Ikebukuro Diary

'Tadaima' means 'I'm home!' in Japanese.
Yes, I'm back here on 22nd and what I most happy is to see familier faces again :)

Well, My journey was quite great and impressed...!!
I've visited four coutries ,France and Swizerland, Tunisia, UK.

It was great chance to meet my friends and also glad to meet new people
and also exploreing new places and finding something different
and foods are much interesting for me and I love it!
I already thinking for the next trip ;)

Then,I would like to show you how was my trip with some photos here sometimes.
I can't put it down about all my journey here now.... :p

Anyway...Tadaima! it has been a while ;)

English newspapers are available at reception for 160yen.
We only have five of them a day.
Don't miss it.

By the way, model of this picture is Micheal who stayed in Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro about half a year.
He is the longest staying guest in our hotel.
Hi, Micheal, how are you doing? If you see this blog, please drop some comment.

The holiday season starts.
We have many beautiful illumination in all over Tokyo.

We decolated the christmas tree in our hotel !
How is it?

The model is Amy, from California. Thank you for being model☆

To say honesty, I wanna bigger one!!
Anybody?

well....
I will wish it to Santa Claus☆

Hot chocolate now (L)

If you are a reader of our blog, you already knew that I love chocolate.
But I didn't really like hot chocolate. Because the hot chocolate which I had drank before was too sweet, but no chocolate taste. I use to think chocolate is for eating, not for drinking. But since I met GODIVA's hot chocolate, I looove hot chocolate.

The GODIVA's hot chocolate is not too sweet, and it really has a taste of chocolate, not too weak, not too dark, it is really perfect for drink. So if you find, GODIVA's stand, please try it!
The nearst one is in Ikebukuro Sunshine city, which is in walking distance from our hotel. You can find GODIVA's stand also at JR Shinjuku station west exit of basement.

It is getting cold now. Why don't you drink hot chocolate to protect your body from the cold wind☆

What's going on with his meal.
He usually, eat meals like pasta, paella, french course(?!), that kind of things.
But today's his lunch is ↓

just rice , miso soup and some croquettes.

Is he on a diet?
But the croquettes still look good.
Please feed him, anybody?
By the way, why you hide your eyes? Are you arrested? Or you want to be Mr. Ono?

This is my favorite shampoo.
Tamanohada

What I like with this shampoo is that they have good smell. I use fig scent now.
It is not really fig smell, but it has a breezy smell with a bit of rosewood smell.
Before I use fig scent, I used to use Rose scent. It　was also good and not really artificial scent.
It smelled like real rose.
Usually, the scent of shampoo disappeares quickly. However, the scent of tamanohada shapoo lasts long.
I can feel the scent even in the next day evening of shampoo. Maybe you think, the scent is too strong? That is what I thohght before using this shampoo. I worried about feeling bad because of the too strong smell.
But There was no problem. I was perfectly fine with that smell.

The shampoo is contained in a 500ml bottle. It is a little bit heavy for souvenior, but if you are interested in it, please try it. They also have round-shaped soaps and conditioner. That soap is very cute and good for gift.

They have several different kinds of flavor besides rose and fig. Find your favorite one.

**Tamanohada shampoo
http://www.tamanohada.co.jp/english/index.html
**Shop info
Timeless comfort (Markcity west in JR Shibuya station)

Do you miss this smile?

I do!

Finally, Kayoko will be back in this weekend.
A month and half is too long for me.
I can't wait to see her.

Kayoko, have a safe flight. And get warm.
The season changed from Autumn to winter while you were not here.
It is geting cold now in Japan.

Uniqlo sells heat-tech items.
It is very warm. Heat tech is the technology for keeping warm by steam from the body who wear heat-tech items.
They have several different items; jeans, long-sleeves, underwear, sox and so on.
Uniqlo is famous in some countries, not only in Japan.
We have one in Ikebukuro OIOI building where 5min walking from our hotel.
It was just opened in this fall. The floor is large and they have many different items.

