My trip to Japan - Kyoto (Day 1-2)

1st day Kyoto: 
We arrived at our hotel around 12h. I originally planned to use this day already for intense sight-seeing, since we arrived so early, but instead we were so tiered and hungry from the flight, that we went eating and shopping first to wait until our room was ready, and then took a shower and looked through more shops xD. Our hotel is directly at the big shopping street Taramachi Dori. We also went to Metamorphose. The shop is SO CUTE. Our hotel is so awesome. We get free water and drinks, and the japanese breakfast is like some of the traditional dinner sets you get at restaurants. Also the shower is so great! The hotel is like a 4star hotel but really not expensive (60€ per night per person). And the streets are also great, the pedestrian walks have roofs and play music. Also all the traffic lights make noises when they turn green. We ate some delicious Okomomiyaki for dinner.

Dat fancy sign xD

2nd day Kyoto: 
On our 2nd day, we finally started sightseeing. Our first stop was the famous Maruyama park with the Yasaka shrine. We were there quite early so there were barely any people. The park is really pretty and has a nice atmosphere. I found it funny that there were tons of mini-shrines and you just have to throw some money in and then ring the bell to get your luck xD. Then we visited the Kodaiji temple. It was also beautyful to look at the garden and buildings and to take a stroll to the hill-ish temple park. After this we just followed the crowds through the Higashiyama district. There are many small streets on a hill full of traditional buildings. It is a very scenic view. However it became quite full, because there were TONS of school classes visiting.

Entrace of Maruyama park

Some building from the Yasaka shrine

Just for the glory of the vending machine you can literally find everywhere

Beautiful garden at the Maruyama park

We became hungry so we visited the Hello Kitty Café there. It is sooo cute and sooo detailed. Even the washing sink in the bathroom had a Hello Kitty on it. The food was also delicious. I ate some noodles with a sauce which was declared as Kyoto cuisine.

This was an actual small tea house just build for Hello Kitty

I may or may not have asked my mother to go to the bathroom again to take some pictures xD

Then we visited the very famous Kiyomizudera temple. On pictures on the internet, the temple looks very scenic, especially the water-thingy, but when we visited the temple, it was just full! And the water-thingy was much smaller than expected xD. Then we went to the Fushimi Inari shrine, the one with the hundrets of red gates. But here again, I expected it to be very scenic but it was just super full. We didn't even took the "official" start of the gate walk, instead we saw a quite empty part of the walk on the side, so we just went there a little bit and then left. I think this shrine a can have a great atmosphere but you should visit it early in the morning to enjoy it. The last point of our day was the Ginkakuji temple (the silver temple which is not silver at all xD). First we went into the wrong direction, but it was good since we found the Kamagowa delta this way, a large river where you could jump over stones to reach the opposite bank. Of course we did it too. Then we had to take a veeery long walk of 30mins to the temple. When we finally reached it, it was a little disappointing, because it was so small. We left after 10mins I think.

Then we had a delicious shaved ice! In the evening we visited the Btssb and Angelic Pretty. I bought some cute socks at AP which I already saw online and wanted to have. Then we bought something from the Konbini for dinner.

My trip to Japan - Overview

Hello dears!

Yesss I finally could fulfill my dream of going to Japan! It was such a great experience and I defintely want to go back! During my trip I visited 4 cities - Kyoto, Tokio, Oji-Nara and Osaka. I loved Kyoto the most because of the relaxed atmosphere, not too full, and many beautiful places (my favorite place wasn't any of the spectacular temples, but the old streets up the hill with all the tiny traditional houses at the Higashiyama district). But for shopping, Tokio is defintely the best when it comes to Lolita, but Osaka is really close, as their Closet Child and Maiden Clothing also have a great selection of pieces (the good stuff doesn't get sold out so quickly there :D) and it even has a "small" version of the Shibuya 109, but much less crowded, so you can enjoy shopping there more!

