Trip to Phuket Day1; Phi Phi Island/VERTLA

Day 1
Even though there is no big time difference, it's wiser to plan a big activities on the first day to keep up the trip.

Many people suggested me to go to Phiphi island.
Since I don't wanna be lost, I decided to book an optional tour.
I don't remember clearly but tours on VERTLA looked nice and reasonable.

ピピ島観光ツアー　快適な大型船で！＜昼食付き＞ / エコノミー（英語ツアー） / Aプラン

I was a bit worried if a driver didn't pick us up, but he appeared.
Well not everything is on time like Japan haha

We rode one of those boats and headed to Phiphi island.
It took like more than one hour.....
I didn't expect an hour boat trip so i was bit bored hehe
On the boat, we got free muffin, tea, coffee and coke.

I really didn't understand what was going on but it seemed we did a cruising before landing on Phiphi island.

This beautiful island is used for shooting "The Beach"??? I guess

It was beautiful!

If you wanna go into, you should rent a small boat from Phiphi island. 

Before exploring Phiphi island, we had time for snorkelling.

Finally we arrive at Phiphi island!

We were escorted to a lunch restaurant (food was really nice :)!)

and had some free time.

As you can imagine, it was really hot and sea water was really warm too.

It was like hot springs haha

I think it's worth to go to Phiphi island for your first trip to Phuket.

I personally thought the beach in front of our hotel was good enough....

Oh well but snorkelling was really fun so my only concern was the distance.

It was bit far away....

Anyways it was really nice experience.

Our dinner for this day was at the hotel while watching the sunset.

*My phuket trip
Arriving day
https://ayahs-favorite.blogspot.jp/2016/05/trip-to-phuket-arriving-dayhow-did-i.html

A Little Walk in Harajuku/Shaka Sandals/Japanese Hot Sandal Trend

Since it was a beautiful day, my boyfriend and I decided to take a walk.

Well I wanted to go to a park or somewhere with green but we somehow wanted to go in a famous street in Harajuku, Takeshita street.

Like it reminds me of junior high school, the street is for teenagers.

There are many shops selling young idol photos.

You can see many people

just people people people

Obviously there are many changes from what I knew from about 10 years ago

I was surprised that there is a MONKI store

This brand reminds me of London shopping....

This type of display is super japanese

After you go through the street, you are in Omotosando area.
My impression of the area is a bit poshy
There is a ice shade store i wanna go but there's always a massive queue.....

being natural......

After a lot of window shopping, we decided to buy sport sandals we've been looking for these days.
Well my boyfriend wanted to buy one last summer but I couldn't understand it.....

Anyways i went for SHAKA's sandals.

Since my boyfriend bought Teva's ones, I was thinking to buy same ones

Well Teva's sandals are really light and seems really  easy for walking in. 

However, when I thought about whether they match my summer clothes, the answer seemed No. SHAKA's ones would match better with my clothes, that was my answer.

I cannot wear sandals for work so I'll update about this again :)

By the way, shinjuku new south exit was renewed.

I know this sounds funny but I bet that exit used to be called as New south exit anyways.

Now there are this monument!

It's like Amsterdam. Maybe they imitate?? haha 

Trip to Phuket arriving day/How did I plan this trip/Katathani Phuket Beach Resort, Karon

I have to write about my Phuket trip before I forget!

For three years, I was just too lazy to keep uploading this blog.

This time, I really would like to keep this blog!

We left Japan on the second day of Golden week.

I thought the airport would be super crowded but it was not that bad.

After about 8 hours, we arrived at Phuket airport.

Humid, that was what I felt right after I went out the airport.

Take a taxi, that was our first task.

I was a bit nervous cause I'm not good at taking a cab abroad.

well I was scammed in London before when I was trying to get a taxi.

Anyway a second after I started thinking about a taxi, I noticed there was a taxi counter.

I didn't trust a guy there but he said going to Kata costed ฿1000.

When I told him I wanted to go Kata, he asked me to pay him first.

Well at this point, I was skeptical but he gave me a familiar pink ticket.

When I took a cab in Bangkok years ago, I saw the ticket so I decided to trust him for now.

We went outside finding a taxi pool. It was a bit difficult since there was no clear sign.

If you wanna take a taxi, just cross a road right after you go outside of the airpot.

Because there are many cars going, you don't wanna cross and you might think there is another way but just cross the road.

Once you do that, there are local people and they will guide you.

