Japan 2015 Lolita Day

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

As only some of you know, I have been quite sick. I have been in and out of doctor's offices and taking a ton of tests to try and feel well again. 

I was in Japan for three weeks recently, we arrived last weekend to Portugal. I was unwell for the most part of the trip and even went to see a doctor there as well. Still I managed to have a handful of nice days out of this trip and one of them was the day in which I got to see my friend liemzie again.

My husband took some outfit photos before we got to the meeting point and I really like them, they remind me of Momoko living in the japanese countryside haha. I am almost 100% sure there's not even a single lolita in that small town. 

The pieces I am wearing were all gotten during the trip because I did not take anything lolita with me. Fortunately this dress does not need a petticoat! I did feel the lack of accessories but it wasn't too terrible wearing this outfit, it was sort of light and fresh.

We had to change trains in Tennoji station and there's a Axes femme store there where i got something i will need for a future outfit. The shop girl was super nice, we always made jokes when we went there.

We also had a lovely lunch there, it was like going to an upscale posh restaurant, the food was incredible and it was like 10 euros a person. It was cheap. I love eating in Japan, high quality for affordable prices. I have never had a terrible meal in Japan.

After that we went to Osaka station to meet my friend. I was a bit early but so was she! Great timing.
Since I have no clue on what to do when i'm in Japan, she, again, decided on what we could do.
We visited a limited store with really nice handmade things. It was a lot of fun and i wanted it all.

It was in this lovely mall with a ton of exhibits and activities. There was a train exibition too and I got a little something there too.

Me and the lovely Liemzie with... flamingos. :P

Picking out our favorites, look how focused we are! 

I liked this store a lot, i considered buying the straw hat with the black ribbon and bows....

When we got to this stall we got stopped by a bunch of older ladies who started complimenting our looks and asking us questions. It was really funny at first. They wanted to take photos with us and the artesan showed me a book she published...

... but then it came to a point where they wouldn't let us go and we got a bit bored. I even got something from the lady's stall in the end haha. look how unconfortable we both look!

After checking the pop up store out we left the mall and went to our next stop.

The Osaka (limited time only) Gudetama Coffee. How cute (and silly) is that?

Better photos on one of liemzie's fabulous blog posts.

The entrance for this café. 

my husband got the matcha pudding, it looked so sad!

Liemzie still had not had lunch so she had something more nourishing.

Our table! I misbehaved and had matcha latte.

 Fun facts about this place. There were only about 8 things one could pick so the choices were limited. Although Gudetama is an egg there are no egg related recipies which seems strange. The waiter did not place my cup on the individual paper in front of me. I thought it was odd but them Liemzie told me its because some people want to take them as souveniers. It sounded lovely but also silly because that means they serve no purpose.
Other than food there's merchandise on display and even statues of Gudetama around the place. The coffee will move to Tokyo next so that means all of this will be gone soon.

Hep Five has the most amazing Purikura area I had ever seen. There's a couple machines near the normal game and UFO machines but then there's a top floor that is actually exclusive to girls and or couples! So a boy cannot walk around there alone, ever!
They have costumes for rent and girls apparently come over with bags with clothes and then change clothes for purikura and then back to their normal clothes. There is an area with mirrors and beauty appliances (like hair curlers and dryers etc, not kidding!) for people to freely use to make sure they look their best.
Then there's a ridiculous amount of purikura machines of all styles! Unbelievable.

One of the purikura machine corridors.

We look so happy and silly, this is one of my favorite photos!

This machine was hilarious... it was about... being manly? I did not even understand but we ended up making a video punching a non-existant boxing bag. How silly is that?

And these were some of the costumes one could rent. They claim that one could dress in maid and lolita... so those maid outfits are both? So japanese people are confused on what lolita is too. XD

We then visited a bunch of nice stores! Most of them I never went to before!
Axes Femme, again! Liz Lisa, BABY, the stars shine bright, Ank Rouge... and some more. I saw a lot of things I wanted... shopping in Japan is so easy....

