I <3 Häagen-Dazs

I just got back from my awesome trip to Fukuoka, Japan. Loved it there. Will post entries regarding my trip soon. I was actually suppose to post this entry before my trip but for some reason I was having so much trouble trying to upload the pics last week so I didn't manage to post this entry until now. So sorry for the delay...Gomen ne~!! So here's the entry from last week ^_^

While we were at Ryubo (department store in Naha), we walked past a Häagen-Dazs store and I was drawn towards the store's plastic display of ice creams in particular the cookie sandwich ice cream. I pointed it out to Reid and he suggested that we pop in for a little snack! :D hehehe.

The cookies & cream cookie sandwich that caught my eye

Well normally I'm not really into ice cream. I LOVE cakes, cookies and pastries but for some reason I never really ever crave ice cream. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that if I had a choice I'd definitely choose cakes, cookies and pastries over ice cream. BUT I won't ever complain if there's ice cream with my cake, cookie or pastry :p

Before Japan, I've never really had Häagen-Dazs...maybe during one of my holiday trips to Malaysia and Hong Kong I did try some but it was too long ago for me to really remember. Having tried a few different Häagen-Dazs ice creams here in Japan, I gotta admit that I heart Häagen-Dazs! It's so YUMMY!!! I've definitely converted to an ice cream lover now. Häagen-Dazs is that good that I've decided to write an entry entirely on just Häagen-Dazs! :p

Why don't we have Häagen-Dazs in Australia???! :( I know we definitely don't have any stores in Queensland..not too sure about the other states/cities but I'm pretty sure we don't have Häagen-Dazs stores in Australia (correct me if I'm wrong). As I wasn't much of an ice cream lover back in Australia, I'm not sure if we can get Häagen-Dazs back home...I think I've seen them in some stores..don't really remember where though LOL

Häagen-Dazs has got to be my favorite ice cream now!! It's not too sweet..texture is great..ah..just PERFECT!! I'm not sure if Häagen-Dazs customizes it's ice creams to suit each of it's market though because I've noticed that Japanese people don't really like overly sweet food unlike what we have in western societies. I love Häagen-Dazs ice cream because I feel that it's not too sweet but still rich but not like overly rich where it gets sickly if you know what I mean.

So at the Häagen-Dazs store, I of course got myself the cookie sandwich that caught my eye :D

Cookies & cream ice cream in between 2 pieces of crunchy cookies

Yummm....absolutely divine...LOL Reid took this funny pic and I thought it was perfect to show all of you how divine it was...looks like an ad huh? LOL :p

Uh huh this is how it feels - heavenly, warm and fuzzy and sparkly LOL (just mucking around on photoshop :p)

It was really good but the only thing I didn't like was that the cookie was really hard so it was really difficult to bite into especially as a sandwich. Reid got himself a strawberry cheesecake ice cream. It was soooooooo YUM!! ^_^

I definitely recommend getting this instead of the cookie sandwich. It has pieces of cheesecake and pieces of the crunchy cookie that's used in the sandwich so it's much easier to eat

And now introducing the Dolce series of Häagen-Dazs ice-creams. These are like the premium ice-creams YUM~~!!! It's like the actual cake or dessert but ice-cream style (I don't really know how to descibe it but just know that it's heavenly!! :p) The Dolce series is my ultimate favorite range of Häagen-Dazs ice-creams.

Reid just surprised me one day by bring home one of these little goodies for me and from then onwards, we've been hooked on these LOL I'm not sure if the Dolce range of ice creams is only available in Japan (let me know!)

Dolce Blueberry Cheesecake
It has a biscuit base and the middle is filled with blueberry sauce

Dolce Tiramisu
It has cocoa powder on the top and layers of cake

Dolce Gateau au chocolat

Dolce Millefeuille
It has layers of puff pastry

There are still two more ice creams from the Dolce range that I've yet to try. I'm still trying to hunt for them. Maybe they were just for promotional period and I missed out?? T_T I hope not!

