Flight to Tokyo was pretty uneventful except for all the screaming children surrounding our seats. Seriously, I have never been on a flight with so many small kids within 1 row of us. I think we only got about 5 precious moments of actual silence the entire flight I also didn't pack enough snacks and early in the flight Zipair mysteriously sold out of most of the snacks I wanted to buy in-flight too. I was so cranky!

We first stopped for lunch at Coco's and then went for our first (of many) At-Home Maid Cafe visits. Since it was his birthday, my boyfriend got a special cheki with all the maids on the floor! After that we met up with a group of our friends for dinner and took a peek at the weird vending machines on the way home

I found probably my favorite mofusand collab item, which was these really delicious caramel cream sandwiches? They were sooo good so i kept getting them for breakfast or dessert

I started the day going on a little shopping spree at the nearby Welcia! I guess it's kind of like going on a CVS shopping spree, but I love all the cheap and mundane beauty products. It always feels so great to put on new beauty products for the first time!

After I got ready for the day and brought some friends of ours to my favorite pancake place in Ebisu! When I said hi to the chef he even gave me more of the earl grey tea that I love so much to take home  We also tried out a couple of jazz bars and finally tried some of the undertale taiyaki from the fangamers store! I wish they'd had the Yume Nikki coasters on rotation but we only ended up getting some from Omori (which I still haven't played )

Our friend introduced us to his favorite indian curry place, featuring the cheese naan that apparently everyone is craving because of Monster Hunter lately. I ate so much that day 

I met up with CHEERIE!! We had a really nice dinner in Shibuya and took a quick peek in the 109 together.

I met up with another friend to go shopping in Ikebukuro today. Ike is one of my very favorite places to shop so we had a lot of fun!

That night I met up with Cheerie for dinner again, and we found the most cursed shibuya melt down I've ever seen  

Dinner with more friends! We finally got to revisit the famous wagyuu menchi katsu and stopped at the Eorzea Cafe. We even won the special cactpot placemat this time!

I rented a sewing room for the first time using the nonbiri app, and it was really cozy! I needed to do some tailoring on a dress I picked up for my friend's wedding in April.

After a delicious meal with my boyfriend, I hopped on the train and got to see Heidi performing with Merkmal Mermal!

3/14/25

Kirby Cafe Kirby Cafe Kirby Cafe!!!

After the cafe since these friends were only in Tokyo for a short while we did a boss rush of all the foods they wanted to try in the general area of the cafe

After the boss rush we got tea at a foot bath cafe which I was too relaxed to get any pictures at! They had plans in Akiba so I took the train with them and did some more solo maid cafe adventuring, this time at Zettai Ryouiki! With such a fanservice oriented name I didn't really know what to expect. It was much smaller than other moe maid cafes I'd been to, only having capacity to seat a couple of tables at a time. It was also surprisingly empty considering that I went on a Friday night. But, all the maids were SO nice and friendly, and there was nothing weird about my experience there! One of the maids that night actually spoke english. When I asked her why she wanted to learn english she told me.... because she's an EN Hololive fan!! I really couldn't believe how the vtuber community really wrapped all the way around the world like that!

After that I finally got to meet up with Cheerie and MINA!!! Unfortunately we were all so discombobulated that I don't know if anyone actually got a selfie with all 3 of us 

Tonight I met up with Cheerie again for a night with the WIGGLY BOIS!!!! The restaurant also had such funny mascots and the best photo spots too! I knew the cat jellys were silly but I did not anticipate how entertained we would be! We pretty much laughed our guts out from when we sat down until we left 

This afternoon was a really fun music event in Asagaya. The event name basically translates to "Input Text Here" The crowd was pretty young overall and we were joking that some of the anime songs they played are probably older than the kids in the room. But we had fun being the ancient weebs in the back of the room

More Ikebukuro, this time with Cheerie! This is also the day that me and my boyfriend went to Swallowtail Butler Cafe for the first time. Unfortunately they have a strict no photos policy and I forgot to take a selfie from the outside. However, I will say it was such a classy and relaxing experience. It was very expensive, but if you can afford it I would definitely recommend trying it at least once!

Since me and Cheerie were doing purikura today I put on twice my normal amount of makeup

We had so many mishaps with the machines somehow... but it was super fun anyway!

At the 109 I tried on this Evelyn OP that was so comfy and cute. I really thought about getting it, and I'm still not sure I won't go back and order it through a shopping service now ^^;

I met up with an old friend from maid cafe and checked out the fabric district in Nippori. After we hung out in the local library and I got to read a bunch of picture books that were exactly my reading level!

That night I met some more friends for curry and cat bar~

We left for Hakone just as the cherry blossoms started coming in for Tokyo! Unfortunately they hadn't bloomed yet in Hakone but at least I got a glance as we left the train station

Hakone was super beautiful and the food was amazing as always!

On the way back to Tokyo I grabbed some mont blanc and melon bread from near the station. The cake was delicious, but the melon bread was too cute to eat and the cream filling ended up spoiling before I could eat them 

That night at dinner we finally saw our first fully blooming sakura!

Back in Tokyo I met up with Mina for the AKB48 x Round 1 karaoke collaboration! We ended up singing for 2 hours just the two of us.... I was completely exhausted when I finally made it home 

I was blessed with two Mina days in a row! We also did purikura, and had much better luck than my first try. We also took some silly snow snaps while we were waiting in line

That night it was pancakes for dinner!

Heidi took me to the cutest little cafe in Shimokitazawa

We went back to Akiba for a repeat of Coco's and At Home cafe!

At this point we finally made it back to Wonder Parlor! It was my first time eating lunch here and the food was surprisingly good, and the price was very reasonable!

The cherry blossoms were really coming in by now!

We went back to Akiba on a mission... get our SILVER membership at At-Home Cafe! It takes 5 visits to level up from Bronze to Silver, and unfortunately on our 5th trip....... I lost my card and had to start over again! So after visiting a couple of times, we made sure to keep track of our cards this time and we only needed 2 more visits today. So, we went and ended up going to back to back reservations!

Since our trip was ending I went to Ikebukuro and Shibuya for some last minute omiyage shopping. I also took the opportunity to try on some of the new Liz Lisa dresses!

Off-Shoulder Layered One-piece Grey (Free Size)

Rose Ribbon Chiffon One-Piece White (Free Size)

Rose Ribbon Chiffon Set-Up Pink (Free Size)

Rose Ribbon Chiffon Set-Up (skirt only)

Even though I've gained a little weight lately, I was surprised by how well everything fit! It seems like Liz Lisa is catering more to (slightly) larger sizes this season even in their one size items, not to mention their L size OP! I was soooo tempted by the Rose Ribbon OP but ultimately decided to hold off, mainly because I was pretty sure there was no space left in my suitcase by that point... I did walk away with the sailor collar sweater which I had been eyeing since I first arrived!

There was also a really cute Cardcaptor Sakura collaboration at the Hikarie which I was lucky to find!

Our last day, we squeezed in one more curry and maid cafe trip before heading to the airport in the evening

While we were there, news broke about the woman who found a whole rat in her miso soup at Sukiya. It was kind of big news and all the Sukiya locations closed for the last few days of our trip. Since our friends kept bring it up or making jokes about it, I knew what I had to request in my latte art..... it's not just Sukiya, I found a rat in my maid cafe latte too!! 

We've been thinking about moving to Japan for a while now, and I think staying for such a long time really motivated us to go for it. So over the next year we'll both be working hard to learn more Japanese and hopefully find jobs that will sponsor our visas. Wish us luck!!