Our first dagashi box

I have nothing to disclose. 

If you don't know what a dagashi box is then you definitely need to keep reading or check out YouTube. Basically its a box full of cheap dollar store type snacks. My husband and I have been watching videos of people trying these out for years. Buzzfeed does a lot of these where for example they have people from Britian trying out American snacks. Or Americans trying out Japanese snacks. You get the idea. So for Christmas this year we decided to go ahead and buy one and invited my sister in law and her husband over to try it out with us.

I ordered this on Christmas Day. The expected delivery date was end of January to middle of February. It actually only took about two weeks so I was very pleased with the fast shipping. It was $18 for a thirty piece box but I counted and actually got one bonus piece probably because a few items were on the small side. I used a gift card so I actually got this for free. Still I feel like with it's worth the price.

Let's take a closer look at what we got.

Let me just say that I really didn't care for the fish flavored products. The BigK... fish thing on the bottom in this picture I believe is the one everyone agreed tasted like fish sticks. Everyone else seemed to think it got better as you tasted it. I thought it got worse. I really didn't like it. Everything else in this picture was really good. The pink fish is like a strawberry wafer and probably my favorite item from the entire box. So good. My sister in law's husband got hooked on the mini cola candy. The hamburger looking thing is like a pancake and we think it's filled with the sweet bean paste.

These chow mein noodles were good though my sister in law's husband thought they tasted burnt. The rice cracker above it I think my husband didn't care for but I liked them. Pretty much everything else was good or just OK. We first opened one of these packages with the wacky little characters on it. I'm not sure which one unfortunately but that thing was awful. I think it was like a teriyaki cheese curl type of thing. The rest of them were either really good or just good but none of the others were bad. 

The strawberry snacks we think were yogurt covered sort of rice crispy treats. Those were very good. I really enjoyed the soda pop gummy. That was probably another favorite. I'm not really sure why the cherry squares came with a toothpick but we liked those as well. Love the packaging with the little squirrel and rabbit and those were good. 

I kind of want to hate Milky. My husband has been teasing me ever since I opened this box teasing me that it looks like me. But I cannot hate the candy because it was pretty good. Sort of tasted like taffy. The grape gum I really liked but we didn't realize it was gum so trying it half way through the box kind of messed up the plan. The yellow and green things were good. The pickled plum was kind of hilarious because we didn't know what it was at first. My sister in law tried to eat the pit by accident. My husband had a bad intolerance to tamarin several years ago so he kind of freaked out that he might get sick from this. The other two of us thought it was good but strange. I didn't try the Christmas marshmallow looking thing because I don't like marshmallows. And again Bleh to the fish thing. The fish jerky they said was good but I didn't try it since it was such a small piece and well the fish jerky stuff scared me. The jello cup thing and soda pop we haven't tried yet but I think the pop feels like it broke in shipping. 

So all in all I feel like this was definitely worth the money simply for the fun and experience. I would really like to try snack boxes from other countries. 

One final note. We did eat supper first so we filled up fast on these. They seemed to be much more filling than expected. At the same time it didn't seem like they were as chemical filled as American snacks. 

I bought this Japanese snack box on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01DHYLBIK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1485050189&sr=8-1&keywords=japanese+snack+box

My January Ipsy bag - first look

You know it's funny, I received my January Ipsy bag today and this month's theme is Metropolis. I was reflecting on how ironic it is that January is associated with making better choices, trying to be healthier... and they give us a bag based on city life. Having grown up in a large city down the street from factories, I can tell you there is nothing healthy about growing up in a city full of pollution. As I grew up, I slowly watched the trees being torn down all around our neighborhood. Not to mention the crime. It became so dangerous that I rarely left my house - partly due to my own paranoia but that kind of happens after you've been assaulted as a child I suppose. So I just find the whole them rather ironic.

