a lot.

I have been so MIA from my blog recently. I have so much to catch up on with photos and events...but for now here's just an honest lament of whats been going on in my heart and mind lately

"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tent of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. LORD almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you."
Psalm 84: 10-11

Life has been crazy lately. September is always a busy month when you're a teacher (welcome back, cultural festival, sports festival, etc) but I feel like all areas of my life lately have been on overdrive. I arrived at a place recently where my heart was overwhelmed and my spirit was feeling weak and vulnerable. Being on the other side of the world really elevates all of that.

When I faced overwhelming moments as a kid, my parents were right there to bear some of the burden. They would pray for me, hand me tissues, and support me through every bump in the road. Then in college, I faced the typical frustrating moments of anxiety and growth...and I had my strong and fierce web of friends right there with me (you know who you ladies are). We sat on the couch and drowned our tears in prayers, coffee, and sisterhood. 

So where am I now? In Japan. Thousands of miles away from all that's familiar...facing these real life things head on. Is is scary? yes. Are there moments when I ask myself "what the heck am I going to do?" yes. Do I worry and fear? yes. Does God know all the turmoil in my heart and love me deeply? yes. Is God full of grace, truth, mercy, and forgiveness? YES. YES. A thousand times yes. 

Psalms 84 is beautiful. water for the soul. Better is one day in the house of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere. I believe that with all of me. No good thing does He withhold. As humans, we desire so many crazy things.... but God knows what is best for us. He knows what we've been through and He knows what is coming. He is the father of light, the giver of all good things, the creator of this earth and the one who holds all time in his hands. He is the comforter in our chaos and the bearer of all our burdens. I am thankful I serve a God that never leaves me on my own.

This song came into my head this morning...my spirit sings it!

My hope is built on nothing less
thank Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly trust in Jesus' name 

On Christ the solid rock I stand
all other ground is sinking sand
all other ground is sinking sand

When darkness veils his lovely face
I rest on his unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil

HOUSE VISION

One of my favorite sources for all things art/design/photography/Japan is SPOON+TAMAGO and thanks to their good work I stumbled upon this exhibit in Odaiba called HOUSE VISION 2. Basically it is this super rad exhibit where architects and designers partner with big name companies to create model houses and rooms for the future. Yeah, talk about amazing. 

I cruised on over there on a rainy Saturday with Steph and as soon as we turned the corner and saw the entrance our jaws dropped...we had entered JAPANESE ARCHITECTURAL DREAMLAND. *insert heart eyes*

Tickets were around $15... but to me, it was worth every penny. 

There were about 12 model houses to walk around and see. I wanted to live in every single one of them. 

The first house was a colaboration with airbnb, which is a company gaining a lot of popularity in Japan recently. They happened to hit the jack pot and design the most amazing house ever. dang. Apparently, after the exhibit, the house is moving to an actual location and being put up for rent on airbnb. I gotta get on that!

The stairs were somehow hanging from the ceiling. TOO COOL. 

DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS. #LIFEGOALS 

This next house was built to work as a communal living space. It had tiny rooms for an office, a bath, kitchen, bedrooms, and tiny nooks for resting or journaling or just chillin. So basically a glorified adult tree house. ughhhh too good!! 

They had this cute little area where you could order coffee and a snack. 

cool dude in cool overalls

The line for this house was too long so we didn't go in, but the outside was what really mattered anyway! I mean, look at that beauty! brilliant. 

There was a partnership with Tsutaya bookstore...which of course always does the dopest collaborations with designers. This one was a win forsure. 

And whats the best way to end a day you ask? Ichiran ramen of course! We met up with stephs friends in Shibuya for dinner + dessert. 

I love that I get to live so close to Tokyo where there is endless amounts of artistic and design inspiration. Thank you HOUSE VISION 2 for giving me a life supply of house envy!

EMIKO - PART IV - LAST

okay I'm sure you are thinking to yourself by now..Amie and Emi sure do take a lot of photos together...but when you put the two of us, with cameras in hand, in one of the best cities in the world we have no choice but to document every moment!

