Tokyo Crazy Kawii Paris

This is sort of old but I finally have some spare time to sit down and write about my experience at the Tokyo Crazy Kawaii Paris Exposition.
I was at this expo a couple months ago and I had a very good time. Being surrounded by cute things and just Japanese stuff in general is a usually guarantee for happiness. From what I was told this was the first year for this Expo, and boy did they do an amazing job. It was not nearly as large as Japan Expo but it was huge for something that had only just begun! I hope they grow even more next year.


There was a ton of fashion related booths so I made sure to float over then many times and just look around and talk to the staff. Everyone was kind as per usual.

We even got to attend a sushi making workshop and it was a ton of fun and we got to keep everything we made so hell yeah for free food! 

I was fangirling over this staff member she was nice and adorable♥

This would be me sobbing at the LIZ LISA booth because I didn't see it until the end of the day when I barely had any money left and it was all crazy expensive and adorable. I was sooooo close to going and grabbing money out of my American account so I could buy one of the handbags because they were just too damn cute and it's not like I wouldn't have used it. 

We attended another workshop and this one was to make cute little ducks out of apple flour and some other stuff. The people in charge were so nice and they kept switching from Japanese to English with a splash of French, and that was very adorable. 

This was earlier in the day but I could not help myself from buying this hair accessory. It was a bit pricey but it is gorgeous and it holds up my entire head of thick curls, and that is a definite plus for me seeing as this looks much better than a hair scrunchie. 

Overall it was a ton of fun and I would definitely go again!♥

That time I went to Deutschland and had a blast❤

      ♡In the beginning of December I went to the wonderful country of Deutschland and I had one of the best weekends since my arrival in Europe. Starting of this trip was my last minute packing adventure on Friday night because I am one of those people that are aware that they are going to be traveling in a couple of hours and that they should begin to pack but then just sit down and find time to everything BUT pack, and then you look at the time and realize its midnight and you need to be up in 4 hours to catch your taxi and you have nothing prepared. So around that time is when I began scrambling to find outfits to wear and attempting to not pack too much seeing as I would need to be lugging it around. I finally finalized all of my stuff and went to bed for only a couple of hours before waking up and getting my taxi. Usually waking up is the struggle among all struggles but I was so excited to go and meet my friend that I got right up and was hopping around the house for a bit. The house was really eerie at 4am though which was sort of scary. The taxi driver was pretty cool, he kept trying to talk to me when I had my headphones in though and that is a really big pet peeve but whatevs.

       Charles de Gaulle was for once not a crazy place. One, it was around 5 in the morning, and Two, I'm assuming because I was going somewhere in Europe and not to America or something. The section of the airport I was in was pretty uncrowded which was pretty cool. I went to one of the small cafe things and got a smoothie and just waited around for my plane to start boarding. Eventually it started and they were only letting the first class people on but I went up to the lady and spoke english and acted confused and she let me go on with them. Dealing with the influx of people was not something I was in the mood to do so I'm happy she let me go. I had the seats right behind first class which was a nice surprise since I booked with a student site and they are usually known for giving the back seats in planes due to the cheaper prices. Flight was fantastic, staff was nice, and it was a smooth ride. I had an annoying couple next to me though who kept smoothing and being really loud but I think this was another instance in which my excitement overcame my annoyance. When we were landing I saw that the area was covered in a large white blanket. Thought it was pretty, and thought nothing more of it...until I landed and got outside and my mind finally woke up and realized that the marshmallow type blanket was SNOW. I DID NOT PREPARE FOR SNOW. Milva (my friend) told me bring warm clothes but I interpreted that as it will be cold, and most likely just as cold as Paris. Yeah, no, not at all. Munich was freezing and there was snow everywhere.  Most importantly though my first impression of Munich was that it is absolutely beautiful.
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     I had a couple of hours before my friend arrived from Oldenburg so I decided to hang out in the airport for a bit since I had the time and I figured that if I just went out into the city I would get lost and then I would be fumbling around forever. This most likely would have not been the case but I'm such a worrywart, oh well. 

