Japan trip 2014 - Some lolita, finally!

Wednesday 30

We did nothing all day which feels good and is exactly what I am doing today.
We woke up, had yummy food for breakfast, had instant yummy food for lunch and had super healthy food for dinner (tofu, mushrooms, fish etc).
Played with Mari, watched tv, relaxed. Best days are those lazy days.

Breakfast included karepan (my favorite) and sweet buns with handmade maio filing.

Mari had fun in that box.

Discovered Mari likes matcha flavored stuff too, this is matcha pudding.

Friday 31

My inlaws wanted to take Mari so we had a more relaxed time. Woke up later than usual and there were some tasty onigiri waiting on the dining table.
After that, we were planning on leaving the house soon but my friend fla has a big mouth and chats a lot which makes me happy haha so i stayed in and we chatted and chatted and I was happy. Unfortunately soon it was time to leave and we had planned to visit Osaka's shinsaibashi área which is supposed to be my favorite in Japan so far.

This is what I look like. People stare a bit because of the sunglasses, very rarely do I see anyone with sunglasses here.

 This pond is right by Sango train station. Last year it was full of water and there were fish and turtles living there. We wondered about the turtles and found out they were taken to a save place but I got very annoyed when i looked at the área beneath a grid and there was water and still fish living there, that place is tiny and dirty! So sad...

Once a beautiful pond, now its like a trash can where some fish are still trapped.

but then vending machines make it better. I got the Café Au Lait which is milky and sugary and reminds me of my kitty cat left back home *tears*

 We got in the train and headed over to the connection station which is Tennoji. I like the fact that i always need to be in a train to go to places although i find the whole line this and that and JR and bla bla ridiculously confusing.

Since it was lunch time and had to literally step out of the station to change to the subway my husband suggested we ate around the area. I actually had been there last year to meet with one of his friends and I like it a lot, its super modern and there's a ton of things to discover, lots of stores and all that. 

The view accross the train station

People with sunglasses. I want to take more photos with my husband but its not easy to do so when we are by ourselves.

We then entered a shopping building because they have restaurants there, usually in the bottom but mostly in the top floors. I like malls here, they look super upscale like the sort of place i'd think twice about entering in my own country because of the price of the items and because I feel like i look odd in them haha but in Japan they are so normal everyone is everywhere and that feels nice.

I stopped twice, once to eat of course and the other time in the kid's floor. I was drooling over Mezzo Piano and even more over Shirley Temple's marvelous pieces. I fell in love with one jsk, but it was 7000yen on sale and still big for my daughter. I swear when she's a year older i'm going to buy this stuff for her. I do not care!

This in jsk version.... how can you not want to dress your kid in this???

The top floors with the restaurants had the staircase área all decorated with these leaves on the ceiling and i though they looked amazing, like something from a dream.

We browsed all the floors until we decided where to have lunch... its just that there are queues out of each one of the restaurants and I hate waiting...

Finally we decided to go to a Chinese food sort of place and I knew what to get from the shop window, plastic food model display, eggplant! I love eggplant!

I ordered a menu which included a small soup, a small salad, a roll and a meat fried piece which i adore.

It was way too much food for me so my husband ended eating half of it. My mother in law told us not to get stuffed for lunch because she wanted to take us out for dinner.
Since we were headed for shinsaibashi and we remembered it was not easy to find a bathroom there we decided to go before. Now I know you were waiting for toilet shots again but common, again? (ok maybe next time).
I did spot something I am actually thinking of requesting people implement here which is this:

Seat for kids

I know it sounds obvious but no, there's no place to put your kid down when you go to the bathroom... so going to the bathroom with a under 3 year old child is a huge drag! They had these in all the toilets and even the men's bathroom which is where this one was located actually. Isn't it perfect? I thought so.

We then left for the subway and headed to our destination, shinsaibashi. We left in the station with the same name and got lost. I always find Bodyline and never find the famous triangle park the first time. This time again we got lost and then laughed a bit when we got there because we totally had been close before and just missed it. I will always find it now though i forced myself to memorize the path to it.
That means we had just a couple of hours to browse things... which is not a lot but i mean shopping can happen any time, and this trip is about familly and resting.
Some photos taken of the area when we were just wandering around:

The famous GLICO sign.

 

When you see these lamps you know you have arrived.

My first stop was the one closest to me which was Angelic Pretty. I was hoping to miracly find a Cameo Window fully shirred jsk in red but of course it wasn't there. The other version not available in the site was there in red but its 89cm long and frankly full shirring is just more comfortable for me so i did not get it. I am still debating if I should get it in Brown or ivory so I left without buying anything.

Angelic Pretty Osaka - Cameo in pink for fla

After that, in the same street I went to two stores, one was the local second hand store which has become much more expensive than it was before, all the things I wanted were close to or over retail price, I really want musee in ivory but nah. But they had really nice things there.

