japan travel vlog (tokyo and kyoto!) + haul 🇯🇵🍜🍡

Hi guys, it's Regan and welcome to the start of a very extra special vlog because folks three two one, Clay and I are in Japan. So this is the official start to my Japan travel vlog and I truly could not be more excited. Clay's drinking his coffee over there. This trip is definitely a dream come true. Many many many many years in the making in terms of planning and I'm so excited to document and take you guys along with us as we just explore and travel around Japan together. Quick recap, we got into Japan yesterday, stayed up for as long as we could, fell asleep and now we are up and awake. It's early. We woke up at 4am. One of the great things about traveling Japan is that jet lag kind of works in your favor, especially if you want to get to tourist locations early. We're about to head down now to have some hotel breakfast because there's nothing I like more than a free breakfast and then we're going to go head out into the wide world. We're going to a garden today, we're going to be shopping in Shibuya today, we're going to Shibuya Sky today, a lot of Shibuya stuff. So excited to, one, explore and also, again, document the entire thing. But let's start this vlog off with a little OOTD and then we'll head out and we'll go out together. Shall we? Okay, quick OOTD. It's going to be warmer today but it's chilly in the morning so I have a sweater I can take on and off. Just wearing a little gingham dress, a little cropped green sweater. This is Clay's OOTD. He's doing a denim on denim look. We love to see it. I'm of course also going to have a bag and a hat. And that's it. And y'all, of course. Alright, we're out and about. We just had hotel breakfast which was delicious. There's something about a hotel breakfast while traveling that's my favorite thing. We're going to the National Garden this morning. It opens at 9. It's currently 8. So we're going to kind of do a scenic route through Shinjuku, see everything, nothing will be open yet. Make our way over to the garden. Should be beautiful. The weather's amazing. Now in Harajuku. We're going to get lunch and do some shopping. Yum. We've arrived at Shibuya Sky. The iconic crossing down there. Pretty cool. We've made it to the top of Shibuya Sky. It's actually very cool. I would highly recommend. This is one of my favorite top of top buildings with big view things I've done. Because the view is quite bananas. Sorry, I cannot see right now. Hello everyone. Good morning. It is officially day 2 of our trip. It's 8am and we're about to head out. Clay and I did wake up at 3.30 this morning. Which, you know, we had a lot of time to unwind before we had breakfast. Which I'll have a clip in here. This morning we get free breakfast from my credit card. So we ordered it to the room. I don't know if I've ever had such an elaborate spread. We're going to eat this now. And then we're going to head out. I opened up some smiskies. And now we're going to head out. Today we're going to be going to the Meiji Shrine. We're going to go vintage shopping which should be fun. Yesterday was a blast. I definitely tailed off. Vlogging a bit because I was kind of in a jet lag. What's the word? I was like floating through life. I was very tired but very happy to be there. And I did forget to vlog a little bit. For yesterday, I think my favorite thing, I loved the garden. But Shibuya Sky was also very cool. What was your favorite thing, Clay? I think the garden. The garden? The Shibuya Sky was really cool. The garden was like so peaceful. It is golden week here. So I've not, honestly it's hard for me to say like is it busier or less busier. But the garden really wasn't very busy at all. No. But we went right when it opened. But we did. But it was 9. So. But like the Shibuya area and the Shinjuku area are like very, very busy. But I imagine they're always very, very busy. But anyway, Mejiu Shrine, thrifting. We're going to head out. And let's go. But actually here are my little schmiskies that I opened up this morning at like 6am because I couldn't wait any longer. We've arrived. The park surrounding Mejiu. We're going to do some walking and then we'll go to the shrine. It's raining. But it kind of makes you feel like you're in a magical forest. It's very beautiful. So. Cool. A little post-journey coffee break. In the cafe. Cheers. We've made it to the vintage area. We're going to get curry because they're known for curry around here. And we problem solved. We problem solved our first train situation. We're very impressed with ourselves. Clay bought some things. He found some things. And now he's trying to figure out where we're going next. We arrived at dinner. We made a very apt 5pm reservation. No regrets because the line is very long. So. And we woke up at 3.30 this morning so 5pm is like a 9pm reservation. We are officially in Kyoto. We just got off the train. Checked in to our hotel. Room's not ready yet. So we're just out exploring. It is raining which is actually nice because it's nice and chilly. So we're going to go to this I think the oldest part of the city and check it out and then get lunch. Should be a good day. Stumbled upon this shrine. Very beautiful. We stopped and got some ice cream. We're currently walking up the very famous street in Kyoto but it's also very busy so we're