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Ally has written her own in-depth vacation page on her site here!!

After one william years of not working on my stupid blog posts for the trip of a lifetime, I gave up on trying to have a cohesive, organized timeline of events, because for some reason my brain is not cooperating. So, instead, I will post the bits that I have written and will update eventually, to at least prove that we did indeed go on our trip!!

I went with Allyrat for a two-week vacation to Japan in February, and we had an amazing time together!! I was really happy!! I was lowkey worried that something might happen or we might not get along or she might think I was a loser (LOL) but everything, aside from an insane and horrific first night of transportation woes, went as smoothly as it possibly could. A lot of our interests lined up (cute things, food, discount anime merch), and for the things that didn't, we took turns getting dragged around to do this and that.

We did so much cool stuff! Hunting for fashionable items and stupid yaoi, sharing street food, getting to have two really, really lovely high tea sets for lunch, playing with wax at a craft shop in Ikebukuro... it was really a blast!! I'm so glad we got to go and meet up together irl. Here's to having our 30th birthday celebrations in Japan again in a few years!!

(Just kidding.)

Haha... unless...? (o_o)

At Ally's suggestion, we made reservations in advance to go to the QPot Cafe! Between this place and Swallowtail, I might be addicted to high tea now... It took us a little while to find the place - I think we must have walked past it at least three times while checking Google Maps obsessively - but we did manage to get there before our timeslot. They were doing a special Valentine's Day themed lunch set, so everything was super pink and cute!! I brought my Tori nui along with me, because he is also super pink and cute!!

I had a lovely time here!! The food was surprisingly good, although obviously the desserts were the real draw. We had a roast beef croissant sandwich, and a refreshing little vegetable terrine. I've never had a terrine, so this was exciting for me!!
The desserts were so lovely and tasty. We got a two-person platter to share, so we each got a biscuit, a little jelly dessert, an absolutely delicious macaron, and a cupcake! We ordered the parfait a la carte to split. After we ate and drank our fill, we popped upstairs for Ally to look around the store part of the cafe for a bit. I did a small gachapon while waiting, and it got stuck, so we had to ask someone for help LOL. But I got a very cute little QPot can badge out of it!

We had lots of really good food on our trip, which I'm really happy about! I got to try a lot of things I've never had before. In addition to our tea outings, here is some other stuff I got to eat that I really enjoyed!
[above] A chestnut tart at the Swissotel Nankai Osaka, where Ally's uncle is the manager! I had never eaten a chestnut before. I was surprised by the fact that it wasn't hard and crunchy?? I guess this is why people roast them. I had another chestnut later on our trip, in a matcha ice cream dessert in Kamakura.
[above] This might be the most delicious dessert I've ever had. This was a strawberry macaron from a vendor at the Yokohama Strawberry Festival. I thought about buying a second one for the road on our way out, but I was thoroughly dessert-ed out.

We had a lot of really yummy strawberry desserts on our trip, since they were in season. I had candied strawberries twice, and also got a chocolate cake with strawberry jam at the festival. I really liked how the candied strawberries were crunchy, and the sugary glaze hardened into a crispy coating!
[above] Kushikatsu in Osaka, ft. Jaden, since fried shrimp is his favorite food! I had a few shrimps in his honor, but I mostly got vegetables. I liked the sweet potatoes the best.

We also tried takoyaki in Osaka, because - well - you have to. I actually didn't care for it at all... LOL... The texture was a lot different than I expected. I thought it would be crunchy!! But it was all goopy, and the octopus was in bigger pieces than I expected. But I suffered through it very bravely and Ally helped me eat it since she actually likes takoyaki.
[above] This was not really 'good' or even 'food', but I was obsessed with this. After having amusing but mediocre lunch at the Cup Noodle Museum, we of course had to have cup noodle dessert - which was vanilla soft serve with dried ramen toppings on it. I personally could not stop giggling and I couldn't get over it, but Ally absolutely hated it. More for me!!!
[above] Curry katsu at a restaurant in Nara, to fill ourselves up after playing around with the deer all day!! I love curry, and I'm a big katsu fan, too. What's not to love?? It also came with a fried shrimp!

One extremely, extremely unexpected thing that happened to me prior to setting off on our Japan adventure was the fact that I got into One Piece - historically, a very very long and very very silly franchise that, even when I was a kid, I always thought was too stupid for me to care about. I never had any friends that watched it religiously as a kid, and even as a teenager and well into adulthood, I never met anyone who tried to sell me on it. So beyond knowing the main characters' names and the fact that some guy was made of rubber, it had no impact on my life.

UNTIL QUITE RECENTLY!! As of December, in fact. Which is insane and slightly alarming because it's only been four or five months and I'm currently reading Wano right now. But I digress. What this means is that I got to enjoy all of the One Piece excellence in Tokyo on our trip!!!!

There are a whole bunch of One Piece stores around the country, and we made it to three different ones on our trip - the one in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro; Character Street in Tokyo Station; and Harajuku. I didn't notice until the second one, but each store has a special stamp area, where you can take a free flyer and get a giant stamp that's unique to each store!! The Harajuku store had a bunch of really cute stuff unique to that location, including a giant Chopper in cute street fashion!!

