My trip to Japan - Tokyo (Day 5-6)

1st day Tokyo:
Today we took an early Shinkansen to Tokyo! After checking-in at our hotel, I decided to spend our first day in Shinjuku (I thought it would be a better idea not to spend it in Harajuku, so I wouldn't be overwhelmed with all the stuff you can buy xD). The first stop was the Lumine Est shopping mall directly inside the Shinjuku station, which is great for make-up shopping. I wanted to go to Econeco, which has make-up and other items in the cutest design ever! I wanted to buy everything but it was a little pricey, so I only bought a blush (my new favorite one!). I also run into the Etude House store were I bought a few things. Then we got hungry and went to the restaurant floor. I ordered a delicious lunch menu with typical japanese dishes (Gyoza, garlic fried rice and simple tantanmen soup).

Later we went to the Mylord shopping mall for the Axes Femme store, but I didn't bought anything there. Then it was time for the Mauri Annex shopping mall to visit all the Lolita stores! On our way up I accidently run into Queen Bee, a shop with cute shoes which also has my size (EU 39-40)! This is very rare in Japan, thought the shop is not the cheapest (my shoes cost around 10,000 Yen). I bought an elegant pair of Lolita heels. Then I looked through all the Lolita shops, they also have a Kera Shop there with the smaller brands (MmM, JetJ, Triple Fortune etc.). Then we went to Closet Child and Maiden Clothing. Sadly I didn't found anything that would fit me (otherwise I could have bought at least 20 dresses xD).

As a last shop for that day we went to Skinholic, a store for korean make-up. I bought several items there, I have to say korean make-up generally has good quality and is not too expensive either. There are also several other make-up stores around this one as well, but I thought that I already bought enough so I didn't checked them out.

In the evening we visited the @home Maid Café in Akihabara. It was really cute there and the maids themselves were lovely and not weird at all! However the male guests (and the fact that we were the only female guests there) were quite weird xD. We ordered a Dessert + Drink + Photo set. I choosed a "shake" drink because then you have to "prepare" the drink with the Maid in a cute way. As a dessert I choosed a fruit parfait, and it was sooo cute decorated, and delicious as well (I love how they do whipped cream in Japan). Then they asked us to do the picture with the maid (you can choose your favorite one but I just chose the one who took our order xD). I wanted to do the picture without my mother but they wanted to do it together and I didn't knew how to say it ^^'. Well next time I make sure I can do it alone.

2nd day Tokyo:
First point today was visiting the Akiba owl café. It isn't actually a café, more a room with around 20 owls (you cannot order any food or drinks). You need to make a reservation 3 days before, so only a small group of people can enter at the same time. Before we could enter, we got a booklet in english with the security rules and detailed information about why and how you can have owls as a pet. I don't know anything about appropiate living condition for owls, but at least the owner seemed to put a lot of thought into it. When we were allowed to enter the room, the staff explained the rules again to make everything safe for the owls (and of course for the guests too). Finally we were allowed to go around and touch the owls carefully, and also hold them. I only hold a very small one for a short time because I was wearing a Lolita dress and I was afraid he would need to **** xD. But this owl was the cutest, it was so tiny and he always stared at you if you was walking by. My mom was holding a huge one! After 45min you had to leave, but everyone got a professional picture with their owl (they printed it out with a cute design, but later you get send it per e-mail as well). You could also take tons of pictures with your own camera. I can really recommend this café (http://akiba2960.com/, 1500yen per hour).

The picture I got with e-mail

My favorite owl (*o*)

After this we went to Harajuku. First stop was the Kawaii Monster Café. Everything was really colorful and perfectly designed, even the toilet! One visitor had her birthday, so they made a little show for her.

