ネイルモデル。How I got an (almost) free gel manicure!

I love my nails. I'm always happy and thankful my mom has nice nails and I took after her there. (Though it would have been nicer if I got he long legs too TT)

Anyway, point is I Iove painting my nails. Since like JC. But because of 就活 ( shukatsu short for 就職活動 which is the crazy job hunting phase all undergrads have to undergo to find a job) I had to keep them naked for a long time. 

Did this myself 2 summers ago. Still love it!

So last month after getting our job offers Olivia an I immediately went to colour our hair and get our nails done as an act of rebellion to celebrate the end of our 就活.

I was being very indecisive as usual, but the girl was really patient and suggested ideas and colours etc. In the end I decided to go with a French manicure in the end that wasn't too 派手 (ha-de; eye catching. Sometimes means gaudy) because I had a couple of interviews left. 

When the nailist saw me taking photos she went and took out flowers for me! So nice la. 

Anyway, after having pretty nails for 3 weeks I fell in love having something pretty to look at when I held onto the hand grips on the train :x and not having ugly chipped nails after a few days. 

Still perfect after a week :))

So when my nails grew out and became ugly... I wanted to get them done again haha.

But then I thought to myself. 

I can't be spending almost a hundred bucks on nails every few weeks right. I mean for hair, okay lah since it's like once every few months but for something that grows out and gets ugly in 2 weeks... No. 

And then I remembered Wee Kian showing me an ad about nailists looking for people to be their nail models for a competition and how I would get people offering to cut my hair for free while walking on the streets in shibuya because they were looking for people to practice on. (It's not as scary as it sounds, hairstylists in Japan have to go through rigorous schooling and apprenticeship before they can even offer to cut people's hair)

So I was like 💡💡💡💡

I would do the same for nails!

And then I looked around and found this application 

Nailists looking for people to practice on = Yayyy! Free gel nails! :D 

So I made an appointment after school and went down to shinjuku. Seemed pretty easy to find, get out from 西口 and walk straight. But I was wrong TT

It was raining and a little bit hard to find >< I was looking for a sign sticking up on top like the rest or something but

That tiny sign on the top left of that door was all there was lol. I passed this building so many times while looking for it! In the end I got there like 15min late but they were really nice about it :))

The place was called No Nail Tokyo. Funny name for a nail place lol. 

Removing the previous gel manicure. Took like almost an hour. 

Done! It was supposed to only be like a flat one colour manicure but I really wanted to get colourful spring-coloured nails. So in the end I talked to them and they let me have 3 colours :D

The whole thing, including removal of my precious grown out gel nails only cost me 1500jpy! Hehe. 

With my nailist! Who was super accommodating and cute (her head is so small?!!?) happens to be a fan of Shinee and we spent half the time talking about kpop haha. 

Anw they told me afterwards that like because my appointment was just for one flat colour I had to pay do the extra sparklies, but if I made an appointment with a nailist who was practicing designing nails then nail art would be free! Whaaat. Definitely going back in 2 weeks hehe. 

HARBS --awesomest shortcakes in Tokyo

HARBS My love. <3 this cafe has the BEST strawberry shortcakes in Japan. Okay, I am lying because I haven't tried every single cake shop in Japan (my dream) but they are really the yummiest I have tried so far. They have quite a few branches around Tokyo. The first one I went to was the one in Kichijoji, where I lived 2 years back.



They also have a branch conveniently located in Shinjuku Lumine right next to the station, which is where I visited a couple of weeks back. Esther was going home back to Singapore so Olivia and I wanted to meet up with her one last time before she left. 

Olivia was craving strawberry shortcakes. I was in Shinjuku. That meant HARBS.

And we're certainly not the only one who thought that they had the awesome cakes.

Long story short we queued for 40min to get in. 

Usually the queue is slightly shorter that that but it was a Sunday (I think) in Shinjuku and almost 5 million people visit Shinjuku station a day so that couldn't be helped. 

And this is what you do when you are bored when you are queueing :-D

Cakes and tarts galore~!

So after 40 min it was finally our turn to go in. The place was completely full.

