I Won't Quote

I actually bought way less than I thought I would. I kind of regret it, but at the same time there are more reasons to go back like this. I will try to somehow explain what I got and show you some things.

1. Food items

• Tea

I got myself cookie tea that I also mentioned in a previous post - this really tastes like a cookie. My mind is really confused when drinking it, it expects something solid. I don't understand how this is possible.

I also got blueberry tea that just smells amazing. This decision was really tough to make and I think I changed my mind hundreds of times. :D My friend got some melon tea, which smelled exactly like melon soda, which was amazing. She also got a peach one that we had already tried.

For my dad I got some Japanese green tea, as he really wanted some.



Then I also got some limited edition Lipton sakura tea, which I haven't yet tried, but I couldn't just leave it in the store. :D I also got some for my relative, but I haven't seen her and given it to her yet.

• Plum wine

I was really hoping it would arrive well in my suitcase, and surprisingly, it did. :D It was really sweet and nice, it only had 5 % of alcohol, which means it was more like a sider. The taste was really good, you could understand it was plum.

• Snacks

I knew already that I wanted to get a lot of sweets, for example different flavours of KitKat, as they are really popular in Japan. So I decided on yuzu and matcha KitKat, almond and cranberry one, wasabi one and strawberry daifuku one. My favourite has to be yuzu and matcha one - meaning Japanese citrus and green tea one. I am not a huge fan of matcha, but this combination is perfect. At the same time I really love wasabi KitKat, which I now have at home! :D

I also got some sweet potato snacks - they look like small sweet potatoes and taste, well, sweet. :D I wanted the ones in cinnamon coating that I had, but we couldn't find those.

I also got some daifuku sweets, which are kind of like... rice cakes, really soft. They have different fillings inside - for example green tea, red bean paste and so on. Even my mum liked those, which was a surprise.

I also got some simple chocolates and pockys, which are kind of like... cookie sticks? With green tea. And some other stuff to share with friends and relatives.

• Foodmaking things

As soon as I got back from Japan, we made ddukbokki with my sister, which are those Korean rice cakes with spicy sauce. And they are really good. I wish I had gotten more of them... maybe I indeed ask for a friend to send me some. :D

Of course I also bought some Japanese curry, as it is completely different thing. I promise that as soon as I will finally make it, I will show it here as well.

I also got several packs of furikake, which is kind of like... seasoning? It usually consists of sesame seeds, seaweed, wasabi or some other seasonings and you usually have it on rice. It adds to just regular rice and I really like it!

I also got some other seasoning, 7-spice one, which was always on the table at the restaurants. I brought this to my mum as well as she said she would like some seasonings from Japan.

2. Souvenirs

For souvenirs I got some small things to give away to my friends and family. I got myself a keychain that looks like real sushi and also a fridge magnet with Fuji mountain on it.



I also got some small towels to give to friends with small kids, also got some socks for myself, a container for lunch and small hand creams which are again spring limited edition. Smells like sakura aka cherry.



3. Skincare

In addition to hand cream that I mentioned previously, I also got a face wash, that just kept coming on my way. I guess it was a sign I need to get it. :D



I also got several face masks - I like taking some time for myself and use them from time to time. I also like that Japan does multi packs, where there are 7-10 of them and you can just keep using them every day.



4. Various

I have to mention my Starbucks spring mug here! :D I have Japanese cup for coffee, from You Are Here collection. I needed a separate mug for tea. :D




I also got a Pokemon notebook, which I am going to use as my next bullet journal. I think it looks cute. And I am not a fan of Pokemon!

I got my mum and sister some talismans fro mthe temple, that should bring them luck. I also got my sister a shopping bag and another one for myself.

5. Clothes

I surprisingly got quite a lof of clothes for myself that would be really nice to wear. Would be, if I wasn't stuck at the home office and could actually go around outside. :D There aren't any proper pictures of those, but at least I took a photo of Adidas jumper that I managed to wear out.




I don't know, what do you usually bring back from your trips? I always run out of ideas and usually just pick some different food items to try. Right now I KNOW that I should have brought more things, but well, it is too late now. :D

About braces

To change up the Japan content, I decided to write about eating, which has become very difficult recently again. Manily because I got braces for my lower teeth now.

Also they put a "filling" on one of my back tooth, which means there is only one spot in my mouth that I can chew with. Which means, as my dentist also said, I need to live on pureed soups, mashed potatoes and so on.

And eating is difficult as it is. This is not ideal.

I understand that you can get enough calories from soft foods, but I never feel satisfied enough. Also eating is in focus a lot and I feel like I need to get an... experience from every meal. But right now I am only eating to live, I don't really even taste food. It is sad, makes me upset and irritates me a lot and I don't know how to deal with it.

Also the braces have broken my mouth from the inside, I have several sore spots and it hurts. I thought I would bring out these non glamourous sides of getting nice teeth... and I understand that it was me who wanted it and in the end it is worth it, but at the moment I am cursing myself that I have done it now. I just... feel awful. I feel so uncomfortable.



Braces.

About eating and every day life

This weekend my mum came to Tallinn, which also brought eating out, snacking and having some wine. This made me super upset. I had a major breakdown, with crying and yelling and "why am I like this" emotions. It is so tough.

On the second evening (my mum stayed for 2 nights) her and my sister wanted to have some wine again, and snack on something not so healthy. And I went mad. And then I tried to think that in a few years I don't remember the wine I skipped, I remember the good time I had with them. And this helped a bit (I also went for a walk, walkign really calms me down), but on the next day, guilt was back and even stronger than after the first night, which I had counted for.

So... I haven't made as much progress as I hoped. These situations are still as hard as they used to be and sometimes feel even harder. Every moment that ruins my perfect day, initiate a lot of guilt and need to restrict food. For example we went to have coffee with mum on Sunday and I felt guilty over taking cappuccino - there is more milk than when I would have had just coffee with milk. I am tired of existing like this.

