I love Freddie’s Flowers💕 Iris this week

Hello🌻

I got my Freddie’s Flowers. It has got Iris this week – so so beautiful.

In Japan, Iris blooms in late May to June, and there are some special Iris gardens. I remember my mum used to make a trip to see the Iris garden in Izukougen, 1 hour west of Tokyo by the bullet train 🚅

I love love love ❤️Freddie’s Flowers. My kitchen suddenly becomes spring no matter what the weather is like outside.

The only problem is that I really need to improve my flower arrangement skill 😉

The roses from the Valentine’s Day 🌹are coming to the end…. I still want to enjoy them so I cut them short and put them in the glass.

Some of the petals have changed the colour, but they sill look ok from far away😀

My happy Samurai life in London 💫

Hinata

My sexy, soft & luxurious silk night dress 😉

Hello🌻

I love wearing silk at night in bed. It feels so lovely & definitely better for the skin.

I’ve been wanting to get a new nightdress for the summer as my bedroom gets so so hot.

I found a lovely nightdress from the online shop called “The Luxe Company” I’ve debated for a while as it is not so cheap….but it was on sale… I couldn’t resist!!

I received it today & I LOVE it ❤️

The silk feels so soft and the colour is lovely.

I can’t wait for the summer to come☀️

My samurai life in London💫

Learning to play bridge from scratch Lesson3

Hello🌻

I went for my 3rd bridge lesson. So much fun💕

I learnt about the strategy as a declarer – it really made me think a lot! We were still playing only No Trumps.

As soon as your dummy put down the cards, you need to

Establish how many sure tricks you can get
How many extra tricks you need to meet your target

We learnt 3 basic techniques to get extra tricks.

Play the Honour from the Short Holding First
Length is strength
Don’t rush. You may have to sacrifice some tricks to set up extra tricks.

It was such an interesting lesson!

My samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Toshimaen – the best amusement park to go with small children in Tokyo 🇯🇵

Hello 🌻

I love Japan🇯🇵

I have been living in London for 20+ years (omg), and both my children are born here. But I take them back to Tokyo every year to see the family – they absolutely love going there💕

I take them to many different places there, but one of their favourite places has been Toshimaen, the amusement park in Tokyo🎢 Now they are teenagers, they have grown out of this place, but when they were small, they loved going there.

This amusement park has been around for 40+ years. The rides are pretty standard especially for older kids, but they are fabulous for small children!!

If you go there during the Japanese school term time, the place is absolutely empty, and you can ride anything you want without queuing. Fabulous!! Also avoid the weekend too. Japanese summer term normally starts around 8th April, so I recommend you go there after. If you don’t mind the queue, you can go there during the cherry blossom season🌸 You can enjoy the beautiful blossom while your children enjoy the rides.

Toshimaen doesn’t even have a website in English. It is such a local place. I don’t know what the trip adviser reviews say about this place, but if your child’s height is above 110cm, there are many rides that they will be able to go on.

Japan has so many wonderful places to visit, and I’m sure that the amusement park is the last thing on your list. But if you go there with small children, what can you do??? You have no choice but to entertain them. If they are bored of cultural sites, try Toshimaen😉

My happy samurai visit to Tokyo💫

Hinata

My 25 years old Tiffany’s necklace & earrings 💖

Hello🌻

I don’t own too many jewelleries (actually things in general).

I admire women wearing fun (cheap & cheerful) accessories stylishly. I have bought some before, but I end up wearing them just several times & that’s it. So I have stopped buying them.

Maybe women around my age look better with bigger accessories, but I find them too heavy & uncomfortable 💦

So I like small & simple ones.

My father bought me these earrings & necklace from Tiffany when I first started working after University. I have had them for over 25 years.

They got lost at one point, but appeared again!! I do love them so much.

Something about the heart shape gives me the spark 💫 feeling.

My dad is 80 this year! How the time flies…

Thank you dad, I wear them almost everyday💕

Hinata

The best handbag colour is white 😀

Hello🌻

The bags take up too much space in a closet, so I don’t like to own too many.