taking a little break in this empty courtyard with our ice cream cones. so far on the trip. It was so good. Hello everyone. Good morning. We are up bright and early. I guess we're kind of up bright and early every day to be honest. But it's about 6.30 and we're about to head out. We're going to the Inari Shrine. We are in Kyoto as you saw from the clips yesterday. And it's so beautiful here. It's like very nature-y amongst the city which has just been so nice. So we're excited to go see this iconic shrine with all the red gates and trying to get there early to beat the crowd. So we're going to head out right now and obviously y'all are coming along so let's get to it. We're walking up to the shrine. I'm so excited. This is probably one of the things I'm most excited to see I think. The sun bleeds through. This is so cool. Wake up early. Come early if you come to this. It's so worth it. Jet lag is your friend. Nothing like walking 65 flights of stairs before 9am. But it was honestly so worth it. It was beautiful. I think one of my favorite things I've done so far. Now Clay is navigating us to the National Museum of Kyoto. We're big museum people. So we're going to go and check it out and then I think we're going to go to Nishiki Market for lunch. Should be a very cool day. The weather could not be nicer today as well. We really lucked out on that front. So yeah. Should be great. I'm excited. Beautiful. With the water out front. It's really nice. Time for me to take my medicine. We are up in Adam. We are at the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto. It's another early morning. I think it's around 730 at this point. We're just walking around the park. We already did the Bamboo Forest part which I'll have clips of it overlaid here. Very cool. A little shorter than we were expecting. Beautiful though. Definitely very beautiful. Worth it. Worth it to get here early to beat the crowds I would say. But now we're just walking around the park that surrounds the Bamboo Road. We're going to eat soon. It's going to be a great day. Heading out of the Bamboo Grove into just this beautiful park. As we've established, Clay and I love the park. We've arrived to our next stop of the day. The Imperial Kyoto Palace. Very cool. Very expensive grounds too. The mountains in Kyoto are so cool. The city itself is surrounded by three mountain ranges. There's this model of the entire piece of land we're currently in and it's so cool. The Imperial Palace. So cool. Also, I bought a parasol. Absolute game changer. I want to thank Asia for normalizing wearing umbrellas to block out the sun as someone who gets sunburned just thinking about going outside. It is a game changer and so smart and so practical. So beautiful. We're off to our next stop of the day. Golden Temple. And yes, I'm still using my umbrella. It's so clutch. Hi everyone. Good morning. We are officially back in Tokyo from Kyoto. I loved Kyoto. Clay and I both did. I mean honestly, it was just so beautiful. It was really nature forward in an interesting contrast to Tokyo but nevertheless we're all so excited to be back in Tokyo and we have a full day on the menu today. We're going to go to Akihabara. We're going to get revolving sushi today. Bop around shop around. We have some like major things planned but we also have a lot of open itinerary at this point in our trip for Tokyo specifically because we also want to do a lot of shopping. I do feel like I need to sit down and do a bit of a haul with you guys of things I've bought recently because it's been... people don't lie. You come to Japan and you're like, I'm not going to buy that much stuff. And then you do. Even if you don't typically shop on vacation like I'm not a big shopper on vacation. Usually I'll buy like maybe one or two things to commemorate my trip. Maybe a magnet. In Japan, I've just been going wild. I've just been going wild so I definitely want to do a haul but I'm really excited about sushi and we're going to go to the Imperial Palace this morning. I have my parasol. We're going to just do some walking around. It's going to be a hot day today. I think this is going to be the hottest day of our trip but we're very excited about today, about our few last days in Tokyo and we're going to head out now officially starting again first with the Imperial Gardens and then we're going to go up to Akihabara which I don't know if I mentioned. It's kind of like the anime game section of Tokyo so we're going to go check out some stores. Clay really wants to go to an arcade so we're going to do that and it should be a very fun time so let's head out now. These walls are so cool. The view from under my parasol. I'll tell you what, Japanese parks are elite. They're clean, there's shade, there's places to sit, there's drinks, sometimes there's things to eat. I could spend all day walking along the parks here. They're great, spectacular, 10 out of 10. There's Clay doing Clay stuff. I think he's recording me too. That's funny. We have entered a grove in the middle of Tokyo. Beautiful, truly. We've made it to the Akihabara stop. Let's go see some things. We're walking there. We're almost there. We'll see the lights soon. Keep you posted. Yeah, go for it. I'm really bad at these. Go for it. Oh! A little bit backwards. There we go. Come on. Big money. Oh! It