Kaoru Marie

There was hardly anything I knew about Hong Kong before visiting. So when I asked my friend who lives there what we should do in HK, and the suggestion "Get a custom suit made for your husband" was on the list, I immediately disregarded it. I sorta thought she was just being funny. Custom suit? What? Why? That's ridiculous! I mistakenly left that item on the list when I forwarded her email to my husband. Naturally, he replied saying we should most definitely get him a custom suit. {Dammit, the idea had been planted!} Then, to my surprise, when I told other people about my upcoming trip several of them also asked if my husband was going to get a custom suit. Little did I know, but apparently Hong Kong is well known for its custom clothing because it is significantly cheaper than getting custom-made clothes in the States. While I didn't think it was necessary for my husband to get a custom suit, and I would have preferred to use the time we spent going to the ta...

One of the things I obsessed over while planning my trip to Tokyo was train travel. I knew we could sight-see all over Tokyo by just using the train, but how exactly would we do it? What tickets did we need? How much were the fares? What lines to take? I consulted with my brother (who lived there for a couple years in the 2000s, my mom (who was born and raised in Japan and lived there till her mid-20s and has gone back every now and then over the years), and friends. I also read a lot of blogs and websites scouring for info. If you're traveling to Tokyo and only staying in Tokyo, which is what we did, then here are some train travel tips to save you some headaches. Do note that I'm notoriously frugal, but in some cases I'm not always suggesting the cheapest option. Sometimes, it's worth paying a few extra yen to save time and travel easier. 1. Choose a Hotel Near the JR Yamanote Line My #1 suggestion for visiting Tokyo, is book a hotel near one of the stations al...

I don't like house plants. I don't like gardening. I've never cared for tending to anything plant-like except for basil plants. Although I usually end up letting them die and then I buy another one. I don't have a green thumb that apparently the rest of my family has. But the other day I thought, "I should plant some succulents." No idea why I suddenly had the drive to clean out this small sliver of dirt in my front patio that has been collecting leaves and berries for the past 1.5 years. The previous tenants/owners left behind some disposable planters and hideous-to-me garden decorations that I have been too lazy to throw out. Here's a before shot of the area. Now, I've never liked succulents or cacti. I've always thought they were ugly. I never understood why people willingly planted them in their yards. But lately I've been starting to see the appeal. Perhaps it's because my state has been in a drought for several years and you...

Despite not hitting up any fabric stores during my trip to Tokyo I did manage to visit Itoya *, a lovely stationery store. Looking back, I am bit confused why Itoya was so high up on my list of 'must-see' while fabric stores were so low on my list. I have no explanation for it. When I was planning my trip, my mom kept telling me to visit Ginza, especially on a Sunday for the crowds, and my Dad chimed in that his favorite pen store is in Ginza. I don't think my dad and I have ever officially discussed our love of pens, but as I reflect back on my life I now see we have a similar interest in writing instruments. Itoya is located very close to the main hot spots in Ginza (here's a link to Google Maps) so it wasn't like we had to go out of our way. My husband wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to visit a stationery store. I'm sure he asked more than once whether I could get the same things back home. I dunno, husband. Do you know of a 5 storied stationery...

When I finally decided to start planning my trip to Hong Kong there was no way in hell I was going to fly all the way over there and not stop in Tokyo. Even though I've already been to Japan, I was a mere 9 years old. I remember loving it and I've always wanted to go back as an adult; I'm surprised it's taken me this long. While I would have loved to have traveled to other cities in Japan, we just didn't have that much time (as we also had New Orleans to get to at the tail end of our trip). I knew there was so much to see in Tokyo that I didn't mind at all not being able to ride the Shinkansen or visit Kyoto or see Mt. Fuji. Tokyo is like Paris. You can stay there for weeks, have your days filled with sightseeing and eating, and still not see everything. Just like with my recap of our visit to Hong Kong, here's a quick recap of what we did in Tokyo. Day 1 - Sunday Living Shibuya  - mainly to see the crossing (see above photo) since I wasn'...

My husband and I recently went on a 2 week vacation and ermagherd it was amazing. I used to work with someone who, every year, would save all of his vacation days during the year and then go on an epic 3-4 week vacation traveling to several countries. We were all envious, wishing we could do the same. Well, we could have done the same, but we chose not to do it because it wasn't a priority for any of us. Now that I'm back from one of the longest vacations I've ever been on in my adult life, I want to do it again. I want to make traveling outside the States a priority. One perk at my job is that I get approximately 20 vacation days/year. However, I accrue them every paycheck, so right now I'm hovering around 0 hours. So many paydays to go... We were in Hong Kong for 5 days and 4 nights, although only 3 full days as the other 2 were mostly occupied with traveling. We took a flight from LAX, connected in San Francisco, and then embarked on a 14 hour flight. It'...