At the same time maybe this weekend was a... wake up call. As Japan was. It showed me that the situation is critical (my own crisis in addition to Corona) and I need to deal with it seriously. I can't afford thinking that oh this day was okay and wowow I am well. The reality is different. There may be several good days, several good weeks. And then there is one day that sucks and it ruins EVERYTHING and it ruins all progress.

Now it is new week and new beginning and despite the weekend I will try and have all the foods and snacks properly. I am playing with the idea of writing my menu down here - maybe it would help to keep me accountable, but I am not sure. Also I have thought of writing down all the calories that I consume in a day, but I am not sure it is a good idea. It may 1) make me more upset or 2) show me, maybe I am not eating enough. There are a lot of thoughts but not enough answers.

So maybe it is good that the country is in a lockdown and I need to work from home for two weeks again. My sister has to do the same and she can keep an eye on me - so that I would eat properly. Especially because due to the lockdown there is less moving around and so on.



We went to have some food at Georgian restaurant, I had eggplant stew. I will try and make the same thing at home today, as it is soft enough for me to eat. At the same time, this plant based stew was difficult to eat for me - I could see how much oil it had. It is tough to live like this. Eating out is a nightmare for me. Ugh. I don't know what to do with myself, it honestly kind of feels funny already.

I also thought I will write about things I got from Japan, but for this I need to take some photos. I guess we shall see.

Our Japanese started with the plane ride at 11:30 from Estonia. It was tough to get all of the suitcases and bags to the airport. At first I thought it would be easy, the tram goes straight from my house to the airport, but when I was trying to carry everyting, it was awful and I regretted not getting a taxi. :D But well, that didn't mean I didn't go!

We had two luggages east + handheld luggage (we would almost have needed tons more when coming back). We dropped off our bags and proceeded to sequrity. We didn't need to wait for long in Estonia, but still a little. We were just looking around and waiting for our flight to Finland, Helsinki, as we needed to switch planes there. We could have gone via Turky as well, but the price difference was really small. Also we would have had to stay in Ankara for half a day. In Helsinki, the time was only 4 hours.

Flying to Helsinki was really weird, because as soon as we got up in the air, we had to come down again. :D As some time had passed, we found ourselves a sandwich and coffee and sat down with those. After that we found some comfy chairs near our gate and laid down there, watching some videos and talking and so on. Time passed surprisingly fast and soon we had to get on board of Tokyo flight.

I have never flown such a long distance and I was kind of excited for it. :D It turned out to be absolute torture. At least I was sitting next to the window...



Anyway, there was a problem with my food, no one knew I was supposed to have a vegetarian meal. So I got some fresh salad with sauce and could eat stuff without meat from the menu. A bit disappointing, but what can you do. At least the breakfast was suitable for me, being an omelette with some stuff, so I am not complaining too much. :D But yeah, I hoped to get something better. xD

We arrived in Japan at 11 am, so we had a full day ahead of us to do things!

First day in Japan

Firstly we went to a friend's place who we stayed with and who we were visiting in the first place. We left our stuff there, made ourselves ready for the day and headed out.



We went to university's campus and looked around there, went to a store and got some onigiri of course (I miss them so much! I tried different ones, but the tuna mayo one is stil lthe best!) and dropped by post office, as we wanted to send our grandmas some postcards. We didn't find any nice ones though and left it at that.

We also happened to come across 100 yen store, where we got some stuff. (I wish Estonia had 1 euro store. I should have mentioned that in the previous post, where I wrote about things Estonia needs!)

Next step was to go out and have some food. We went for udon, and it was absolutely amazing. We also understood how hospitable and polite Japanese people are.

After having food we walked around for a bit and then headed to a bar, as we needed to celebrate our arrival. And well, we did celebrate it... :D



So this was the end of our first day in Japan. When we got home at night, at least we didn't have any trouble falling asleep and I felt well rested the next morning. No jet lag what so ever, even though I didn't sleep in the plane at all (I did fall asleep for a second, but startled awake right away).

About Corona virus... if I could get an euro every time someone asks about it, I could make another trip to Japan right away... :D People, chill please!

Second day in Japan

On the second day we headed to Odaiba first, as we had gotten tickets to visit teamLab Boarderless Tokyo light installations.

First time taking the train to Tokyo... it went quite fast. I think we were really lucky being able to stay at a friend's place in Tsukuba and go to Tokyo every time we wanted. We saved money from booking accommodation and it was easier like this, as we didn't need to take our luggage anywhere.

The light installations were awesome. There were so many rooms with different attractions and things where you could participate in (for example you could draw a snake or butterfly or something, then it was scanned and the creature was later running around in the room).

For many rooms you had to queue, because there would have been too many people at once. For this reason we missed one thing (we would have had to wait for over 60 minutes), but we still spent good 3-4 hours at the place. I think it was really worth it and pictures tell a better story than I could.








After that we went to an Odaiba ferris wheel, as it was only 1000 yen and we imagined it would be cool to see Tokyo from high up. It was really similar to our ferris wheel in Tallinn, but it appeared that the Odaiba one is the highest in the world. :D Anyway it was cool to ride with it, but it would have been better if it was in the middle of the city.



Next we went near the rainbow bridge (which didn't light up while we were there) and looked at the huge Gundam statue. This was the first moment I had this "omg I am in Japan" feeling. :D

We also saw the huge olympic rings and blossoming plum trees, which were really pretty and attracted a lot of tourists like us. :D



At some point we continued moving forward and went to Akihabara to have some sushi. We were looking forward to having sushi in Japan and it was really good. I already wrote a long post about foods, which gives a better overview, than this post here. We also went to some stores and then headed back home.