On the subject of healthy habits, before I show you what I got in my Ipsy bag, I'm sure you've noticed I'm suddenly blogging again. After about 7 months of working third shift, my husband switched to second shift this week. I remember when we first switched to third shift and how I suddenly started feeling so angry and depressed for no apparent reason. Now we're on second and I feel more productive. It's going to be awhile before my sleep and everything is sorted out, so I'm still really freaking tired but this schedule is obviously so much healthier for us. Probably not as healthy as first shift, but at least now we're getting some sun. It's obvious now how important the sun is for our health. Here's hoping he never has to take another third shift job.

Another thing which really benefits me is reading before bed. I've had this habit probably most of my life but for awhile there we weren't doing it and I definitely noticed a difference. I dream more when I read before going to sleep and it really wakens up my creative mind. So once again, I feel like it makes me more productive because it gets my creativity going to do more with that aspect.

On the other hand, I've been so darn tired that I haven't done much genealogy lately - which had been my main pastime for the last few months. I've mostly just been cleaning, cooking and reading. I decided to go for the Goodreads reading challenge again this year - which I'm obviously going to have to adjust my goal because I've already read nine books this year and I set a challenge of 45. (I read Ever Wrath quite awhile ago but just marked it as read so now it's coming up as read for today - annoying.)

Melanie's books

MarkTier

by Alexia Purdy

Ever Wrath

by Alexia Purdy

The ArcKnight Chronicles: Volume 1

by Alexia Purdy

Ardent

by Alexia Purdy

The Vampire's Mail Order Bride

by Kristen Painter

I met my goal of finally reading all of CM Owens's work - at least those which aren't in collabs or short stories - still need to read those. And at least until her next dozen books are released :D I'm also finally getting through some of Alexia Purdy's work - really enjoying the ArcKnight books so far. They're different.

So as I am suddenly feeling like I'm going to fall asleep - because it's day time and my body still thinks I should be asleep right now - moving on to the reason I began this post in the first place.

Here's a peak at what I got in my Ipsy bag this month. I was so very happy to be getting the Ciate top coat this time.

Temptu base smooth and matte primer - what is it with everything being matte this season? It's kind of driving me crazy because I keep seeing matte everything as I am sitting here with bloody knuckles from dry, cracked skin. I may just try this a few times for review then save it for summer when I actually need matte products.

theBalm Cosmetics Bahama Mama bronzer - first look at this bronzer and I'm going to guess that this might be just a bit too dark of a bronzer for me - which I have told Ipsy numerous times I need a lighter bronzer. Whatever. I guess this can be used to color your eyebrows so I may just do that. Again, this is matte. Of course.

Jelly Pong Pong coffee and coconut lip scrub - I'm super excited to try this. It smells interesting, not quite how I expected. Not really coffee like. I can't really place the smell. I've been wanting to try a lip scrub so I'm excited to try this.

Naked Cosmetics mica pigment in Desert Sunset #2 - I feel like I've been wanting to try naked Cosmetics for years. Oh wait, I have. I didn't realize you could use this stuff for so many things until I saw the post from Ipsy about it. Not just eyeshadow but as a highlighter, nail color of course, lip color, etc. This is going to be awesome to try out. The color is absolutely gorgeous and I haven't even opened it yet.

Ciate London Gelology top coat - yeah, I just need a new top coat to try out. It's Ciate. Need I say more? Looking forward to trying this out soon... but I have so many new polishes from Christmas to try so it might be awhile? I shall see. I was surprised to see this bottle is silver. That seems odd to me, but it sure does stand out among my other polishes.

The bag itself is kind of neat. I didn't realize it was two separate layers of fabric until I received it. It's different, I'll give it that.

What did you get this month in your bag? Anything in particular you love or hate so far? Let me know in the comments!

If you're not familiar with Ipsy, they are a subscription service where you get 5 beauty items a month delivered to your door. Sometimes you get full sized items, sometimes travel or sample sized. But they're fun just if you like to try new things. For me, it's been a great experience to try new products and types of products as I learn more about makeup. Additionally, they have a cool rewards program where if you review items on their Web site, share your bag, etc. you get points which can be used to exchange for free products. Score! (Referral link follows.) You can sign up for your custom monthly Ipsy bag here.