I have sooo many impressions of Japan, maybe I will write everything down in an extra post about what I learned and realized about Japan, but now I want to make short entries about everything I visited, so maybe you get some inspiration for your own trip :)

First an overview how I planned my trip:


Sightseeing: I used http://www.japan-guide.com/ for planning my sightseeing. They have a page for each (important) city with all the sightseeing spots and shopping streets you can visit. I also recommend their Itinerary Planner which can give you suggestions for your whole trip! I also recommend this blog to get some impressions of beautiful locations. Otherwise google for "top 20 sightseeing japan" and similar things, it really helps getting an overview.


Lolita shopping: If you have no idea where to search, I can recommend the book "Lolita in Tokyo Wonderland", it really lists all the shops, cafés, restaurants etc. you need. For Osaka, there is a detailed guide here.


My itinerary:
Day 1-4: Kyoto, with a trip to Nara
Day 5-10: Tokyo
Day 11: Oji-Nara
Day 12-14: Osaka

I planned optional side-trips to Nikko, Kamakura, Himeji, Koyasan, Hiroshima, Miyajama and Kibune, in case we had too much time left, but in the end we didn't had time or we were too tiered to do them. But I just mention them in case you need some inspiration :)


Searching hotels:
I used booking.com, you can make your search really detailed, and the reviews there were quite accurate. However out of the 4 hotels, I only booked 1 through booking.com, while I booked all the other ones through the own hotel websites. I think I also used hotels.com, because I barely could find a hotel for Osaka, and on this website they have a slightly different selection.

Kyoto hotel: I booked the "Grand Bach Hotel" and it was amazing and I can just recommend it to everyone!!!
Tokyo hotel: I booked the "Super Hotel" in Akihabara, which is actually a big chain and has hotels everywhere. It is a business hotel and therefore not so fancy, but they are nice too and have good prices.
Oji-Nara ryokan: I booked "Gyokozoin", it's not a normal hotel, read my blog post about it. If you want a special experience, I can recommend it!
Osaka hotel: it was quite bad, so no recommendation here xD.


Japan Rail Pass / searching trains / bus:
I bought a 14-day JR Pass, which I bought in Düsseldorf at the H.I.S. travel agency. It costs around 370€ (depending on the exchange rate) which seems expensive at first, however a single train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto already costs around 80€. And within Tokyo and Osaka you can use it for all important stations too, I only needed to buy an extra ticket once for visiting the Asakusa shrine in Tokyo. However in Kyoto you need to buy bus tickets.

Searching trains in whole Japan: http://www.hyperdia.com/en/
How to use hyperdia: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2323.html

Searching bus in Kyoto: http://www.arukumachikyoto.jp/?lang=en
Kyoto bus map PDF: http://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-buses (I downloaded it on my mobile phone)


General travel tips for Japan:
I can recommend this blog, which is written by a girl who loves Gyaru / japanese fashion, and who gives great tips for long-distance flights, healthy restaurants, hotels, shopping etc.


I hope this overview is helpful for you, I'm a little too lazy to make it more detailed right now, if I'm motivated I will update it later. But it also was just my first time in Japan, so I'm no expert at all, but if you have a question, ask me and I will try to help you :)

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

Under the Sea - Day 3 - Tea Party

On sunday was the Tea Party, which was at the very luxurious Amstel Hotel. I always like to visit such fancy places for the Tea Parties, and I like to watch the reactions of the staff and other guests when they see us xD.

The Tea Party started with a game, where everyone had a card with one half of a print name, and you should search for the matching other half. However the game was over within 20 seconds, because I guess some people had matching cards at their table. The first winners of the game were actually at my table, because the matching cards were right next to each other. They won some japanese and dutch candy.

After this, the hotel staff started to bring the Tea Party food and tea.

After we finished the food, we had a lot of free time, because the Tea Party didn't had a program. Vicky and I decided to get a picture with every special guest. Some people wanted to take a picture with Akira, and suddenly there was a huge line of people waiting to get a Kabedon-like picture with Akira! Haha it was really funny to watch because all girls got embarassed by the poses of Akira, and you constantly heard screaming and laughter xD. I'm not such a fangirl of Akira, but actually I also got embarassed when I took a picture with her, because she came really close to my face, like REALLY close xD. And the best part were the JetJ designers, who were screaming the whole time too and took a picture of literally everyone doing Kabedon with Akira xD.

