Downtown Adventures will be a series of posts about my weekends that I’ve spent in the little city of Beppu, Japan. The post will talk about the places that I visited and other things related to culinary. The second post features the place where everyone loves to visit for shopping, Youme Town!

This time, please forgive me for forgetting to take a picture of Youme Town. I totally forgot that I was supposed to blog about this topic. But I did take a picture of a clothing store which is similar to UNIQLO but with a lower and student-friendly price, GU.

I actually came to search for a skirt for my mid-term presentation, but seeing how low the prices were in that store, I couldn’t help but wanting to purchase all of the clothes that were on sale that time. Moreover, it was they’re anniversary (if I’m not wrong), so several items are 1000 yen cheaper than they used to be!

The cat cloth that was used as a background in the picture was actually a multi functional blanket. It could be used as a little blanket, something to drape over your shoulders, or even a little make-shift cardigan. It’s super warm! The price is a bit expensive for me because you could get another coat / sweater / hoodie with the same price. I’m sorry I had to give in to the cutesy!

I also purchased this popular mask for 1500 yen (before tax). I heard it’s really convenient to use so I ended up purchasing one. I’ve always wanted to try these masks on! There are 42 sheets inside the pack and you can just take them like using wet wipes. The pink one I got is the moisturizing type for balanced skin. It’s really nice as my skin doesn’t show any bad reactions after I used it.

We accidentally met our friends when we went to get something to eat. So we ended up eating together at a restaurant named Italian Tomato inside Youme Town. The price was really affordable as you could get a plate of delicious spaghetti, fresh drink and a slice of yummy cake for the price of 1080 yen (after tax)! We all got different kind of spaghetti and cakes. I got a mille-feuille for myself!

Before we went separate ways, one of my friends told me that we should’ve brought our passport to Youme Town because then we could redeem our money at the tax-free counter! To our lovely friend Ryuichi, thank you for telling us but that’s a bit too late!

We then went to a 100 yen store and shopped several thing such as soap dispensers, book holders, and those washi tapes and the dispenser above. It was really cute so I couldn’t resist from getting one. I’m really happy with it, though!

We also shopped for a stock of shampoo ad soap because I’m going to run out of it soon. The soap that I usually use in my country isn’t available for sale here in Japan so I just picked something that smelled nice and cheap as always. Haha.

In the end of the day I found out that I’ve spent around 17000 yen for that day’s shopping spree … Forgive me, Mom!

Downtown Adventures will be a series of posts about my weekends that I’ve spent in the little city of Beppu, Japan. The post will talk about the places that I visited and other things related to culinary. This is my first post about it, so please excuse the lack of photos that I took!

Last Sunday, I spent my weekend at the town of Beppu with my friends. He invited us to eat at Coco, a curry restaurant. The price and taste are both OK for (poor) university students like me. Like most of the restaurants in Japan, Coco provides cold water for free which could be refilled anytime you want. There are many varieties of curry in the menu, however I only ordered a normal pork curry so I can save my money a little bit (it was the end of the month!). Spicy food lovers could also ask for their own level spiciness from normal (zero) to the highest (ten). Unbelievably, one of my friends picked and finished the level 10 curry!

We decided to enter a Baskin Robbins store that was located near Coco to get rid of the spiciness in our tongues. I have to say that ice cream in Japan is a bit more pricey compared to the ones that were in my home country. I could get another serving of curry just by purchasing a cone of ice cream here! I did try my friend’s ice cream and it was delicious. Oh well, I guess it’s worth the money.

My Japanese friend brought us to the nearby beach with his car. Despite being a small sized beach, Tanoura Beach is still beautiful in it’s own way with the little separated island and it’s bridge. We crossed to the little island and took a view of the sea there. The sea breeze was really calming.

We then stopped by our friend’s house in the city for awhile and then went straight to dinner at Maruagame Udon. I was a bit surprised when I heard that name but then I guess it’s natural because this is where the famous restaurant in my country originated from. All hail Japan! Lol.

The udon variations here are lesser than the ones in Indonesia, however they’re still delicious. They also have yummy karaage(s) for sale. The food was very satisfying! Our friend drove us back to the university dorms after we had our dinner. It was a splendid weekend!

I recently started to purchase things online at Amazon Japan. Purchasing things there were really easy and convenient since I don’t even need a credit card to do the transaction. We just need to buy a gift card available near the dormitory’s convenient shop and get the things that we want in around three days or so after the purchase has been processed!

I got a new backpack for myself since my old one was too big for me. It costed around 4000 yen which is a bit expensive in my personal opinion. However, I do like the material it was made of as well as the beautiful neutral color scheme. The internal sides of the bag was really well made too. I’m really glad I purchased this bag!

My friend also got the same brand of bag but in a different color and material. We also purchased a pair of matching boots for the both of us since the weather’s getting cold and my sneakers kept getting soaked in the rain. The weather in Beppu is really extreme! Even an umbrella is useless in a stormy rain here.

We actually got this boots in a pretty cheap price around 1500 yen because of a special discount. So we just bought it in a whim because we thought it was really cute! Haha. The boots’s flaps could be flipped over to make the neck longer so I think it’s pretty nice. There’s a downside to the cheap price, though, which is the hard surface of the innersoles. I probably would have to buy a pad to make it softer for my feet. Oh well!

I’m really loving the easy access and purchase, however I think I’ve spent too much money on this online shopping activity. For this month, I’ve expended around 5500 for those two products I’ve just purchased so … I’ll have to wait for next month’s allowance or at least until I get a part time job! For now I could only put those things in my shopping cart …

I finally moved in to the univerisity dorms at 20th of September. It was a windy day and a typhoon passed by the island of Kyushu the day before we arrived.

