Wedding Favour Box - Brides Bird House

Another wedding update! We've been having a hard time finding a favour box to hold our charms. We were originally going to order these Tiffany blue boxes off ebay, but I just couldn't justify paying more for shipping costs than the actual products, and I just don't like buying things off the internet when I can't see the quality beforehand.

I was shopping at Michaels the other day for valentine's day deals, and came across a sale section with these bird houses by Brides. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, since I'm not really a bird person, but the teal ribbon caught my eye - it's the same colour as my bridesmaid dresses! After deliberating for some time (I end up spending an hour at the store!), I end up purchasing 6 packets, enough for all of our wedding guests.  :)

This is what the kit looks like, minus the happy bride and groom figurine… I just put them there because they are so adorable:

Each kit contains components to make 50 favour boxes:

I tested one out, and it was relatively easy to assemble! The most time consuming part was threading the ribbon through the roof, but other than that, didn't take long. My only suggestion is to use glue instead of the double-sided tape provided to glue the corners of the roof. I find the double-sided tape not strong enough, and the corners end up popping up.

Line the bottom with pink tissue paper, and it's all set! Perfect for our Mickey and Minnie charms. I can't wait to start assembling them. All 300 of them!

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

We had a free day in Osaka, and I've always been the type of girl that loves to walk around Ikea and envision what other people's day to day lives are like.  So when I heard of the Museum of Housing and Living, I thought it would be something I would enjoy spending an afternoon exploring.

The fact that admission was only 600 yen ($6 Cdn) is an added bonus!  What I enjoyed most about the museum visit was their kimono rental program.  For an additional 200 yen per person ($2 Cdn), you get to rent a kimono for 30 minutes and walk around the museum.  It was so much fun!

Free kimono socks with kimono rental.  :)

Needless to say, once the kimono is on, the museum suddenly became a play belief and photoshoot opportunity for me, and I noticed the same for all the other girls in the museum as well.  Basically all the dads/ boyfriends/ hubbys are given the camera and ordered to take tons of photos.   :)

Kimono fun aside, the concept of the museum is pretty cool.  It is a life sized replica for a village back in the old days, and for an additional 100 yen, you can rent an audio tour, which I suppose is the educational component of the Museum.

Beyond the "life size village", visitors can also explore miniature displays of villages from different eras.  You get to see how life has changed for the villages through the generations.  I would have loved to spend a bit more time exploring this room, but we got to the museum late and it was closing by the time we took off our kimonos.  :(

Still, it was an amazingly fun afternoon, and we got a few more couple pictures for our wedding slideshow.    :D

Summary
Place: Osaka museum of living and housing
Cost: 900 Yen/ person - very reasonable!
Overall experience: Definitely worth a visit. One of Osaka's hidden gems

Other Japan trip reports

Osaka

- Osaka Aquarium

- Museum of Housing and Living

- Toka Ebisu festival at the Imamiya shrine
Hiroshima

- Memorial museum + A-bomb dome + Okonomimura

Tokyo

- Tokyo DisneySea

- Meiji shrine

Osaka Toka Ebisu: Business Prosperity Festival

I was googling things to do in Osaka for our last day there, and came across this "Toka Ebisu Festival" at the Imamiya Shrine.  Oh cool, a festival at a shrine, let's go check it out!

The Festival happens on Jan 10th, with over 1 million visitors visiting the shrine every year. Locals bring fresh bamboo and buy lucky charms to hang on the branches. They also bring last year's bamboo to dispose of, as apparently keeping it for over a year brings bad luck.

The highlight for me is the Good Luck Parade with geishas and good luck girls. They are all chanting and singing and the overall mood was so festive!

So apparently if you're chosen to be a good luck girl, you'll end up getting lots of marriage proposals… seems a bit superficial, but then again, I'm not in a position to judge other people's cultures and customs!

Outside the shrine, stalls are set up to sell charms and snacks.  This reminds me of a night market in Toronto.  We went during the day so it wasn't too busy, but I think it will be more festive at night.

Summary
Event: Toka Ebisu Festival
Location: Osaka Imamiya Shrine
Cost: Free!
Overall impression: Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in Osaka during the Festival.  :)

Other Japan trip reports

Osaka

- Osaka Aquarium

- Museum of Housing and Living

- Toka Ebisu festival at the Imamiya shrine

Hiroshima

- Memorial museum + A-bomb dome + Okonomimura

Tokyo

- Tokyo DisneySea

- Meiji shrine

Our Valentine's Okonomiyaki Meal

Happy valentine's day everyone!  This year we decided to make our own v-day dinner to save $ for our upcoming wedding, and also because we actually feel that it's more romantic to cook a meal together.

Ever since we had Hiroshima Okonomiyaki in Japan last month (click here for our post on Hiroshima), we wanted to try making it at home, and v-day serves the perfect excuse! So we headed to a nearby Japanese market and purchased our ingredients:

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
1 pack Okonomiyaki mix
1/2 head cabbage
Bacon
2 eggs
Green Onions
Dried seaweed (optional)

Sauce (make your own or purchase Okonomiyaki sauce):
1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mayo
1 tsp oyster sauce

The great thing about the Okonomiyaki mix ($4 Cdn) is that it comes with ENGLISH instructions, which is oh-so-valuable for non-Japanese speaking people like myself.