I bought a lot of stuff hehe... I got a plush Chopper keychain where he is a crepe!! I got a Chopper cup (affectionately dubbed "the chup") and I've been using him to drink pink lemonade. I got little standees of the Sunny and the Merry and a few other things here and there. One thing that's really cute is that the prices in the store are listed and tallied up in Beli...

Another really really cool thing was seeing production art for the current arc in the anime, including character sheets and turnarounds, framed on the walls! They also had what appeared to be original Oda manuscripts from color spreads (or at the very least, really great reproductions)!!

This giant Gear 5 Luffy statue was in the Harajuku store as well... don't worry about the fact that I'm not supposed to know about Gear 5 yet LOL. (>_<) He was plastered absolutely everywhere so it's not like it's really a big secret at this point, haha. It was really cool getting to see all of the cute merch, and be super annoying about pirates while Ally waited patiently like the good sport she is LMAO.

One thing that was an absolute MUST on our trip - availability permitting, of course - was a trip to Swallowtail Cafe in Ikebukuro. Swallowtail is really lovely, high-class butler cafe that has been around for over 20 years! Reservation are a bit difficult to get, since they're only open for 10 days prior to the date, and sell out very quickly online. We didn't have one guaranteed before we boarded our flights, but on my first layover in Hawaii I managed to grab a perfect lunchtime slot for two. 
You aren't allowed to take photos of the inside of the restaurant, so we each snapped a quick pick of the lovely trellises outside before we walked down the stairs to the basement. Once you go down the stairs, you're greeted by a butler (of course!) and sit for a bit outside the door until your timeslot is ready. Then you're escorted inside and wait a tiny bit longer in the waiting room. We hardly waited a few minutes in total before the door was opened for us and we were led down the foyer.

The inside is absolutely gorgeous!! I'll be honest, I was way too nervous to look around a lot LOL. I didn't want to look as out of place as I felt...!! But I really have to commend Swallowtail for managing to feel rich and elegant, yet not stuffy or uncomfortable at all. Once you're in and seated, the atmosphere is warm and lovely all around. There are enormous, beautiful chandeliers, and against one wall is a bunch of big glass cabinets full of beautiful teasets!

Our butler's name was Sasaki, and he was so kind and welcoming, and patient with us!! I spoke enough Japanese to understand and communicate about 80% of the time, but he spoke English to help us confirm certain things (or when he could tell I was having trouble, haha;;). There's also an English menu so you can just point at what you want if need be. We ordered the lunch set, which comes with your choice of tea, three savory appetizers, two scones with a choice of condiment, and of course, dessert!! I didn't know that the savory course came with all three options, so that was a really pleasant surprise!

I'm not a big tea drinker, so I asked for Sasaki's reccomendation, and he suggested a mild blueberry tea. It sounded lovely, so I went with that! When your tea is served, the butler picks out a specific tea set and explains it to you. For me, he picked out Royal Albert's Moonlight Rose, because the small rosebuds looked like blueberries to match my tea! Ally got a peach tea, so he picked out a soft pink teacup for her, and he also said that since she was dressed all in pink he thought she would like it. I believe her cup was Royal Albert as well!

The February menu's savory course was marinated squid with tiny slices of bell pepper; potatoes three ways (mashed, a sweet potato crisp, and a croquette with ketchup sauce), and bruschetta topped with white bean puree and some sort of meat pâté. All of it was delicious! I was a little worried about the squid since I've never had it before and I'm already not a very big seafood person, but I took little bites and found it was quite mild and lovely! For my scones, I picked chocolate chip with yuzu chocolate ganache, and then strawberry white chocolate with strawberry jam. Unreal! Sasaki also taught us how to crack open the scone properly and made sure we knew what we were doing before he left us to it, which was very cute (and helpful to be honest, hehe).
Dessert was one of the best things I've ever eaten!! I've never had a real pannacotta, and have always wanted to try it, so I was super excited and it definitely did not disappoint!! I literally, out loud, went "oh my God" after tasting it. I took alternating bites between the items so I could taste them all and savor them as much as possible. Ally and I also tried to taste and finish everything at the same time, so we finished eating and then still had around 20 or two minutes before our timeslot was up.

Swallowtail is so committed to the butler bit that you aren't even allowed to pour your own tea, or move your plates when you're done with them. The second you finish anything, someone comes by to refill your tea or set out your next plate. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before - definitely a little weird to get used to, but it really does make you feel like a princess... If you want to leave your table, you ring a little bell, and a butler comes to escort you. I ended up having to ring it so that I could visit the bathroom and I was a little embarrassed, but also, it was kind of fun (>_>)...! It would be dangerous to go to Swallowtail too many times, or I might get used to being waiting on, hehe...

Peak embarrassment (/pos) moment was when I got led back to my table. This time it wasn't Sasaki, but just the butler who had been closest to our table when I rang the bell. He pulled out my chair for me, so I said thank you, and he told me not to thank him because he was only doing his job... (@_@)!!!!! I will admit that this moment lived rent free in my head for the rest of the day.

After our time was up, we got escorted back to the entrance, and the head butler checked on us to make sure our time had been enjoyable! We also each got a members' card in case we ever came back. (Don't tempt me...) We then went across the street to the gift shop, where I got this cute little butler bear!! He's so adorable...!!!