Adventures in the American Village

Today we took the train from Nagoya to my Aunt's place in Osaka (my favorite city in Japan after Tokyo :P 

The first thing I had to do was shop at AmeMura which is an "American" village. Its a cool place to shop because many of the stores have a Western style but, of course, always with a Japanese flavor. Its fun to see the trendy stuff circling around and comparing it to LA's fashion scene. 

Aside from the shopping, one cannot leave Osaka without a takoyaki fixing….it's what Osaka is known for.

I was stoked to see my friends' brand from LA have their goodies sold here at Spinns. So happy~

Y R U Spotting

ooo  T a k o y a k i  ooo

Top// Jade Clark

Shoes// YRU

**Please note that these photos are not taken professionally, thus please don't mind the lower quality of photos. 

My blog is simply a diary for now. Thanks babes**

Deandri Halloween Sale

A beautiful little church, concealed in the raucous city of LA, houses Deandri's charmed show room. 

Fit for the season of Halloween, its glistening stained glass compliments all of the lovely and dark clothing pieces, shoes, and accessories. 

I have grown a liking to this brand very much.

Chantelle, director of operations and store manager, is such a lovely doll.

Photo cred by the beautiful and amazingly-talented Deanna Richmond, designer of Deandri. 

I had to gear-up in Deandri today obviously.

Deandri's Pop-up Shop

 The Urban Outfitters located on Broadway in Downtown LA welcomed its space to house one of my favorite brands, Deandri, to their store for the day.

On top of that, another brand that I adore for their cutest sunnies, Q/A, popped up a little shop there as well.

 One of the best things is when brands have pop up shops because its a kinda rare occasion when you get the opportunity to see the products in person and chat with the awesome people there. 

These dolls make all the magic happen. 

I'm always inspired by such creative, successful, and beautiful young women such as them.

TOP: UNIF
SKIRT: American Apparel
HEELS: Deandri

Here's a snap of my friend and I who won the raffle for the free Q/A sunnies AND he won the harness I'm wearing.

Photo Booth at Urban Outfitters

The clear pvc collar-harness was too cute not to get. It was on sale as well so, the decision was done.

Japanese Food Adventures in Torrance

Living only 20 measly minutes from Little Tokyo in Downtown LA, I only occasionally get my lazy bum up to drive to Torrance for Japanese grocery shopping. 

I was running low on my Japanese food stock at home, so this was the perfect reason to go shopping in one of the largest Japanese communities in Southern Cali. 

My first stop was Marukai Market on Artesia Blvd. where I was overwhelmed by the large space that the market occupied and their loads of goodies that all tempted me. 

Presenting to you my haul….

You must try the Country Mama's vanilla chocolate chip cookies because they're my favorite packaged cookies. 

Hokkaido milk bread with honey makes the best and simplest Honey Toast.

I don't care for American chicken nuggets, but karage is just something else.

It was then nearing lunch time, and I was feeling the Japanese cravings keep up with my Japanese vibes today, so I thought: what better place to eat than the Mitsuwa in Torrance? 

This Mistuwa Market has many places to eat inside their food court, and all of them have pretty darn good food. 

I hit the jackpot with my decision because Mitsuwa was having their annual Unaju (teriyaki eel rice bowl) sale for a limited for this month, and me…I'm the biggest fan of unagi <3 Scoreeee

Pretty good for a store-packaged unaju. I have yet to try the real deal in Japan though :(

We were still hungry, so we completed our Japanese lunch with a tonkotsu ramen, of course, from Santouka Ramen. Their pork broth is always perfect, and the chashu-don was just how I like it: light, not too oily or fatty, but flavorful.

Being the sweet tooth that I am, I read about this popular mochi place inside the Mitsuwa Market known as Mochi Cream. I was ecstatic to finally try it!

I picked out 4 different flavors to carry out my taste test…

The Review on These Little Gems

(starting from favorite to least)

#1

#2

#3

#4

I walked out of Mitsuwa feeling up in the clouds from eating such divine mochi desserts.

It didn't stop there…

I shopped at Daiso as well because it was in the same complex as Mitsuwa. This Daiso is, once again, a lot bigger and carries more products than the one in Koreatown that I usually go to. 

Also in the same complex, 85C Bakery & Cafe was the last stop; I unintentionally saved the best for last. 

I tried their most popular goods--as the yelp reviews say--such as the egg tart and sea salt iced coffee. 

Okay so I am a 85C egg tart-addict and proud.

This pastry is everything I dream about in one bite: the crust was flakey, buttery, warm, and fresh straight out of the oven. The custard filling was lightly sweet, creamy, light, and just delicious.

Strawberry Tiramisu
nothing fancy...

Sea Salt iced coffee was amazing!
I'm surprised why other coffee shops don't sell salted coffee!! 

Bathroom selfie HAHAHAHA, sorry!

I couldn't return home without buying more of these babies. I'll dream about these little egg tartlets. 

And the Rum Raisin Buttermilk bread pictured above was wonderful. I recommend getting it too! 

I love my eating adventures.