Me picking out sushi. A good picture to see my hair colour. :D

Third day in Japan

On the third day we headed to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, as you could get a good view over the city from there. We didn't visit Skytree or Tokyo Tower and waste money, as this one was good enough, Also I suppose it had less tourists there.

When we finally got on the 93rd floor, I realised how BIG Tokyo actually is. I am used to my little Tallinn... :D



We also finally bought postcards, which I sent to my gandma. I have this habbit of always sending her one from my trips and then she always calls me and lets me know when it has arrived. :)

Next I think we walked to Shinjuku and then to Korea Town. We wanted to try some Korean food and just look around. It was quite different, full of small make up and k-pop stores. :D It was really nice to walk around there.

For lunch, we did visit a restaurant and enjoyed some Korean food.



After that we went to Harajuku, where our first stop was Starbucks, as we were quite tired and needed some boost of energy. For this, sakura milk latte was perfect.

Then we wnt to Shibuya, to see more of the busy areas of the city. We stopped at the Hachiko statue and then crossed the Shibuya crossing (where I yet again had this "help, I am in Japan feeling. :D). I took some pictures, but most of the peopel focus on people wearing masks and ask about it. No, I didn't wear one. No, I was not afraid of Corona virus.

Fourth day in Japan

Writing this now I have already forgotten some things and all of the days have kind of mashed together in my head. :D

Anyway, on the next day we went to Asakusa and walked around in some stores, buying tons of stuff. For me, I got a lot of KitKats...

From there, we went to visit Sensō-ji temple, which was full of tourists. Again a place that I have seen on pictures so many times, thinking I want to be there too... :D It was really cool. I got my mum and sister some lucky charms as well, so it was good call. :D There were so many people and a lot of booths to buy stuff from.



On this day we went to have okonomiyaki, which I had been looking forward to for a long time. And this was not a disappointment, it was probably one of my favourite things. :D

After the food we walked around in some parks and watched plum blossoms. People were again crowding them, because well, you need to capture the beauty. We had done it in Odaiba already.

On the evening we went to karaoke, which we had postponed for a few days. :D Luckily we were not too tired and singing Barbie Girl initiated a proper party. :D If you go to Japan, I really recommend checking karaoke out. Enjoying it with your friends is awesome. And besides, in Tsukuba there was free drinks bar and unlimited soft serve ice cream!

Fifth day in Japan

For this, we set a further goal than Tokyo and went to Kamakura.

Firstly we dropped by Hokokuji temple, which was surrounded by bamboo and which looked really cool. Probably one of my favourite places we visited. It was quiet and calm. I really liked that people were not allowed to just walk around everyhwere, you had to follow a path.



Kōtoku-in was our next destination, where there is this huge buddha statue. I know I am repeating myself, but I again had this moment of "I am in Japan and I have seen this place on pictures". :D



We were super lucky with the wather, all days (except for the one before the last) were sunny and warm, I think around 15 degrees Celcius. At the same time it was weird that it went dark so fast on the evenings. And as soon as it got dark, it got cold. In Estonia, it goes dark gradually. In Japan, you went to a store for a second and when you came out, it was pitch black outside. :D

Kamakura was really beautiful, but it had really narrow streets. One thing I noticed and thought interesting.

After visiting Kamakura we decided to go to Enoshima, as it was quite close and seemed like a cool place to visit. Done and done. It was really nice to just walk and laugh over warnings about hawks. Also we saw Fuji mountain from the distance!



On Enoshima I noticed that across the streets there are so many cables. Pundles of cables were really normal thing to see, but it was weird for me. Ah, we laso met several cats on Enoshima. What made it special, was that there were signs on the streets, saying that these cats live there and they are well taken care of.

After this short trip we headed back home. We had eaten soba on this day and enjoyed yakisoba in the evening. :D The evening was so nice!

Sixth day in Japan

Today was finally a day we spent fully in Tsukuba, well, except for one of us who went to see a concert in Tokyo in the evening.

We got up a bit later in the morning at set out for a bus to go and see Tsukuba mountain. I think it would have been cool to hike up and arrive at 877 meters, but we didn't have enough time (it probably would have taken all day) thus we picked the railway up.



It was so cool to be so high up and discover that Japan actually has quite a lot of mountains. You could not understand it in Tokyo at all, but in Tsukuba and on the next day when we went to visit an onsen, we saw a lot more nature.

Despite getting up to the mountain easily, we still needed to hike for a bit. But the view was so worth it.

On the second peak we didn't make it to, because we were pressed with time (the bus we took to the mountain was an hour late due to really heavy traffic). Then we went back down and looked around a little more and took the bus back to city center.

After that I had some time to walk around in the stores alone and buy one of two things. It wasn't a major shopping trip, but I still got a few bits and pieces.

I then met up with a friend again and we headed to a small cafe that had really good coffee. In general, coffee in Japan is pretty good, or we just visited nice places. For example in Kamakura also we stopped at some cafe and it was just fantastic.

It had gotten dark outside thus we skipped the idea of walking around in the park and went to a mall instead, having a goal in mind of buying tea and just look around.

We went to this one tea store that we had already heard about and excited for (as my friend brought us some tea to try from there). I got blueberry tea (and when we went there again on the last day, I also got cookie flavoured one. And well, it for real tastes like cookies. I don't understand how this is possible) and some green tea for my dad.

It was really nice to just walk around and see different things in a mall. :D

We met up with a friend who went to see a concert around 9-10 pm and then had some dinner, after what we walked home. Again it was such a nice evening. It was a bit chilly, but not too bad. Also even when the weather was windy, the wind was sort of warm, a lot different from what I am used to.

Seventh day in Japan

This was like a holiday during a holiday. We could get up much later as we were heading off at 11 - we went to an onsen, also known as hot spring.

I really wanted to try this but I couldn't even imagine how it would be. When we got to the onsen, we got some towels and went to change, after that you need to wash up and then enter the bath.