We also visited a Rilakkuma pop up store thing. You can read about it on liemzie's blog. 

She got the cutest Rilakkuma ever!

 And we took another silly photo, this time we couldn't do it together.

After this we finally said goodbye to Liemzie because it was getting quite late. It was so nice to see her again. It will be the last time we will be able to meet in Osaka too because she is moving back home. I am going to miss having a friend in Osaka but i'm sure we will see each other again in Europe.

When she left we went to a couple character stores where I spent more money. I mean common, look at how much fun these stores look! Look at the colors!

We finally sat down and had dinner. My husband wanted chinese and I ended up having a really yummy meal. I felt better these days, i thought i was better so I took some risks.

After that we went home, I was super tired but very happy. It was a great day, probably the best day of all the trip.

Thank you my friend!

Jo

La Vie en Rose Haul

Hello again,

This is a very fast post and sort of pointless but I hope you don't agree. Obviously when someone goes to a big event like LVER bringing something back is inevitable. Although I did not have the chance to browse everything as well as I should have I did still buy a couple of things.

All ateendees got a LVER tote bag with contents which depended on the sort of ticket one had gotten. I got the VIP ticket and it included:

A pink tote bag with this year's logo in gold. I think its adorable! 

A big satin clip bow

The lver pin

A pack of rose flavored goodies 

a ton of business cards, flyers (one of them made just for the event) and stationary. 

1. Extra flyers and cards, including the catalogue for triple fortune signed by Babi and Kaie.

2. This is what i got sunday for the tea party. It is a set of adorable stickers from btssb. You can actually buy them online from the site now.

Black x blue triple fortune bonnet

2 Axes femme shirts 

1 rosary necklace (moss marchen)

1 corsage (for the people working at lver, chose the one to match my shirt)

1 lovely indies brand half size hat (owloli)

1 pair of bat shaped pins in black/blue (fidel david)

1 necklace (Ergi - chocomint) [a lovely present from Ada!]

1 hankey [a lovely present from Kyra]

1 duck keychain [a present from Veronica - It was so good to meet you!]

And that was it, I wore the bat things in Paris but everything is still unworn. I actually took the shirts from the plastic this weekend, can you imagine?

I hope you liked peeking into what i got at the event.

Love,

Jo

Paris - La Vie en Rose - Part Three

Hello everyone,

This is finally my last post about my trip to Paris. I hope you like reading about my day.

 Sunday, the 22nd of February

I woke up feeling super tired and a bit depressed because I knew it'd be my last day in the house with the best house mates in existence. I was also a bit worried about my outfit. I had gone a bit nuts with creating things to wear the day before the event and although I loved it in theory wearing something so ridiculously OTT freaked me out since it was so damn out of my confort zone. Still I wanted to wear something different for a change and all my other btssb/aatp sets are a bit playing it safe so I gave it a go. 

I asked the girls to help me though because I knew that without the right hair and makeup it would look ridiculously and I couldn't have asked for more, they just made it all come together. 

The interesting part was that out of the 5 of us, 3 of us had circus themed coordinates and I had no idea whatsoever! How amazing is that?

The circus team, all of us looking completely different which is great.

Me and my amazing room mates. They were by far the best thing out of the trip. 

We left right on time to enter the tea party which for me was a bit late because all the staff was there before that. 

We decided to go on foot because according to the map app it wasn't that far from where we were. The weather was amazing, the best it had been so far and it was actually a nice walk. On the way there people stared of course, we knew how ott we looked haha and it was very amusing because along the way we crossed the "rue du cirque" which means circus street and it was totally unexpected and a total obligatory photo moment. 

When we finally arrived there was a huge line of lolitas waiting and of course some of them were familiar faces so I went to the end of the line with the girls, said hello to a few people and then left to the entrance to reunite with the staff. 

I got in, left my coat and went up. I got a short briefing and waited with the rest of the staff for the tea party to start. 