Also, I have good news about uniqlo.
They starts special sale from Nov 21st, at 6AM!! Unfortunately, Uniqlo in OIOI building branch will not join this sale. But Uniqlo in Ikebukuro eastside branch, where 15min walking from Ikebukuro station, will join the sale!
You can not wake up?
Don't worry.
We will wake you up if you stay with us.
Looking forward to your reservation ☆

http://www.uniqlo.com/us/

A brandnew electrical store, LABI1(Yamada Denki) just opened.
Since my computer is too old, I went there to find a new one.
It was a huuuge shop.
Especially, the computer section is very huge and they have many different types of computer. These years, computer is getting cheaper and cheaper. I found one with at 25,000yen with basic functions. When I got my first computer about 10 years ago, it was about 200,000yen.

Recently, Ikebukuro is called the 2nd electrical city next to Akihabara. Besides Yamda denki, we have several Bic camera and Sakuraya in Ikebukuro.
If you are looking for some electrical items, please have a look.
You probably can find a good one.

Have you ever tried Japanese rice cracker called senbei?
Here is it.

They come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, usually salty and with soy souce taste, but sometimes sweet. Mostly they are made by rice. It is very crunchy.
The picture is senbei with seaweed, sesami, and soy souce flavor (from left to right).
Usually, Senbei is used for small gift or reciprocal gift.
Luckly we got a box of senbei .

When I was a kid, I like senbei more than chocolates and candies.

If you are looking for something for your friend or family, senbei will be nice souvenior. Most of department stores have variety of different senbei.

Chestnuts-bun from our colleague who worked at head office in Shinjuku.
Thank you very much.

Chestnuts is one of the famous Autumn flavor.
This chestnuts bun has really good taste of chestnuts jam inside.
hmmmmm...very creamy..

It is good to have with green tea. It makes me relax.
If you would like to try, ask Mr. ONO.
I am sure that he still has some chesnuts-bun in his bag ;P

On November 15th, our staff Riichi Shimizu will have exhibition at Design Festa Gallery in Harajuku.
Below is message from Riichi.
↓↓↓

bl nk minimalism - new styles of collaboration -

It is an exhibition of a team of 8 artists.

By setting "minimalism" as the theme, we will show a new style of
collaboration, where works of art don't stand alone, but rather effect
each other.

Real-time constructed motion art and music, which shifts from time to time.
Static glass sculpture, which continuously changes its appearance by
various modes of light.
A dynamic exhibition will be held mainly with these works of art.

Come and see the alter-ego of the staff which is far from the face he
normally shows!
And who knows! You may discover your own alter-ego!

**For more information, please visit website**
http://www.philosophy.vc/blnk/

Design festa galary.
15min walking from JR Harajuku station.
http://www.designfestagallery.com/index_en.html

Do you remember him?

He stayed with us in this April.
He doesn't stay in our hotel anymore, but he sometimes visit us and hang out at our cafe.
Nothing would make us happier than our guests visiting us after once they check out.

And this time, he drew a picture in our guest book.

I am sure that he will be a big artist!

Yey!
We got fresh baked croissants!
Thank yooooooooooou.

Croissant is one of my favorite bread.
I like its cranchy texture and smell of butter...
hmmmmmmmmmmm... yummy.

It makes me happy (L)

Sorry, Kayoko... They will be gone by the time you come back.

Drawing a picture on hot latte is popular in Tokyo now.

This is what I found at mois cafe in Shimokitazawa (keio Inogashira line and Odakyu line).
I ordered the hot lam chocolate, and they drew a flower with lam chocolate. Lovely.
The building of this cafe is a renovated old Japanese style house. The asmospher is very nice.

I found this latte at a cafe somewhere in Harajuku. I forgot the name of the cafe
(> <)

If you find any cute latte art, please let me know☆

Finally, Mr. Ono came back to us after 3 months of leave.
We all staff are looking forward to the day he is completely back at work.

We had the okaeri party for Mr.Ono in a Spainsh restaurant.
His shyness still hasn't improved, but we are really happy to see his vigorous face.

↑Right is today's star, Mr. Ono who covering his big face with his small hands. Left is Mr. F. by the way.

↑From left, Mr.T., Takashi - the real prince , Sariko, and Noriko.

↑Hey Yumi, be careful of drunk Mr.T. ;P

↑the beast Nishi and Taglyn-the fake prince ;P

Last one is this!
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Conglaturations Mr. T! You won ｔhe award for the most grossest ;P