      The airport in Munich is spectacular.  It was large and very clean. I found this buffet type thing, it was beautiful! I got a container of fruit and coffee in order just to chill and comprehend that I was in another country. I did not speak any German it was really terrifying. It was the first time in my entire life where I could not understand a word of what anyone was saying. German is also a lovely language, I think it would be difficult to learn but listening to people did not make me cringe but instead I "awwwed". In my head of course... Of course I would like to mention that during this time of complete incomprehension is the moment where everyone tries to ask me questions and talk to me. I felt so awkward being able to respond. There was an incident with 2 ladies trying to sit down in a place that a man who had left his stuff in order to save his place. And they asked me if anyone was sitting there, which there was, but my response was serious nodding and and flailing arms. Once the elderly women realized she turned to her companion and told her I didn't speak German...and then she turned and continued to try and talk with me which made me laugh and a bit flustered. Luckily the man came back and spoke to them (he also tried to talk to me). It was an interesting moment that is for sure. 

     Using the subway was also an experience. I asked a girl around my age how it worked and luckily she spoke English and she showed me the way to the hotel Milva and I were meeting at. The metro is very clean which was a nice change from Paris. Well, my first care was clean until this dude randomly vomited everywhere but other than that definite a+ on the cleanliness. I got a tiny bit lost so the meet-up point changed from the hotel to the hotel metro stop. At first we missed each other but I finally met up with Mimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!~. It was so amazing to finally see my friend. We bear hugged and had a little "OMFG" moment before heading to the hotel and freshening up.
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     We couldn't check in yet but the nice lady let us keep out bags in the back room so we didn't have to carry our stuff around with us. After this we went on our way to visit Schloss Nymphenburg. We were a bit hungry so in the little subways stores we got a Bretzel, which is a pretzel stuffed with amazing cream cheese and chives (there were other options). It was so good and I would kill for another one right now. We got lost a little bit due to the metro being confusing as all Hell. I'll give the Paris metro props for being very convenient and easy to understand. Looking at the map made me die a little inside if we are being honest here. Luckily Milva is an amazing human because she figured everything out and got us on the right track!!! We finally arrived at Schloss Nymphenburg  and apparently since it was Winter the hours were different so we coulnd't really go in, but we got to walk around and that was just as amazing. We walked around the courtyard and got photos of the garden like area as well as different view points of the castle.

I FOUND ODETTE GUYS. 

schloss nymphenburg

Milva and I ❤

SNOWWW

The sunset was lovely. 

That night we decided to check out the Christmas market which was at Marienplatz. It was fantastic!!! The square was busy and full of life!



We got some hot wine, also known as Gluhwein and it was yummy. It was much better than all of the hot wine I had previously tried at the Parisian Christmas markets. It was sweet and not too spicy. Also unlike in Paris where we get plastic cups for the wine, in Germany we got actual mugs!~ They were lovely and I wanted to keep one but I'm told it is not proper so I did not! How it works is that when you buy the wine you give them 7-10 euros more for the mug (in case they are stolen), and then when you return the mugs you get the extra money back. It is a nice system and I wish we used mugs like this in Paris.

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Later that night we saw this one really cool Japanese place so we decided we wanted to get some sushi for dinner. Unfortunately that place was really small and popular so even though we came back twice there was still no room. Luckily Milva looked up a place for us to go! The food was great! Also anther small anecdote that I found interesting is that the majority of served water is bubbled. Bottles from vending machines, along with the water that accompanied our dinner, were bubbled.  This also serves as a warning to the people who like to grab a bottle of water and start chugging it...which is what I tried with the bottle I got from the vending machine. Luckily, I didn`t spit it out all over the place! I did, however make a gnarly facial expression but OH WELL. 

In short, the first day was fantastic.

Mimi getting in the holiday spirit!