I couldn't decide what to get so I went out to look at the display again.

Not very helpful. Everything was so tempting I took forever to decide lah haha. Look at all that strawberry!

In the end all three of us ordered the same thing. Strawberry shortcake. Because it is really really the best.

Glorious glorious huge piece of shortcake. It was 800jpy (about 9.60SGD) per slice so it's not exactly the cheapest cake, but you will not regret it. 

You know how usually like most cake shops give you like one strawberry on top of a huge crapload of cream? This one. 3 strawberries on top of a heavenly fluffy layer of cream. 3 times the happiness.

The cream is fantastic. It is sooo smooth (I would even say silky) and light and sweet but not sickeningly sweet if you get what I mean. Just sweet enough to make me forget that every mouthful is probably a 10min walk to burn it off. D: Whatever it is it is really good. 

And it's not like they are lousy sour strawberries, these strawberries were delicious.

Maybe it's the magic of Japanese farming, I don't know, but Japanese strawberries are so good. Especially when it's in season (now) it's so cheap I have been buyin a tray of like 18 strawberries for 300JPY at Seiyu every few days haha.

Anw, the sponge cake itself is also very moist and fine and yummy. Dry sponges are :( (though I have never had bad spongecakes in Japan before) and some people brush the cake with syrup to keep it moist, but sometimes it just ends up too wet and sweet but this one was really just nice and delicious ToT <3 total love. Really. Omg just thinking of it makes me want to go back again.

Incidentally, Yone's birthday cake last year was also from HARBS! Look at all that strawberries! <3 <3 It was so good Esther and I ate like 3 slices each or something :x

Unfortunately strawberries are only in season until May, so the strawberry shortcakes will go off the menu at the end of May (but come back later) because they want to make sure you get the yummiest berries and cakes. So make sure you visit between November and May! Though I'm sure their other cakes are awesome as well.

One last group pic :)) 

All the best back in Singapore Esther! will miss youuu D*:

Oh lol. Fay is going back to HK soon too and we are going to indulge in some HARBS tmr hahaha!

----------------------------------------------

Harbs 

Homepage
http://www.harbs.co.jp/harbs/eng_top.html

Address

B2F, Lumine Est Shinjuku 3-38-1, Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Tel.03-5366-1538

[Weekday] OPEN 11:00　CLOSE 22:00 (21:30 Last Orders) [Weekend and Holiday] OPEN 10:30　CLOSE 22:00 (21:30 Last Orders)

They have a branch in shibuya too. How convenient. 

The Color Run @ Sagamiko Japan!!

OMG I just came back from the funnest (got such a word or not?!) run ever! haha

Those of you who've known me since secondary school will be thinking,"huh wth this Shion Yee. Last time NAPFA 2.4KM also cannot pass, now run what!" NO JOKE I FINISHED 5K HAHA. walking  Okay but I have been faithfully going to the gym regularly for a few months already lah. And now I can run 5km in 33min or so. 28 if I try hard. XD

But okay I admit lolol. I have never ever passed a one of my NAPFA 2.4km or heck primary school 1.6km run. Always the super unfit kind that had to retake the whole NAPFA test because I failed my 2.4. But to my credit, my sit-and-reach and sit-ups were always A okay!!

I digress. Back to the main topic.

Today I went for The Color Run!! (omg urge to spell it with a "u"). SO FUN! :DDD ok it was more of a The Color Walk/Jog because we were chitchatting and strolling most of it :x

So the last time I was back in Singapore in summer I saw the run being featured on TV or something and I was like, "eh these people are crazy. Who pays $50 to get paint thrown at themselves while running! Pay me $5 I throw tomatoes at you for free. $5 is for me to buy tomatoes" But it was so fun it was totally worth it!

For some reason, when I found out that it was also going being held in Tokyo I got super excited lol. Maybe it was the thought of being able to go crazy in public in Japan, I don't know but I really wanted to go. So I asked the people around me and had very little response at first. I was like :(

Then I posted on facebook and yay! found like 6 other people from the CoFesta Awesombassadors to run with me! :D

Our run was at 10am (didn't wanted to go too late in case it was hot or rained or someting) which meant we had to get there by 9.30am to get our T-shirts and leave our stuff at the locker area etc. It was held at the outskirts of Tokyo (Sagamiko which is btw a super BEAUTIFUL place) that takes about an hour to get there from Shinjuku on the Chuo line so we had to take the train that left at 7.35.