Dolce Mont Blanc


Dolce Creme Brulee

Then there's also the crispy sandwich ice cream range from Häagen-Dazs. I LOVE these too! They are ice-cream coated in chocolate in between two crispy wafer like pieces forming a sandwich.

Panna Cotta & Raspberry

Caramel

Custard Pudding

Green Tea & Kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup)

Then of course there's the ordinary ice-creams ^_^

Green Tea

English Milk Tea
I LOVE this one. Very interesting flavor. But if you love milk tea like I do this is definitely a great treat! It tastes exactly like English milk tea. YUM!

I think I had a Mocha ice-cream one too but Reid ate it before I had the chance to take a pic of it. Well so far these are all the ones I've tried so far. I aim to try each and everyone of the available flavors hehehe. Will post more pics when I do.

Oh yeah and you can also watch the Japanese TV commercials for the ice-creams I've been talking bout here http://www.haagen-dazs.co.jp/brand/cm.html

Enjoy!

Trash Bag Couture & Ryubo

Ok, part of this post is more catered towards girls hehe - great contrast from my last post about cars but hey I gotta balance it out right? Keep it fair :p

I've been doing a few photoshoots here in Japan. I was really fortunate enough to work with a talented American photographer Eboh Ajeroh last month. I absolutely adore his work and hopefully I'll get to work with him again sometime this year.

When I was back in Australia doing photoshoots, I usually had make-up artists/hair stylists doing my hair and make-up for me. It was much easier back home as I knew where to find and look for them. However when I moved over here to Okinawa, Japan I don't really know anyone that does hair or make-up. There just aren't many MUAs (make-up artist) on the island. Maybe there are heaps of Japanese MUAs but I just need to network more and get more connections. Anyways for this reason, I had to rely on myself to do all my hair and makeup for all my shoots.

I use makeup all the time but never really did anything fancy or crazy, it was just always simple basic makeup. So I started experimenting with the different colors that I had and tried to create different looks and thanks to the internet and Youtube I was able to learn heaps of makeup tips. Youtube is a great resource for how-to videos.

NOTE: Please click on images for a better view

The result from the shoot
Hair & Make-up by me ^_^

Trash Bag Couture

The outfit that I'm wearing here is actually made from trash bags! The top is just a clear trash bag over a black bra and the bottom skirt is a black trash bag stuck together with sticky tape. It was so much fun and was really interesting! Oh and the white wig I've got on kinda reminds me of Lady Gaga...

What do you think?

Lady Gaga

More pics...

Since I was starting to do my own makeup for my shoots I had to start shopping for some different colors to add to my collection. In particular I was trying to look for deep red lipstick which was required for another shoot (I'll post up an entry about it once I get all my pics from the photographer). I was just browsing through all the makeup section in the Japanese stores like Jusco and San A and observed that they didn't really have dark colors. Most of the colors for eye shadows and lipsticks were more towards light bright colors with lots of shimmer ^_^

So I was talking to my friend/tutor Akane and told her what I was looking for and she said that Japanese people prefer bright natural colors that's why I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. However if I wanted to buy darker colors I would have to buy it from Western cosmetic brands. Unfortunately the Japanese stores here in Okinawa do not stock high-end western cosmetic brands - the only ones available are brands like Maybelline, Revlon, Rimmel (brands that you usually find at the chemist). But even so, with those brands, the range of colors are still catered towards the Japanese taste.

So for you girls that ever move here to Okinawa and need to find western cosmetic brands, head over to Ryubo department store located in Naha city ^_^ Brands available there are Chanel, Christian Dior, Anna Sui, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Shu Uemura (Japanese brand but not available in other Japanese stores here on the island). Very limited I know...but it's better than nothing. There just aren't much options here in Okinawa it's a different story in mainland Japan though. Just make sure you stock up all your makeup supplies before you head over here if you prefer western cosmetic brands.

I found my red lipstick at Dior ^_^
I'm glad I learned the word 'akai' (red) from my tutor the week before. Made communicating with the sales assistant much easier LOL

Also bought myself some nail polish from Anna Sui - gahhhh!! I wanna collect all the different nail polish colors from Anna Sui!! Love how it smells

I'll be going to Fukuoka on the 16th-19th of April! So excited can't wait! I heard that Fukuoka is well known for Ramen so yeah stay tuned. I'll definitely write an entry or two regarding my trip to Fukuoka when I get back.

