Neko Box - Mountain Train Journey

          This box is all about the mountains of Kyushu and the Luxury slow trains. The reason that I love this box, apart from the awesome stuff in it is the amount of cultural information they add in. I love learning about new things and I know whenever I open a Neko Box I will learn something.

          The Kurume Kasuri Woven Coaster by Wamomen comes in there different colors and I got the Navy one. I love how different this is. The coasters that I have are all either cork, wood, or metal.

          I loved this next bowl, it is called the Rabbit bowl and it is by Asahi Kyoyo. It is a lightweight resin bowl used for soups, rice and noodle dishes.

          The vintage gold spoon by Tsubame, having not seen the other design, I’m going to say that I got the Matte Gold. It can be used for tea or soups.

          Next up is the Vintage Floral cup by Saikai Touki; it is made from ceramic and can be used to hold tea, coffee or for scoops of Gelato.

         Patterned mini dish by Yamada Seni, I got the bird design and it is pretty and sturdy. It can be used for snacks, side dishes, dessert or even for storing small accessories.


          Finally, the Neko Box Artprint and I’ve already got ideas for this print. I really thing it would look good in a mixed media compostion.

The Zakka Kit

          You’ll notice I didn’t put in a month in the title as I usually do and that is because it says August in the Information card while I think it is September...but who cares what month, the goodies is what I care about 😆 The theme for this kit was Summer Fruits.

          The first thing that came out of the box was the KaruCut. It is something you put on tape as a way to cut it without hassle. The KaruCut is like a tape dispenser but without the bulkiness.

          Next up are two pens. One is a Sarasara Clip Dry Pen in Red (there was also black in other kits). The second one is a Mildliner Highlighter, which had seven different colors and I got the pink one.

          I love the washi tape that is included in every box and this one had an interesting mix of colors gold and peach with gold stripes.





          The note cards are cute and petite. Just the right size for quick notes. They have watermelons on them.



          Finally, there was a Gift card and a Watermelon postcard which I am thinking of using in my journal later on. They’d make great additions.

Inspire Me Korea - Street Food

          This is the second box I got from Inspire me Korea. And here I want to talk about their customer service which rocks. I noticed that after I got the initial notification that my box was being sent I never got an email from the deliver company so I sent an email to the people at Inspire me Korea. They were really nice and checked everything out for me and when they realized that the post company lost my box they sent me a replacement which arrived one day after they sent it. I was very happy with their service! Now back to the box. I was very curious as to what they will include in their box because the theme was Street Food. 

          The first thing that came out of the box was a bamboo mat used for wrapping Kimbap. I just bought a Korean recipe book and can’t wait to use it. 

          The other thing that caught my eye was the Mandu Dumpling Mould case. The first thing I eat at a Korean restaurant is always steamed dumplings. So if I can make them myself using this mould I see a lot of dumplings in my future 😂

          So this next thing was a little weird and a lot squishy and at first, I could not figure out what it is and so I went to the Inspire Me Korea blog to find out what it was. Turned out to be a squishy Mochi Keyring. 

          The next two items are snacks. The first is Sesame Flavored Seaweed Snack and the second is Indian Corn Snack. I can’t wait to try them out. I've tried both out and I loved them both though my absolute favorite was the Corn Snack.

          I’m very excited to try this sheet mask. I love Korean sheet masks they are always hydrating and of good quality. 

          Finally, the magazine. It has lots of interesting information about culture and beauty. There is an interview with an Indy band and some history on street food.

Neko Box - Minimalist

          I have been really happy with all my Neko box Subscritions and this box is no different. The theme for the box was Minimalist, and I love the information in the booklet about Japan or places in Japan.

     The first things I took out of the box were the bowl and spoon, both by Minorutouki. The bowl is a Wabisabi bowl, and the spoon is a ceramic Broth spoon.

          I’m not a tea drinker but this is a perfect size cup for drinking Arabian Coffee. The Minimalist Tea Cup is by Miyama. 

          My favorite things in every Neko box has to do with culture and in this box, it was this Lucky Zen Daruma by WaZakka. You are supposed to color in the left eye and make a wish, then display it somewhere that you can see it. Once the wish has been fulfilled then you color in the right eye.

          Another item that screams culture to me is the Red and White Furoshiki (wrapping cloth) by Yamada Seni. 

          Finally, an art print by Neko Box. I love to use these as inspiration for painting or as part of a mixed media composition or even as part of my journal.

The Zakka Kit - August

          So let us take a look at one of my favorite box subscriptions, The Zakka Kit - August 2018. The theme for the box is Inu, which means dog in Japanese. 

          This first item is a self inking Dog Stamp by Kodomo No Kao. The ink is pink and the dog is really cute.

          The next item is the Shiba Inu washi tape from ACT x Friendshill. It features Shibata-san in various cute poses. 

          I loved the Shiba Inu stickers included in the box. They are by Mindwave.

          I love using double sided tape and this next product made me very happy. It is a dot liner glue tape by Kukuyo. These were two case colors blue or pink and I got the pink.

          The mini dog notecards and envelopes are really cute. They are by Classiky x Toraneko Bonbon, and they will make great gift tags or can be used to hide moments in your bullet journal.

          The dog roll stickers are by Classiky x Toraneko Bonbon and they would be cute to add to gift wraps or even on journaling pages. 

          And finally, two pens, one is a Sarasara Clip Vintage Pen by Zebra and the other is a Coat Highlighter by Tombow. 

         

New Subscription Alert: Inspire Me Korea

          This is the first box from this subscription and the reason I got it was a) because it promises a look at the culture and b) it promises Korean goods. So here we go. The first thing that I noticed was that there was no information card to tell me what is in the box. However, if you go looking on their website you can find some information there. The theme for this box is music.

          The first thing to come out of the box was this issue of Inspire Me Korea. I think I’m going to look around on the internet for the previous issues. It has some interesting stuff in it about the people, places, and culture. 

          This hat is one that I have seen a few Kpop artists wear, one of which is one of my favorites Taemin from Shinee. 

          Korea is well known for its sheet masks and this box contains one; I can’t wait to try it out!

          The next item is a cute one, it is a sheet of Chibi stickers of the members of different Kpop groups. The names of the members and the groups they belong to are listed in case you can’t tell who they are. 

          Next up is something yummy. Included in the box was a pack of Butter Coconut cookies and a pack of Kimchi Ramyeon. The cookies disappeared before I could show you what they looked like on the inside (they disappeared into my stomach übber yummy) and this is the Kimchi ramyeon. I like mine with no soup and an egg so that is why it looks like that. BUT YUMMY!!!!!

          Also included in the box are some Kpop cards and some buttons with Kpop lyrics on them. The cards are EXO members and the lyric button one belongs to BlackPink (Hit you with that...) and the second I THINK belongs to BTS (Don’t hate me, while I like BTS I don’t actually Stan them so I’m not familiar with all their songs) .

        I like this box so far. For what it processes to do, it is doing it well. So I’m looking forward to the next box from Inspire Me Korea.