19. I really wanted to do a daily vlog for you today, and I started it off

But honestly I'm just not having a good day

I only like to make vlogs when I'm in a good mood because I feel like you can totally tell when I have to fake

It and I don't like being upset in videos either

I try to be positive as much as I can, so that those of you watching my videos

Feel a little cheered up afterwards if you're having a bad day

I don't want to pass on any negative vibes to you guys.

So what we're gonna do today

Which will hopefully improve my day

Is I want to share my favorite things of 2017

with you guys. So, a few of my favorite experiences, my favorite memories, some of my favorite snacks and teas and

Some of my favorite products, and hopefully this will give you guys some ideas for things you can try yourself

And hopefully will put me in a better mood

Let's start off by appreciating how cute Maro looks in the background there

Tucked himself under the blanket

oh my god

Oops, I woke him up, sorry.

Alright, let's start off with my favorite memories of 2017

I figured this would be a good way to

Kind of catch up some of my new

Subscribers on what I've been up to this past year. If you're new here, welcome to my channel. I'm Sharla

I've been living in Japan for about 12 years now. And this past year I tried to do as much

traveling as possible, so I got to see lots of Japan in 2017 and I'm so happy because that was one of my

new year's resolutions- was to

travel more and see more of Japan.

Some of my best memories are

definitely Kyoto with my sister, my sister came to visit me in the

Summer- the end of spring start of summer, and it was the first time I had a family member come visit me in Japan

After being here for so long, so that was really cool to be able to share

Where I live with her, what my daily life is like and I got to take her to some cool spots in Kyoto

And I think she had a really great time

I had a great time with her, and I really hope that she'll come visit me in Korea as well

I would have so much fun showing her around Korea.

We went to Fushimi Inari shrine, which is one of the places

I've always wanted to go to, so it was really cool to be able to experience it for the first time with my sister and

My husband, and it was so cool you guys, it was really neat. I know that Kyoto is like your typical

Japan tourist spot and some people are like "I've heard too much about Kyoto, I want something more off the beaten path.", but

Fushimi inari is super cool

And I think there's a reason that it's- I think it's the top

Spot to go in Japan, so if you're in the Kyoto area, if you're traveling to Japan and you'll be in Kyoto

Please check it out. It's such a cool hike going through all the tori gates, and it was just- it was beautiful

It was really impressive, and I've seen a lot of shrines

But that was the only one so far that I can say I thought was really really

Amazing and I would love to go back

And about three months ago, I got the chance to go to Kumamoto Prefecture

which was great because I've never been there, and I've always wanted to see it and

I got to experience

the area that was

Devastated by an earthquake firsthand, and that was the first time

I've been able to do that and that was really eye-opening

And I really really respect all the people that I met down there that are trying their best to get back on their feet

Everyone was so positive and cheerful and friendly and welcoming, it was just such such a great experience

I really love Kumamoto, and I didn't spend enough time there. So in the future, I would love to travel down there again

I'll definitely be visiting Micaela in the future because I still haven't been to Fukuoka for some reason and

Since I'm moving to Korea

It's actually gonna be easier for me to travel over there to visit her than it is from where I am now

So that's really exciting

another really fun day that I had was the

treetop obstacle course that I went to with Woojong and Gavin

That was such a fun day

And I think it was such a memorable experience for me because I'm so scared of heights and that was freaking terrifying

But Woojong was so nice, I think he was cheering me on

And he really gave me the courage to do some of those crazy high zip lines

Which is something I don't think I would have done, even him and Gavin weren't there cheering me on. Oh my god

It was so scary you guys, but it was so much fun

And I'm really glad that I did it and I kind of want to do it again

but this time I want to go on a day where it's not raining because

The planks were wet and it just- it felt very dangerous. I really recommend going on a very dry summer day

So that it's a little safer, but that place was super cool

And I know they have lots of locations throughout Japan so if you're interested in doing something like that

Just look up "treetop obstacle course", and I think you'll be able to find several different places around Japan

Oh, I went to Tokyo DisneySea for the first time in

2017 with my husband and

that day was kind of important to me because it totally changed my

View on Disneyland. I had been to Disneyland once before and it was one of the worst day trips of my life

And I thought that I never wanted to step foot in another Disney park for the rest of my life

It was just such a bad experience. It was so crowded. It was so cold

I was in the lineup for over four hours

Waiting for each ride and I was there from the morning until the night

and I think I got to go on a total of three rides and

They weren't that impressive

I was just so done and I never wanted to go back and I really didn't see the appeal of

Disneyland after that, I was just really shocked.

I guess I had heard so many good things about it, and then I had that experience and I was like

It's really not fun at all, what the hell, but then

We went to Tokyo DisneySea this year, and I really liked it. There were barely any people there

Well there were still lotsa people there

But compared to the first time I went, it was lots of fun, the rides were lots of fun

we saw a great show at the end with fireworks and singing and

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I don't know if that's because DisneySea is better than Disneyland, but I had a great time

So I'm glad that I kind of changed my view on Disneyland, and I actually want to go back now

I'd love to go back with my friends. That would be a lot of fun I think, taking a group of friends there

I've never done that before so maybe 2018

We'll see.