Here's the last installment of our time in Japan together...and we spend our last few days exploring a few new areas of Tokyo that I hadn't even been to yet!

The first pic I took on our last full day in Tokyo was my favorite.

The first place we hit up was Akihabara area to go to a few cool shops that they've built under the train tracks.

Next spot was 2k540 which, in my opinion is the weirdest name, but it is this rad building also under the train tracks that they have converted to a bunch of tiny artisan shops. SO COOL. 

We were in search of coffee by this time...and stumbled upon Asan cafe which had HAMMOCKS! Affogato + hammocks = perfection. 

After Akihabara we decided to do some shopping in kita-senju and found a SHIRO cosmetic store. All of the products are made in Japan using Japanese natural ingredients like red bean, potatoes, sake, flowers, etc. We spent a good 40 minutes trying out everything and becoming best friends with the lady working there haha. Emi bought anko (red bean) face scrub!!! and I bought solid perfume which smells heavenly. We fell in love with this place!

We ended the day fabric shopping, eating musubi, doodling our future plans, and watching the trains pass by at a cool starbucks right on the kita-senju tracks. 

TIME FOR OUR FINAL DAY TOGETHER :( 

We headed into Tokyo in the morning to drop Emis luggage off at Hamamatsucho so we could walk around freely. Soon enough, we realized that they day would be a SCORCHER and anywhere we walked we just felt like we were melting. (SO. HOT) We hid inside for a few hours at Starbucks and soaked up our last few hours in Japan together.

The starbs on the rooftop in omotesando is pretty cool with its outdoor terrace. 

That afternoon we met up with my friend Shoki who happened to be in Ebusi for work, and decided to hit up Afuri again since Emi loved it the first time. Emi ordered the vegan ramen which was not only incredibly beautiful but so good! Full of flavor and really fresh tasting. I decided to try something new and got the charsiu rice with daikon on top which was BOMB and Shoki got the superrr red spicy ramen. Afruri is always a good choice. 

By this point we only had an hour or so before we had to head to the airport so Shoki took us to Ebisu Garden Place. Little did he know that was the perfect spot to go because it's the location where they filmed Hana-Yori-Dango AKA the ultimate Japanese drama AKA one of Emi's favorite shows ever! We sipped our Pineapple soda and enjoyed the famous spot. 

Then it was time to say our goodbyes so Emi and I headed to Haneda and had one last Japanese dessert before giving eachother one last big hug and saying bye. Having Emi here was so special and we really did have the best week ever together! It's going to be hard to top that :)

I am so thankful to God for blessing me with a lifelong friend like Emi. We have walked through every life stage together and have grown closer as the time has passed, and that is something I will always treasure. We always have the best ideas flowing when we're together and I have no doubt we'll create some awesome art/fashion/crafts/blogs/photography/etc in the future when we live in the same city again! Praise God for friendship and thanks for coming Em - LOVE YOU TONS! 

EMIKO - PART III

Before we left for our two day Tokyo takeover, Emi and I decided to challenge ourselves by bringing only the clothes we were wearing + pajamas...and we would have to buy a new outfit to wear on Friday. It turned out to be a pretty funny challenge as we kind of put it off until 8pm when all the stores were closing and we were frantically thinking "OKAY I just need to find something!" We pulled it off though, and I say out outfits turned out pretty well..

Emi's stellar outfit. I'm working on a vlog to upload here where we explain our outfits in detail, so stay tuned.

What better way to start the morning then by some green smoothies! After fueling up on the goods...we headed to Shibuya to hit up the giant and beautifully curated LOFT there. Emi had been anticipating this moment for a while since LOFT is the home to all things stationary, books, pens, and little amazing trinket. We spend 2 hours or so there and almost shopped til we literally dropped...and we decided to take a break and eat at the MUJI CAFE near by. We were laughing about how long we stayed in ONE STORE hahaa and so we eventually headed out in search of good coffee.