Onsen makes your skin sooooo soft and nice and it was so amazing to get some warmth into my old bones (I sound like 70 year old :D). We were there for around an hour and it was enough.

The day we went to an onsen was the only one that it rained. Not much though. After onsen, we went to see a waterfall, which was pretty darn amazing. Others said that it was actually good that it was raining - the waterfall is more powerful when there is well, more water. We tried to take some pictures, and managed to capture something, even though it was quite dark already. :D



Anyway we finally moved on to have some ramen, which I was really looking forward to. It was a really nice vacation day all in all.

Seventh day in Japan

This day we had set aside for shopping and began quite early by going to a Japanese second hand store. It was huge and there were soo many things, which I would have liked to have! All of the products were really nice and set out pretty. It honestly didn't feel like a second hand store at all.

Surprisingly I bought quite a bit of clothes (which almost didn't fit into my suitcase :D), others also got bags and all kinds of stuff.

Then we headed a bit further from Tsukuba center to visit another mall, before what we went and had lunch at this Hawaiian pancake place.

At the mall we did some more shopping, went to the game center and did some purikura, just looked around. Time passed super fast and we walked so much, I think it was more than 15k steps. And it was one of the most active days according to my activity watch. :D But it wasn't as tiring as some other days.

On the evening we went to the bar again, ready to stay awake until the morning. :D We still got home around three and managed to get some sleep, before we had to take all the stuff and head back home to Estonia.



There was a cat in the bar!

Last morning in Japan

Was so sad. I wish we stayed longer, though at the same time it felt as if we had been there for ages. At least we got to experience a little and we now know what else we want to do and see when we go back. Which we will!

On the way to the airport we grabbed some onigiris, me of course picking tuna mayo one, and it was time to say goodbye.

It was honestly sad. Being used to being around friends 24/7 and I guess we had enough to still talk about for weeks. Also the plane ride back was sooooo long.

At the airport we did some last moment shopping, for example I got my sister some wasabi flavoured KitKat (which is totally one of the best) and Starbucks thermos for a friend.

Then it was time to board the plane and watch some movies. Flying to Japan, I hadn't gotten around it, but on the way home I watched three. I tried to sleep for a bit, but it was impossible.

We arrived back to Estonia at 5 pm, which meant that it was around midnight in Japan. I was so tired, but despite this I gave my sister an overview of the trip and what I saw and did. And even now I keep remembering some details that I haven't yet written down. For example...

Japanese cars are so weird and rectangular.
It was weird getting used to the opposite side traffic.
So many people ride bicycles.
Japan's nature is really beautiful.
In busses and trains there are a lot of announcements and they could last the whole trip.
Japanese people are really kind and polite.
I want to go back sooner.

This post will probably be the longest one, as there is a lot to tell about.

Firstly I want to say that it was difficult. Very difficult. It didn't matter that the foods were tasty and I wanted to try everything and not restrict - it was still difficult. I kept thinking about what I would eat at home and how much less I would eat and so on. At one point I tried to make a deal with myself to worry about things when I get home and try to relax during the trip, but my emotions were still all over the place. What helped was definitely when friend ate with me and they ate the same things and it wasn't something special for them. Eating was just a normal part of the trip. So I guess I kind of handled it okay mostly, even though I still could have done better.

It was the most difficult to deal with liquid caloried, like drinks. That's why I usually opted for water, even though I would have liked to try something else (but I did try other things as well, for example at karaoke I drank a lot of melon soda and so on).

There were some moments I was upset and felt bad, but... I feel like this trip was indeed a restart. I told everyone that I will handle it as a new beginning and I kind of feel that I managed to do that. To mention my weight - I didn't gain or loose any weight. It is the exact same as it was when I was at home. This showed me that I can eat a lot more than I thought, and the weight is not going to pile up, I am not going to be like a balloon and I won't get fat. It was a restart.

I feel like there has been a switch in my head. Coming back to Estonia, my weight went up a bit. It did make me feel anxious and uncomfortable, but then I thought that okat, I will just skip some snacks and get back to the lower weight. And then a voice in my head was like... why? And I didn't know the answer. I was so obsessed with the idea to get back into my low weight. And I mean, skipping a snack is not a huge thing... but it is a first step. First step towards restricting again. Firstly it would be the morning snack, then lunch snack, then evening snack. Then lunch entirely. Then breakfast. And then there is nothing left.

So on the same day that I decided to skip the morning snack, I went to the kitchen at 11 am and got a handful of oat cookies. And ate them. And I did feel bad and I felt guilty - but I didn't let the thoughts bother me. I was, for the first time, strong enough to overcome this feeling.

Like, I am not saying I don't care anymore or that it is easy. Far from that. I still have really hard time and there are tons of bad thoughts in my head. This eating disorder is still so-so strong. But I care less. I don't care about eating that much. My life doesn't revolve around it as much anymore. And this trip helped me a lot. There were so many more things to do and see and feel that I didn't think about eating. I mean, yeah, still did it a bit, but I didn't live from one meal to the next, which was my way od existing in Tallinn.  I didn't think about lunch straight after breakfast. I ate breakfast, I had coffee and I was present. I had fun with my best friends and full stomach was just there. It didn't make me feel in any particular way and eating wasn't an obsession any more. And it felt so good. I have been doing really well with eating at home in the recend days that I am kind of feeling proud.

I am not saying that things will stay like this. I bet there are going to be tough days, but at the moment, regarding eating.... I feel good.

So let's talk about all the foods I had in Japan.



This was my breakfast on the plane. There was a problem and they didn't know I had a vegetarian menu, so in the evening they organized me to have a salad. But I could have breakfast omelette. This was quite good.



The first thing we tried as soon as we got to Japan. Onigiri with salmon. It wasn't as good as my all time favourite - tuna and mayo one - but it was still good!

