Japan 2018 * Day 5-9 * Kyoto + Uji + Osaka

Our next destination in Japan was Kyoto. (This post won't be in chronological order but more devided by 'topics' ^-^)


Shinkansen
We travelled there with the Shinkansen. Of course we also bought an Ekiben (train bento) before entering the train, you can't travel by Shinkansen without one! I made sure to choose the seats on the correct side of the train to be able to see Mount Fuji, but you really have to run quickly to secure a good seat haha! On my last trip I didn't knew about this, so this time was acutally the first time I saw Mount Fuji. It is so beautiful and I couldn't stop looking at it while we passed it!

Hotel
Luckily we could book our favorite hotel in Kyoto again: Grand Bach Hotel. I really love it because it kinda feels like a luxury hotel but it's still affordable. It has an amazing traditional japanese breakfast, japanese style rooms, free tea and water bottles in the room, free tea and coffee in the evening, even a soup at night, music from Bach playing everywhere, and an onsen (no I don't get paid for saying this xD). On my last trip I was too afraid to use the onsen (because you have to get naked in front of other people), but this time I didn't had a problem with this at all, and I used it every day, one time even in the morning!


Food
On my last trip I didn't spend much time with the culinary side of Japan, but this time I made sure to try aaall the foods possible haha. On top of my list were traditional japanese desserts, and some of the cafés with such food were actually in traditional japanese houses!

I also wanted to try different sakes, and I found a sake bar whose owner could speak english. We tried 3 sakes there, and I could have tasted more but it was 500yen per tiny glass. The owner asked us for our preferences and chose each sake very carefully.

Kakigori (shaved ice fluffy like snow) with Matcha sauce

Matcha parfait

Matcha soba, Matcha parfaits, iced Matcha teas

Matcha ice cream, Matcha fuji cakes, Dango, Matcha tea

Dango with a sweet smokey soy sauce and Kinako (soy bean flour)

Taiyaki (fish waffle filled with custard)

Kakigori with a sauce made from fresh strawberries and condensed milk

Gyoza (dumplings), Karaage (fried chicken), Omurice (omlette filled with rice)

Yakiniku (meat that you grill yourself)

Ume season
While I was a little sad that I would miss Sakura season in Japan, I was happy when I found out that February is acutally Ume (plum blossom) season! Our hotel also had a beautiful map with all the Ume spots in Kyoto, however....... none of them were blooming yet when we were there. They should've been blooming but the weather was probably too cold yet. However from time to time we did stumble over a tree with plum blossoms, sometimes with only a few open buds, and it was funny that at every blooming tree there were people stopping and appreciating the blossoms or taking pictures of it. So while Ume is not so huge and famous like Sakura, they are still a "thing" in Japan (just like in Sakura season, you can buy a lot of Ume-related products during Ume season).

Maikos
On this trip I was also so lucky to see real Maikos for 2 times! At least I'm 99% sure they were real. The first one was not actually in full attire but in her "daily wear". We were walking through Gion (one of the Geisha districts) quite early in the morning, and this girl has worn the typical Maiko hairstyle (Maikos have to make this hairstyle from their real hair, and because it's so complicated they wear it 24/7 and only go to the hairdresser once per week). She wore a simple Kimono, no make up, and was walking quite fast and alone (tourists usually wear make up, colorful Kimonos and walk slowly in groups and with a camera in their hands).

The second time we saw two Maikos in full attire! At first I thought they weren't real because they were walking through the most touristy spot in the middle of the day (they usually work in the evening), and there was a photographer who took pictures of them from every angle possible (but it was probably just an annoying stalker tourist). I think they were real because they were walking out of a house in a tiny hidden street (which we only walked into because we were visiting a café there), then they were accompanied by a woman who bowed really deep when she kindly refused requests for taking pictures (dressed-up tourists would often say yes), then they were walking quite fast again and they were wearing no dangling Kanzashi (Maikos are always associated with dangling Kanzashi [flower hair accessories with petals that dangle in your face] and thus all the tourist spots dress you up like this, however they only wear them in their first year).


