Kit Kat

Oh man, I'm beyond excited to try this Kit Kat. I find it amazing how many different types of Kit Kat flavours they have in Japan so I was SO happy when I saw this in my swap. Ariel told me that it's only available in Hokkaido. I'm almost too afraid to eat it. What if it's amazingly good and I won't be able to get it anymore? (;╹⌓╹)

Starbucks Mug

I cannot believe she was able to find this! I just cannot. 

Starbucks Tokyo Exclusive Mug

 I've been regretting not picking up this mug ever since I came back from Asia (not that I even noticed it). I only found out recently that Starbucks made Japan-specific mugs and I've been obsessed with getting one since. eBay is out of the question, I'm not paying $50 + shipping for a mug that might break on its way to me.

I asked Ariel if she was able to get one for me (any of them, they have about 10 different designs for different parts of Japan) but I didn't have much hope since I thought they might be extremely rare. You can imagine my surprise and happiness when I saw this.

Isn't it beautiful? I'm super happy with this mug and I'm thrilled that it's the Tokyo one because I've actually been there so I can go around telling people I picked it up when I was in Tokyo (it'll be our secret).

Sumikko Gurashi Duffle

This duffel is AWESOME! I didn't even know they made this but Ariel knows that I love Sumikko Gurashi. I think it might even be my favourite San-x line. 

Side View

Tag

There's quite a bit of space inside the bag as you can see here. I stuffed about 4 plush in it so make it look plumper. There's a longer strap inside that bag that you attach to the hooks on each end of the bag. The bag itself is very light which makes it perfect for weekend trips.

So that's the birthday swap I received from Ariel. Thank you Ariel for everything! I had tons of fun swapping with her and it makes me miss doing swaps with people. Maybe I'll pick it up again now that I have more time.