We went to Onibu in Nakameguro which is the cutest little Japanes-ey coffee shop tucked back behind the main streets. We cooled down with some iced coffee and sat upstairs where we met a really cool Japanese dude and started chatting it up. If you know Emi and I, you now we are both pretty social people...so put us together and we don't mind striking up a conversation with just about anyone! haha. So we were talking to this nice guy and found out he was just traveling through Tokyo to see his parents but really lives in Nagoya and works for a fashion company (cool). He had this really awesome lens on his camera and told us it was a 'pancake'  lens (24mm) and my eyes widened at how perfect it was and get this...the next day I literally went and bought it! (Emi also bought it when she got back to the states!)  haha. So it was a divine conversation because Emi and I got to encourage this guy and tell him his English was so great and we both got a new lens out of it! 

Our next stop was one of the best stores in Nakameguro... Travelers! It is a notebook store and I knew it would be a hit with Emi. We both loaded up on new pens, little notebooks, and inspiration for our doodling hobby. 

We cruised around Nakameguro, checking out the shops, taking photos, laughing about how romantic the place was and picturing all the Japanese dramas that are filmed there! 

Our last stop of the day was Shibuya Hikarie where we met up with Emi's friend from Belgium (who is Japanese!) We ate dinner at this Okinawan restaurant and then decided to just go all out and get HARBS for dessert...

SOOOO GOOOOD. Harbs is a fancy and expensive cafe and they have that one rule you know, "everyone must order at least one drink" and those drinks are easily $7 but you know what...it was worth it! Fruit cake crepe, banana chocolate, and blueberry cheesecake yummmmm. 

A few more from my phone...

Pretending to be fashion people for a moment.

Our very LA "look-at-me-i'm-healthy-and-drinking-my-green-juice" selfie...and the incredibly perfect rice we had for dinner. 

Our friend we met ordering his coffee at Onibus...seriously how cool is the design of that place? and speaking of cool...that couple on the right is straight up LIFE + STYLE GOALS.

So after two full days in Tokyo Emi and I headed home for the weekend. Saturday we declared our day of rest and hung out in Kashiwa most of the time. We went to the store to buy my camera lens that I learned about the day before...and since we had some free time to spare, we went to the popular pop-up shaved ice spot in Kashiwa!

We waited about 40 minutes to get a seat inside and ordered the peach shaved ice and matcha...they did not disappoint! Melt in your mouth deliciousnesssss. 

Okay moving on to Sunday...we went to church and people loved talking to Emi and hearing about who she is and what shes up to. I loved being able to worship the good Lord with my bestie in Japan!! After church we got a quick snack at Lalaport Tokyo bay and then headed to watch a baseball game with my coworkers! 

awesome pic courtesy of Steph. 

We went to the game with Steph, my coworker Mr. Ikeda and his son kai who I love so much! This is our second baseball game with Ikeda and Kai and we always have the best time with them. They are such a loving and funny father-son duo!

We ended the night in our matching uniforms and a front seat to the fireworks show. And to top it off...the Marines won the game in the 10th inning!! What a weekend!

After a nice weekend...we headed to my school on Monday so Emi could meet some of the students and see where I spend most of my time. 

We had a meeting with this group of students to prepare them for their trip to Australia! Emi was able to hear some of their speeches they gave about Australian culture...and of course after class they all wanted to take photos with her! 

After school we headed to Nagareyama-Ootaka for a snack, and whats a better after school snack than a green tea parfait! Nanas green tea never lets us down! 

We ended our night with dinner in Kashiwa with Stephs sister Courtney and our good friend Mina. We went to our local indian restaurant for some good Naan and curry! 

wow...looking back at all the pics I realize we did a lot in a few days time haha. And...there's still one more post to go! 

EMIKO- PART II

Before Emi came, I spent a few days doodling out ideas of all the places we had to check out. There was a long list of coffee shop options, stationary stores, photo spots, and places to get the best snacks in the city. We appropriately dubbed this day our "Tokyo takeover" and I may be bias, but I'd say we could make a pretty good guidebook of how to spend the best day in Tokyo...