Sightseeing
Of course we also visited some temples in Kyoto. This time we didn't went to the typical tourist spots, but more visiting any temple we saw from the bus or came across. At some point we acutally decided to just sit in a bus with a good route and leave it when we saw something interesting. We also strolled through the historic part of Kyoto, as this was my favorite part of Kyoto the last time, and I loved it again. We might have walked there at least 3 times, also in search of some restaurants and shops hehe ^^'''

We also visited the Kyoto Railway Museum. I'm not a huge fan of trains but I do like trains, which is partly also because there are two really good NHK shows about trains. The museum is really well-made in my opinion, if you are a train nerd it would be heaven for you. I found it nice that you also could go inside the trains and train cabins. However most information is in Japanese, so there might have been some things that we even missed. For example you could do a simulation how to travel the Shinkansen, and a simulation of a ticket automat, but because of my lacking japanese skills I wasn't too sure about how to do it.

Uji
On one day we decided to make a trip to Uji, the green tea capital of Japan. I expected a lot from it and already saw myself rolling back to Kyoto stuffed with too much green tea food and suffering from an overdose - but in the end it was quite underwhelming. I read online that there were supposed to be a lot of green tea shops, cafés and restaurants, however in the end the selection was very small (you can find much more in Kyoto itself). There's also not a lot to do in Uji itself, actually it only has a temple - a quite beautiful one though.

But we also found something interesting, which was something like a very short version of a tea ceremony. It was in a authentic traditional tea house / tea room. Before entering, we got a pamplet which described in english how to do the tea ceremony. Since it was for tourists, I thought that they would tell us what to do while they were doing the tea ceremony. But actually they didn't told us anything, they just did all their steps and we tried to awkwardly following the stuff we read (like bowing and turning the tea cup). Also there was an old japanese man which was talking the whole time with the staff. On one side he was nice since he could speak english and sometimes explained us stuff, but then again he was talking the whole time so there was no real atmosphere. Still I was able to try a delicious matcha and wagashi (japanese traditional sweets).

Osaka
On one day we made a trip to Osaka. It's super close to Kyoto, only 15min with the Shinkansen or 20-30min with local trains. The only reason I wanted to go there was for shopping hehe ^^''' I can really recommend Osaka for shopping even if you also visit Tokyo, because the shops are less frequented there and might have many things that are already sold-out in Tokyo. For example I found two super cheap skirts at Btssb (for ~40€!) which I didn't saw in any store in Tokyo. To my misfortune both the AP and the Metamorphose stores were closed, but I had bought enough stuff already anyway xD. Also nothing catched my eye at Closed Child and Maiden Clothing.

I also visited a store for Koto and Shamisen. I looked it up online and thought it was a huge store with tons of instruments and you could just casually walk in like in any other store, but when we entered, the shop was tiny and the lady asked us what we where looking for and then directly run to the phone to call somebody. She was so quick that only after she made the call I scrambled all my japanese skills together and told her I didn't wanted to buy something, so she had to call again and say I didn't wanted to buy ^^'''.

Then we went eating at Pablos, my favorite cheese cake shop! This time I chose the cheese cake with actual cheese in it :D! My mom had it on our last trip and she liked it, but I didn't really liked it this time ^^'''.

I could write much more but I think I covered the important stuff.
Thank you for reading ~<3

Japan 2018 * Day 1-4 * Tokyo

Hello dears!

From 15th to 27th february I was in Japan again! Originally I wanted to travel during Sakura season, but because of university and some stupidity on my side I had to spontaneously change my plans in mid-january. Since I didn't wanted to wait anymore and flights and hotels were so cheap in february, I decided to travel at an earlier date, so I did all my bookings just 3 weeks in advance!

