The Sushi Land Diary Part 2: Karuizawa

In a little spot an hour and a half by bullet train from Tokyo lies Karuizawa - a hell of a Japanese gem. Near Nagano and away from Tokyo's urban craziness, Karuizawa is pure bliss where I found a little piece of heaven with nature and wide open spaces.

Staying at: Hoshinoya Ryokan, Karuizawa. Top-notch modern ryokan with the most spectacular setting, it's officially the best hotel/resort I've been to (replacing my previous best of Commune by The Great Wall). I was literally gasping in wonder with a nonstop muttering of "Sugoii!!" while we were being driven to our room nestled in the woods, with the Yukawa River rolling and streaming through the premise. To say that the view of nature from our room is spectacular is simply an understatement. The entire resort is surrounded by peaceful river and beautiful landscape and it's the kind of place you need to be there to experience its full wonder. I was left quite speechless by its magnificence. Facilities include private onsen for Hoshinoya guests only, origami sessions, mochi making sessions and many more, while the nearby Harunire Terrace is just a five-minute walk away, offering scenic shops and restaurants alongside the beautiful Yukawa river in a board-walk setting. It's no wonder it's touted as one of the best by The Wallpaper.
Eating: Kasuke at Hoshinoya Ryokan. My love for Kaiseki is well-recorded in my blog and it's here I had the most amazing Japanese marbled beef that simply melts in my mouth. Also loving the ice cream at Nagai Farm at the Harunire Terrace and it's officially the best ice cream I've ever eating. My love for soba was also greatly satisfied at Kawakami-an where they have the biggest tempura prawn I've had and delicious duck dipping sauce that makes me salivate every time I think about it.
Drinking: More macha but I'm totally not complaining! I love Genmaicha too!
Visiting: The Musasabi, or the Japanese Giant Flying Squirrel, at Picchio Wild Life Reserve Station!!! Picchio offers evening tour to see the Musasabi (and a whole lot of other activities) and it was definitely the highlight of the trip!

How gorgeous is my bento I got for my bullet train ride? So pretty I didn't I could keep looking at it. Taste as divine as it looks too

Reception area at Hoshinoya. Didn't get the chance to see someone perform with the percussion set though

Welcome mochi with a beautiful Hana Sakura. Delicious!

Poobah and Uncle Twinkle travel with me a lot. They're best buddies. 

The Japanese Cedar wood bathtub I so want to bring home

Awesome Hoshinoya amenities

Such peaceful setting with the lake literally at your balcony

Lovely terrace landscape with a little stream flowing through for the ultimate idyllic setting

You can't get better than this, with a river flowing directly outside your door steps

The cutest hydro power plant

Kasuke Restaurant at the main building of Hoshinoya. Serving up authentic Japanese fine dining with an amazing "landscape" design to mimic the beautiful Satoyama setting. 

And the have the iconic Artichoke Lamp my boyfriend is lusting after

No ordinary staircase handle bar. This one curves seductively with beautiful lights underneath

Another view of the Kasuke Restaurant. Such beautiful design

Harunire Terrace where the little shops and restaurants are. Literally a stone's throw away from Hoshinoya. 

The biggest tempura prawn I've had at Kawakami-an. I went back again for more. 

If you ever visit Karuizawa and Harunire Terrace, PLEASE try the ice cream at Nagai Farm. The best ice cream I've had in my life. The smoothest and creamiest cold delights that will make you want more!

The Sushi Land Diary Part 1: Tokyo

Two weeks ago, I came back from a totally amazing trip from Japan and it took me this long to download and select the photos. I wanted to slowly relish the process when I was in a good mood to relive my Japanese journey. Also because I have taken a ridiculous amount of photos and going through them took me awhile.

So here you go, first part of my Sushi Land Diary in Tokyo. Downloaded finally a couple of nights ago in the nice ambiance of my own cocoon of a room scented by incense from Kyoto. Not much words (as otherwise it'd be too lengthy), just photos (a fraction of what I took), a summary in my "Monthly Muses" style and a promise that Part 2 and 3 in Karuizawa and Kyoto are heaps better.

