Bday OOTD

Pink shades for my bday ootd!

Love the bell sleeves and lace applique detail ~so feminine!

Paired it with high waist shorts to cover the bulge after the dinner buffet haha =P

The perfect sling bag for a night out

Details <3

Top: F21

Shorts: SM

Bag & Shoes: H&M

Dinner Buffet: The Cafe, Hyatt City of Dreams

Finally, got the chance to visit City of Dreams aka City of Gold lol ❤

Since it was my birthday yesterday ~yes 2.24! I decided to try out the dinner buffet at The Cafe

in Hyatt, City of Dreams :)

Ignore the price on the board =P

Dinner is priced at P1,688  and starts at 5.30pm til 11pm ;)

Love the interiors!

It's so sleek and modern

Love the fact that it's not crowded either.

I really can't stand it if there's too many customers ala Vikings/Spiral levels wherein  you always need to wait for your turn and you always ran out of tempura! LOL

Well don't fret, you won't experience that here :)

Anyway,here are the stations~~

Italian

~here you can request for any pasta dish for the chef to cook

Also, you could find other Italian faves like thin crust pizza, (super loved it!!! I highly recommend it)

baked mussels, roasted veggies and salmon lasagna among others

The Grill and Griddle

~During our visit they had roast beef, lamb and even Yorkshire pudding!

You could also get some satay, kebab and sausages in this area :)

some Teppanyaki goodness + Okonomiyaki! :)

The Deli

~first stop is the cheese/charcuterie corner!

Cold cuts available were:

Salami Milano, Prosciutto Crudo and Salami Calabrese aka Pepperoni lol

For cheese they had:

Cheddar, Emmental, Camembert, Manchego and Gruyere 

Paté & Terrine

They had smoked chicken, liverwurst and smoked milk fish

hmmm sounds appetizing? nyahaha

Chilled Seafood

Sushi and Sashimi!

loved the spicy tuna roll ;)

Nasu Dengaku or Miso Glazed Eggplant

~wasn't able to try this but I wish I did!!!

Salad station

~can you see it? they even have fresh greens(alfalfa sprouts?) for you to cut out nyahaha

Asian Noodles

Wok & Rice

Chinese bbq!

There's also tempura,dimsum and other fried stuff!

The Pastry❤

coffee creme brulee

my love, bread pudding!!

I guess I've found a new fave aside from Manila hotel's version ❤

Assorted cakes and pastries:

There's strawberry eclairs, mango mousse, ube macapuno, panna cotta, cheesecake and tiramisu! etc.

My plates!

my salad plate

~placed some raspberry vinaigrette! nomz

the pizza was to die for!!huhuhu

wasn't able to take a pic of my carving plate but here's a closer look at the station

and you could see a bit of my plate too nyahaha

already ate some of my sushi when I realized I haven't taken a pic yet LOL

 those manchego croquettes are the bomb!

my Vongole yum yum

my cheese platter❤ 

obviously I didn't skimp on desserts!

my mom's halo-halo

my vanilla + pistachio soft serve with chocolate

happy mom and daughter!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!❤ 

FOOD

I've said it a million times but I absolutely love the pizza!

Other faves were roast beef, salmon lasagna, manchego croquettes and duck ;)

SERVICE

Excellent! they have the friendliest chefs ever!

Really approachable and accommodating! LOVE

THE MAIN QUESTION

Will I go back?

Yes! maybe next year again? hehe

Jigokudani Monkey Park Dec 2014

Wuhoo~ Finally done with my Hokkaido Posts!❤

Before I proceed with Tokyo, here's our brief visit to Nagano, particularly at Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park :)

Tokyo to Nagano is around 2 hours and 15minutes by train so again, we needed to take an

early ride huhu

Sometimes I feel like I'm not on vacation with all the early wake up calls LOL

and it doesn't help that Japan is an hour advanced to Manila =/

From Nagano station, you have the option to ride the express bus(40 mins) going to Kanbayashi(main stop going to the park) OR take the train to Yudanaka then take the local bus(10mins) to Kanbayashi.

Obviously, it's much practical to take the express bus right?

Well unfortunately we weren't able to research much about this before going there so we took the very sluggish local train and basically wasted 1hr and 15mins.

TIP: Express train (45 mins) >>> Local train!

In addition, we didn't notice the local bus immediately so we missed it upon arrival and had to wait another hour for the next one =( 

what luck!

Anyway, you could get this 1-day Pass to cover all the transportation and admission expenses.

Love the Japanese for offering these passes to all their tourist spots!

Once you arrive at Kanbayashi, you walk up about 5mins to the "main entrance"

here's an image of the path

The entrance~

Some websites say it takes a 25-40 minute trek from here but

in my case, it took an hour and a couple of minutes!haha

and I guess 25 minutes is only possible for professional snow trekkers LOL

Be aware, the path can be slippery because of the snow so you need proper footwear and be extra cautious!

The trail is very beautiful though!

it's a very nice backdrop for photo-ops!

I like my mom's pic too hehe

my eyes went absolutely wild upon seeing this O_O

photo-op time!nyahaha

such a pretty sight ❤

staircase to hell LOL

At this point, it's about 25 mins to the monkey onsen :)

the gorgeous Jigokudani Valley!!!

you know you're near the park, once you see some monkeys on the trail haha

looking for some insects to eat LOL

Finally at the monkey onsen!

There were relatively fewer monkeys taking a bath in the afternoon.

Up close and personal haha

Basic rules: No touching, feeding or even directly looking at the eyes of the monkeys!

There's a live camera beside the pool so make sure to observe proper decorum at all times!haha

-End-

Here's some videos I took~~ ❤

https://instagram.com/p/w_OLzCChUS/?modal=true

https://instagram.com/p/w_XDNIChRR/?modal=true