As of a few days ago, summer has officially arrived! I figure that means this is a good time to update you on how my Spring Bucket List went, and to get started on a new one for summer! (You can find my original list here!)

1. Start running at least 1 mile every weekday √ I’m going to give this one a check because I did it for nearly two months, and for the majority of the days I did it, I ran 1.5 miles to 5K each time. Some health stuff (nothing to worry about!) got in the way of me completing the goal all the way through, but I’m still pretty proud of what I did do!

2. Go to Studio Ghibli – We didn’t get a chance to go to the Ghibli museum yet (something to move onto my Summer Bucket List!), but we did go to another museum called the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum itself was pretty cool–most of it featured art deco-inspired design, and it also had a pretty garden outside. We went to see an exhibit about masks around the world, and were disappointed to find very little English, but on the bright side we were able to take a couple fun pictures at the end! 3. Find an oven and start baking again – still on the search, unfortunately!!

4. Try chocolate matcha fondue √ did it! I even made a video for the Epicurean Baristas, but I never got around to editing it. Here is some photographic evidence, though!

The set came with ice cream, puff pastry squares, mochi, a few slices of strawberry, and some unusual jello konnyaku type things. The set cost nearly 1000 yen, and honestly wasn’t that great. But, I’m still glad I tried it!!

5. Find Japanese Lessons – Everywhere I’ve looked so far for lessons has been really expensive, and I haven’t been able to find volunteer lessons that take place outside of my working hours. Don’t know if this one will be getting checked off while we’re in Tokyo!

6. Make one creative project a week (in addition to art journaling) √ Sometimes my projects tied in with #9 on my list, but sometimes they were just chance (like when we painted our pretty little totes at the Hydrangea Festival).

7. Read 3 Books √ I read Land of Love and Drowning, Yes Please, and Lucky Us. I liked Yes Please by Amy Poehler the most because it made me laugh and had a lot of quotable sections I want to remember.

8. Try 3 New Cafes – I tried Bear Pond Espresso, which was amazing (read about my experience here), and Streamer Coffee Co., which was also amazing. I was so close to checking off this one, but to be honest, the two new cafes I did visit were so fabulous I have no regrets!

9. Decorate our kitchen √ I made an easy and fun Photo Garland, as well as a little Wall Art.

10. Start Montessori Certification – This one is still in the works! We’ve had a bit of money transferring hoopaloo to get through, so I’m just trying to be a patient peach!

11. Write more – Um…to be honest…I don’t think I really did this one at all! Something to consider working on in the coming months!

12. Try new cocktails/wine – Can you believe I didn’t get around to checking this off? I guess beer is just what always seemed to be happening for me!

13. Go on at least one picnic √ We had several, including the ones at Koishikawa Botanical Garden and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

14. Try at least two new recipes √ I tried several new recipes, one of which was Rice Cooker Spanish Rice, a kitchen experiment that turned out super yummy!

15. Have a Ladies Night √ One night after helping set up a new campus for our school I went out with a few girls for dinner, but I’d really like to do more in the future!

We had a lot of fun in the spring months, and I enjoyed checking things off my first ever Spring Bucket List. I’ll get hopping on my Summer Bucket List for 2015 for you soon, but in the meantime I’d love to hear about some fun things you did this past spring! Tell me in the comments below 🙂

xx Caitlyn