Staying at: Tokyo Park Hotel at Shiodome. (Won't go back cos the service staff wasn't helpful)
Eating: World famous (and way too pricey!) Tempura at Ten-ichi. Super delicious Ochazuke at a random shop at Tokyo Station. Amazing kaiseki-like omakaze menu at Maru at Aoyama (as recommended by The Wallpaper). Cheap but extremely good Japanese Hamburger Steak at Manhattan Deli at Roppongi (their Mentaiko mash potato is a must try!). Curry rice with Kani cream croquette from a random shop near our hotel.
Drinking: Fuji Apple Juice. Like tons of it cos I love my Japanese apple juice. Also drinking tons of macha of course!
Visiting: Yoyo-gi Park. Possibly my favourite spot in Tokyo as it offers wide open spaces with tons of youths, couples and family alike relaxing in the sun, doing different activities from running, dancing to playing musical instruments. Asakusa is another hotspot I enjoyed with its rich heritage feel that offers a different fair from the shopping belt in Ginza.
Shopping at: Every Japanese drug store that came my way. My obsession with toiletries meant going crazy in drug stores.
Loving: Clean Japanese toilets with 39439483 different functions and bidet options! Super clean and why hasn't the rest of the world caught up with that yet??? Even the toilets at random subway station is very clean! Now that's something!

Lost in Translation

No, not my post on my Japanese trip yet but this is just a freaking hilarious youtube HL sent me and I almost died laughing....

Meanwhile, I'll be posting up my Japan pictures soon. Tons of photos to sort through! Now go loud your pants off! Go spread the laughter!

 

Acne Attack: How to get rid of cystic acne fast

I hate cystic acne! You know those type that are are embedded way deep in the skin, swell up in three dimensions, throb painfully as if some alien is growing inside and take forever to go away? Yes, I hate those with a passion and I think pretty much everyone hates them too.

I'm generally blessed with decent skin with minimal problems *touch wood* but when I get zits every now and then, they're almost always in the form of monstrous cystic acne the size of a 10 cent coin in the most prominent three dimensions. The worst thing is, whenever it happens, they come one after another and popcorned their way on my T zone.

Recently, I had the misfortune of having two enormous cystic acnes that had proven to be the most stubborn to date. Both in prominent spots no less, one between my eyebrows (I call those the "bindi zits" for obvious reason) and the other on my chin. As if the throbbing pain and the facial marring weren't bad enough, they had to happen while I was in Japan. Yes, Japan. That country where most women have flawless smooth skin and acne suffering women probably get shipped off to some remote island. So it was intensive "Operation rid the acne" daily while I was there and it seems like after more than a decade of dealing with these "zits of a bitch", I seem to have figured out a way to make them go away faster.

Many friends told me their cystic acnes normally stay with them for about two to three weeks minimum and some lasting for months! Many had to go to a dermatologist to get cortisone shots for relief and one girl friend even had to have hers removed progressively over two months by drawing out all the gunk with micro-needle. I was close to going for the cortisone shot when they finally went down thank god. Thus far, with my anti-cystic acne "programme" I've devised through years of trial and error, I seem to have managed to reduce the healing time to about 10 days without a visit to a dermatologist. 

But before I give you a low-down on how to attack those cystic acnes, I must make a disclaimer that it probably works well only on people who don't scar with pock marks when they squeeze their zits. People who tend to scar badly with depressions or holes on the skin are better off going to the dermatologist for a jab of cortisone to bring it down. So try this at your own risk.