First stop--> Omotesando. We picked up these really good fresh juices from konbini (convenience store) and headed to find some food...

BREAKFAST--> DOMINIQUE ANSEL. You've probably all heard of Dominique ansel by now due to the fact that he created the iconic "cronut" out of his NY bakery a few years ago. This is a rich people type of bakery reserved for special occasions haha. The store opened at 10 and there was already a line of people waiting for the fancy shmancy treats. 

DROOLING. The cakes were so pretty I didn't want to touch them...but simultaneously I wanted to eat every single one of them. This day's cronut flavor was orange creme! 

How cute is this artwork? 

THE CRONUT WAS AMAZING. And we got this really good matcha passion fruit cookie...AND...the best of them all...drumroll...

A FROZEN S'MORE. 
Okay, get this...its basically a giant marshmallow with crunchy chocolate crisp inside covering vanilla icecream. They use a torch and fire it up to taste just like a perfectly roasted melting marshmallow so when you bite into it its warm....and then cold because of the icecream. MIND BLOWN. It cost like $7 and we ate it at 10am but you know what...100% WORTH IT. 

Next, we went shopping around Omotesnado where Emi bought the most ICONIC RED HAT. 

Of course we tackled Takeshita-dori which is just a madhouse of teenagers, cheap clothes, and tourists. We soon slipped down a few side streets and got some good shots of Emi and her hat.

Love these. outfit on point.  

LUNCH --> KING GEORGE. 
This place is too good to be true. Home to the best and most beautiful sandwiches ever. I knew I had to take Emi here. We arrived in the afternoon, 2pm ish, and there was still a little line outside. We opted for a table on the rooftop which got us a seat faster...and quickly ordered our vegetarian sandwich and bean salad. NOT ONLY IS IT BEAUTIFUL BUT IT IS DELICIOUS. SO SO GOOD.
 

Then we stopped by t-site Daikanyama where they had a pop up shop of the world's fanciest Kit-Kats hahaa...unbelievable. Only in Japan. 

COFFEE--> SATURDAYS. of course we had to go to my favorite coffe shop in Tokyo, Saturdays Surf. Its hip, clean, has a surfer vibe, great coffee, and the chillest outdoor patio. 

Okay so prior to Emi coming, we had been scheming up a place to stay in Tokyo and were sifting through a few airbnbs. We decided on a place right smack in between Shibuya and Daikanyama station. It was perfect and we screamed like little girls when we opened the doors and saw the view. 

EEEEK!!!! dream. We stayed a night and it was perfect so we didn't have to trek back to Kashiwa after a long day in Tokyo. Plus it was fun to pretend like we lived right smack in the middle of the city! 

Okay, now a few more snaps of the day from my phone..

Our morning juices. yummmm. Made in hong kong lol. 

So hilarious....Emi was matching a girl in Dominique Ansel. literally twins. 

The ladies at the hat store were so cool and so cute!! We wanted to be best friends with them. 

DINNER --> AFRURI
I guess we were so tired at this point that I didn't even take a pic on my big camera of dinner haha but from shibuya we headed to Ebisu to get a nice bowl of ramen. Afrui is always a win. can't go wrong with Yuzu ramen! also I have a funny story...

While at Afrui we saw this giant man walk in and I said to Emi "he looks like Jason mamoa" the famous actor who has all that manly facial hair. I was so tired at this point that I just snapped a photo of him and moved on (the guy in the white shirt). Then, the next day we're watching the olympics and it was showing the womens shot put (how random right?) and they're showing this story of the reigning gold medalist who is from New Zealand and I recognize her because of her brother, NBA player Steven Adams. And then it hits me....THAT WAS STEVEN ADAMS AT AFRURI! lol!!! Literally I was at Afuri ramen in Ebusi Tokyo with Steven Adams. How random is that. 

You gotta admit...they look alike right!?? lol!! 

We ended the day eating icecream in our airbnb and scheming up our plans for the next day. I say that was as close to a perfect day in Tokyo as you can get!