Generally the atmosphere was really relaxed and I was amazed how relaxed and talkative the special guests were. Often it happens that the guests at such events are reserved and distant because of the language barrier or just because of their character, but the guests really tried to interact with everyone and tried to say something in english! This was what made the Tea Party special, even if it got a little boring inbetween because there was not much program.

The special guests and all the organizers

Some of the special guests - they were so lovely!

When the Tea Party came closer to the end, it was time for the outfit competition and raffle. Every special guest should choose an outfit, and you could really see that some of the guests already thought about before which outfit they want to choose. Others did it more spontaneously, but it was also ok ^^ Of course the most exciting moment was when Akira should choose her favorite outfit, because the special price was Kabedon, and then she went straight to a guy in Kodona, who was quite old, and it was really funny when she did Kabedon with him. Of course the whole room was screaming and laughing when she did it!

There was also a raffle at the Tea Party, and again they had great prizes and also a lot of them. You had at least a 50% chance to win something, but I didn't won anything again. The last action was the group picture, and this time I went to the back, which ended up that I wasn't in the group picture at all haha xD.

After the Tea Party, Vicky and me changed back to our normal clothes, and it was quite funny when some of the guests saw us and said that we look so different, but still kawaii xD. And they even said goodbye to us because we were one of the last people leaving the venue.

Since we had time until our train came, we went to an indonese restaurant to have a traditional Rijsttafel. The staff in the restaurant was really nice and they were wearing the traditional indoese clothes. It was so much food that we left around 1/3 of it, the waiter even had fear that it didn't tasted good for us, but it was just a really big portion, and I don't like to stuff myself.

Then we went to the central station through the shopping disctrict, which was closed because it was sunday, but I have to say Amsterdam really has some amazing stores, if I would knew it before I would have planned a day for shopping xD. I will definitly come back one day for shopping xD. They even had a store with jewellery which is often featured in the GLB!

The Michal Negrin store

When we arrived at the central station, we were waiting in front of the information board for our train to show up, when a staff member came to us and asked us which train we want to take, and then told us that our train was cancelled and the last train to Germany left 1 hour ago. Somehow I really stayed calm, I guess because of the nice event I was still full of positive feelings, and luckily we soon found out that we didn't had to sleep at the central station, just wait until 10 pm for a bus. I was nervous the whole time if the bus will really come (everyone who knows Deutsche Bahn knows how reliable they are), but they actually managed to arrange a bus for us in time, and even a really modern one. The staff told us, that they wrote an e-mail about the cancellation to all passengers a few days before, but I checked my e-mail and I really didn't got one. But in total we were only 12 people in the bus, considering that the train usually carries a few hundred people, we really were the few unlucky ones >_< (However many other Germans had a lot of problems with their trains and hotels too, so there really was a curse over Amsterdam this weekend D: )

I was a little sad that this situation put a negatice ending to our wonderful trip, but when I came home, I found a letter with my tax refund, and I was really happy again :D

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

Under the Sea - purchases, gifts and goodies

Since my other posts are already packed with pictures, I decided to make an extra post for all purchases, gifts and goodies, since I think some people are interested in this stuff too ^-^

First of all the VIP goodie bag (there weren't any goodie bags for non-VIPs). Of course it contained mostly flyers and business cards from all vendors and sponsors, but also some cute gifts. And the bag itself is great too, I actually use it now as a shopping bag, I like that the organizers choose a bag with long handles, it is very practical :)

Some artists made special postcards for the event

The official SFE gifts were a soap, a brooch, a hair pin and some japanese candy...

... as well as a notebook and tatoos! xD

This was the program and a game, however I realised too late that this game was going on, so I didn't participated

And aaaaaaall the flyers and businesscards from the vendors (actually the organizers put them well organized in a small envelope, very thoughtful ^^)

And now the gift I got for helping out at the remote vending. I almost think it's too much because I just helped out for 1 hour, while the organizers spend 6+ months organizing the event! But I have to say I love Stroopwafeljes and the key chain is also really cute and actually a sponsored item by a vendor.