 1) To make the batter, combine 5.4 oz of water with the Yam Powder included in the mix, and stir.  Then add the Okonomiyaki Batter powder and mix.

2) Add chopped cabbage, green onion, tempura crisp (included in package), and the eggs to the batter.  Remember not to over-mix or else the mixture will become too thick.

3) Now it's ready for cooking!  Pre-heat the skillet and add cooking oil.  Pour in the entire mixture, and add the bacon strips on top.

4) Wait 5 minutes, and then flip!

5) While it's cooking, you can prepare the sauce.  We weren't planning on making our own sauce, but since we forgot to buy Okonomiyaki sauce, we had no option. Turns out its really easy to make - just combine equal parts of ketchup, mayo, oyster sauce, and soy sauce.

6) Once both sides are cooked, add dried seaweed and drizzle mayo on top, and there you have it! Your very own Okonomiyaki. By the way, if you have Bonito flakes, be sure to add them on top for added touch.

Hiroshima Day Trip

We decided to spend a day in Hiroshima to visit the A-Bomb Dome.  From Osaka, it's about a 2 hour train ride via the bullet train, and since we have a week pass, we definitely want to maximize our use of the bullet train.  :)

Breakfast on the train.    :)

The train was SO comfortable we took a nice nap after breakfast.  

Cute Totoro pastries at the Hiroshima train station

Once you arrive in Hiroshima, don't forget to purchase your return ticket so you won't be stuck in town!  We decided to go to Kobe after just to try the Kobe beef (common, how cool is it to say "I've had Kobe beef in Kobe").

We visited the memorial museum first, which is a good idea if you want to have some context before seeing the a-dome.  It was a gloomy rainy day in Hiroshima, so it kinda add on to our overall mood after visiting the museum.

The A-bomb dome is the only structure left standing after the bomb in 1945, and it has now been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After visiting the Dome, we definately needed something (i.e., yummy) to cheer us up.  We originally wanted to visit the Shukkei-en Gardens, but since it was too cold and it was raining, we opt for Okonomiyaki time!

We took a short streetcar ride to Okonomimura (or maybe we walked, I can't remember now), a building that is dedicated to Hiroshima style Okonomiyak.  Yum!

YUMMM!

Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is different from other okonomiyaki in the sense that they have a lot more cabbage - so I guess it's the healthier option?  :)

Trip Summary

• 9am - bullet train from Osaka to Hiroshima
• 11am - Hiroshima Memorial Museum
• noon - Hiroshima Memorial Park & A-Bomb Dome
• 1pm - Shopping on the way to Okonomimura
• 3pm - Okonomimura for Hiroshima Okonomiyaki!
• 5pm - Train back to Osaka via Kobe

Other Japan trip reports

Osaka

- Osaka Aquarium

- Museum of Housing and Living

- Toka Ebisu festival at the Imamiya shrine

Hiroshima

- Memorial museum + A-bomb dome + Okonomimura

Tokyo

- Tokyo DisneySea

- Meiji shrine

Our Engagement Story

We got engaged almost a year and a half years ago, in February 2012.  I was in between jobs at the time, and we decided to go to Disney World for a week, since I'm a big Disney fan but have never been to Disney World before.

On our second night at Disney, we had a dinner reservation at Cinderella's Royal Castle:

I ordered shrimp cocktails and beef tenderloin, which was so-so (I find that most of the character dining restaurants focuses more on the character experience and less on the food anyways):

 I knew something was up when the waiter came and told me my "special dessert" was ready.  The dessert was hidden beneath a silver dome.  When he lifted the dome, this was what I saw:

Everything after that was really a blur... I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn't quite recall what happened.  Thank goodness for Disney Photographers on scene to capture the moments!  G got down on one knee and said something which I presumed was along the lines of "will you marry me".  It was so beautiful and romantic.  Not to mention perfect for a girly girl like me!   :)

The whole restaurant cheered when I said "yes".  It was such a happy feeling to know that everyone there was sharing their best wishes with us.   We left the restaurant just in time for the "Wishes" fireworks outside the castle, which again, was so incredibly magical.

We continued to wander around Magic Kingdom afterwards and came across Tinker Bell's Magical Nook.  We didn't know if the nook was still open as it was close to midnight at that point, but and as it turns out, Tinker Bell and her friends were there!  They made a big scene when then found out we just got engaged.  Here is a picture of us totally embarrassed by all the attention:

Tinker Bell LOVED my engagement ring.  This is one of my favorite pictures - Tinker Bell's eyes were so dramatic!

It was the PERFECT proposal.  Not to mention Disney gave us these "Just Engaged" buttons so for the rest of the trip all the cast members and other guests kept congratulating us.   :)