So yeah. I think that's a good summary of my best new

experiences in

2017. New things that I tried or things that I fell in love with that I hated before

Those are the ones that come to mind so if you haven't seen those videos

I'll try and find them all and link them down below if you'd like to watch

All of those experiences, I'm pretty sure I have a video for each of those days.

Okay moving on to food

I feel like this video is gonna be really long

I got lots of stuff to talk about, hopefully you guys are in for a long chatty video

I actually have a new favorite tea. This was sent to me recently, you guys might have seen me open it, but this is

Assam tea which is really freakin good

I think I've never had it before, I think this is the first time I've tried it

I like to steep it for a long time

I'd say about a good four, five minutes, and then I like to put vanilla soymilk in it

And it just makes the best tea ever and there's a lot of caffeine in it I think, so it's great in the morning

Honestly, I drink it all day long. I probably shouldn't.

If you've never tried an Assam tea

They describe it as a bold and multi tea

And it just really reminds me of the kind of tea that you would use in a milk tea

Like a bottled milk tea that you'd find in Japan

And I really love that flavor so if you're looking for a good tea to make some milk tea with.

Okay, a couple types of noodles made it into my

2017 faves. These are both from iHerb, ooh iHerb has a sale on right now

you can get 10% off- if you use my code you get five percent off and then they have a

special winter sale code for an additional five percent off

So I will link my code and their sale code down below if you're interested in ordering anything

But I order these off iHerb frequently, I eat them all the time.

The first one is Annie Chun's Pad Thai rice noodles

I don't use them for Pad Thai,

I tried making that once and I just couldn't get it right and the noodles were all stuck together

And I just made a big mess, but I do like to use this in kind of like a Pho-like soup

I make like a

vegetable broth

And I put lots of veggies and tofu in it

And then I put the noodles in it, so it's like a noodle soup instead of the Pad Thai style, love it

It's so good

And then these quinoa macaroni, actually Taylor got me addicted to these

These are also gluten free if you're looking for gluten free pasta, but I prefer these to any kind of pasta

I don't specifically eat gluten free or anything, but there's- these are just so good. They're so good. There's something about those

It's really really delicious

So we eat these all the time with tomato sauce that I make and they would probably be

Really good with like an alfredo type sauce as well

Honestly, they're good with anything. They're so good. They would probably make a really good macaroni salad too.

It wouldn't be

2017 without the creepy vending machine

Vegan crackers. These deserve a mention because they're freakin delicious, and I'm so glad that I got another box with them the other day

They're just like Ritz

There are a great replacement to Ritz and I love them.

And my nutritional yeast flakes

I still love these, I really do not crave powdered cheese anymore

and I just

Look forward to having this on my pasta or my lasagna or anywhere else you would use like a parmesan style cheese

I love these things. They're so good and they add like a really cheesy flavor

Do you want to make a vegan cheese sauce or something they're great for that, there's tons of different vitamins

in these you guys. In two heaping tablespoons it gives you like

600 percent B2 for the day, 560 percent B6, 400 percent B12

folic acid, niacin

thiamine, like all the B vitamins

Lots of protein as well, two tablespoons of this is nine grams of protein, so it's really yummy and

Really healthy and a great alternative to powdered cheese if you're trying to cut out dairy

Another thing that I get from iHerb

Thank god for iHerb because I feel like it'd be really hard to find this in Japan, if it's possible at all

Alright moving on

This is just like something really random

But I felt that it needed to be mentioned because I lived in these tights this year. These are the

Lululemon Align Pant II

I think they're supposed to be cropped, but I guess I'm so short that they're full-length on me

These are so comfortable, it honestly feels like you're naked

So much to the point that I would be outside and be like, did I forget to put pants on before leaving

You just have that

like one

Split-second fear run through your body. They're so comfortable you guys, I wear these all the time like probably

70% of the time I have a few pairs of them

and I love them they're super comfy. They do peel a bit which is disappointing because

They're so freakin expensive that you would hope they wouldn't do that

but because they're so comfy I-

I don't- I still buy them because I love them so much, but I'm a little disappointed in the peeling

But if you're looking for a really really really comfortable pair of tights

Then these are the ones.

Okay moving on to beauty stuff. Okay. We just started using this a couple days ago

I shouldn't even be using it because it was Keyboard-san's birthday present

*whispers* but it's so good

And every time you get a shower with it, the shower room would smell so nice, and I just got really curious

And I used it and now I use it every time. It's okay. I'll buy him more if it runs out, but this Santa's Christmas

cola-scented shower cream is

My new all-time favorite product from Lush, and I'm so sad that this isn't a year-round thing. It isn't right

I'm pretty sure it's just a Christmas product

It's so good, you guys. It's totally worth the really expensive price. I think it was

$25 or something for this little bottle, but it smells so good

and it just makes your

Entire shower experience so much better, that it's worth the amount of money that they sell it for. If you are

Living near Lush, or if you can order it online

Please order this, I feel like anybody would love this scent.

While we're talking about Lush

My one- my one other fave Lush product

I've mentioned it several times