Japan Day 2009

This might be my first year attending this event - check it out!

Japan Day @ Central Park will be held Sunday, May 31st at the East Meadow (entrance at Fifth Avenue and 97th Street).

Japan Day @ Central Park is an event designed by the Japanese community of New York to promote deeper understanding of Japanese culture. Japan Day @ Central Park returns to fill the green oasis of East Meadow with tents offering a wide range of Japanese traditional and family-friendly activities, free samplings of popular Japanese cuisine and powerful stage performances throughout the day (click here for link of performers), with top entertainers from New York and Tokyo.

Japan Day @ Central Park 2009 begins at 8AM with the Japan Run, a 4-mile race, organized by New York Road Runners. However, the Japan Day Festival begins at 10AM with the opening of all the activity tents; the stage show begins at 10:30AM, and free samplings of Japanese cuisine begin at 11pm. To see a map of the tent locations at East Meadow, click here.

31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins

Tonight was the 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin-Robbins® in honor of America’s firefighters. Participating stores will reduce prices of small ice creamscoops to 31 cents (with a limit of 3 scoops per person).

Since this is my first time attending this event, I had no idea how long the line would be for several scoops of ice-cream. But I guess people are willing to wait 30+ minutes for ice-cream (including ME!). But what was esp annoying were the families with multiple kids who felt compelled to order 3 scoops of different flavors. And I think that Baskin-Robbins should really consider being environmental by using larger cups for everyone that ordered 3 scoops of ice-cream. Instead, they put each scoop in individual cups with a plastic cover.

Airplane Chaos in NYC

This is neither food or beauty related but since it happened today in NYC and it appears to be on the major news, I figured I would blog and share a photo taken by my coworker. This was his view of the airplane from my building. Yes, it was close and darn scary. For anyone that had to go through 9-11 in NYC, this was pretty darn close to another big event. Luckily there was no panic but lots of questions and stories of what people say - a commercial airline on fire accompanied by two fighter jets coming close to our building. While CNBC was first reporting a military drill, other potential rumors included a movie photo-shoot. I'm wondering why our advanced technology requires a fighter jet to take photos of an airplane in the sky. One commentor on the blog said "are they using a disposable camera or something?" Seriously. The confusion and lack of notification to all businesses in the downtown area is just plain irresponsible. I get plenty of warning whenever the area is conducting terrorist drills but this should be considered one as well!

Lindsay Price hosting the Degree Women Fine Fragrance event

Here are some pictures from Monday night's Degree Women Fine Fragrance beauty blogger event. The location was at the upstairs cafe at Dylan's Candy Bar in midtown Manhattan. For those of you who have never been there.....it's a little kid's dream come true! There are so many different types of candy and chocolates, I didn't know where to start. Some of my favorite parts of the store was a shelf where famous celebrities autographed their candy jar which depicted their favorite candies. Bill Clinton prefers a simple chocolate candy bar while Kim Kardashian likes to snack on red licorice. But I digress...

Here is Lindsay posing for some pictures with the body mist product.

Here she is picking out her flowers for her bouquet. All guests were invited to choose from a wide selection of beautiful flowers for their own bouquet to take home!

Yummy...a party event isn't complete without a chocolate fountain! My favorite were strawberries, bananas and pineapple dipped in chocolate!

Degree for Women Fine Fragrance Event

Tonight I went to a private beauty blogger event at Dylan's Candy Bar sponsored by Degree Women. They were promoting their Fine Fragrance collection which is supposed to be a blend of deodorant and exquisite scents. It was a wonderful opportunity to network with other bloggers and of course, with all types of promotion events, there were free cocktails, appetizers and giveaways! (My favorite appetizer was a lobster BLT!)

According to some of the other bloggers, this was one of the better promotion events and even though this was my first one, I had to agree that it was awesome. First of all, there was a unique flower bar where they made bouquets of flowers for everyone. Very cute! It was supposed to be reminscent of the floral bouquet in the deodorant. There was also a yummy chocolate fountain with different fruits as dippers. And since this event was held at the famous Dylan's Candy Bar, each attendee was given a plastic bucket at the end of the event to fill up with candy!!! Mine were filled with gummy bears and cola candies.