Here's a list of ammunition and tools you'll need:

• pimple/blackhead needle and squeezer
• a pair of tweezers 
• good strong pimple cream with salicylic acid (I really like the Shiseido Pimplit acne cream but it's only available in Japan unfortunately)
• tea tree oil
• 3M pimple patch
• Nixoderm cream

Now here's my step-by-step guide, in two phases no less:

Phase One

1. When a brand new one pops out, apply a drop or two of tea tree oil  after cleansing your face at night and massage the zit with firm pressure. Yes it hurts, but it'll pay off, for me at least. Then, apply a thick layer of Nixoderm cream, massaging further with firm pressure. It will tingle quite a bit and that's normal. Leave it on overnight. Repeat this for another two days. 
2. Normally, by day three, there'll be some tiny bit of pus forming. Now it sounds gross but accumulate the pus and resist draining them until there's more cos extracting it when it's more "mature" makes extracting the oil plug off the blocked pore easier. Once there's some or substantial pus, drain them by carefully and lightly puncturing the affected pore with the pimple needle disinfected with rubbing alcohol. Lightly squeeze to see if the blocked oil plug comes out but with cystic acne, they mostly don't really "pus up" too much cos it's way too deep. 
3. If your acne has matured and risen up, then make sure you clean out the pore by draining out all the blood and pus and try to remove the oil plug. The key to cleaning out the pore is to make sure the oil plug is removed cos if it's not, it'll just be there. If you can only manage to drain a wee bit or not at all, don't force it by brute force or you'll risk pushing it further down (according to a dermatologist). 
4. After you're done squeezing, apply pimple cream with salicylic acid. If you manage to remove everything and extract the oil plug, congratulations, you zit is now healing and it probably isn't that bad a cystic acne to begin with. However, 90% of the time, these bloody cystic acne doesn't "mature" and I can normally get out just a tiny amount of pus without the chance of extracting the oil plug. So here's phase two. 

Phase Two

1. So you've squeezed out a wee bit of pus and blood and there's still more brewing underneath with the oil plug still blocking the pore. Now, once you're done with your first attempt to drain the acne, apply a thin layer of acne cream with salicylic acid. Then, wait for the wound to dry up a bit. Once it's dried up, stick on a 3M acne sticker and leave it over night. I've tried sticking on the 3M acne sticker on newly formed cystic acne before any attempt to drain out the pus but it doesn't do anything since all the secretion and oil are embedded way too deep for the sticker to be effective. Thus, I only use it after I'm done some bit of draining.
2. The next day, the 3M sticker should have drawn out quite a bit of oil and secretion (the sticker turns white) and normally, my acne would have gone down by a bit. For the day, just apply the pimple cream. At night, after cleansing, check if there's any newly formed pus and drain out if necessary and again, apply a thin layer of salicylic acid, let it dry up before sticking on the 3M acne sticker.
3. Repeat this every night and your acne should deflate over a couple of days. Now one very important point to note; you need to exfoliate and remove any dead skin on the zit and around it once the pus stops forming. The key is to get rid of any dry flakes of skin covering the zit and you'll need to make sure the surrounding area is rid of dry skin to make sure the pores don't get blocked.
4. When there's no pus, never attempt to squeeze the zit cos it would do nothing but cause trauma. Instead, when the acne deflating progress is stagnant, exfoliate the zit area a little with a gentle scrub. Next, remove all the dry flaking skin using a pair of tweezers and lightly lifting off those skin layers. Please don't rip your skin off by force cos it'll bleed. Never overdo this and remove only those that can be easily lifted off without any pain. Once you're done, stick on the 3M acne sticker overnight. The objective here is to make sure that the sticker is in contact with the fresh layer of skin that has just surfaced and not dead skin because it won't draw out secretion when you put it on dried up skin. 
5. Do this for a few nights and by the time it's close to being completely deflated, switch to using just the pimple cream only, making sure you remove any dried up dead skin every night.
6. Usually by now, some of the deeply embedded oil plug would have surfaced and you can easily prick the skin open lightly and remove them. If not, you just have to be patient and keep applying salicylic acid and it would go away but at least you can now cover it effectively with some concealer in the day and that it is no longer three dimensional. 

Again, I need to stress that this works for me and a few of my friends whose skin doesn't scar too badly or leave a depression when they extract zits. So don't try this if your skin has a tendency to scar badly since this trial-and-error "programme" of mine involves squeeze the zit. Hope this helps and I'm gonna say this one more time, I fucking hate cystic acne. Die you cystic acnes, die!

