Day 1 - Ohayou Tokyo!

Arrived at NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT! ^0^

Just like what I told you before on my previous post, this was our very first trip overseas (beside asean countries) that we visited without tour guide/ tour services/ packages. 

This trip is my parents' 3rd visit and my 2nd visit to Japan, but previously we always took tour services from Indonesia, where we were provided everything from visa, tickets, reservations.. So we only needed to sit nicely in the bus and they'd take us to the tourist attractions! 

It all started when I was randomly checking out cheap airplane tickets (in July) and found a great deal from Jakarta to Japan on Airasia's website. Then I told my parents about it. We loveee Japan very much at every visit we make, and we're also a big fan of the food there. This year, there are also so many news and tv shows about Japan's tourist attractions and at that time, we realized that there are still so many places that we haven't visited in Japan, and how we missed their authentic Japanese food / street food when we went there with tour guide (usually, Indonesian tour services will take us to chinese restaurants most of the time... lol). Moreover, we feel like we're always in a rush when going with tour, as we're supposed to visit maaaanny places in a short time. So, the shopping time and photo time are so limited!! 

At first they hesitated as none of us can speak Japanese and many Japanese can't speak English.

But I read many Indonesian bloggers' blogpost about their trip to Japan without tour guide, and it's not hard at all. I was really helped by myfunfoodiary's blogposts, and also Ashley's,  cominica's, stella lee's, and elle & jess' ! :)

WHAT I PREPARED BEFORE GOING TO JAPAN:

1. Bought airplane ticket (JKT-Narita(Tokyo) & Kansai(Osaka)-JKT) from Airasia.com (IDR 5,5mill/person)
2. Booked apartment in Tokyo (via airbnb.com) and hotel in Osaka (via agoda.com)
3. Booked pocket wifi . (very important to go around Japan to see the train schedules on hyperdia.com and also google map) from Global Advanced Comm
4. Making itinerary and completing documents for visa
5. Calculating the approximate cost of transportation while in Japan to decide whether I need a JR Pass or not

1. Learning about the train's tracks / maps, so the itinerary is neat and I won't overcost on transportation. I also make a draft document about what transportation I'd take from the airport to the apartment, from the nearest station from my apartment to go around tokyo, from Tokyo - Osaka, Osaka - Kyoto, till from the hotel to the airport . All of those routes can be found in hyperdia.com's website! They also include the fares, the time, and the tracks which are VERY useful.

We arrived on December 19th morning in Narita Airport, then we decided to take the Airport limousine bus where the ticket can be purchased in front of the arrival exit for around ¥3000 one way to Shibuya (cerulean tower tokyu hotel). The trip took about 2 hours.

BESTTTTT HOT CHOCO EVER!!! I drank this every morning since the vending machine in our apartment's lobby got this van houten. Hehe!

Japanese are VERY PUNCTUAL. I purchased my bus ticket for 9:05am departure at 9:03 (which means I only got 2 minutes left to hop onto the bus) , but then I 'lost' my phone and I and my parents had to get off the bus and looked for my phone, only to found out it's actually in my coat's pocket. LOL. My parents were quite pissed of how clumsy I was as their "private tour guide" on our first day in Japan, while we still got 5 days to go dealing with my clumsiness .
So, the bus left us but they said I may change the ticket for the next departure time for free!

Right after we arrived in Cerulean Tokyo Tower Hotel (which is the bus stop in Shibuya area), we asked the hotel's staff the way/route to Dogenzaka area (our apartment) since we still hadn't got our pocket wifi yet (it's delivered to our apartment).

• bruno hat c/o Her Spot
• coat from cloth inc
• sweater from bershka
• blue stripes shirt from stradivarius
• denim shorts from zara kids
• sunglasses from kate spade
• bag from michael kors
• creepers c/o @grinitty

We were surprised to see the momiji (autumn leaves)! I thought it's not available anymore in December. So we stopped to take a picture in front of the pretty tree!! #perksofnotgoingwithatourguide.

