Exploring Yokohama

Visiting S/PARK (SHISEIDO Global Innovation Center) in Yokohama.

Website: https://spark.shiseido.co.jp/cafe/

On the ground floor, there is  Beauty Bar, which was closed at the time I visited and a Cafe.

On the 2nd floor is the S/PARK Museum, which is like a experience based area.

There are different sections for e.g. fragrance, skin care and make up.

There was this camera that takes a picture of your face and shows you your face type and how different style of make up looks on you. I found this pretty cool as I didn't have to apply anything onto my face to see the effect. Also, I didn't know that my face type falls under the category of cool and sharp.

After that, we walked to Isetan and had dinner at カフェソラーレ Tsumugi FOOD&TIME ISETAN YOKOHAMA店.

Website: https://www.cafe-tsumugi.jp/menu/

I really like this place because the food that we had so far are good and the presentation is pretty. Also, they serve good tea, which changes according to the season.

First time trying their karaage, which is served with green tea salt. I have had tempura with green tea salt but it is my first time having karaage with it.

I always order their green tea nama pasta. They always have one on their menu and a seasonal one. I like to order their seasonal one. I like the texture of their pasta and also the flavour combinations for their pasta.  This one here is mentaiko with various seaweed, in cream sauce. Love the accent the seaweed gave to this dish.

J ordered the beef steak teishoku, which was also yummy.

After that, we went to collect a tart J had ordered.

A delicious mini chocolate and strawberry tart from ラ・メゾン アンソレイユターブル ルミネ横浜店. <3

Strawberry dessert fair

Ehoumaki  that we purchased from Summit store.

This year, we decided to go big and pre-ordered a big one. It was a good choice because this maki was packed with various seafood!

On one weekend, we decided to drop by the strawberry sweet festival at the Akarenga before lunch as we had some time.

There were many people as there were many shops inside this temporary tent selling various sweets from different patisseries' in Japan.

Here is me with a super cute cat dessert from one of the stall. 

This picture was taken in early Feb, as you can see in this picture, there are many people cramped into a small enclosed area. And at that time, there were still many people without masks yet. Mostly, because mask was still scarce and sold out in most stores.

During this time, we are using whatever stock we could find at home. Digging through the closet, we found some old packs which came in handy during this time. But we were worry when we'd run out and was always on the look out to buy more.

Feel bad that I had to destroy the cute kitty to enjoy it.

The famous Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki also had a stall there and I had to get one of his cakes as they're always good!

This time, we decided to get a nice seat outside under the sun which was a good decision as the weather was nice and there was a nice breeze. 

After this, we had to stop as we have a lunch reservation at the Royal Wing.

Lunch gathering

Attended a gathering with J's friends.

His friends who came from Ibaraki, brought their cute little baby boy along. Here is me trying to fix his clothes properly to take a nice pic.

It was the start of the COVID19 period in Japan, near the end of Jan 2020. During this time, we were travelling without masks because all the masks were sold out. We didn't know that this shortage would last for months when it first happened.

Here I am enjoying lunch, thinking that after lunch, we can easily buy some masks at some bigger drug store chains in the area.

Food was Japanese teishoku style and this cafe served more vegeables than meat.

At the end of the meal, we also added desserts.

After that, we went mask hunting but were unable to find any. Every drug store that we entered had no masks or alcohol wipes. I did manage to find some hand sanitizers and that was all I bought.

After that, we went for some Taiwanese desserts.

Haven't had something like this in 2 years. Hence, it was really refreshing and nice.

We were lucky that this small little shop could fit all of us.