cherry blossom festival!

i went to the cherry blossom festival today!!! this is gonna be all over the place, but i hope u're able to make heads n tails of it...

originally, i was going to go with my friend, but she wasn't feeling well today <///3 so i went with my mom, and made sure to get lots of goodies to share with her in a treat bowl~ i'll show a pic of our haul l8r on when i put together the little slideshow of some other pics i have...

when we reached the area, my mom was sort of thirsty, so she got a sweet potato latte at this cozy little café. it also sold vintage houseware and some cute totes, and in general was a warm space. probs v good for studying! and i was really hungry, so i ended up stopping by my fave market in the area to get some chicken karaage and mango calpico, which was really yummy~ my mom also had some chicken meatball skewers. i wanted to try some kakigori that ppl were walking around with, it was super huge n colorful! but a lot of the time, brightly colored flavor syrups irritate my throat, so i didn't get it.

after lunch, we started our visit in the lower floor of the west mall. my mom tried one of the gacha machines for a little birdie figurine, then we looked at some of the vendors there. i even met a vendor who's going to the same college that i am!!! but they're a senior and i'm a freshman ㅠㅠ they were v encouraging tho :3. i wanted to check out chibird's (one of my fave online artists EVER, i luv all of her drawings sm) stall, who set up alongside a bunch of others in a little room in a tucked-away hall of the mall, but it was literally so humid and crowded i would've lost my mind... oh well. another day.

after that, i went upstairs. wasn't super interested in the vendors on the top level, so i went straight into the kinokuniya. wandered around for abt an hour, looking at lots of cookbooks n food magazines and language learning materials. i found a tohoshinki magazine, which i got bcuz OF COURSE I DID!!!!!! i was actually hoping to find a kat-tun one, but tohoshinki is good too. it focuses on yunho and changmin, which is to be expected, but still sorta awkward. i find it interesting (neutral) that the other three are often completely erased, but. not important rn!

i also wanted to check out the maido across the way, but i could see how cramped it was. and besides, i wouldn't have gotten anything-- i can't let the notebook temptation get to me before the next school year!

then we went to the sweets shop! we got choco caramel mochi, sakura white choco mochi, sakura candy, and sakura cream cookies. i wandered around a few other trinket shops, and got a sheet of stickers with various designs involving konpeito. i luv konpeito so much-- i know it's just sugar, but it's my favorite japanese candy! there were some more sticker sheets i was interested in, and lots of tokidoki stuff! (tbh. i like tokidoki more than sanrio... i like the extra edge.) and cute photocard holders, and ita bags, and this and that... but i didn't want to spend even more money!!! i wanna get tomodachi life first b4 other things...

i wanted to check out the traditional japanese home goods store as well, but didn't. again, crowds...

afterwards, we went to the east mall and i finally got to try the ice cream taiyaki place there. i got ube soft serve in a mochi taiyaki cone~ literally became so messy, but it was delicious. i used to really love ube ice cream when I was tiny, so this was nostalgic and completely new at the same time. i love it. (though... with ube suddenly becoming popular, my beloved might be harder to find <////3)

then we walked around and looked at outside vendors. i wasn't interested in a bunch, but i did get a super-cool shirt from a particular brand i really luv-- they combine japanese and hawaiian foods with animals and technology. peak mid-2010s graphic shirt design, like you're the cool nerd character in a show. it's a bit of a tradition for me to pick one up, whenever i go.

i'm still going out tomorrow, too. maybe? i'm not sure. i'm super tired. but a kpop store near me is hosting an anniversary event, with free photo cards................ do i wanna drag myself out again after a long day...................? i was sort of hoping to do more work and site stuff tonight, but i don't think i'll be able to.

ah, we'll see................

sotd: phonecall by ken arai