Damn soft pork belly cuts

While we were 'lost' looking for our apartment. My mom insisted to stop by this small restaurant because she said it smelled so good even from outside and we hadn't had our breakfast yet.
The staffs couldn't speak english but luckily we ordered the food through a vending machine (thank God I've read some infos about Japanese's vending machines in food stalls) and we just needed to press the number of the menu (there were food miniatures in front of this restaurant along with their numbers in the menu). Our meals were affordable! ¥480-500 with free ocha :)

This pork katsu with egg & onions were really good :9

I've calculated the whole transportation cost for our trip in Japan and we don't need a JR Pass. We decided to get ourselves a Suica card each. It's like a bca flazz card but we use it in JR train stations (for JR lines). We filled the card with some amount of money (¥2000) . Everytime we pass the gate, we just stick the card to the sensor and it'd read the station we get in, and stick again at the exit gate (and they'll charge you the fee automatically by cutting off the amount you have in your card. There are discounts too (for example. shibuya station to harajuku is ¥210, but after discount the fare is only ¥190) rather than purchasing a usual ticket one by one for every trip). 

This Suica card can only be used for JR lines . For metro/subway, you need to purchase Pasmo card (same function) . I didn't purchase Pasmo card since I didn't take many routes through metro/subway lines, so everytime I needed to take a subway/metro, I just bought a ticket at the ticket machines ;)

Good morning Shibuya!! Thank you so much to the police officer in front of Shibuya station who spoke English very well and showed us the way to our apartment, and also a very kind Japanese who also helped us although he couldn't speak english.. so both of us used the sign languages.. lol



Yay... we're getting close to our apartment!! Look at the pretty sky and sunlight :D

After we've arrived at our apartment, we took a moment to take a rest and change our clothes to wander around Shibuta till night!

There's a Lawson store in front of our apartment. I got myself a pocky and also a very yummy warm milk tea :9

The famous SHIBUYA109 Mall was very close to our apartment. There are so many famous brands like Snidel, Emoda, Liz Liza, Samantha Vega, and maaaany more. I and my mom went a lil bit crazy shopping at that mall. Even the shop assistans were very pretty and cute!! xD

Randomly visited a standing (yes... standing as it means there's not any chair / seat to sit on) sushi bar in Shibuya.. The sushi was good!!

I have an extraordinary tummy, so we went in to a Yoshinoya stall and I tried this pork belly rice which's not available in Indonesia.. Omg.. it's sooo yummyyyy!! Wish they could bring this menu to Indonesia T_T

If you're wondering, my dad took all pics of me and I took all pics without me in it :D. I brought my canon eos 600D and 50mm f1/8 lens. On the two last days on my trip, my dad bought a new cam from BIC Camera shibuya. It's Canon eos m2 and we used it to took our pics while we're in Osaka & Kyoto. All of the photos in this post were still taken by my iPhone  & EOS 600D! 

See you on next post!!
#verenleeinJAPAN

Miss Brightside

Sooo... here are the result of the second outfit of my photoshoot with Agatha (ig: @clairshoots). It was gloomy that noon. I was so scared that it would rain so I hurried up to change my make up / clothes for the next outfit. lol. But strangely, it didn't rain even until the photoshoot had ended.

I really like the result of this photoshoot. So bright, colorful, and about the first 3 photos, I tried to look like the mini dress-up paper dolls that I used to collect in elementary school! ;D (I know I'm so much chubbier than those mini figures >;'0)

I got the flowercrown from ZARA for only IDR 99.000. It was more than 250.000 when I first saw it , but I waited until it's gotten cheaper... I felt so lucky, hahaha x). My necklace is a locket that I costumized by myself on Odetta Style

Before this photoshoot was done, there were some funny things that happened. First, I originally wanted to shoot this outfit the day before (Saturday) with my friends Kevin. I already did my make up, picked my friends up (kevin, steven, jordan. the other two are my 'supporters'?. xP), and we went to the place where we wanted to, but It rained the moment I stepped out from the car, and since it was outdoor, there's no way to take photos of this outfit with bad lighting. So at the end we just went out to have a massive sea food late - lunch. lol.
Second, a week before last Sunday, I and Agatha had agreed to have a photoshoot on that day. She said we'd try to shoot the outfits at her house. So on Sunday, I drove to her place at 1pm. I wanted to do it earlier, but she had another photoshoot in the morning. While I was on the way, she texted me "I'm in Cxxx". "OK." I replied. I thought she had a photoshoot there and would return to her house right after, without realizing that she has 2 houses. One is the one I was heading to (where I usually pick her up), and one is her new house in Cxxx.
When I arrived in her house, she called me and we both realized that we just had a mis-communication and I went to the wrong house. I Panicked!! Because the road was quite small and dead-end. And I COULDN'T  do a u-turn yet because I'm a newbie driver, I was ALONE and I was just too scared to try driving 'backward'.
I had lots of weird thoughts. "OMG what should I do...". 'Should I call my friend..'. 'should I get out from the car and try looking for help (parking man/ security?)'.
So at the end I just BRACED myself UP and did the u-turn by myself (like parking with the butt of the car going in first, then I turned right to come out from that kinda-small road). ROFL.
I'm really bad at parking and going backward T_T