On the first evening we went to an udon place. Udon is this really thick noodles, which I had never tried before, but they tasted amazing. In my dish there was also kimchi and some rice cakes, which were AMAZING. And some tofu. It was all soooo ooo oooooo good. I wish we were in Japan for longer so we could have gone back there again. :D

The service was super friendly, as soon as we sat down, we were brought some green tea and when my friend asked meatless option for me, they went to confirm it with the kitchen immediately. It was interesting that the food was brought to the table and it had live fire under it, it was still boiling. So it was super fresh!



I am still thinking about those rice cakes and drooling over them. :D We are going to a Japanese restaurant with friends soon, and they have udon. But I am scared of picking it, because I bet it is not as good as this. :D

And the portion was gigantic. I thought I was going to explode and silently regretted the onirigir I had had for lunch. :D I didn't feel guilty though - probably because the others were eating as well and it was just part of a trip.

For the second day breakfast we had onigiri again. I thought I would explain what is onirigir. It is a triangle, or circle or box of rice, which has a filling, and mostly has nori sheet around it.

My favourite one was definitely tuna mayo one, but I tried salmon one (had too little salmon), fish roe (this was good, spicy), pickled plum one (I really liked it, surprisingly). My friend also tried chicken one which was not her favourite, but she got another one at the airport, which was better.

Onigiri is like... Japanese sandwich. They had sandwiches at the store as well though, but we always opted for onigiri. :D I really recommend to try it if there is a chance. Or make it yourself.  There is onigiri in some Estonian restaurants, but I haven't tried them and don't know how authentic they are.

We went to have dinner in Sushiro, which is a place where people sit around a table and there is conveyerbelt with sushis going around. Most of them cost about 1 euro (or 100 yen). You can also order sushi from the menu.



As it was quite chilly, we had mis soups and tons of sushi. So good! Taste is not that different from what you get here in Estonia, but you could taste the freshness of the food. Sushi was a bit more... homely? In Estonia it is always so posh and has a lot of toppings. In Japan it was more normal. Not as... overdone?

On the evening I tried an ice cream with red bean paste and mochi. Not my favourite, but at least I tried it and it wasn't bad. For a moment I fel like "wasting calories", but I got over it. Yep, it is easier to deal with this emotion now. I still feel bad, but I am able to get over it. It has been going well in Estonia now too.



On the third day we went to Korea Town and had some food in the restaurant there. I could finally try ddukbokki, which are these rice cakes in chilli sauce, served with fish cakes that were so good. I also took ramyon, which is Korean version of ramen. Food was amazing and I was so full after it. We also tried a bottle of soju (Korean version of sake), which tasted like peach. I mean, come on, we were on a holiday and could have it!



Our next stop was in Harajuku Starbucks. One thing I had promised myself was that I would try Sakura milk latte. It was so good. Super sweet and I couldn't have a bigger cup, but it was really good still.

In Japan they don't write your name on a cup, and don't call it out. You pay for your drink, move a little and then get your cup when it is ready. :) I think it is a good system, I probably wouldn't hear my name and would simply be unable to get a drink. :D

On the evening I tried another ice cream, which was more like shaved ice with condensed milk and fresh fruits and berries. I think it was better than the mochi one, but basically on the same level. It was really interesting and good. My friend said she liked it a lot and I was not disappointed.

On the fourth day we went to Tokyo again and had melon bread as a snack. I just... cannot. How good they are. Honestly. There are different ones - just bread ones, ones with chocolate chips, ones with different fillings. We took a normal one but from a stal lthat made them fresh (even though store bought ones are just as good!). Japanese bread is so fluffy and soft. I regret not taking any at home, I could have probably somehow put it in my luggage... :D

We went to have food at okonomiyaki place, which was also recommended by different tourist sites online. Okonomiyaki is sort of like... cabbage pancake, that also has different good stuff in it. Mine also had potato, pumpkin, fresh sprouts, corn and maybe something else which I cannot remember at the moment. You top it with sauce that is a bit like BBQ sauce and mayo, in addition you add some green coloured seasoning and bonito (fish) flakes. And it is sooooo good. Amazing. You fry it in front of you and have it fresh from the grill. Also it was adorable that they used pig fat to fry it, but as seeing I ordered a veggie version, we were brought olive oil. :) Japan, you are amazing!



On the same evening we went to a karaoke, where we had free soft serve ice cream with melon syrup. Melon is really popular thing, there is also melon KitKat for example. And after the karaoke we went to a store, where I picked up cheese and tomato paste wrap and it was better than anything I have ever had.

On the fifth day we went to Kamakura and we had soba (soba is noodles made with buckwheat flour) and tempura (deep fried veggies and seafood). And it was amazing. My friend gave me a piece of her mushroom tempura, and I think I fell in love. :D Soba itself was really amazing as well... and the broth... mmm, I feel hungry just writing it down. Eating was a bit difficult and the portion was huge, but I tried to be over it and told myself that others are eating as well.



Walking around we found a really cute coffee shop where we had a drink and then moved forward. We wrnt to Enoshima after Kamakura, and after that we went back home.

At home my friend made us yakisoba, which was tough for me. Noodles twice a day? What am I thinking?! But NOTHING HAPPENED. I am still the same as I was before having noodles twice a day. My clothes didn't become too small, I didn't become fat. JFC, Signe, get a grip.



I also tried natto! I have been wanting to try it for years and I finally could do it. Natto is... fermented soybeans. And they have a weird slimy texture. Taste... I think they didn't really have much taste to them, I would have liked to add some salt. xD I tried it with mustard and soy sauce and it was better like this. I think I would have it if it was in something. Somewhy I thought it would be super salty or something.