And now my purchases. First I bought this cute dog brooch (or "wau wau" how Kimura Yu called it - yes she is sooo cute *o*), while I was helping out at the remote vending to acutally sell those brooches xD

Then I purchased a style book and photo set from Kimura Yu (the photo set already came with the autograph), and a postcard set from JetJ (yes I got the big shopping bag for my postcards xD). The postcard with the cats is a print which is actually made by Naffy + JetJ as a special print for Under the Sea! How cool is this?! However you couldn't buy the dress there, but the matching socks.

If you want to know what is inside the style book: many pages are full page pictures with Kimura Yu in her own brand or with other brands / artists. A few pages are actually about style (outfits, make-up, hair), but there are also many pages just with interviews and information about Kimura Yu (of course in japanese only). I think one of the interviews is about her history with really old pictures of her, and there is one each with her mother, father and boyfriend (?). If you are a big fan of Kimura Yu and able to read japanese, I would recommend it. But I also buy such items just for my collection ^_^

The last picture are goodies from the Tea Party on Sunday. We got two postcards and a sticker set, as well as a keychain (similar to the one I also got as a gift, but I forgot to include it in this picture). The bottom postcard with the Kimono and the candy was a prize for all people who did and did not win something in the raffle xD (I did not ^^'''). The dreamy card was part of a game.

My next post about the Suay Tea Party will follow soon in the next few days!

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

Under the Sea - Day 2 - Event

On Saturday we had to wake up really early (6 am). Our poor landlord had to get up so early too to prepare the breakfast for us ^^'. Vicky asked me to style her hair, but I have never made this for someone else before, so I was afraid to mess it up. However it turned out quite good :D

We bought VIP tickets, so we could enter one hour earlier, which was at 10 am. I usually never buy VIP tickets because they are quite expensive (70€ instead of 50€), but I thought I want to treat myself at least once at such an event xD. Entering earlier was not really an advantage for me, since I never really buy a lot of stuff at such events, but for those who wanted to buy something from JetJ, it was definitly worth it. Even if I didn't wanted to buy a dress from them, I looked through their stuff and found out that they have a size 3 which actually fits me! I didn't knew that they also have dresses in my size, however the ones at the events were not really my taste, but I will travel to Japan in a few weeks and will check out their store there.

Vicky and me with the VIP goodie bags (*o*)

As a VIP you also got free food and drinks during the first hour. You got a very tasty mini apple pie, which apparently was a traditional cake for that part of the Netherlands, as well as tea and water. And of course you also got a goodie bag, which is a nice memory in my opinion.

After the VIP hour it was my turn as a volunteer, as I applied to sell stuff for 1 hour at the Remote Vending. It was a lot of fun, because I could sell several items, and I could meet many people that way, because everyone is taking a look at the stalls at least once! I even bought something myself, since I was at the table with "My Inspiration", so I bought a cute dog brooch.

Me selling some stuff xD

After this we had a Lunch break. Since I wasn't hungry at all, I took the time to look around the stalls and take some outfit pictures.

Some part of the beautiful location

Vicky selling at JetJ

Stall of Mamechiyo

Stall of Akira

Stall of Kimura Yu (I bought the book and a photo set)

Dresses of Kimura Yu

Stall of RoseMarie seoir / Ayumi

And my glorious outfit. Tons of people had to comment on my necklace, because the pearls were so huge xD

Then it was time for the main fashion show. I often don't pay attention to the fashion shows, but this year I watched it and it was quite nice. I was surprised by the details and quality of the dresses. After this, there was a little free time, but we had good seats at the front row, so I didn't wanted to give them up for the fashion show and performance of Kimura Yu, so I waited there. Sadly, when the show started, they announced that Kimura Yu had a cold and couldn't sing ;__;

All the special guests on stage

The room with the stage

Then we could listen to a presentation about the history of Lolita by Mariko Suzuki (former chief editor for the GLB). She actually started to explain, why people in Japan even got interested in western historical clothes. I hope someone took a video of the presentation, because I became very tired in the dark presentation room and almost fell asleep, so I sadly couldn't pay much attention ^^'''

I went outside for a bit and only reentered the presentation room at the end of the Kimono fashion show, but the outfits were really beautiful, especially because the models also had a very elaborate hairstyle and make-up matching the outfits.