When the time came we stood at the entrance and greeted every guest one by one which was fun. I talked to people for a bit after that and then went to find a place to sit. We tried seating in some areas but ended up in a corner of the room and our party was separated which sucked to be honest. The space was very pink and bright and the ateendees all looked amazing again. 

This was the entrance, the stairs where we stood to greet everyone are on the right in this shot. 

This table was where some of the nicest people sat hehe, the table next to mine - the one there in the back.  

I walked around a bit and asked to take photos of everyone, it seemed natural plus I wanted to redeem myself from taking almost no photos the day before. I still failed at taking photos with people though, and my ott made me a bit more shy, not sure why.

This is the first section of the space, then in the back where I was standing there's another room and then another space in the entrance where tf staff sat along with most of sfe and french cafe.

  

One of the things that made it impossible to move was the space and seating distribution.  I mean for all those people to sit it couldn't be helped but yes people had to ask others if they wanted to pass etc. It made it easier to see everyone's outfits though. hehe

Look, its Fidel in the back! He looked amazing! And I heard the lovely Marlessa in brown there won the best Alice and the Pirates coordinate! She always has the most incredible hair and accessories ever. 

The food was yummy and stunning. There was a tower of macarons and eclairs and some fireworks envolved. Guests all could chose from tea or hot choco which could be refiled. There was also one glass of orange juice per guest and 2 macarons and 1 eclair per guest. But there was a surplus so if one went outside we could get one or two more. There were also other 3 bites of sugary goodness later on. 

This is what I wore (and I'd like to thank the two photographers and my friend Marissa for taking these shots of me!):

Hat: handmade 

Sash: handmade

Scepter: handmade

Bag: Innocent World

Jsk: Alice and the Pirates

Boots: BABY, the stars shine bright

Socks: tutuanna

Necklace: Alice and the Pirates

Shirt: Mille fleurs

With our number tag we also got a couple of papers to vote for our favorite btssb and aatp coordinate. Also there was paper available to write nice notes to friends and people who we admire. I loved that idea and wrote as many as I could myself. And thank you for all the ones I got, i loved them and they made me happy during that plane ride back.

 

There were so many amazing outfits that day I wish I had taken more photos but the time was limited and it was all a bit confusing for me so again I failed to take many shots. This time I also did not get photos with the btssb guests, most of the atendees and my friends. I always regret that but its too late now.  

After this I unfortunately had to rush and leave because of my plane. So I said my goodbyes and rushed out. I asked for a cab because i could not get home myself and got home soon after. I took a phew photos of the amazing art in the house, i loved that place so much, i could totally live there. 

How wicked are these? 

I also took some more shots of my outfit and then got undressed and changed to confortable clothes for the ride. I got everything ready on time which was good. 

After I took this shot something happened... i realised I had left my coat at the tea party venue!!!!!! I was so upset with myself for being so irresponsible. I rushed to get a cab, asked the driver to stop there, got my coat (which was weird because the atendees were all leaving and I was running in there to get my coat looking completely different from before) and after I got it i just got into the cab again. 

The driver was super friendly and we chatted a lot in my broken french, he asked me about the event, about my trip, we talked about kids and travelling, it made me relax and feel happier about leaving so suddently. 

I thanked him and got into my bus towards beauvais airport. After getting there everything was pretty easy and I still had time to get some souveniers (got cheese and mustard for my husband and chocolate for mari).

On the plane i decided to have something to eat, some ratatoulle. It was the first time I bought food on a plane, not joking haha. It was ok, I was really hungry. When I arrived in Oporto, my husband and Mari were there to pick me up. I hugged her really close and cried like a baby. I was really happy to be back despite it all.

And that was it. I am sure i forgot a lot of things and people but its been a while now and my memory is terrible so this was the best I could manage. haha.
I was bummed i missed the raffle, the best coordinate election, the group photo and the after party but I was happy that, despite leaving my coat behind, i could get to the airport on time.

Love,
Jo