It turned out there was a number on the ticket and it was our turn when we got there.

I recommend you to get a taxi ticket before taking your luggage so that you don't have to wait outside.

The taxi drooped by a travel agency even though we didn't ask haha

It seems that's their way.

At the shop, there are may tourists.

I decided to book a cab on the last day since it was ฿1000 again.

I guess if I book a taxi at the hotel, it costed about ฿1200.

Anyway because of this stop by, it took about 1.5 hours to our Hotel.

We're worried if there was no restaurants around the hotel or if we couldn't get any food since we're starving.

Every time we saw a convenience store, we were like 'should we ask the driver to stop by???' hahaha

It turned out there were two convenience stores and some restaurants just in front of the hotel.

I don't remember names of the restaurants...

We had dinner at a yellowish restaurant.

[฿1200]

Pad Thai

Som Tam

Tom Kha Kai

Pak Boong Fai Daeng

Beer

Water melon shake

It was tasty and reasonable! I LOVE THAI!

I really like Thai food but among all I love som tam (papaya salad)

Actually I have made one in Japan by myself but I felt something was wrong.

Well I haven't figured it out haha

Som Tam in Thai is just amazing and I just cannot copy it.

We stayed at Katathani Phuket Beach Resort, Karon.
(I forgot to take pics of rooms!Stupid me!)

For Japanese people, packaged tour is very popular and they are cheap.

However, this time I booked flights and hotel by expedia.

Well in January I realised that there was 10 days GW coming and got super excited.

I looked up HIS (travel company famous for cheap packaged tours), it seemed as if people go to Phuket only for three or four days.

For me, staying a place only for some days makes no sense.

I wanted to stay at Phuket at least 5days and there was no 5 days packaged tour.

Well you can extend the stay by paying extra money but it that case, it's not cheap anymore. Booking flights and hotel by yourself is better since you can choose flight schedule and hotels.

There are many booking website and I just don't know which one is the best.

I used expedia a lot when i was a student so I decided to book through it again.

Since this was my first time in Phuket, I didn't know which area is nice.

I chose a hotel from the aspect of 

1. has a pool

2. close to a beach

3. clean bath room

Katathani is one of few resort which has a direct access to the beach.

When I looked up on the internet about this hotel, some people pointed out that if I stay at this resort, i should book a room at Thani Wing which is ocean side.

 I followed their advice and booked a junior suite.

We have a balcony and could see the beach beyond hotel garden. 

This is our view from our room!!!

(Oh i miss this view.....)

After dinner we enjoyed this view a bit and went to bed straight away since we had a daytrip to Phi Phi island next day.

Happy Mother's Day/My new bag;FURLA METROPOLIS

Happy mother's day!

It seems as if Japan follows American rule for mother's day.

When I was in the UK, I sent a card to my mum a way before because British mother's day in March, and her reaction was just like "?" haha

Anyways I went for a lunch with her and did a mum-daughter shopping :)

AND I bought a bag!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a big fan of small shoulder bags and I've fallen love with FURLA's bag;metropolis.

My friends and my mum asked me 'Can you put all your thing in the bag?'

Well, YES.

I only need my wallet and phone.

I used to carry many things like books, candy, water, cosmetics...... well something haha

but carrying many things becomes just heavy and I realise I seldom use them

Now I just carry money and phone with a small bag 

I'm looking forward to use this bag :)!!!!!!!!!!

DIY Washroom storage/insulok

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My washing room storage is completed!

There is a big sink but its wall storage is super tiny.

Can you see the black one? That's about it.

I don't use a lot of makeup items but I need more space. 

Since we rent this flat, I don't want to damage any walls.

In Japan, you're not allowed to paint or make a hole on walls. Well you have to pay when you move if you do so.

I thought there were readymade shelves using tension rods but it was very difficult to find one. There are many for spices in the kitchen but they are too short for the washing room.

I saw someone made a storage by themselves on the internet and decided to make one by myself.

I'm super bad at DIY so I was really nervous.......

When I went to 100yen shop, they have just everything I needed.

All I had to do was putting them together using insulok.

Thanks for 100yen shop, my kinda DIY has turned out really well.

I'm not quite sure an English word for this product but seems 'insulok' right??

In Japan, you can get them easily at a 100yen shop.

I was worried each box is too heavy for insulok to be banded.

However, insulok really did put the box, the poll and the net all together.

Insulok is really strong!

I think i can use it for decorating my room more :)