• Flower crown form ZARA
• Dress from @ShelovesOnlineshop/ SheLovesOnlineShop
• Heels from Bershka
• Watch from Michael Kors via Urban Icon

I love the fabric of this dress because it's not too thick yet not too thin, which is perfect for the tropical slash -currently rainy- weather! It's also not a body hugging kind of dress, which makes us comfy when wearing the dress and can hide our flabby belly, yet gives a cute touch from the flares at the bottom ;). ShelovesOnlineshop is definitely my favorite shop for cute dresses, girly tops, and skirts!

"Should I bite the flower?? It kinda matches my flower crown & dress! kkkk!"

Pale Pink

As Saturday is the only free time I got to take outfit pics, last Saturday I went to have lunch again with my friends. Then after that they helped me to take these photos.
Actually I wanted to take pics at a restaurant in Tegal. I won't mention the name, but I've done a photoshoot a few months ago there. One outfit photoshoot, and one on my mom's bday.
 But surprisingly, their rude employee approached me and told me not to take pics there. He even asked me to pay a sum of money. I told him it was okay before, but if the rule has changed since then, I'd try to understand that but let me take a few more photos since it's just me taking my outfit photos without concerning the location / situation there.
Then he left. But not long after that, another different employee approached me again and kept telling me the same thing I've heard enough in not-so-polite-way. The previous person allowed me to take a few more photos for the last time on that day. How come I didn't get pissed off?
Lots of better restaurants or even hotels in big cities that I've visited even didn't do this to me. Those big restaurants have strict rules for photoshoots too, but as far as I know those rules only apply to magazine / commercial photoshoots, and those kind of pre-wedding photoshoots. Where MINE is only a small photoshoot, only me and my friend who become a photographer, without any equipment beside a camera. My photoshoot's point is also my face/my outfit. Errgghh.. I was so angry ,they should've been nicer, plus I wasn't that shameless to only come there to take photos. NO! I ordered many meals for myself and my friends!

Ok, let's stop for my ramblings.. Back to the outfit, I styled this beautiful skirt for a semi formal look. You can wear this kind outfit for an afternoon party, a Sunday day out, tea party, a date, or your friend's floral / girly-themed birthday party!

The semi formal look is created from the combination between this flouncy circle skirt with a long sleeve t-shirt. Since my long sleeve t-shirt doesn't have pattern and look kinda plain, I decided to wear a necklace. I picked this pearl necklace because it's elegant but not to much. :)

This kind of mini circle skirt is perfect to show your long legs, so wear a pair of pumps to make your legs look even longer!

• long sleeve t-shirt from bershka
• skirt from @icorisio
• belt from topshop
• heels from bebe
• necklace from @ladiesshopsheneeds
• bracelet @prettyrize

Last, I tied my hair up and ta dah! This is my comfy yet chic outfit! :D

Another styling tips from me; you can also recreate this look for a more formal outfit. Wear the skirt with a crisp white long sleeve shirt or a structured sleveless top / tunic. Don't forget to wear a statement necklace if your top is plain ;).

See ya in next post!

Stupid Cupid

"Stupid Cupid you're a real mean guy
I'd like to clip your wings so you can't fly
I'm in love and it's a crying shame
And I know that you're the one to blame
Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid stop picking on me"

Super kawaii wings backpack c/o @haengboghanshop

• bershka denim jacket
• topshop sleveless shirt
• cupids mint skirt c/o quenellebelle
• asos floral sneakerwedges

photos by Agatha Calysta

hello kitty bracelet c/o @prettyrize - barbie shoes bracelet c/o @petriciaeure