Then the event was almost over, and like always it ended with a raffle. I didn't won anything, but I have to say the prizes were really good. The very last action was the group picture. I actually didn't really wanted to be in it because with 300 people it is impossible that everyone is in the picture and it always is such a hassle, but I was searching for my friend Vicky, who was sitting in the second row. And then the group picture started, and we actually had very good seats because all the special guests were seated directly in front of us xD. And it was quite funny to watch Akira, I don't know if it is her personality or she was bored or something, but she was joking around the whole time while the photographers tried to arrange the group picture (which took at least 10 minutes xD).

I have to say the event was a really amazing experience for me! It was not much different than other Lolita events I already visited, however the location had a great atmosphere and even more, I had much more interaction with the special guests because of Vicky. She spend one year in Japan and can speak the language fluently, so whenever she asked for pictures or something, the guests wanted to know why she can speak the language so well, so we ended up in small conversations (they also said some stuff in english so I could understand them as well xD).

After the event, we met with other friends to eat dinner and have some cocktails. We went to a japanese restaurant which was really huge and where all waitresses were wearing headsets xD. After this we had some tasty cocktails at a bar which turned out to host a lot of bachelorette parties. We accidently walked inside where a stripper show was going on xD. But luckily we found a free table outside, and the cocktails were really delicious!

Pictures with signature are from:
C0re2 Photography
Hilde Heyvaert

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

Under the Sea - Day 1 - Arrival in Amsterdam

I'm back home from Amsterdam and I can just tell you, the last weekend was AMAZING! I had such a great time at the event and in Amsterdam with my friends! I'm already sad that the event is over, could have stayed a day longer for the after party, but even without it was already awesome!

We arrived in Amsterdam in the early afternoon. Our train was perfectly on time, we were really lucky, because all my friends who took the train earlier or later had problems (though we had problems on our way back home, but I will come to it later...).

My friend Vicky and I travelled together and shared a small apartment in Amsterdam. It was in a "traditional" dutch house, that means very, very steep stairs, where "ladder" would be a better name for them. But somehow we managed to get our luggage to the second floor and were welcomed from the kind landlord.

After we dropped our luggage, we went to the "Hermitage" museum, where we wanted to look at historical clothes. You could choose between 3 exhibitions, but one was already expensive enough (17,50€), so we only chose one and apparently the wrong one, because we could only look at paintings. The exhibition was nicely made, but quite short for the price, however not too short for me because as someone who is not really interested in paintings, it got boring after a while (still I expected way more for my money).

Walking by the Sunday Tea Party location

Then we went to eat Poffertjes at a very old traditional café. We wanted to sit outside at the canal, but the people there just didn't wanted to leave xD. So after an unsuccessful search for another café we just took a seat inside and had some delicious food.

Delicious Poffertjes, only good with a huge amount of butter xD

And a hot chocolate at 25°C, because why not

After this, we just randomly walked through the streets of Amsterdam. The streets around the café were so beautiful and had a little magical atmosphere. There were barely any tourists, and in front of almost every house there was a bench or a small table with chairs, and the locals were sitting there reading a book or having a picnic. I found this especially magical because it was just a short walk from the city center and all the very busy tourist attractions. Generally all streets and houses are sooo beautiful in Amsterdam (except for the few tourist spots, which are dirty as hell), and I found it very surprising, because Amsterdam is just as famous as London or Paris, and the same size like my hometown (Cologne), but you would never find something like this in those cities.

In the evening we went to a surinamese restaurant. In Amsterdam it is quite common to find indonese or surinamese restaurants (and it is actually recommended in many tourist guides), because of the dutch colonies. Luckily my friend Vicky was already in Amsterdam before, so she could recommend good food places all the time :D

During the whole day, we saw other Lolitas at least 3 times at very different places in Amsterdam. It felt like the whole city was occupied by Lolitas for the weekend xD.

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3