always works. It doesn't stay closed. I don't think I'd be happier with any of them. It's my starter. That's exciting. We've arrived at our first stop of the day. The very popular Team Labs. Ready to see some lights, Clay? It was pretty cool. It took about an hour. Interesting installations. The garden has real flowers, which is pretty neat. Real orchids. There's like 13,000 of them. Would we say it's a canvas if you're visiting? Maybe not. Also, that's relative. If you're into LED art installations, I did get my skirt really wet. Keep that in mind if you have to take your shoes off. The water does get kind of deep. It was neat. It was well organized. Very clean. We had a good time. Now we're going to go to our garden. Cheers! We've arrived at our next stop. We love a park in this house. These walls are... I'm obsessed with these walls. They look... They're so satisfying. So this is a seaside park that was once the site of... was it the emperor or the shogunate? It was like his seaside home that is now a beautiful park for everyone to enjoy. And I'll tell you what, it's beautiful. I got a chicken rice ball. I got a little croquette sandow. We're going to go sit over there and eat it. I got this little croquette sandow. Delish. Hey guys! I'm officially back home in the United States and I thought it'd be fun to wrap up this vlog with a bit of a haul because I won't lie, I bought a lot of stuff. I know most of the footage of this vlog was in parks, but I did do a lot of shopping as well. More shopping than I even anticipated. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive right in. Starting with all of the stuff we picked up at the Ghibli store. It was hard to contain myself. This was definitely the store I wanted to spend the most time and money in. We got a lot of cute stuff for ourselves but also a lot of gifts for friends and family as well. The first thing I'm going to show off is the Art of Spirited Away. This is a coffee table book full of illustrations from the movie. I'm so excited to actually read and flick through this and maybe even collect some others from my other favorite films. I haven't even opened it yet so actually let's take it out of the packaging. I mean yes. I'm so excited about this. This is beautiful. It's just it's beautiful. Next thing I grabbed was this little Totoro plushie. I loved this guy. Not only is he soft but he also stands up on his own so I can't wait to put this on my desk. He's going to be a great little work companion and he's adorable so I'll put him here for the remaining part of this video. I also got myself a tote bag. A Totoro ugh that joke. I just really like the design of this. I actually first saw this tote bag at the LA Museum of Modern Art when they had a Ghibli pup up there but it was sold out so I decided when I saw it in person again I would grab it and I like that it has this little 3D soft effect of Totoro on the tote bag so I bought it. Next is a little bit of a random purchase but one I do not regret at all and I was actually in need of one and it is an enamel butter dish. But yeah it's exactly what you would anticipate. We got you know Totoro, we got some strawberries and it's going to hold butter and I'm going to have this out on my counter and I think it's going to go with my kitchen quite well. Everything else we picked up are gifts for friends and family. First up I got this little tiny plushie of the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service which I just think is lovely. Up here for the rest of the video I got these little crafts. They're like 3D art which I thought was cool I got a Howl one and one from Spirited Away. I got four of these mystery like button things that I thought again would be great as gifts. Two keychains which I'm definitely going to probably keep one. And then a Totoro mystery box which I also thought would be fun to give as a gift as well. Character shopping did not stop there. The next thing I picked up was this Miffy light. I knew I wanted to get some Miffy things while in Japan but my heart stopped when I saw this like little nightlight. I thought it was so cute. Another thing I wanted to add to my desk decor very cozy Miffy ambiance you know. Also went to the Peanuts store and if there's one thing about me I love Snoopy and Peanuts characters. The first thing I grabbed was this tote bag cause you know just when I needed another tote bag it has embroidery it has Snoopy on it and I just thought it was such a beautiful design and pattern so yes I bought it. And then another thing I grabbed from the Peanuts store which I will obviously include a close up on is this little dish. I saw the pattern and I just fell in love I thought it was so cool and intricate and yeah now it's mine and I have no regrets. I bought a few homeware items while in Japan. First up I grabbed many pairs of chopsticks both for myself and to give as gifts. First I got these two. I loved the colors and just like the overall design of these as well as these little spiral chopsticks. They kind of reminded me of like candy canes. They look good enough to eat if I'm being honest. And these ones came with their own stands so I thought these would be cute to have and to give away. I also got a ramen bowl. This was technically the only thing on my to buy list going to Japan obviously I