Yakisoba is basically noodles with yakisoba sauce, cabbage and carrots, on top of it you add mayo and nori. And pickled ginger (I am just obsessed with pickled ginger at the moment, send help!). Food was just amazing. And it was easier to eat it, than doing the same in a restaurant. As if the control was in my hands, even though I didn't prepare the food myself. :D Anyway, it was a good day... We also tried some yuzu drink (yuzu is Japanese orange), which was super good. I got the same but plum version to take home with me. When my mum is coming to visit next weekend, we are going to try it.

On the sixth day one of my friends left us to go to a concert in Tokyo. Thus we had dinner together at like 10 pm, when she got back to Tsukuba.

We wanted to go to a gyoza place (Japanese dumplings), but they didn't have anything vegetarian except for one salad, which my friends said is unacceptable and that we will find another place. There was another kind of traditional Japanese place in the same building, where we finally sat down. We had a few drinks and my friends had gyoza, while I had rice with hot water and green vegetables. Nothing special. I also tried tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) and radish tempura which my friends ordered.



This kind of weird food. And I had plum wine.

All in all this evening was really nice, but because we all ate different things, my eating disorder acted up a bit.

On the seventh day we had breakfast at home, but for a quick lunch we had McDonalds. It was also in my list - to try Japanese fast food. I couldn't have had anything if they didn't have seafood option, which they luckily did. I didn't try a normal fish burger, but went for kind crab one. I also had a coke. It was pretty good and different. We also tried KitKat McFlurry, which is something you don't have in Estonia. :D



On the same day we went to onsen and then after that we started to look for a place for dinner. We wanted ramen, as this was something we hadn't tried yet. We found an option and someone called there, asking if they have meat-free vesion. And they said that the six of us are coming soon.

Ramen was amazing! A lot better than the ones I have had in Estonia, definitely. I had miso ramen, as my friend had been raving about it and it was stuck in my head that I want to try it.



The portion was of course huge again. On the side they offerec iced green tea, which was also good. A perfect evening to a perfect day.

On the same evening we tried some drinks, which had very little alcohol (3%) in it. My friend went to a store and got three different ones - she picked yoghurt tasting one for herself. At first I was really sceptical, because it sounded too weird... but when I tried it, it tasted like yoghurt indeed, but better?! :D Anyway, you cannot imagine it unless you try it. Highly recommend. :D

We also got some snacks, which was sweet potatoes in cinnamon. It was soooooooo good. I bought some sweet potato snacks to bring home as well and I just cannot get over them. We are making jokes with my friends that the one living in Japan has to send us subscription boxes and we would send her money. :D

On the eight (and last) full day in Japan we had lunch at Kona's Coffee, which was Hawaiian style pancake place.



There was so much to choose frm and it was difficult to make a pick. I finally decided on iced latte and pancakes with smoked salmon, avocado and stuff salad. I tell you, this green sauce was the best thing I have ever had in my life. And these pancakes were sooo nice and soft and fluffy and tasted so good, especially with butter. I really liked this place, it was nicely decorated and there were so many cool details. It was also fun to watch people eat, because the portions were huge and at one point I just wondered how these small people had pancakes with so much whipped cream. :D I don't even know why, but this was one of my favourite dishes I had. xD Even though... I have said this about everything in this post. :D



On the ninth day we went back home, having onigiri as breakfast. At the airport I also had my favourite melon bread - with chocolate chips. And in the plane I had proper vegetarian menu. First dish I didn't really like, but it filled me up. It was unfair that others had ice cream as a dessert, but I had some weird stuff with raisins, which tasted like alcohol. XD Second meal on a plane was better.

Ah, I also had a croissant with tomato and cucumber as a snack, while others had some sweet pastry.

Anyway, I reallt want to go back and try more Japanese foods. As I mentioned before, I would like some taiyaki, takoyaki, nabe, mochi, daifuku... I want all the foods. :D

At the moment I am depressed at home, sad over the fact I can't have these things in Estonia. Come on, we have some stores that sell asian foods, but they don't have a great selection. I hope that at one point I will be able to buy these things in Estonia... or there is another way - going back to Japan. Also, next time I will bring much less stuff with me to take more back.

I am trying to make a list of things/experiences that we had in Japan, maybe it will give you a good idea on what to do during your trip. I will try to not repeat myself with the previous post, but we shall see.

1. Eat authentic Japanese food

I recommend trying different foods. If you go to Japan and live on pasta and tacos, then this is not an experience. I will make a list of my favourite things that I tried:

• Okonomiyaki
• Soba and tempura
• Udon
• Ramen
• Sushi
• Ddukbokki (Korean rice cakes in sauce)
• Yakisoba
• Onigiri

Here you can see my friend's cold soba with tempura.

I think I wrote most of the things down. Okonomiyaki was definitely my favourite, but others are all on the same level. There are a few things that I didn't try on this trip, but I would really like to - taiyaki and takoyaki.

At the same time on the last day in Japan, we went to have food in Hawaiian style pancake place and this was an experience! The food was amazing. So of course you can try other countries' foods, but don't do ONLY that. Food experiences are really cool.

2. Go to karaoke

I actually did hope that we get to go there more, but even this one time there was plenty of fun. 4 hours of karaoke cost about 15 euros, and there was free drink bar plus free soft serve ice cream (unlimited of course!). And four hours passed super fast.

Singing in Japanese was quite difficult, same with Korean which we also tried for a second. :D Which was cool, was to try these old English songs (like Barbie Girl. Yep.). We sang everything from Hard Rock Hallelujah to Eminem's rap.



Japanese karaoke is a lot different from Estonian one. You get a separate room wiht your friends to sing and go crazy in. It is not that you have to go in front of many people at the bar and start singing. Japanese karaoke is a lot more freeing and nicer. Also you get to use tamburines and this kind of stuff. :D Must go again next time!