Last but not least of the highlights, was the opportunity to chat with the co-host Lindsay Price. I've been an avid follower of her acting career since her Beverly Hills 90210 days. She even mentioned that she still hasn't seen the entire last season of the show because she's been so busy. She was super duper nice and a total sweetie to talk to. Since this is a beauty blog, I had to take down some notes on her beauty tips. She is all for being smart and chic in her beauty products (and her shoes!). She loves lip stains and topping it off with plain ol' chapstick! She even remarked the benefits of turning a flaw into an asset - for example, her make-up artist covered up her zit and turned it into a beauty mole a la Cindy Crawford!

More pictures of the event to follow!

Restaurant Review: Sushi Sasabune

Sushi Sasabune
1417 S King Street
Honolulu, HI 96814


This restaurant came highly recommended to us, and with restaurants in Los Angeles and New York, we knew that we had to try it in Hawaii - the land of the fresh fish! We went the daring route and ate whatever the chefs made! And everything was absolutely delicious. Here's a tip for those that want to try out this Japanese restaurant. The first few dishes came out marinated in a heavy SWEET sauce. Imagine delicious slices of tuna marinated in a heavy sauce.....not exactly Japanese. We complained to the Japanese chef (and ignored the Caucasian waiter who told us exactly how to eat all the food - no soy sauce, eat with chopsticks, right piece should be eaten first...you get my drift). The heavily sauced sashimi offended our Japanese friends SO much that we had to complain. As a result, they explained that the dishes were meant to cater to "American" sweet tastes so after that, they gave us the same dishes without the heavy sauce. And voila, we enjoyed the succulent tastes of fresh fish from all over the world.

Saks: Friends & Family Event

April 16-19, 2009
25% off
20% off jewelry
15% off cosmetics

Marriott Hotel in Wailea, Hawaii

Welcome to heaven on earth, aka Maui, Hawaii! Here are some photos of our junior suite in the hotel. But first, here is our view while we were lounging on the cliffside of the hotel. It was absolutely beautiful.

Here's the large jacuzzi size tub in our suite:

This is the adjacent vanity sink:

Our giant bed! I loved the lights over the bed....makes me want the same thing in my bedroom. The bed was very soft and fluffy. I don't know why they put so many pillows on the bed! We only used like 3 at a time.

And this is the adjacent living area. The couch is actually a sofabed. And you can't see the second television, but there were 2 tv's in this room! There was also a nice lanai that had a partial ocean view....ahhh, heavenly.

Prescriptives Friends & Family 30% Off

Offer expires 3/21/09

Bliss World

I've been going to Bliss Spa ever since I received a giftcard for my birthday, some 5 years ago. My favorite location is Bliss 49, a few blocks from my workplace, located in the posh W Hotel on Lexington Avenue. Sometimes you have to get away from it all & indulge. My most favorite body treatment is the carrot & sesame body buff. They whisk you away for 90 minutes of pampering, and as stated:

It features a carrot mulch and hot oil rubdown, a warm milk and
honey drizzle, a skin-softening wrap, a sesame seed and sea salt scrub (to
remove every last patch of rough from your 'buff') and, for the grand finale, a
Vichy shower!

What do i do when I can't get to the spa --- without a giftcard, it does get quite expensive, you know? I pamper myself at home. I'm a big fan of body scrubs, sugar or salt. Introducing Bliss Blood Orange & White Pepper Sugar Scrub.



This is different from some of the sugar scrubs that i've used. It slathers on smooth and I can see all the spots i miss when i scrub. Scentwise: more citrusy than spicy. It's a strong exfoiliator (but not as strong as some salt scrubs ive used -- this one is more on the gentle side) and very moisturizing. My skin feels very soft afterwards and i could if i wanted to, skip the moisturizer.