//TOKYO_Q4::DAY4-SHIN-OKUBO
WELCOME BACK !!! 
Today is the fourth day of my travel log 
On today's menu : going to Shin-Okubo to try an Oshikatsu activity, a water-based cafe to
relax in, and meeting up with a friend in a local bar !
Breakfast time ! 
OBVIOUSLY, we went to Denny's for breakfast, but this time I
didn't get the french toasts as I usually do. I saw on the menu that they had a special omurice with wild mushrooms so of course I was sold
because I LOVE omurice ! I got too excited and took a bite
before taking a picture... woops... 
Look at this stringy
cheese...
Outfit of the Day 
Today is a more relaxed and comfy outfit than yesterday 
I added some little chain
accessories to my glasses, that I bought the day prior in Harajuku. I also wore my favorite
metal necklace from Posthuman Lab (psst... if you ever order
from them, you can use the discount code "YOKIIE" for 15% off, it's on the house 
) as well
as my Chloma sweater with legwarmers and a skirt.
Shin-Okubo 
Since I had planned to go to a bar that evening (more on that later), I decided not to do
too many things that day to not be completely exhausted and ruin
my
night. So I picked a spot I've been wanting to go to, an Oshikatsu focused "café" called My Fave Cafe ! I put café in quotation marks
because you can't actually get any drinks or food there, it's a place purely made for you to
make your own merchandise of your oshi
(your favorite character/person) ! The most
popular item is keychains, but you can also put your oshi on bags, pencil cases, lanyards,
makeup bags, and more ! 
Their concept is pretty genius : They provide a lot of various face shapes,
hairstyles/haircolors, clothes and accessories and you get to build your own customized
design by picking each parts ! This means you can create virtually any character/person from
their selection. Pretty ideal if your faves are really niche and do not yet have any merch
(which is the case for me...) 
So I went to work, and spent a solid 30 minutes picking out the
best face, best hair, best
outfit and best accessories for my keychains...
I tried to recreate my favorite Vtuber KK Cyber, her outfit is usually cyber-themed but
unfortunately they did not have much cyber-themed clothes to fit her design (I guess that's
too niche...) but I found a cute white dress with a ribbon to
fit the "angel" part of her
design ! I also got a pair of angel wings for her !
Then I also decided to make my own vtuber avatar as a keychain, so
they can hangout together
on my bag ! 
It was easier to find an outfit, they had this jersey-type one
that fit pretty well with my vtuber's design. However it was REALLY hard to find a haircut
that would fit ! Most of the hair's backsides were too long or too short / not wide enough,
so you end up only faintly seeing the back of the hair from the front of the keychain 
But in the end I really like how it turned out ! I think we
look really cute together !
GUF Tokyo 
After all this stressful mental work having to make DECISIONS
for my keychains, we headed to
a coffee shop I had on my map nearby, called GUF Tokyo. The reason I bookmarked it
is because they serve your order on this gigantic water-filled
table ! I had to be VERY
careful not to put my elbows on the table and drench my sweater
accidentally
I ordered an Earl Grey Milk Tea which is my favorite drink to have at coffee shops since I
hate the taste of coffee as well as a yummy Matcha
Basque Cheesecake since I was a
bit hungry... 
My boyfriend got an Iced Latte with an Earl Grey Basque Cheesecake. I have to say both of
the cheesecakes were DELICIOUS I actually devoured mine
Meeting A Friend
I had seen the day prior on one of my long-time-mutual's Instagram story that she would be
working at a local bar in Tokyo, and inviting people to come over. I decided this would be a
good occasion to meet her, since we had never seen each other in real
life ! I find the
context of a bar to be a good occasion to meet someone, it's usually really chill,
especially if it's one of these small local bars with only a few seats, those feel very
personal and friendly 
So I headed down to Shimokitazawa inside this hidden alley, which is the kind of place where
I always find the coolest places and the coolest people so this was a good sign ! 
Upon
entering I immediately felt welcome, the bar was pretty small,
with about 5 seats at the
counter and a 4-seater booth on the opposite side. I didn't take a lot of pictures inside
for everyone's privacy, I'm sure you'll forgive me for that. The counter was already filled
with regulars chatting away with the bartender and Samiko came to greet me !
Ever since I found Samiko's account on social medias, I've been immensely
inspired by her, her creativity, her drive and her passion. 
She
recently
wrote, directed,
produced and acted
in a short film called "In This Life: The Red Wrapper Incident" (available to view
for free
on Youtube !) which is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL movie,
how cool is that ??! 
I
encourage all of you to go
watch it ! I'm happy to say that her energy and passion are exactly the same in real life as
they are on her socials, so she immediately made me feel at home when we met, her good vibes
are seriously contagious She's
not afraid to be herself and express herself freely, which is
exactly the kind of people I
want to surround myself with. She's also SERIOUSLY good at
speaking Japanese, I'm super
jealous ! 
We seated at the booth across the counter, and quickly ordered some drinks. They had my
absolute favorite : Ginger Ale ! So I got about 3 bottles of it
overall... I'm pretty sure I
emptied their stock... I usually like to
avoid drinking alcohol simply because the taste is so bitter and
unpleasant, one thing about
me is that I'm overly sensitive to anything bitter, so that
really doesn't help But usually
if it's in cocktails and mixed with a sweet soft drink, it's a
good balance and I can enjoy
it. So when the bartender offered to make a custom cocktail with japanese whiskey, I happily
accepted
Suddenly, my drinking got postponed by a speech from Samiko. She
announced that her dear
friend Sentimental Okada was going to interpret the
ending song from her movie, titled "In This Life" !
That's when I realized that he was going to play the piano AND
the harmonica
AND sing at the same time ! I was actually flabbergasted
because that's seriously impressive ??! Samiko also joined him
in singing, so they both made a beautiful choir together. It was
truly a special & magical
moment, I'm so glad I got to
witness it ! If you'd like to hear it, here's a video clip :
Later in the evening another of Samiko's friend, Godo-san from the comedy group Sill , gave
us all a show,
this time it was improv' comedy ! He asked the people in the bar
for a word to use as a
prompt for the show and started doing a comedy show purely on the
spot. Unfortunately that's
where my below-average japanese level really started to show,
because I wasn't able to
understand much of the jokes at all Everyone else
was laughing their ass off so I think I
can confidently say that he did a great job even if I only
understood a few keywords
When time came for us to leave and pay our bill, one of the lovely regulars at the counter
started striking a conversation with me as I was waiting. Of course I got asked the usual
"Where are you from?" "Why are you in Japan" questions, and once he learned that I
was from
Switzerland, he exclaimed "Oh, Heidi !" which was really funny
Japan made a pretty successful anime about Switzerland, following a little girl
in the Swiss Alps, so this is a common reference that older Japanese people love to share
when they learn that I'm from Switzerland. We continued to chat for a while and I ended up
showing him how my passport looked
like, as well as how our currency looks like. Sharing
this kind of stuff with people is seriously the best part of
traveling !
Overall I had an amazing evening, seeing and hearing the passion from so many people there
really made my heart full. I'm so glad I got to witness it and
spend time with such
wonderful people. I hope I can be back soon, thank you so much
Samiko !
Thank you for reading this fourth travel log ! I hope you had
as much fun reading it as I had writing it ! I'll see you
in the next one, stay tuned ! 