It was pretty hard to adapt to the new environment where you’re literally alone without your parents to look after you. To me, it was really exhausting to move in and settle down since I’m not used to being so far away from home. The only one to support me here are my friends and the upperclassmen. Almost everything is expensive in Japan, except for the 100 Yen store. Food is pretty pricey as well even though it was said to be student wallet friendly.

I’ve already spent so much to buy my daily necessities and several necessary items such as kitchen utensils and a router to set up my wifi (the one I brought from my home country is apparently not compatible). By the end of September, I’ve spent round 30.000 Yen. Sigh.

I went shopping again at the 1st of October to buy myself a new cardigan and a heat tech clothing from UNIQLO. It was definitely cheaper compared to my country. However, it was still considered expensive. I also bought a tempered glass screen protector as well as a phone casing for my new iPhone 7. They’re pricey AF.

I also made a lot of friends (somewhat) from many different countries. I’m glad that I managed to make Japanese friends as well. They’re really friendly and fun to talk to. Sometimes they’d blabber out words in Japanese which is hard for me to understand, but at the same time I could practice my listening and comprehension skills through their conversations. I also experienced culture shock. Haha. But that’s what made the first two weeks that I spent here really interesting.

Classes will start on the 5th of October. Many people said that it’s gonna be super tough but I’ve gotta keep a positive mind that I’d be able to surpass my first semester in this university! Wish me luck!

Nothing eventful has happened ever since the end of the end of the national exams. I’m literally free from school right now so I’ve been doing nothing else other than lazing around at home watching anime or attending my Japanese language course.

All I’ve been doing for these past few days are filling up my daily Hobonichi planner and playing with my new Koi Watercolors set that I bought secretly two weeks ago (psst). I also decided to get a new A6 sized Hobonichi cover (the one I had was A5) named ‘Cast’ for my future mini portable planner. Yes, another reason to waste money.

Kiev also ordered the same cover. Yay for matching planners! Our order just got shipped today. It’ll probably take two weeks or more for it to reach our hands. Sigh. The wait is always killing.

Mom bought me makeups even though I’ve never even once wanted to use them, especially lipsticks. Ugh. She also bought me a Pigeon branded compact powder for teens. There were many shades to choose from but she picked the ‘Gold’ color because she thinks it’s more suitable for my skin color. I was just … meh, because I’ve never used those kind of things before.

She got me a nice new and cheap shoes, though. (I’m sure it’s bound to be broken soon enough. Lol.) We saw it on a bazaar stand that was inside the mall after we bought the cosmetics. I’m pretty pleased with the design as well. Moreover, it’s  wedges and not high heels! God bless the shoemaker. There were two colors available, khaki (which looks more like a beige, but khaki was written on the box) and black. I once again chose beige because I don’t fancy black for wedges. Also, those patterns on the shoes looks better on the beige color compared to black. Maybe I’ll buy something black for my footwear in the future …

I guess there’s nothing else I need to say other than sorry for not consistently posting in this blog. Lol. I’m too consumed with filling my planner with my daily thoughts which in turn made me neglect the existence of this blog. Sigh.

Around two weeks ago, I decided to order a new planner with the help of Kiev and his dad’s credit card (lol). The planner’s brand is Hobonichi and you can find it online here. It took quite some time for the planner to arrive due to customs and delivery and it actually costed a lot (for a student). Like damn lots. I’m once again really thankful because Kiev decided to pay half of the total fees that I needed to pay. 😀

The pen is multicolour Uni Jetstream which was given out as a freebie along with the navy blue tissue holder. The plastic cover is sold separately but since it didn’t cost much I decided to get one to prevent anything bad on my actual cover. There are lots of designs for the cover, however I chose the simplest one I could get because it costs the same as the actual journal.

Basically, everything about this planner feels high quality. I love how the cover has slots when you open it. The rectangle and triangle bookmarks are also pretty useful to differentiate what you’ve bookmarked. Also, the special thing about this planner is that they have daily pages which you can fill to your heart’s content. No need to worry to run out of space!

An extra slot is available at the back of the cover. However, only clear covers have the zipper to access the slot. Decorative covers does not have one, which is why I decided not to purchase the decorative cover even though they look nicer.

Me and my mom attended a meeting with the university representative yesterday. As a result of it, I don’t get to attend extra classes at school. (Yay for skipping.) Lots of things regarding to enrolment were explained but most of it were really boring to me. I was still a bit upset for only getting 65% reduction because the person who sat beside me got 80%. Well, I don’t really know if I’ll decide to enrol in the future.

We went to the mall today to repair my bro’s glasses. It has a big crack on it’s right frame. Both me and my brother had our eye conditions checked and found out that it became worse. 😐 The store clerk said it was probably caused by staring at phone and laptop screens to frequent and also activities that involved staring at screens in the dark … which were exactly the things that I usually did. (Oops.)

My brother ordered a new glasses while I didn’t. I swear the frames themselves are so expensive which was almost equivalent to a pair of lenses.

We went window shopping after that and decided to go into some boutiques. My mom then bought me a white blouse for formal events.

It has a short zipper at the back which would allow you to undress easily. This top fits perfectly with long black jeans which I also bought together with the blouse. I wouldn’t use this too frequent here because I rarely have formal occasions and wearing sleeveless tops are too cold for me. But I think I’d use this once I decided to study abroad … maybe.