On this trip I spend more time with eating and shopping than sightseeing, because most of the things on my To-Do-List are nature related, but nature doesn't look so pretty in winter (and the beautiful snow spots are hard to reach without a car as well) ^-^'''''


Tokyo (Day 1-4)
This time I decided to take a flight which would arrive in the afternoon, because I can't sleep at planes and this way it is easier to deal with jet lag. We also flew with ANA this time. I liked the food much better and they also had a better service with drinks compared to Lufthansa, however most of the TV program was in japanese D-: So I think next time if I have the choice I would rather fly with Lufthansa again, because 12 hours can be reeeaaally long if you don't have anything good to watch.

When we arrived at Narita airport we were directly greeted by the infamous reporters of  YOUは何しに日本へ？("Why did you come to Japan?"). It was impossible to run away from them haha, but I really didn't wanted to be interviewed because I looked like shit, so I didn't put any effort into the interview. My mom had a lot of fun though xD

Our hotel was located in Hamamatsucho, close to Tokyo station, Ginza and Tsukiji. I found it very convenient since you could reach a lot of things by foot.
Since we arrived so late in the afternoon, we couldn't do much on our first day except eating dinner. I was really in the mood for Ramen, so we went to the famous Ichiran Ramen, which was very delicious!

On our first morning in Japan we decided to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market to have a fresh fish breakfast! After strolling through the streets we just decided for a random restaurant, since the food at all restaurants looked similar and had similar prices. I wanted to eat kaisen don (a rice bowl topped with sea food), and while the sea food was great, the rice didn't tasted so good, and I felt the portion size was too small for 3000 yen (it looked bigger on the pictures).

After our breakfast and checking out all the delicious shops at the outer market (somehow we completely missed the inner market), I wanted to visit the Nippori fabric town. You can find tons of shops for sewing and crafting there, and the selection is huge, almost overwhelming, so I decided to only look for fabrics there, especially fabrics with Kimono prints. The prices were also very cheap, only 4-8€ per meter.

Then we went for Starbucks Sakura hunting! One of my friends wanted to have something from the famous limited tumbler edition, and it took us several shops to find both items. And of course we also wanted to drink the famous sakura latte, or to be more specific the "Sakura Strawberry Pink Mochi Frappuccino". Unfortunately the taste was disappointing, it did not tasted like Sakura (but later I found out that Sakura blossoms barely have any flavor anyway), it tasted more like rose flavor and it was incredible sweet. Actually I could not finish it.

Afterwards I went to Shinjuku and Harajuku for Lolita shopping! I visited both Closet Childs, Bodyline, Marui One, Laforet, Maxicimam and the Btssb head shop. I was surprised by how many items I could find which were still on winter sale, and not even the kind of leftovers nobody wants to have. I bought most of my items at Btssb, because first I love Usakumya and Kumakumya, and second SHOES! Btssb is one of the few brands that has my shoe size (and I'm not only talking about Lolita brands, I mean cute japanese / asian brands in general), and since japanese girls have small feeds, basically all shoes were still available in my size and 50% off! Since I also spend a certain amount for not-on-sale items (a new Kumakumya <3), I got these cookies as a gift! Funny story, the last time I went to Japan, I also got a cookie as a gift from Angelic Pretty xD

In the evening I was looking forward to a hot bath to ease the pain in my feet, so I bought a totally overpriced pink glitter bath bomb at Lush. But unfortunately the stupid bath bomb stained the whole bath tub pink!!! So I scrubbed it for over half an hour and it still wasn't completely clean. I gave up and prayed that the cleaning lady wouldn't see it (to this day I didn't got a bill so I guess she didn't saw it or could clean it with better utensils ^^''').

The next day in Tokyo we went shopping again, this time our focus was on stationary, and I tried to find a cheap hair straightener. I had to visit several electronic shops until I could find one for under 2000yen. Also we visited the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. The entry is free and from there you have a great view over Tokyo! Tokyo is sooo huge *o*

Of course every evening we also bought some stuff at the konbini. There was also a Starbucks Sakura Latte version at the konbini, which was unfortunately as disappointing as the previous one we drunk ^^'''

Thank you for reading~ <3

Le Spectacle Marine Event

Hello dears!
A few weeks ago I was visiting the Le Spectacle Marine event in Wuppertal! I really loved the event, especially since there were sooo many people and friends I haven't seen in a very long time.

