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I bought some cute Disney cookies for Halloween and they had cute pictures on them.


An awesome package from my mom! I have eaten all of the food already, except for some of the Poptarts. I want them to last a while because they're amazingly delicious. The Stove Top stuffing was really good for Thanksgiving and Christmas.


7-Eleven had a lot of interesting onigiri for a while (they still have some, I think). The one above was tomato rice wrapped with egg. So it was kind of like omurice. The one below was my favorite and I only found it once. It was flavored rice (it says something about tonkatsu ramen so I think that was that flavor) with egg and just a little bit of seaweed. I don't like onigiri completely wrapped in seaweed but just the one strip was perfect. There was another onigiri I got several times that had bits of ham and egg throughout and it was also delicious!




Just a random pic of me before Jonathan and I went out shopping I think. I got the bag (Liz Lisa and My Melody!) with a catalog I bought at a bookstore. The sweater was also new then. That flower pattern is pretty popular. I saw a similar sweater at Cecil McBee for about 4000 yen but I got that at Shimamura for only 1500.

 

I also got this cute sweatshirt at Shimamura for sleeping and wearing around my apartment. It needs a pic of Fifi though too! I like this sweatshirt because it kind of looks like something I could have had as a kid in the 90's.


Ice cream wrapped in chocolate mochi and with a chocolate center... deliciousness!


Sooo... I took some toilet paper from school so that I could take a picture. It's from Iwata City and it's about driving safety. I have never seen anything like this before... lol.




I don't know what this poster was about, but it had a picture of Tama, a cat who is a station master. Yes, seriously. So cute! Read about Tama here.


During the winter a lot of hot drinks are available in vending machines and konbini. Hot ginger ale is pretty awesome!


This drink was not hot, but it was even more delicious. It was grape lemon ginger ale. I don't think it's around anymore... :( Though I haven't actually looked either.


Yuzu Fanta was good. I hope they bring Peach back again sometime. That's my favorite! Melon is a very close second and luckily it's available year round. :)


I bought these at Plaza, a store with some import stuff. SOOOOO good! Imagine two thin mint cookies with chocolate cream between them. Super tasty! They're from Australia. I still have some left and this is making me hungry for them now.


There's a house between Tenryugawa Station and Jonathan's apartment with crazy lights. They've had some up all year, but it got even crazier around Christmas. 



This fancy Haagen Dazs ice cream was super good, but a bit pricey. It was over 400 yen I think.


I loved the Tim Tams so much that I went back to Plaza, in Hamamatsu station, for more. I also got a pack for Jonathan. The chocolate orange ones are good too!


While in Hamamatsu I found another grocery store in the basement of Entetsu Department store. They had a lot of import stuff which was awesome. I found cranberry sauce! And some random Disney Princess pasta! :)




We didn't eat KFC on Christmas eve (we had McDonald's and I had chicken nuggets) but I took this pic at a KFC a couple weeks before. Kentucky Christmas Hotel? What's that? Lol. And does everyone in Kentucky walk around in Santa suits on Christmas?

On Christmas Eve Jonathan and I spent the day in Odaiba. 


We took the Yurikamome monorail which is one of my favorite trains. It's automated and there aren't any drivers so you can sit right up front and have a great view! We didn't take the first train available and we waited for the next one to be able to sit up front. It was worth waiting a few extra minutes!






We first went to Decks, a really interesting shopping mall. We played for a while in the vintage arcade. I played a crocodile game that Lauren and I played a long time ago (4th grade I think!) at Discovery Zone. We played it over and over again until we beat the high score. 


I didn't beat the high score, but it was fun!

Next I went to the store across from the arcade (such a fun store with lots of random stuff!) and was excited to see Sailor Moon merchandise. I thought the plushies were cute but up close the clothes looked really cheap (especially for 1200 yen) so I didn't get one. 


I did however get an organizing folder. I love how sparkly and super super cheesy it is!


 
I also got some cheap and cute candy.


At another nearby store I bought a neat magnet. Pancakes! Yummy!


I didn't notice the funny packaging until I got home. The Rilakkuma tape is adorable, too!


On that same floor I saw a cute display of miniature school lunch. It was outside of a restaurant where I think you can get lunches like Japanese school lunches. You even eat at desks! It looked really cute but kind of pointless for me when I eat school lunch on a regular basis anyways. If there was something like that in America though I would totally go and get some square pizza with cubed pepperonis.

 

I picked up some creepy glasses for free. 

After eating delicious Indian food, we walked around on the beach for a while. 




We made our way over to Dai San Daiba, No. 3 Battery. It had a nice view of the Fuji TV Building.



Some sort of cannon thing I guess?


The middle of the island was sunken down and kind of woodsy. We didn't feel like we were in Tokyo!


I saw several daffodils blooming. It seems so weird to see them December.



There was also a little bit of fall color left. There are daffodils blooming under that tree. Red leaves and daffodils... not what I'm used to seeing in winter!

When we returned to the main area, we ate Dippin' Dots. I had Chocolate Mont Blanc (a dessert made with chestnuts) flavor which was delicious.


Next we went to Venus Fort. We played basketball in the arcade a bit and saw a neat light display with "snow." 

 



The Christmas tree with Rainbow Bridge in the background was really pretty! The lights on the tree changed colors and sparkled.

Then we noticed lights on the Fuji TV Building. They flashed and changed with music. It was really impressive! Way better than the lights in Roppongi! I was surprised that I hadn't read about this illumination display online.



This video shows the awesome lights on the front of the building and the stairs. 




Later that evening we bought a small Christmas cake, which is a thing in Japan. I wanted a chocolate one but we didn't have much time to look for a small chocolate one so we got this at Vie de France. It had mixed fruit inside and was delicious. I am not sure why it came with candles though. Who is supposed to blow them out?

After quickly eating our cake we went to church. It was in English so that was really nice!



I saw this train on the way back to our hotel. I don't know who these characters are but they wished us a merry Christmas and happy new year.