Guess who woke up late and almost forgot the confirmation postcards :x

Thank goodness for Rapid Express trains though dasdalwaklkmd saved my ass. ilu Japan!

So we got there and there was already a whole sea of people (人海人山) queuing to get onto the shuttle bus (which was not free walao) to the place. Luckily the queue was so long, lol. Yone forgot his running pants so he ran to an obasan shop to get them and when he got back we were still only just about to board lol.

Picture before the run.

Team CoFesta! Me being Singaporean in my purple FBTs hahaha. walao I jump so high still not as tall as Berekk D:

Many cool people dressed up like in costumes haha super cute lah. Japanese people are so creative gotta love them. Definitely will do something cooler next year!

I stupidly left it in my bag at the tents so here are some pictures from the other awesombassors who were walking running with me. :D

Group of cute girls in their secondary school PE uniform! 

 I have no idea what this group of people were but they were cool! haha

 

Starrrrrrt! Spot the awesome afro wigs.

Greeeeen! :D We like dived into the colour booth to get more coloured hahaha. The ground was kind of hard and bumpy though ToT Also. Watch as half of Berekk's face transforms into an AVATAR face (now it's half green)

Berekk was our official selfie cameraman for the day cos he is so good at it! Got strong potential to be an influencer HAHA. It was so sunny though, and I was so glad for the sunglasses. Olivia was wearing pair of limited edition New Balance sunnies that the DJs were throwing out for people to catch and Yone got them! Status of Berekk's face: Green + pink

The course was kinda rocky/slopey though so it was kinda hard to run at first so we ended up walking most of it but it was over so soon! Too soon! We were thrown with 5 colours in total, 1 colour for 1km I think. Quite cool! Blue→Yellow→Green→Pink→Purple at the finishing party!

FINISHHHH! Didn't feel like 5K at all lol. When I do 5k in the gym I'm always so bored and tired but this was so fun! After the run there was a finishing party with awesome music, free red bull and cool dancers and LOTS OF COLOUR! :D You get like a packet of colour each after that and just go crazy with it haha.



What to do after finishing the color run and you have paint all over your face? Camwhore duhhhh ;D no need to edit for pimples lol. I was Blab-ing with peirong and she said I look scary though ToT whatever!!!

Group photo! ;D Apparently this is some pose from a manga called Jojo or something?! I have no idea what that is and I really need to check it out because the poses are really awesome :x 

Company's ikemen duo :D

More cool costume people! Again, I have no idea what they were hahaha. #cooljapan

Matching Colour run tattoos with Jannie! Awesome! :DD

Photo with Marta when we were queuing up for food. We were so hungry after the run! Also look at that guy in the spandex suit and wig hahahahah 

With Cassie!! There were like sausages and Yakisoba but I was craving sweet stuff so I got like this 50cm long churros nomnom. 

And then I found out from Edgar that churros is Mexican! Tacos and Fajitas and now even Churros?! wth I love Mexico.

We sat under the Sakura trees and munched. Fun run + Sakura afterwards?! Nothing gets better than this :D Except the trees during the run itself were mostly barren lol. Berekk's face update: Green+pink+purple

And that's Cassie joining in the Radio Workout as a cool down exercise. It's like a workout that Japanese school children and salarymen do it every morning in school or something so everyone around us was doing it.

Oliviaaa! So chio under the trees with my nice meitu filter lah haha

One last picture from Marta of when we randomly joined in one of the other finishing parties! (there was a run every 20 min so that meant a party every 20!) Berekk's face update: AVATARRRRR!

Picture a day 4

Ok not really a picture a day anymore haha nevermind. 

Found this flight if steps leading up to a small shop in an alley in Koenji when I went with Camille to check out KitaKore building by Miho-san's recommendation. Pretty colours!

Taken with iPhone 5 edited with snapseed :)