The location of the event fitted perfectly to the theme (you can't really see it in the pictures though ^^''').

I bought a VIP ticket for 70€. It sounds expensive but all the money goes just torwards covering the costs of the event! I really like to get an event tote bag and a few presents, and also it was announced that there would be a few games during the VIP hour, so I hoped for some more presents hehe.

For some reason the pendants were not attached to the nacklaces in ALL goodie bags...

There were only around 10-15 other VIP ticket holders, so we could check out the shopping booths very comfortably. There were a lot of them actually, especially the remote vendor stall was well stocked. I didn't planned to spend a lot of money though, so I couldn't take advantage of it. I did plan to buy a few items from AP if they would have brought the items to the event, but luckily they didn't so my wallet was safe xD

Then they started one of the games where you had to answer a question, and the first one saying it would get a prize. I was the first one to answer the first question, so I could choose between the prizes and decided for a pink glitter unicorn ring :D

Me shopping hehe

When the VIP hour was over, around 50 more people with normal tickets entered, and I started my shift to help out at the remote vendor stall. During this I could watch the Indie Brand fashion show. The organizers forgot to play music but it was still nice to see so many beautiful outfits. Btw also the owner of AP Paris was going around the stalls and bought a few things from indie brands ^^

At the end of my shift I got a little present as a thank you. Tbh I always feel bad when I get a present since I only helped out for 1 hour vs. the weeks and months of work the organizers put in! They should get a present from me haha.

I even had way more chocolate in it, I just ate a lot before I took the picture ^^'''

Then it was time for cake! Btw the event had tables and chairs where you could sit. I really like when events have this, it's much more comfortable and it makes it easier to get in contact with other people! We could choose from 3 different cakes and I chose orange cake. It did tasted good but it had Orangeat inside *ewww*.

Afterwards was the AP fashion show with a few outfits. The models were walking around the whole room so everyone had a good view of the pretty outfits. Also the light in the room was so that all the items with glitter really sparkled~

Afterwards there was a little more free time which I of course spend talking to other people. There was also a posing workshop but at that time I was taking pictures with the official photographer. I think the same girl also offered to do the make-up for other people, and she did a good job in both!

The potographer didn't uploaded a full outfit picture yet, so I can only show a portrait

Towards the end of the event was of course the raffle. They had some nice quality prizes from Indie brands and also 2 from AP. I can't remember both but one was a huge pink bow bag everyone wanted to have haha.

Of course we also did the group picture, but not everyone was going to the different room to take it. Since no people were coming anymore we started to do the pictures. When we were finished and wanted to go, one of the organizers came together with other people and the AP staff. Ooops we forgot to wait for the special guest haha so we did the group picture again.

Then it was already time to go. We had to catch our train so I couldn't say good-bye to everyone. But I will surely try to stay more in contact with people!

Of course I also have to show you my purchases:

(Pictures with water mark are from ASFotodesign or Sanifeya Fotografie)

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

London 2017 - Monday - Departure

(This will be a quite short and probably not so interesting entry, but I still wanted to write about it as a memory ^-^)

I was very tired so I slept until I almost had to check out. I directly went to the train station because the hotel was too far away to leave my luggage there and I only had ~4 hours left until my train would leave, so there wasn't much time and possibility to go somewhere else in London. I went to Tesco to grab some food and drinks, and then I went through all the shops in the train station to find something to spend my money on, because I still had around 50 £ left and changing it back to € is not really worth it. My luggage was already very heavy and filled to the brim, otherwise I would have spend all of it for delicious british groceries at Tesco. Unfortunately I didn't found something to spend it on (I didn't wanted to buy something useless haha).