bought a lot more than what I had initially planned but I am happy I was able to find a ramen bowl that was made in Japan and one that I really liked ate a lot of ramen and I thought this would be perfect for that soups, noodles, the whole thing I'm going to be eating out of this so much and I just loved the classic nature of the design of this bowl. So pretty and then lastly for home I did treat myself to something a little bougie the yen to US dollar exchange rate I think made me a little comfortable with this purchase but if you're not familiar Diptyque basically does these city specific candles with their own unique scents inspired by their locations and I just thought this would be such a special souvenir. I've never bought a Diptyque candle before so I thought this was a really cool one so it's the Tokyo candle I also plan to keep using the jar after I use the candle but the scent is amazing. It's like this strong citrus yuzu scent with a little bit of ginger and it smells so good and yeah this is just special. I was like you know treat yourself. I'm proud of myself because when it came to skin care I really only bought a few things. I went bananas when I went to Korea last year and I still have a lot of skin care left over from that trip so I only wanted to stock up on some things I already know I use regularly so I bought my favourite sunscreens while I was there because they're so much cheaper in Japan. Of course I bought the Biore Aqua Rich sunscreen. This is great so when I saw it I grabbed it and I also bought two refills of the Nivea Super Water Gel. This is another one of my favourite Japanese sunscreens. Clay and I use this a lot so we bought two to have on our counter. Then we have clothes I'm not gonna lie I am 5 foot 8 and a size 8 to 10 so finding clothes that fit me in Japan wasn't necessarily something I was expecting but I was able to find quite a few t-shirts I really enjoyed and then obviously shoes. Shoes are an international fit. You'll love to see it. So the first thing I picked up was some Onisuka Tigers. These are not available in the United States so I was really excited to pick out a pair. I decided to go with kind of a classic design. I know I get a lot of wear out of these and I also feel like they'll work for any season. They're also super comfortable when I tried them on in store so this was very exciting. I say I only wanted the ramen bowl thinking going into Japan but I also kind of had these on my radar as well. Oh wait! I found another home item between some of my t-shirts I bought and it's this little tomato dish. Isn't this just adorable? I love it. I love it so much and I just feel like it's gonna be so cute in my kitchen and it brings me so much joy. So yeah I bought this little tomato dish. Okay! First t-shirt I bought is actually a t-shirt Clay and I are sharing. It is this simple grey t-shirt but it's a company who is actually collaborating with Studio Ghibli and as you might be able to tell and I'll have a close up it has little embroidery of these little guys on it. It's simple, it's cute just like a nice high quality t-shirt so we grabbed that. I also stumbled upon the L.L. Bean store in Tokyo and if you're not familiar there are a lot of like heritage US brands that have their own unique products and lines within Japan and they tend to not only be cooler but just like super super high quality. So I saw this t-shirt it's kind of random, I won't lie but I fell in love with it when I saw it. It's just this simple grey tee this is a men's medium by the way and there's just this fish design on the back and there was something about this fish, you know that made me want to take it home. So I did. And then the last shirt I picked up in Tokyo was this striped mock neck shirt this is from a brand called Beams Boy Beams is a really popular menswear brand in Japan. I do want to flag that a lot of their sizing is one size fits all. Luckily though I found this t-shirt and I really liked the size it fit for me so I picked it up and the last category I'm going to show off is candy. I've already eaten quite a bit but I really tried to save as much as I could for this video starting off we have Kit Kats the amount of flavors and variants of Kit Kats in Japan is extraordinary so we bought a bunch to have ourselves and to give away. First we got apple flavor, cheesecake flavor which I was thrilled to find. And then maybe the most exciting is milk tea flavor thrilled about this. And we also got strawberry flavor which we've already opened and started eating. Very good. Speaking of strawberry I also picked up these strawberry milk candy. I got multiple packages of this. I love hard candy especially strawberry milk candy and this is so good. I've already eaten so many. And then I also got multiple packages of the crushed strawberry Pocky and we also got a blueberry Pocky but I think Clay ate that today before I filmed this video. Incredible. 10 out of 10 for both flavors. And that's it. That's my Japan haul. I hope you guys enjoyed this vlog and this haul. This was truly a trip of a lifetime. I already want to go back. It was truly such a blast. So much fun exploring. So much history and culture and food. It was incredible. But thank you again so much for watching this video and I will see you soon with another one soon. Goodbye!