Also, my next entry will be about Food :p so do check back for it ;)

Drag Star 2009 - Cervini Mustang vs Ferrari Modena 360

Hey everyone really sorry that I haven't been updating my blog as often as I had hoped. I've been busy recently...and for those of you that were waiting to find out about the race, I'm so sorry that you had to wait for a week for it. I'm gonna try to update my blog more often now.

I was really excited about going to the drags as it was my first time and it was also nice to be able to watch Reid's friends drag. Although I know nothing about cars!! Heck I can't even drive!! *shame shame* LOL so please forgive me if I make any mistakes in references to the cars and so on.

For some reason the the few days leading up the event was really cold including the day of the event itself..it was probably around 10 degrees. People said that it was the last cold of the season before it started to get warmer. I guess it's somewhat true as it's starting to warm up a lot nowadays. We had to leave by 7am in the morning and I had sooooo much trouble trying to get up because it was just such a cold morning!!

NOTE: Please click on the pics so that you can have a better view

The poster for the event

We arrived there around 8.30 am. Basically all the cars are lined up all along one side and the tracks are in the middle (view pics to have a better idea of what I'm talking about). The morning starts off with everyone getting their cars ready then followed by a meeting of all the drivers. By 10 am they were doing one or two practice runs. After that it was the qualifying rounds to determine who was going to race against each other in the tournament.

The Cars

The Track

And here is some eye-candy ^_~

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Toyota Aristo

Josh's Toyota Mark II. He won 2nd place for his division. Grats Josh!!

Skyline R32 GTR

Inamine's Skyline R32 GTR. This car is super fast!!

Ken's Skyline R31 GTR. He won 3rd place for his division. Grats Ken!!

Here's the starting line. Take a look at the cars in this pic...

Yeap, even Volkswagen Beetles drag too. It's really cute watching them go as well as other small Japanese cars.

Me - watching the drags and trying to stay warm. Brrrrr!! It was so cold in the morning. The weather was really crazy though...one minute when the sun is out it gets hot but when the sun is hidden the strong winds get chilly. Everyone was constantly battling between putting on their coats or taking it off. It was just one of those where you'd have your coat on and it would get hot then when you decide to take it off, the sun decides to hide behind the clouds and it gets cold! Grrrr!!

Oh yeah and I also got to try some American pastries LOL - Hostess HoHos & Twinkies!! It was alright but a little too sweet for me.


Here's some of the highlights of the drags

For the rest of the day, the tournament was going on as usual when all of a sudden a random Japanese guy pulls up in a bright yellow Ferrari!!! The Ferrari was creating so much buzz at the event and everyone was just flocking towards the car snapping pics.

The sexy Ferrari Modena 360. Ahhh....such a sexy car!!

Hey I couldn't resist! I HAD to take pics with the sexy car too!! :p LOL The pics of me here are really bad though due to the strong direct sunlight creating harsh shadows. Not at all flattering!!

Then everyone started to wonder if the Ferrari was going to race or not. I was excited! I wanted to see the Ferrari in action. One of the organizers knew that Reid's friend Kevin had a Cervini Mustang so he came over and asked Kevin if he was interested in racing against the Ferrari (Kevin wasn't even participating in the drags that day). We were all like "Go for it Kevin!! It's gonna be a great show!" so the race was on!!

So who won?

Mustang Cervini vs Ferrari Modena 360

Interesting race wasn't it? It was probably the quietest race of the day. I LOVE how the Ferrari just glides across so 'elegantly'. Most people were expecting the Ferrari to win LOL. I felt really sorry for the Ferrari guy though because after the race no one was paying attention to his car. Everyone was just flocked around Kevin's Mustang. LOL poor guy. Well for me that was the highlight of the day!! So much fun! And good on Kev for beating that guy!

Introducing Kevin's sexy Cervini Mustang