Then it was time to go through border control and enter the platform for my train. I still had time left so I ate lunch (I really love the sushi chain "Wasabi" and the grapefruit soda from Superdrug was also sooo delicious!).

When I booked my train tickets a few weeks before the event, I already knew it would be risky to only have ~20 min time for changing trains in Brussel. But there wasn't really a better connection so I went for it. And of course the worst case happened and the train came too late because "it left the depot too late" (wtf?!). So me and around 50 other passengers missed their connection train. Luckily there was a Thalys train 1 hour later who was so kind to take all of us with them. It was almost completely booked so I had to sit on the floor at the train bar, but of course I didn't mind. Btw the other passengers where also really nice in helping each other out with information on how to come back to germany, translating the annnouncements etc.

~*~*~*~*~

Overall I really loved the time in London and I'm kinda double sad that there won't be events in London anymore because I really love this city. But of course I can also visit it for other occasions, for example I really want to see the Alice in Wonderland ballet!

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

London 2017 - Sunday - Dream Masquerade Carnival Tea Party

On Sunday I slept quite long, so I didn't do anything before the event, not even eating breakfast. I arrived around half an our earlier before the event would start and quite soon we were let in a waiting room with air conditioning. Suddenly everyone rushed to the door because they were starting to check the tickets. However I was at the very back so I had to wait almost one hour to be able to enter the Tea Party room!

I was a little worried to find a good seat because I wanted to sit next to a Lolita from Sweden which who I exchanged messages before the event, as well as next to my friends from Germany. And guess what they were sitting both at the same table so that was really awesome! When I entered, the food was already served so I didn't had to wait long to start eating (I was soo hungry!). However they announced that they wanted to take the group picture now. But since I was hungry and had to wait so long to enter, I couldn't be bothered and started to eat (I wasn't the only one - there were quite a lot of people who did the same). The food was really delicious and sooo much! If I could I would have taken the leftovers home xD.

After the eating there was no program for over 2 hours. Of course they leave this time so you have enough opportunities to talk to people and take outfit pictures. But OMG the place was so cramped. Since so many people wanted a Tea Party ticket, they sold more and more but there was literally no space between the tables when people were sitting.

Only 30 minutes before the official end of the event they started with the rest of the program, which was choosing the best outfit by each guests, a speech and the raffle. During the speech, one guy proposed to his girlfriend and Kyra announced that this was the last event of Tea Party Club and it won't exist anymore. I was a little sad about it even if it was my first TPC event.

Asuka always appears so serious to me, I would have never thought that she can goof around like this xD

Then the raffle started when the event was supposed to finish. I left to change into my real clothes because I wanted to go to Camden afterwards for a little shopping. I wanted to go back to the room but since it was so hard to move I waited outside. However the raffle was still not finished 20min later so I just left because I was tired and really wanted to go to Camden ^^''''

The group picture I again wasn't part of ^^'''

I arrived at the shop but because of the traffic I only had ~20 minutes left for shopping. I could "only" buy 4 cardigans but I would have bought much more if I had more time xD

Afterwards I went back to my hotel and then to the Afterparty, which was at a cocktail bar in London. When you signed up for their newsletter you got a 10£ voucher, so I only had to pay 20 cents for my cocktail :D. But they were sooo tiny and considering their original prices (~14€) I didn't bought any more. The music was quite bad as well. So in the end I only stayed 1 hour, because I didn't liked it much and my friends from Germany also already wanted to leave (because they came much earlier than me haha).

It was a looong day but I wanted to sleep as long as possible, so I still packed my luggage in the middle in the night.

Thank you for reading, 
Miuko~ <3

London 2017 - Saturday - Dream Magic Carnival Event

On Saturday I arrived quite early at the venue because I was a volunteer at the stall of RoseMarieSoir during the Gold VIP hour. The owner Ayumi was really nice and we talked a little. She can speak some english and I would have loved to talk to her more, but I'm really bad at holding conversations with people I don't really know ^^''''''. Unfortunately there was almost nothing to do for me because the stall of AP was in a different room, so there were nearly no costumers haha.

