Adventures in Cambodia: The Phare Circus, Pub Street, and Night Market

Aside from seeing the temples, my favorite part of trip to Cambodia was hanging out and shopping in the night market!  We went down there twice (once during the day and the other time during the night), and I could have gone at least 3 more times!  The market is filled with every souvenir imaginable, and for the most incredible prices!  We bought clothes, wooden carvings, magnets, and snakes in a jar :)  Our kids were in complete shopping heaven.  And, then there was the food and the massages!  We found a massage place in the market that was amazing.  Massages: $3 for 30 minutes or $5 for an hour!  We all got foot massages ($1 for 20 minutes), including Clara.  And she LOVED every second of it!  She is so funny; since going there, she keeps talking about wanting to go get massages.  Such a little princess!

We also did plenty of shopping and eating around Pub Street in downtown Siem Reap.  It's a really fun area with tons of restaurants, shops, massage places, and doctor fish tanks!  Peter and I had gotten a fish pedicure in Bali, but we decided to do it again in Cambodia, and the place we went to had much bigger fish!  And it was so much crazier!!!  I was dying laughing, or squealing/screaming actually.  It was crazy!  And, sadly, all of my photos from the fish pedicure are missing, so I only have this screenshot from my instagram!

The other really amazing thing we did was going to see the Phare Circus.  It was an acrobatic circus show, not unlike Cirque du Soleil, but without all the crazy stage production.  The performers were incredible!  And the whole story behind the circus was even more amazing.  Phare not only is a circus, but they also have a school that serves underprivileged Cambodian youth.  The circus is actually an appendage of the school, and the performers are employed graduates and students.  The show was nothing short of amazing!  Well worth the money.  I'd highly recommend going!

Cambodia was, hands down, one of the most beautiful and astounding places I have ever visited!  I don't think there's anywhere else in the world just like it!  We had such an incredible time--I am truly grateful for the opportunities that we've had to travel since living here.  I had never imagined that I'd visit Cambodia and some of these other Southeastern Asian countries, but I feel fuller now that I have!

Kawagoe Shrine Sale

A couple of weekends ago, my girlfriends and I had the perfect girls day out at the Kawagoe Shrine Sale!  This shrine sale only happens on the 28th of each month, and it's literally on the grounds of the shrine.  There are all sorts of antiques there, from kimonos to dishes, knives, toys, pottery, you name it!  We had such a fun day, taking our time to look around and shop without our kids!  Plus, there were some early cherry blossoms starting to bloom, making it even more perfect!  (Please excuse all of my awkward photos and selfies!)

And, here's a picture of what I came home with: a beautiful obi for ¥2500 and 3 of these cute dishes all for only ¥100!  Can't wait to go back again!

GPS Coordinates for the parking lot: 35.9186, 139.4902

Kiddy Land

We just got back home from a mini vacation in Tokyo.  We stayed at the military hotel, The New Sanno, which is in a prime location for visiting Tokyo.  It's a few minutes walk from the Hiroo Metro Station, and it's about a 5 minute drive to Peter's cousin's house and in the other direction it's a 5 minute drive to the LDS Temple.  Staying at The New Sanno will definitely be a regular occurrence for us while we live here--why not make visiting family and the temple into a mini vacation every so often?!

We packed a lot in while we were staying in the city, but we made sure to visit Kiddy Land first.  Kiddy Land is a 4-story toy store in Harajuku.  It's packed with toys, lunch boxes, notebooks, and trinkets.  And most of them are character toys that are super popular in Japan, only some of which are as popular in the states.  

For example they had tons of Doraemon, Snoopy (and entire floor was dedicated to him!), Totoro, and Hello Kitty.  We found a few treasures though, and had tons of fun wandering through the shop.

If you have kids, visiting Kiddy Land is a must.  It embodies all that is kawaii in Japan!  Plus, it's in Harajuku, which is definitely one of the coolest areas in the city.  Peter and I could have spent all day shopping around and eating in Harajuku, but between our little ones and the pouring rain, we had to keep moving!  Maybe one of these days we'll get a babysitter and just go to Harajuku to do some more exploring.

Getting to Kiddy Land is easy.  It's right in between the Meijijingumae Station and the Omotesando Station; 6-1-9 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku.  GPS coordinates: 35.668689, 139.706504.