3. Go to onsen

Going to onsen was an experience. I was super excited about it from the moment my friend said that we could possibly go. Onsen is natureal hot water spring (?) and there you go and bathe in this hot water (wow what an explanation, Signe, you go girl).

We went to a different town from Tsukuba and Tokyo and it was really nice, it was on the countryside. Temperature of the water is over 40 degrees Celcius and finally sitting in the water my cold bones got warm :D. And it was so nice after. Also, we went to onsen on the day before our last day there and it was perfect rest from walking around and carrying a lot of things. :D

4. Cross the Shibuya crossing

I don't even know why I am writing this down, but in my opinion, this is one of the most iconic things. Everyone has seen pictures of this crossing, it usually comes with articles written about Tokyo.



In reality this crossing is... quite small! This blew my mind, because I expected something grand. Basically it is just like any other crossing... but it did have a lot of people crossing it. :D It felt unrea to walk there, I felt like wow, I am really in Japan, huh. :D

5. Take purikura

So purikura is a set of pictures that you can take with your friends in a photo booth. We did it twice and I think they came out super cute. You can also edit them later and add different stickers and writings on them.



Purikura machines are definitely in all kinds of game centers. Here you can see one. There are a lot of different games and machines. So I suggest checking game center out as well!

Purikura cost about 400 yen (under 4 euros) and I think this was super cute thing and I was glad we did it. One of the printed out pictures is now on my fridge and other one is on my cupboard next to my desk so I can look at it if I want to. :D

6. Visit a temple

The first picture of this post is me in a temple.

I also recommend to go to a temple and pick yourself a fortune. It means that for 100 yen, you can take a stick and it has a number on it. Depending on the number you get a paper with your fortune written on it. I  got regular fortune and kept it. In case you get bad fortune, you can tie it up and leave it in the temple so it wouldn't affect you.



Here you can see how they are tied up and left here.

I also recomment to wash your hands and mouth and have incense smell come over you to get rid of bad stuff. Even if you don't believe in anything, this seems so traditional and is cool to try. Also the temples look gorgeous.

7. Buy something from a vending machine

We mostly had water :D and coffee. And well, we also tried melon soda and something similar to vitamine water named Pocari Sweat (which was really good). Of course you can get some green tea and... warm soup.

In Estonia there aren't many vending machines, so it was cool to test them. At the same time we wondered who is filling them up?! Sometimes they are in such random places, but they always have enough stock. How?!

8. Eat something from konbini

Meaning from a small store. I recommend trying onigiri, they have loads of different ones (with meat, with fish, but also veggie ones). There is a selection of lunch boxes as well as wraps and sandwiches.

They also have many sweet pastries, for example melon bread, which there are different ones as well. Regular one, one with chocolate chips and one with melon flavour and so on. I just love Japanese pastries, they are so fluffy and soft and just wonderful.


Commenst from my previous post:

Such a positive vibe post, super nice! It will be interesting to read however you write - however it is the best for you to make some posts. :) Did you buy some masks being afraid of Corona virus? Could you bring out something that for us is normal, but would offend Japanese people? Did you miss something while travelling?

I was not afraid of Corona, I think the flu is much worse. :D In Japan there are only about 163 cases of Corona as well and it is due to this ship. But actually I did get some masks. I used the one with a filter and also a normal one. I wore them at the airport, because there are so many people from so many different countries. Daily I didn't wear a mask in Japan.

I don't know if this offends Japanese people, but they usually give you stuff while holding it with two hands. I tried to do the same and accept stuff in the same way. I don't think it would offend them if I hadn't done it, though.

I guess if would be rude to make your way rudely in the queue or something. Or talk on the phone on a bus. Just normal things for us, but I think these would not be appreciated there.

I don't think I missed anything when I was travelling. Maybe only my routine foods and stuff dealing with my eating disorder. There were more things I liked and would have taken with me :D Okay, maybe one time I did want to use a bathroom, but it was only traditional Japanese one (meaning you have to squat :'D). I did miss my cat a bit, especially because this one bar we went to had a cat.

I thought I would write about the trip, but also bring out some things that I believe Estonia would need. :D I was in Japan for 8 days and currently I am in love with it. We are already planning our next visit, which would hopefully be next March and then we could go to more places. For example Universal Studios Japan...

But anyway, if someone would be nice enough to tell me what kind of posts about Japan they would like to read, it would be great.  I mean should I write about my days as they went or should I write small articles like "behaviours in Japan that Estonia needs", "foods in Japan", "travel pictures" and so on? Which one would be better?

Anyway, about today's topic - I got used to some things in Japan so fast and now it is weird to get used to Estonia again.

1. Politeness and order

Japanese people are sooo polite. Honestly. Estonians are complete machos compared ot them!

Some good examples are for example going to the stores. Let's say you are buying an onigiri (rice roll) which costs about 120 yen. You give them 200. Then the cashier says something that should be that I will now take your 200 yen and give you 80 back. They also thank people a lot and so on.

For example on one evening we wanted to have dinner in this one place, but they did not have any vegetarian options. When we left, the waiter came to the door and bowed 90 degrees to apologize.

For example the bus came a bit early and people already went on it. The bus driver said that we have to get off again and that it was his mistake. He kept apologizing for 10 minutes and I felt bad about it :D

All the people walk really logically. You go one way on the left and come from the right. You do not just make your way through people. On the escalators you stand on the left side and if you are in a hurry, you take the right side. Metro stairs also have this system and arrows to show you where to walk. Everything is so... much in order!

For public transport, people queue up. Even if you are just waiting for a bus on the side of the road. You stand in a queue and won't bother other people.

Japanese people don't talk on the phone in public transport. You won't hear peoples' life stories or stories about last night's party. Even the loudspeaker says that please do not make any phonecalls when you are on the transport. And the best thing - people actually follow this rule!