The hotel was also refreshingly great. I had booked the hotel pretty much the night before and it was cheap so I wasn't really expecting something amazing but this place blew away all those negative thoughts. The room was a great size for two people and had a shower, hair-dryer, comfortable bed, and nice dish area. I'm so sad that I forgot to take just photos of the room itself, but to be honest by the time we got back to the room we were exhausted. We talked about watching a film but when we actually got settled in it became clear that was not going to happen, and instead we were going to drift off into dream land. 

Breakfast the next morning though.......scrumptious......so good.....mouth watering...deliciousness... are some of the words that come off the top of my head. If I could cry because of food this would be it.  Fresh bread and delicious  eggs, sausage, and sweet croissants, they had it all and everything was good. It was included in our fare which is the amazing part considering it was fresh and we could go up more than once. There was this little meat spread that I wish I would have taken two of but atlas I did not. 

Top left is the yummy meat spread in the shape of a wiener 

Look at that sky!

Above are just some photos of Munich that we took while looking around. We had looked up what there was to do on a Sunday in Munich and we found that there was a Medieval Festival that was going to be open. That was our first stop of the day. We could tell that it was the correct festival the moment we walked into the square. It was very welcoming and cool, if I do say so myself. People were dressed up and the little shacks were selling furs and weapons so it was very authentic which only added to the experience. 

As for food (of course there is food I mean what else is there) we had Knödel which is a potato ball of happiness. The one pictured to the left is the original potato ball and then the one to the right is a bread type which was my favorite. It sort of tasted like stuffing, and since that is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving that could help explain why I loved it so much. They were both bathing in a nice cream and cheese sauce that was also very delicious. Only warning I'd give is that they are also incredibly filling to eat. We couldn't even finish ours...sacrilege, I know.

OUR BOOZE ARE ON FIYAHH

✬What is pictured above is without a doubt one of my favorite things I got to experience this trip just becuase they were so cool. Seeing as this was a Medieval Christmas market, instead of using the normal glasses like the other place we got CHALICES!!! Not only did we get more in the sense of quanity but they also splashed some rum or something in the Gluhwein, added a sugar cube in the little part that stuck out, and then preceded to set it on FIRE. It was really cool to hold and since it was still cold as Elsa's castle it was comforting to be able to hold onto something warm for a while. I also wore all of my clothes on day 2 since I was so ill-prepared the day before.
Also I bought a really nice hat from one of the stands. It has the softest little fluffy on the top that I've ever felt. It is also a nice combonati of some of my favorite colors, red and black.

Clearly we know what is going on. 

Sweet ride I saw in the shop window~

There was some random parade that was going on that included people in various costumes! I snapped some photos as they walked by! They all seemed quite nice and were waving to the crowd. I don't even remember if we ever found out where they were going.

I made a new friend, weeeee.~

We then decided to go up this lovely tower so we could see a view of the entire city!! We took tons of photos while up there since the sight was so breathtaking.

Later on Milva and I stumbled upon the best coffee house I have ever been to when we decided to take a quick break. Yes, that includes my beloved Starbucks.
They had so many mixed coffee drinks with tons of flavors. The first time we tried something called a "Sultry Sultan" or something like that and it was with dark chocolate and was so amazing. My mouth was having a field day. We also got a Toffee drink as well and it was just as fantastic! An interesting little occurrence I noticed was that even hot beverages were being served in normal glasses as pictured below. I've never really seen that done before so I thought it was pretty neat.

✬Of course we could not just stop there once, we had to go back later in the night! After all of our adventures we were really exhausted and with none of the shops open seeing as it was Sunday we chose to just go hang out at the coffee shop again so we could still chill, but be in a warm place instead!
I don't even really remember what drinks we chose the second time around but I think one of them had hazelnut in it! They were both also delicious. I'd love to go back to this place. I was so sad when I looked up the coffee chain and saw that it was only in Germany. Then again I guess it is just one more reason for me to go back to Germany. ;)

                                           ~MIMI AND JESSICA PHOTO TIME~

We are oh so attractive. 

All in all I had an amazing weekend and I also really feel in love with Germany. It is a beautiful country, has wonderful and kind people, and is full of history! I would recommend Germany as a must visit country!