I wished we could have sit here, but we couldn't choose it? ^^'

Then we went shopping. First we checked out the famous Laforet shopping mall, the heaven for all Lolitas. At Angelic Pretty I found a cute bracelet I always wanted to have, as well as some wrist cuffs. When I bought it, I got a cute cookie as a gift! I also found the Koi Koi Floral Cards dress at Metamorphose, which was supposed to be completely sold-out, they even made a made-to-order for it! But it was hanging on a special rack with stuff you could only get at Laforet (a sign said so xD). I was happy that I could try it on, but sadly it didn't fit. At Laforet I also found a super cute cat-themed store, where I bought a super cute bag. I also bought a lipstick at Ladurée, and when you pay, you are asked to take a seat and the staff goes down on her knees to explain everything and take your money etc. They really want to make you feel like a princess.

Afterwards I went to Prisila to buy tons of hair pieces. Then we entered the famous Takeshita Dori to check out all the stores. We ate a delicious crêpe at Angel Crêpes. At Bodyline I found a pair of boots which I already saw online, but didn't exist in my size. However I could try them on there and found out that they run bigger. Then we entered Closed Child, where I found a dress and a huge Usakumya bag I wanted for ages. I also bought the famous heart backpack at Wego (I love the new Ita-bag trend and I want to make one with my Angelic Pretty pins ^^).

My trip to Japan - Kyoto (Day 3-4)

3rd day Kyoto:
First I want to show you the breakfast of our hotel! It looks like an expensive dinner course and it tasted delicious!

Today we visited Nara. The deers are really cute and everywhere! But it is hard to take a picture with them or touch them, except you have food. Then they will run to you xD. Some of them were standing on the street and as long as you didn't touch them, they wouldn't move a cm, even if you were really close to them. Some also came to check out your bags xD.

We were also visiting the Todaiji temple. Inside is a huuuge buddha statue, it is really impressive.

Around 13-14h we went back to Kyoto, and after having lunch, we tried to find a parasol. We had to search through nearly all shops in the mall to find one >_<. Then we went to a Cream Soda café, which seemed to be really popular among the Japanese. We ordered a Melon Cream Soda and a pancake. It was very delicious and the pancake was sooo fluffy.

In the evening, we went to the famous Gion quarter. Of course we didn't saw any Maikos, but tons of tourists xD.


4th day Kyoto:
Today we visited Kinkakuji, the famous golden temple. It is really pretty, but quite small. So after 10mins we were already finished with the temple and bought a shaved ice.

Then we drove to the Arashiyama bamboo forest. It was windy that day, so the noise of the moving bamboo trees was a little scary, it sounded like they would crack every moment. An interesting experience. Then we searched for the small Gioji temple, we were a little lost, but an old japanese man asked us if we need help and showed us the way! He also said the temple was very old and very calm. After a quite long walk we found it. It is famous for the moss garden and it was indeed very quite there. I think not many tourists go there because it is a little off the beat.

Then we searched for the next bus stop and and coincidently the famous Saga Toriimoto street, a street with old historical buildings. But it is not as impressive as the Higashiyama district. We continued our search for the bus station and found a sign with the direction, however when we arrived at the "main street", we couldn't find it. We were in the middle of nowhere, luckily like always you will find a vending machine there and luckily there was a guy filling them up. We asked him (yay for my basic japanese skills xD) and he didn't knew it, but directly RUN to the next house and asked someone there for us (japanese people are really kind!). The bus station was just a few meters away but hard to see, because there wasn't any pedestrians walk, so it was just a small sign.

Luckily the bus drove into a known direction and after 1 hour driving randomly through Kyoto, we came across Nijo castle and left the bus there to visit it. It is really huge, so we didn't visited the whole thing because we already walked so much that day.

In the evening we went to eat eel and I ordered Natto. I have never eaten it before, but I was very curious because the dish is famous for being loved by Japanese people but hated by foreingers (because it should taste aweful). But I have to say the taste is normal, it doesn't taste aweful at all. It just tastes like beans. However the consistence is veeery slimy and sticky, I guess most people don't like it because of this. After this we visited Book-off, a 2nd hand book store, and I found some Lolita Bibles, a newer one and also very old ones (issue 2). I bought 4 of them. They also had Otome No Sewing, but I didn't liked the cuts there (I can't sew yet but I want to learn it).

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