2. Heated toilet seats

This is not a behaviour, but something I really wanted to write down and should exist here!! At first it was really unusual, but soon I started to love it. I mean, it is nice to go to a cafe or bar and sit on the warm toilet seat (most of the places also have desinfication for the seat). I also tried this bidet thingy and it was rather interesting. :D Could do with it.

All in all I was impressed by Japanese toilets. Also I wanted to bring out that in many places there were pads available. For free. Which is weird and I didn't like is that the toilet paper is only one paper thin! Like, why?!

3. 24/7 open stores

Actually I don't thing stores should be open 24/7, or at least it should be a thing that everything is open 24/7. In Japan, mose of the konbinis (small supermarkets) were always open and sometimes it was a true blessing. For example when we got home from Tokyo really late and hadn't prepared for breakfast or just wanted to get some snacks.

Which I also loved was that when you bought like a wrap or something they always offered to heat it up for you. I remember that one night we went home from karaoke and were hungry and I had some pizza margherita wrap and it was warm and cheesy and delicious. Also about 24/7 open stores...

4. Drink vending machines! 

I will never get tired of being excited over them. Like really - genius. Especially that you can buy both cold and hot drinks, not to mention hot soup. There are also food vending machines, for example one dedicated to ice cream or actual food like sandwiches. We didn't try out them, but we did have some coffees.



5. Hospitality

I have heard about Japanese people being really hospitable, but I was surprised how far it went. For example we went to eat ramen one time, as we had not tried it yet. I don't eat meat and it was a problem to pick a place. Instead of going somewhere and seeing if they had an option for me, they actually called to this ramen place and asked if they have veggie version. When we finally got there, they made sure about 100 more times that there is no meat and no meat based broth. This was super adorable. :D

Also when we were out for food or something, everyone always made sure we had full cups and snacks in front of us. You could just mention something or look around and then already someone went and brought you stuff. This politeness, helping and hospitality was so good that I kind of felt weirded out. :D I just wanted to give back somehow.

6. HUGE food portions

Whoever said that Japanese people are thin and eat little, was so wrong. Well, they are quite thin (more thin people than in Estonia, if you look around here), but the food portions... oh boy. On the first evening we went out to have udon, and the portion we had... well that was awesome. :D Basically at the end of every meal you were in agony because of the amount of food. :D



I will make a separate post about Japanese foods we tried and then I will also tell more about my weight and eating disorder things.

Sometimes in Estonia you go out to eat and get like a line and a dot on your plate, even if you want to have a stew or something you are expecting to be a lot of. In Japan it is "I hope there is not too much food, because it is good and I will eat it all but then I am too full". :D Anyway yes, I have never had such huge meals here.

I guess the difference is that there you don't usually have an appetizer, main course and dessert. You have one meal and that's that. Also most of the restaurants ore focused on one thing. For example there is ramen place, udon place, tempura place, soba place, okonomiyaki place and so on. There aren't huge menus that would have everything from the pasta to Asian style soup.

7. Sleeping in public transport

Everyone did it! From teenagers to salary men. I don't understand how people managed to get off at the right stops. Also if the train was really full, people even slept standing up. Just... slept.

One of us also learned how to sleep on the train, and I also rested my eyes for a bit. I never did fall asleep though. :D It was quite interesting to observe. It was also really quiet in the public transport mostly, so I guess people are sleeping well. In Estonia you usally don't need to take public transport for long enough to fall asleep, but it would be nice to do so when you are indeed riding for more than 15 minutes. :D



8. Hot towels at the restaurants and desinfecting your hands

I realllllly liked that in most places you are brought steaming hot wet towel to wipe your hands clean with. Especially if you come from outside and your hands are cold. It is nice and warm. Also, even when we were flying back to Estonia, on the plane they brought us these warm towels. I think it was such an awesome manner and I didn't have to run to bathroom every time I went somewhere.

Also we had our own desinfecting solutions with us that we used a lot, but at the same time there were many bottles with desinfication solution available in stores, cafes and restaurants. Just passing, you could clean your hands. I don't know if it was due to corona virus or not, but it was good to be able to use it. Especially if you had been shopping and going through clothes for example.

9. Wearing face masks 

This is common in Japan and isn't being done due to corona virus. People also wear masks when they don't have any make up on or look tired. I think it is nice, you just hide half of your face and do your own thing. I imagine if you wore a face mask in Estonia, most of the people would think that you are dying.

Wearing a mask is actually quite uncomforable, it gets really hot. Why I would like this to be done in Estonia? Because I would feel much better wearing a mask when I was sick and stop sharing my bacteria. Besides there are so many cute masks in Japan. With different pictures and designs and all. It is not only this simple hospital one, there are many better options. Mostly masks were worn in public places and in metros. And even really small kids had masks.

10. A bag over your face

Literally. If you went to a clothing store and wanted to try something, then you were given this mesh bag, which you had to put over your face. So you wouldn't get the clothes dirty. As I wore make up during the trip every day, it was really nice. The situations where you go to a store and find something you like, only to discover foundation or lipstick stain on it, really suck. Also it is difficult to try some things on if you have to pay so much attention on not getting it dirty. I thing this was genius.

11. Only female wagons on trains 

Yup. Between Tokyo and Tsukuba, usually first wagon was only for women, which was... interesting. My friend told me about it and one time we even were in it. :D

At the moment I can't think about anything else, but there are surely more things like this. I shall look forward to your thoughts on how should I blog about the trip - about every day separately or make those small articles. Also - thank you so much if you read through all of this.

Have you got anything to add if you have ever been to Japan? I really would love to hear your opinions. If I get a comment, I will add it to my next post. I am afraid I forgot a lot of cool things. :D

Anyway, I know this post is published on random time, but I will assure you that I will keep posting on Mondays and Fridays from now on. There was just a huge gap now which I will fill. Anyway - talk to you soon!