Rachel Doin' Stuff

Teeny visitor to my balcony garden jungle!

I love these little springstar (Ipheion uniflorum) flowers!

Watching 「初日の出」 is a common New Year tradition in Japan, but I was still surprised by just how many people were out on the beach this chilly morning. Families with small kids, young people with friends, people with their dogs… all sorts were out to see the first sunrise of 2026!

They have everything: funny poop toys, build-your-own-snow-globes, shampoo bottle keychains (the brand I’ve been using! [do not actually contain shampoo]), and miniature trendy boots!

Among all the things we can get from gacha, I get the biggest kick out of the meta-gacha: gacha that contain gacha toys. My kid got some mini capsule machines that can stack like the real ones, and even contain little tiny capsules that come out when you turn the crank.

The other day, I got such a kick out of these little politely seated capsule machines and capsules. I didn’t buy any (instead I got a keychain of the recently trending again Furby), but I was very tempted.