New Year

For me it's not only the start of a new year but also my birthday. I've been thinking a lot about the past and also how I want to proceed in the next year as a 21-year-old. So much has changed in this past year it gives me a lot to think about.

This time last year I looked like this:

During 2010 I have started a relationship, finished my 2nd year at university, moved country, begun studying in Japan and had quite a style makeover. Of course the biggest change is moving to Japan. It has made me grow up more than simply moving to London did, it's highlighted a lot of issues I need to work on in regards to Japanese and being here has really made me more concious of my style. 

Right now I look like this:

It's been really useful being here where I can visit my favourite brands so often and pick up gal magazines whenever I want. At first I really wasn't sure where I was going style-wise but now I'm so much more focussed on how I want to look. I hope into 2012 I can keep getting more confident in this respect.

That brings me to my resolutions:

1: Be more focussed on studying

I've always worked quite hard but lately I've noticed a lot of weak points with my studying I need to work on. By putting in more effort I hope I can fix these and work towards my goal of fluency in Japanese and confidence using it with both native speakers and other learners a like.

2: Lose weight

I've gained some weight I'd rather lose over that last year and I would like to lose it. I also want to get fitter in general because I feel so unfit and that's so not sexy. I'm pretty good at eating clean when I can be bothered but I get lazy when it comes to exercise so I'm going to try and work harder in that respect.

3: Be more organised

This applies to various things, from tidying my room regularly to keeping in better contact with my family. I need to be more proactive and organised in so many aspects. This includes thinking about my future. In September I start my final year of uni and I really need to think harder about what I want to do with my life after studenthood.

4. Improve style

I already mentioned how I feel like I'm doing better with my style. I want to continue this and most of all, not go back to how I was before once I get back to London. Confidence is a big part of looking good and I want to maintain the confidence I've gain so far. My make-up still needs work and I want to be able to put together better co-ordinates with the clothes I have.

Shibuya is where it's at

I'm getting so behind with blog posts because so much has been happening lately what with everyone coming to Tokyo for the holidays. I mentioned in my last blog post I was going to go to the Royz live. It was a really good night out and for an indies band they put on a great show. I will shamelessly fan-girl them from now on.

 After the gig we went to take purikura and then went to our beloved Denny's. I've been there twice in the past two weeks. In fact I've been eating out a lot lately, but it's been worth it. I've been having a lot of fun too. And I'm never going to say no to deserts. ^^

Christmas Eve in Japan in basically a date day. Since I'm doing the long distance thing atm I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Alice was sleeping in because she works nights at a karaoke place so me and Chriss went off to 109. We saw a few other groups of girls having a girly day too so it seems we weren't the only ones not on the romantic bandwagon.

After chatting with the shop staff and picking up some stuff at D.I.A and Mars (me) and CoLu and MarpleQ

 (Chriss) we decided to get something to eat. We went to my favourite Omurice place in Shibuya (they do even better deserts than Denny's). In the end I guess it did sort of end up being like a date lol

It was so good. Then when we got back home Alice was up and she wanted to go out. We dressed up and had what she named "HO HO HO Merry Christmas". I don't think I've ever been such a tramp ever >.< I wore my new Real Mars dress so I was feeling pretty awesome and then we went to Shinjuku at around midnight. First stop was Donki to get boot covers (because my legs were freezing) and then we went off to my favourite izakaya. We had 2 hours all-you-can-drink and actually went for it this time so we came out pretty wasted. Then we went for karaoke (and tried badly to explain how Alice works there in order to get staff discount. We failed unsurprisingly). For some reason after that we still hung out, still drinking at like...7am at this point? We eventually headed home which took far longer than it should have. In the morning me and Alice had to go and get KFC for Christmas dinner, still pretty wasted >.<  A very merry Christmas all around I'd say.

Royz

Me and Chriss were saying how we really wanted to see some bands while she was here. We spent a while looking for who's playing atm and actually has tickets available (most Christmas and New Year stuff is sold out) and we found out that Royz are playing tomorrow. This is awesome because they're one of the bands we both really wanted to see so we're going tomorrow.

This also means I'm going to have to take a crash course in their furi. I can usually pick it up quite quickly but I have like...no time to learn this time. It doesn't help that the guides I'm going from are crazy. Oh Royz I love you.

1,2 Agehoes

I posted a pic yesterday on Facebook of me and Chriss twinning. Well you can work out what that means, CHRISS IS IN TOKYO!! Yay I am re-united with one of my agehoes. She's visiting for a few weeks and staying in the same place as me so super convenient for fun times ^^

We then went off with Alice on various errands to ensure we have cake and KFC in time for Christmas. Or should I say Chriss-mas? I'm really happy we managed to order the KFC in time. It's not as good as being with your family I guess but it's still fun doing Christmas the Japanese way. After our errands in Shinjuku (and some flapping about and taking puri in Kabukicho) we went off to Harajuku.

In Harajuku we looked around a few shops and went to Tenya for some tempura-don because we were epic hungry and I realised I hadn't eaten tempura at all since I'd got to Japan which is a travesty since it's super yummy. After that we went for crepes because you can't go to Harajuku and not eat crepes. Believe me I've tried.

The sign next to the crepe shop.

Our crepes. I had double chocolate and banana and Alice and Chriss had double chocolate and strawberry. Mmm fruit.

And finally this is my eye make-up at the moment. I've been playing around with it a bit and have gone back to glitter under the eyes because it helps with the darker shadows and thicker liner I've been using lately. The top lashes are Candy Style (cute) and the bottom lashes are Diamond Lashes (charming eye).

I can't wait until everyone else gets here for the winter holidays. When Emmie gets here the Agehoes will all be assembled and armed to take over....

Muzak

BEST SONG EVARRR. Been blasting it non stop.

Alongside Kyary's latest single. Not as good as PON PON PON but you've gotta applaude the eyelash queen for another crazy pv

New Jeans

My mum sent on the jeans I ordered!�

I've wanted these since Unni visited and brought Emmie's pair.

She couldn't get me any when she returned but randomly while we were on msn together we sawthem on Nelly.com.

I had to have them sent home first!and my mum wasn't too impressed (she didn't like my extensions either lol!)

I'm now so ready for ageho skank day in the land of the rising sun.�

Lashtastic : Candy Style

When I got here I was in desperate need of new lashes, the ones I'd been using were pretty much trashed. I was all set to buy some Diamond Lashes or Dolly Wink but as I was in Donki I saw loads of lashes for like, 107 yen in various styles. I never bought cheap lashes in the UK because they looked so fake and didn;t come in the styles I wanted. However these Candy Style lashes were all designed for gal make-up and didn't seem too awful.

The lashes don't come with glue but I never use the glue that comes with lashes anyway, I use D.U.P Lash Fixer EX. They aren't the best quality lashes I've ever had, but because they're so cheap I don't mind wearing them all the time and basically trashing them. It also means I can try out different styles without investing too much. I mean who wants 4 pairs of eyelashes that don't actually suit you?

And I'm not the only one wearing them. I knew the packaging looked familiar when I saw them in the shop so I flicked back through some of my gal mags and sure enough the reader models are using them too.

• Kanako uses the Baby top lashes.
• Rina uses the Baby and Natural top lashes and the Racoon bottom lashes.
• Minyatocchi also uses the Baby top lashes.
• Nemoyayo uses the Bapion and Racoon lashes.

So if you're around a Donki I recommend giving some of these a try. I mean what does it cost you?