Also I’m too lazy to change my bags to match the outfit. Whether you are a working mother or a full time mother, the women around the age 50 are all extremely busy. Too busy to change the handbags often💦

I love my white handbag from Banana Republic!! This is literally the only bag that I used this winter.

In fact, I bought this bag in the summer, and have been using it since then due to my laziness 😉

When I saw my friend in October, she commented “That bag looks lovely! It looks really fashionable to have a light coloured bag in winter”

So I decided to keep on using this bag – very simple mind I have.

This bag actually gets more compliments in winter thanks to my laziness.

For example, an outfit like this…

Looks much nicer with this white bag. It brightens up the whole look ☀️

One bag for both winter and summer – I love it💖

I think I’ll continue using it into the spring & maybe summer too.

Simplicity…my best Zen bag ever💫

Hinata

Spring colour jumper from Uniqlo

Hello🌻

Such a lovely warm day in London☀️

I was thinking of what to wear in the spring and found this lovely spring colour jumper from Uniqlo!

I don’t often wear green, but I fell in love with this colour💕

Uniqlo UK site

Nice spring look wearing with a pair of damaged jeans.

Gives a slightly sharper look with this cross body bag.

Very simple casual outfit very useful for a full time mother like me😉

I try not to buy too many clothes (& things in general). I normally buy 2-3 reasonably priced tops in one season and wear them a lot (& I mean A LOT‼️)

This was the first buy of this spring season💫

Hinata

Learning to play bridge from scratch Lesson 2

Hello🌻

I went to the 2nd lesson of the Beginners Bridge Class in London.

First lesson was pretty much about playing the game ‘Whist’ to get used to the cards.

For the 2nd lesson, we learnt about the Opening Bid♠️

Since the teacher hasn’t introduced the concept of the Trump suit, all the bids are NT (no-trump) at the moment.

Today, we focused on

How to count HCPs (high card points)
Deciding whether your cards are BALANCED or UNBALANCED
How to respond with a balanced card (opening bid 1NT) & communicate with your partner.

I found the communication between partners great fun!! It takes a bit of time to get used to counting your HCP to decide whether to respond as “Pass”, “2NT” or “3NT” (the partner’s opening bid was 1NT).

At one point, my partner and I agreed on 2NT, and we managed to get 9 tricks✨

So much fun. Highly highly recommended!!

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Very casual outfit for a walk in the park☀️

Hello 🌻

It was such a beautiful day today, so I went for a quick coffee & a walk in the park with my girlfriend.

Very very casual & comfortable outfit for a lazy day like this.

The sweater is from Banana Republic. I think this is supposed to be worn as off the shoulder, but that is a bit too cold for me. I wear it like this, and hide some wrinkles around the neck area 😉

Jeans are from the Gap. Curvy Skinny Jeans – so comfortable & make my legs look slim. I love them💕

Today was warm (for London winter), so I wore a light down jacket from Max Mara which I can’t even remember when I bought (at least 5 years ago).

Cross body bag is perfect for a walk.

Can’t wait for the spring to come💫

Hinata

Last season’s Zara skirt that I still love❤️

Hello🌻

It was a nice warm day, so I went out wearing a skirt.

This is from Zara last season collection.

The check pattern was in fashion last season. I wore it soooo much thinking that this would be good just for one season. To my surprise, I still enjoy wearing it!!

I get many compliments that give me 💫feeling. Such a lucky item for me.

I’m not sure whether wearing a check pattern is out of fashion this year, but I don’t worry too much about things like that. I just wear clothes that I love and lift my mood up✨

This skirt looks fabulous with a pair of black heels, but going on a tube, walking around the town etc…. I can’t wear them.

Knee high boots with low heels are the best. So comfortable to walk around.

It looks lovely with a black leather jacket too.

A white bag gives a bit of a spring feel 🌸

This white bag is my favourite (& only) bag this winter. I’ve been using it since last summer due to my laziness, but light coloured bag looks great in winter.

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata