Japan 2013 (Day 7 - 18th July)

 Hello again,

On the 7th day, again, I stayed home all morning so my husband could work on his thesis.  So I woke up and had breakfast (something a bit more continental this time) and spent some time with the familly members that were not as busy: Mari and my inlaws (and occasionally their huge lovable cat, Mi)

I apparently only had a toast with butter and a glass of 100% orange juice. 

So I cleaned up the room as usual and vaccum cleaned some more. That's what our room looks like when everything is more or less tidy.

Mari kept busy by emptying a box of paper tissues. We made a video of it she looks adorable untill the end when she starts eating the tissues. Bad Mari.

If you do not know, curry is even better the next day! So we had the leftover curry. :D

We left with Mari for the station, since it was still day time she took a little hat to protect her from the sun. 

We arrived at Namba and my husband left us and said he'd be back soon, he had to go do something at his japanese bank. So we waited here and I took these photos. 

Look! It's that building i took photos of in one of my trips to japan. heh Still waiting... 

and waited some more. I got a little bit fed up but there was nothing that can be done but wait. haha

 Unfortunately Mari had started getting annoyed too so i had to constantly pick her up and play with her etc etc and in the end i got rather tired.

When my husband arrived i just said "I'm not upset but please take her for a while!" hahaha  

We had scheduled to go somewhere at 7.15h but it was about 6.30 so we took a walk in the Namba underground mall. 

I got some gifts for my friends... bough some magazines for myself and looked around.

I found this charming tea house... it looks like something out of a book, or from another country. It's def. not japanese looking and we do not have this sort of thing in Portugal so...

This statue was a sort of ball labyrinth. I filmed the circuit but i'm not gonna waist bandwith posting that here. It was pretty cool though and everytime a ball fell it made a sound and it was, with that system, playing music!

We decided instead of having a late dinner we should just eat then so we looked for restaurants. My huband wanted to have ramen (again) but there was an udon one right next to it and he went with it to please me.
In the end it ended up being a good call because Mari had some too.

I love how they always bring table wear and seats for kids without us even asking. This is what i call service! For Mari to eat udon i cut it realy small and she apparently now is a fan. 

This is mine, i picked a summer special udon and it also came with inarizushi (稲荷寿司) which is a ball of rice covered by fried tofu. It's good.

We got double the average amount of udon that day because apparently they had won an award and if you said a catch phrase congratulating them for it they would bring you an extra serving for free, how odd is that?

There were so many cute items in this store, i thought my friends vania, susaninha and fla would like it especially. I did too and my husband wanted me to get that cat bag but i think i should just save my money for lolita stores for now and then go back in the end to regular stores.

It was time and so we went outside to the designated place. I spotted my sister in law before my husband did haha! There she was smiley and lovely as usual and i finally got to understand that the person who she married was a musician we had met before at one of her live acts. My husband did not know either, it was kind of funny!

They are, of course, the perfect match!

 So why did we meet there? Well apparently people (even if against the law? - only saying this because at some point a policeman came over and told them to "knock it off!") go there and perform their songs for different reasons, to be known, the spread some message, to enjoy themselves. So does Yoko and her friends.

All the people performing that night, all are her friends.

So we spent the rest of the evening watching and listening to them and their messages which were very different from one another. Mari liked it, slept a bit and met some strange people.

One of these people asked my husband if i was russian (what?) and after being told I was portuguese and that was our daugher he said "oh so your baby is an half baby (which means half japanese, half something else) and then followed with an "Yokatta ne!?" which is ridiculous and very funny. What? :P

I really liked the sky that night, cities look so different in different light and atmospheres don't they?

After some hours Mari started to get hungry and it was getting late so we finally said goodbye and left.

We made the mistake of trying to get to the JR station in Namba from the outside and obviously got a bit lost and ended up having to go back to where we started haha but saw some things some people who read this might like: 

 Game Taito Station and Sega arcade as well. I know my brother would like to go in one of these, i never did even though i've seen a few. Bad bad non gamer jo. :P

When we got to the station there were a couple of aquariums and those made Mari a bit more cheerful, enough to get her to be quiet for most of the ride home. 

Since we had an early dinner my mother in law made us some last minute onigiri which we appreciated dearly!

This is what I bought that day (totally over-spent on magazines and mooks):

• Last gothic and lolita bible
• Last kera
• Jane Marple 2013 Summer collection mook

The bag that came as a gift with the Jane Marple mook, not my usual style but i'm going to wear it soon i'm sure!

 And that was my day! I hope you liked reading about it. And as promised here's the second buy from the shopping trip in Shinsaibashi:

Angelic Pretty Eternal Rose Bouquet jsk + socks set (ivory) 

It was love at first sight! Not 100% my style but who cares I am in love. <3
Socks / Dress

Kisses,

Jo

Japan 2013 (Day 6 - 17th July)

Hello everyone,

So I had been annoying my husband about going to my favorite place in all of Japan which is Osaka, Namba-Shinsaibashi areas for some days before but because he is always so busy with his writting, reading and emails etc I didn't over-do it. I was surprise that he told me we could go this early but went skipping like a little child hehe.

I do not remember if we has breakfast or not that day but there does not seem to be a photo so maybe we skipped it for a change! We arrived at our local train station and outside there's a pond I had noticed before... but today it was different... we spotted two being which have apparently made it their home: two turles. 

This is a typical water turtle that just got huge in time. 

The other one that was in one of those rocks until she saw us and vanished seemed like a different species. According to my husband maybe she was abandoned there by previous owners which is ilegal of course. They should not be living in the same space. Those poor turtles! But at least they are in a safe environment.

Another interesting thing at the station is this box with "community" sort of umbrellas. These are here so people who are surprised by sudden rain can get home dry as long as they return them. As you can see, they actually do. This would not work in my country.

This is the local train station, it is tiny and not all trains stop here but even though it is in fact tiny it still has a bathroom, vending machines, seats, elevators, employees etc. Its quite nice actually even though we have to walk for a bit to get there.

Since we had to wait for around 10minutes for the train to arrive i got something from the vending machine, some sort of tea I do not remember.

It finally arrived and we got in. The trip is ok most of the time although I do not enjoy the silence and lack of movement and eye contact in this country to be honest, it all seems a bit cold really.. We did get to the destination pretty fast, Tennoji station. Since we were on the JR (japanese railways) and wanted to go to the subway instead we had to get past the gates and exit the station and get in the subway entrance which can be confusing to some.

Weirdest thing ever, when a machine is not available in my country usually its because its not working. It's the first time i have seen a sign saying its not being used to save electricity. What?

One of the few shots i have of myself from that day, proving that i'm sticking to the "I use the machines this time" rule.

We finally got out at shinsaibashi and had a stroll around the main shopping streets. I leave you with some photos, in no particular order:

Sales are everywhere, its so hard to resist!

Gah these dog clothes were adorable, i really wanted to get some and force them on my cats instead hehe.

This was funny, its a lingerie store and the drawing is of a public figure a comedian. Since i do not know anything about him I just appreciate this for the weirdness. 

I found this product at a store that sells drugs for which you do not need a prescription and makeup and also hygiene products etc. It is a spray that you use to get your skin to stop being oily so that's why they use a photo of a regular blythe (which is shiny) turning into a custom blythe without the shine. It's silly really but just seeing an add with blythe made me smile.

I took this one because some of you might find it interesting, its a big store with nothing but korean stuff, merchandise, cds, dvds, makeup products, etc etc. I did not even go in, no time.

ZARA and H&M are quite popular there too.

 I just fell in love with those shoes and thought it'd be nice to buy the mint ones for me and my friend Vania, she's totally rock them!

Anna Sui store in the area. I do not buy their clothes but i love some of them. I do like to buy their makeup.

This one is for you Susaninha, a big Sanrio store. It's pretty huge and there's a ton of stuff there. I went in to look for that phone cover you wanted but could not find it. 

Yes, Bodyline, the store is big but i've seen bigger. I rather like some of their shoes so i went in to peak and they are nice in person too. Did not buy them though. 

It was lunch time when we arrived and we were starving so we started focusing on picking a place to eat.

We went with a Katsu restaurant which means a place that serves fried meat, shrimp, etc. 

When we got in it smelled terribly of oil but i guess it couldn't be helped since they fry all day every day.

We were asked to go to the second floor where we sat and ordered. 

This is a regular dish, it comes with a salad and the fried option, in this case chicken. 

You can repeat the rice, ask them to fill in the bowl again and the same goes for pretty much anythig except for the protein.

The little bowl on the right with that yellow stuff is sesame we had to grind ourselfs at that time so it would smell and taste better.

I won't lie, we got lost, went the wrong way and took a while to get to the area we wanted ... but finally we saw..

These street lamps! It's when you see these that you know you are in the right place!

The first place we went to was puresound for two reasons: it was the first store we got to and also because it is a second hand store and I wanted to maybe get something affordable. I have found one or two dresses there in the past but this time it was terrible, nothing special, high prices it was not worth the trip so we left.

It's mostly a jrock cd, dvd, poster, merchandise heaven for those who are into that but i never browse that area of the store. The stairs are pretty much full of flyers and they also give them for free and even have events where they give out free cds if you buy something.

This is the main area/ meeting point, the so called "triangle" at Ame Mura. You might remember it from my other trips to Japan. I really like hanging out there. I was so sad I only got to spend a tiny bit of time there this time... my husband is so busy... 

This is the Putumayoshinsaibashi store. I really had no time to visit it so i didn't even go in. I like Putumayo but I do not buy a lot from them so I suspected if i had to cut options, Putumayo would be one I'd skip this time. It's no fun visiting shinsaibashi like this so I will try to go there again.

Another one I skipped and right next to Putumayo is Algonquins. I love their things but i do not wear any alternative fashion other than Lolita at the moment because of well.. adulthood haha so there's no point in going there and wanting all those fabulous punk frocks when i won't wear them. 

In the same street, the first planned visit Angelic Pretty. This store is so easy to spot because its painted pink, you just cannot miss it. They had sales going on and I fell in love with this dress but because you cannot try on sales and it looked a bit short, i decided not to get it. I might though, if i see it again, i really did like it. 

You can see the new print, Promenade de Paris in the window, its adooorable!

On the same street there's a second hand store but it was closed and it made me realise that if i wanted to buy something not only did i have to buy it fast (pressured time wise by my husband) but also new from the stores... which is always a bit more expensive than i would like it to be.

The other store in the area is Atelier Boz. Again since I wanted to visit other stores and I did not have time I couldn't go in. And yes, its not on the ground floor yet they leave a manequin with an outfit outside without giving it second thought. I know right? This country... seems so safe!

We went around a bit lost for a while and I really wanted to drink something cool and go to a bathroom so we went to several Konbini but none had a bathroom. They had tons of pocky flavors though which has nothing to do with what I'm saying here...

Finally I did find a bathroom and I did get some water so I could continue with my shopping adventure. The next store was BABY, the stars shine bright. 

It's such a pretty store and it has so many things to choose from! It was pretty full and damn those japanese lolitas were loud... whoever thinks they are not (like i did) is wrong. Even the shop staff were loud. There were a couple of things I wanted but I couldn't buy everything so after a while i left with only one item. I'm not sure i regret that purchase either because... its just more black but oh well. I hate shopping rushing like that!

I then finally found my favorite lolita store in the entire world Osaka's Atelier Pierrot. It's not the stock, even though they carry most of my favorite brands (but then again maruione's kera has even more things and more of those brands), but the location (osaka) and the amazing staff! The Atelier Pierrot staff is the best i have met so far. No matter what I am wearing, no matter if i have a smile on my face or not, how many items i try on and do not buy, nothing matters.... they are still always 100% friendly and they sound like human beings and not some auto-sales-kawaii-person. I was a fool for not asking the shop girl for that day a photo but i look so terrible every day here during this trip that i didn't even consider that. I also bought something, went over my budget for that day and had to use my credit card but i just had to buy something there too, see? If the staff is fabulous sales happen without effort. <3 I wish i knew her name or mail so i could thank her again for the kindness.

Accross from Atelier Pierrot is the building where the Innocent World store is located. It's in a rather fancy looking building that feels like a residencial building but has a lot of businesses there, especially spas for some reason. You have to take the elevator to get there, turn left and then you will see this sign letting you know where the store is. I don't particularly like this Iw store, i am not thrilled with this apartment style of shop because its something odd to me but they have amazing things, the staff is friendly and the decoration is lovely. It all pretty much screams Iw.

I found a lot of things I like there but I was over budget so i only got a tiny item. I really went in hoping that for some reason (because it does happen sometimes) there would be a back shirred (that's the only reason why i want that one otherwise i'd go for the underbust one because I adore this print!) black long Westminster Choir Jsk left... but they really only have the short burgundy one. Since as you know i got two burgundy jsks already and because it was not the long one and my husband said it was too short for me. I did not get it. I'm not sure i regret it or not, i think i'll know if it turns into something impossible to buy in the future, but it was a very hard decision to make because if you think that print looks nice in the stock photos... you'll die when you see it in person. It is... amazing. It looks a ton better than the moitie stained glass one in person, as I was lucky to see both which is surprising. It's just that amazing. So I am crushed. If you know of anyone willing to sell it to me let me know. I'll pay the normal retail price for it at this moment. 

We had to go at this time because we had to go back for dinner at a determined time so there was no chance to look for the other store i wanted to visit, Metamorphose. But because the shopping mall where Miho Matsuda is located was nearby i managed to convince my husband to just go super fast. 

I didn't find anything i wanted there but did see stunning pieces at the kera store. Still... over budget! 

These are Gatshapon machines, all different sorts and some with really weird things in them. The price goes from 200yen to 500yen usually.

Trains, mushrooms, alien stuff, anime, cute stuff, panties for your iphone, you name it.

I only saw 3 lolitas that day, it was a weekday. This one was wearing the new moitie striped jumperskirt. She looked very nice actually.

Going home I saw these doll sized furnitures in a jewelry store window. 

The jewelry was expensive and i didn't care for it, but i really wish i had the furniture, how perfect is this? <3

We arrived home 10min late but it was alright. My mother in law already had dinner more or less ready so we just washed our hands and sat to eat.

It was curry, i love japanese curry and a delicious salad to go with it. They really know how to spoil me...

Overall it was a nice afternoon, i really like what i bought but think some thing was impulse buys from having to rush while shopping. But its a bit of tradition already, impulse buying on the first and last days. Does it happen to you guys too?

So I leave you with the first thing I bought for lolita during this trip:

Angelic Pretty Gloria cutsew black

I do not wear skirts and its a shame to hide the print which is the part that made me buy it so this was definitely an impulse buy. It is stunning though.

Anyway this is it for today, I hope you liked the post!

Love,

Jo