My shift was over and it was time for the Silver VIP hour. The other volunteer came a few minutes too late and I was a little angry at first, but then I went to the entrace (because I couldn't find the AP booth) and saw the looong line of Silver ticket holders. So at the end I was basically one of the first Silver ticket holders at the venue ^^'''.

I rushed to the AP stall but sadly all the good stuff was already gone. I heard from other people what they had for sale and apparently they only brought 1 piece of everything. I was very bummed to be honest because they announced an "Angelic Pretty super store" beforehand and I bought an additional Silver ticket just to be able to get some good stuff (I already had a Bronze ticket). In the end I bought nothing from AP!

Cute Maki and Asuka <3

Instead, I bought nearly every postcard from Imai Kira so I spend like 40£ just for postcards xD Plus I bought her totebag and all the buttons. For some weird reason I didn't thought about visiting the Triple Fortune booth at the beginning of the event even when I was a volunteer at the same room, so when I came there was nearly nothing left >_<

After my unsuccessful shopping trip I took advantage of the reeeally amazing photo corner! I also had a drink as they had set up a bar with a lot of booze xD.

Picture together with Shalisa which I know from blogging acutally <3

See all the bottles in the background ?! xD

Finally it was time for the first fashion show which was from the indie brands. There were sooo many outfits, it took quite long.

My favorite outfit - from Sweet Sakura

Afterwards they brought out a birthday cake to celebrate 10 years of Tea Party Club! The cake had super fluffy biscuit and very creamy cream and tasted really delicious :D Unfortunately they didn't had forks so it was a little hard to eat ^^'''

Cute Ayumi cutting the cake <3

Then it was time for the second fashion show with the well-known brands and of course Angelic Pretty! Most people were really waiting just for their fashion show but they came at the very end! And then they didn't even had many outfits or new stuff >o<

Afterwards Kunika made a little presentation about her cookies. I have hoped for more interesting information like how long does it take to make them or what kind of materials does she use etc, but she only described some pictures of her work (I would have asked those questions but there was no opportunity to do so). Then they had a cookie challenge where the special guests should decorate a cookie. But it also wasn't that interesting because they didn't had good colors to draw with (of course that would have been really difficult to set up without a kitchen). It was fun though because Triple Fortune said "Oh nooo I can't draw" but in the end one of them won!

Random detail picture of my outfit

Since I spend so much time sitting in the stage room, I wanted to walk around and take another look at all the stalls and talk to some people. However this was a mistake because the most fun program was happening now, which was the family feud game and fashion fix. I heard the music and the laughter but I realized too late that I should watch it ;__;

Now you may think there was already enough program and fashion shows but NO! There was a third fashion show which should be a celebration of "10 years of Angelic Pretty". I hoped they would bring their special fashion show dresses for this occasion, but in the end only the first one was such a dress. There was also a little presentation about the 10 years of Tea Party Club.

The special fashion show dress (it is hard to see but it had rhinestones all over)

The event was almost over, but no Lolita event ends without an obligatory raffle and the group picture (which I wasn't part of because the event was already over time, I was too tired and I already had taken off most of my outfit anyway).

Group picture without me haha. Here you can see also the beautiful venue, the 3 main organizers in the front and behind them the special guests from Japan: Triple Fortune, RoseMarieSoir and Angelic Pretty

Aaaaafter the event my day was not over, no I rushed with the other german Lolitas trough half of London because they wanted to buy shoes at a certain store, and afterwards we went for very delicious Hot Pot in China Town.

I added this picture because you can see the really cool photo corner here! Here you can also see the other german Lolitas hehe

You can find a report about the event on Kera online as well: http://www.kerastyle.jp/fashion/9101

 ~*~ Credit for pictures: Emily Valentine Photography & Freefall Creation & Shalisa & Sheri Branson ~*~

Now my post is finished and congratulations if you read through all of it! Thank you as well,
Miuko~ <3