RIP Maurice Sendak :( 


Where The Wild Things Are has been and always been a favorite! Thank you for the amazing stories and for keeping my inner child alive and nurtured!

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.” 

May Muses

Konichiwa! I'm back from an amazing long holiday in Japan and thus the delayed Monthly Muses! Currently having some serious Japan withdrawal and you can totally see the Japanese inspiration from this month's muses!

 Reading: Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki. I'm going through a phase where I'm obsessed with geisha. I read Memoir of a Geisha by Arthur Golden before the movie came out and remember being so fascinated by the whole concept of geisha and its mystique. My visit to Kyoto has reignited my obsession and I'm reading the biography of Mineko Iwasaki, one of the most famous geisha around.

Watching: Delicacy. I'm in when it comes to any French movie with Audrey Tautou and I recently caught this rom-com in the cinema about two weeks ago. Audrey played a widow who found love again with an unlikely candidate. I love it!

Using: Perfect Multi Compact by Maquillage. You gotta be wondering why I'm back to non-organic products with toxins. I gave in! Japan's selection of skincare and makeup was way too big a temptation and my really bad cystic acne breakout (okay, actually it was only 2 but they were very prominent) while I was in Japan got me buying the non-organics again because I want the flawless skin of a Japanese woman without any breakouts! So yes, I'm gonna temporarily go back to non-organics for a bit until further notice while staying organic on non-face products. This foundation by Maquillage is so awesome I stocked up while I was in Japan. It gives a flawless finish with 3 different shades of powder to let you sculpt your face for a 3-D effect. Smooth finishing that lasts pretty well!

Weleda Wild Rose Body Lotion. I've finished my bottle of SukiVelvet Moisturizing Cream and I'm off to trying a new body lotion. I love Weleda Wild Rose Body Lotion! It's organic and has a lovely rose scent with light texture that's easily absorbed for soft hydrated skin.

Drinking: Sokenbi Cha. I randomly bought a bottle of Sokenbi Cha from one of the 3984739874938 vending machines in Japan only to realize it tastes so aromatic and amazing! Thank god they sell it at Japanese supermarket in Singapore! I'm stocking up despite the slightly higher price!

Shopping at: iHerb.com So here's an awesome online site that sells all sorts of health supplements at an amazingly good rate. It's cheap and good with a huge selection of products and brands. My friend introduced me to it saying that I would probably kiss my GNC Gold Membership goodbye after I discover how amazing iHerb is. He is right. The prices are so much cheaper and they ship so freaking fast that my loot always arrives within 5 days.

Yojiya from Kyoto. This skincare house from Kyoto was founded in 1904 is famous for its oil blotting paper that's responsible for the flawless smooth geisha skin as well as a host of other skincare products. It's such a cult brand in Japan that their shops are forever crowded with throngs of "pilgrims". That many Japanese women can't be wrong and I bought myself some stuff which I would blog about soon.

Lusting after: An Issey Miyaki Bao Bao bag in bring bold color! While in Tokyo, I hunted down a few Issey Miyaki stores hoping to find a huge selection of Bao Bao bags. Turned out that they only have 4 colours available. Black, white, blue/green and orange/red. None of them appealed to me and I left feeling disappointed as I was expecting them to carry a huge rainbow selection with every colors imaginable. So now, I'm lusting after one...might have to go back to Club21 for one after all.

Loving: Kyoto! I left my heart in Kyoto! I'm definitely a 100% Kyoto girl cos I love the rich cultural heritage of Japan's old capital where Geisha and Maikos roam the city. The hipsters can be Harajuku girls but I'm a Kyoto Girl without a doubt!

Happiness is power. Happiness is carbonated consciousness. It wants to spill out and radiate and be articulated. And every time we downplay our joy we confuse our synapses. Our brain is firing smiley neurons and our mouth is short circuiting them. Repeated happiness muffling numbs our senses. If you keep it under the surface too long, it just might stay there … a light under a bushel.

--Danielle Laporte, The Daily Love, April

On a side note, I'm super happy cos I'm going Japan for a holiday tomorrow! Counting down!!