Then I went to Atelier Boz but I found that nothing was too exciting except for this which is lovely but not something i'm dying to have. I also loved their hoop skirts!

After that I went straight towards my favorite store in the world, not because of the brands they carry (juliette et justine, moi-meme-moitie, "chantilly", triple fortune, atelier pierrot and others) but because of the atmosphere and most of all the servisse. The staff are friendly and act and seem... well human. Some stores train their staff to act in a way that seems plastic and just odd or even somewhat not helpful which happens everywhere, not just here and not just in Lolita stores. The Atelier Pierrot staff acts as if they are your friend and just want to help. I wanted to try on some triple fortune corsets and was looking for it in black but did not find it, they only had that pink on the window there. I fell in love with chantilly's prints and was disappointed by the one i actually wanted to see (haha life) and also fell in love with a MmM shirt (can't afford that) and a complete outfit by Atelier Pierrot that I will probably buy next week if its still there. I feel stupid though, buying a complete coord shown in the store but i loved it!

Anyway I just want to go back and get a photo with the store girl because i love her and want to be her friend (how creepy).

Atelier Pierrot Osaka - my favorite store in Japan

We also went in Innocent World where I also was disappointed by the only thing i wanted and almost got a dress on sale. I went in to buy a short sleeved  cardigan in black but they had 0 in L size so i couldn't.

Kera shop had the most gorgeous Lumiebre parasol ever with a stained glass print in it... for like a lot of cash (and for me to get it meant i'd have to play the luck game with the airplane trip "will it or will it not break") and I got to see my new jj dress which is... ok but super thin. Why are my jj dresses never thick and nice like the cat/rabbit dress my friend Vania owns... *sigh*
Finally we went in the PureSound second hand store. I found out their Lolita section is now pretty much non-existant and found two things I wanted there. One I got and will show to you (it was the only thing i bought that day) and the other I left but would like to own and might return to get, i didn't get it because it was just a plain pink dress but i think i'll wear it a bit. Not too cheap nor too expensive.

After that it was time to go, we had scheduled to be in Oji station by 6.30 and we meant to keep our promise.

Regular japanese train, bound for Oji station

In the process of getting there i got realy thirsty and wanted to buy water but we were out of coins so when I arrived at Oji the first thing I did was get Money from the ATM and hit the nearby supermarket. Never did water taste this good.

Buying water at the supermarket, gosh i was so ridiculously thirsty!

When we got back very soon everyone arrived so we got in the car and my daughter reacted in the most adorable way ever screaming "mommy mommy" ^_^; *melts*

After a while we arrived to our destination: more meat heaven!

The restaurante, during the day was black and at night it looked more grey-ish. It looked pretty grand haha

Korean style barbecue. Sooo tasty!

 After that we got back in the car and went back home where we rested a bit and waited for something that we wanted to watch: Cristiano Ronaldo in a japanese food tv quizz show.

Basically two guests have to eat 3 dishes, in the middle there's one the guest does not like. In the end they have to guess which dish the other does not like to "win".
Ronaldo was asked to take off his shirt if he lost (what?) and he did lose so he did take it off, the girl was melting, it was ridiculous haha.

After that we went jogging... and jogging here is harder I haven't made it to the 5k I usually run because its so hot!
Took a shower and slept like a baby!

This is the only thing I bought, I know... how ridiculous! I told you I am most probably falling out of love with lolita. :|

Victorian Maiden Gobelin print capelet. Not sure of name or if anything is missing.

Hope you liked reading!
Love always,
Jo

Japan 2014 - How about we go to the movies again this year?

Tuesday, 29

Looking back I think my mother in law was starting to show some concerns regarding us not having a clue about how we are going to spend these days in Japan and so we actually decided to go to the movies that day while they did their errands with Mari.

My inlaws left us in the nearest cinema, a place where my husband had worked before when he was still living here, in the nearby town of Oji.

I like going to the movies in Japan, the quality is quite good and everything is so organized and everyone so polite and well behaved i never have to worry about people making noise and whatnot.

I was very disappointed though because they had no sweet popcorn, just salty popcorn and another odd option, barbecue flavored popcorn (what?) so I got a pepsi and that was it. That wasn't a bad idea considering how expensive tickets are, we paid around 3.800yen for both tickets which is around 28 euros.

Pepsi, tickets and freebies, all advertisment but also a food menu for the cinema which is convenient.

 

From the movies available it wasn'thard to pick, (no, of course not the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu one!) Omoide no Marnie. When Marnie was there is the newest movie from the Ghibli studios and another one without Miyazaki's or Takahata's names in the credits. So basically it shows what the studios will be up to in the future.

Without wanting to spoil it I'll just say I loved it, I cried as I usually do when I am moved by something and I relate to its characters. I am also usually surprised when I watch something with no subs and I understand 90%+ of it because my japanese isn't great but it is a movie for younger audiences as well which helps. I loved it so much I got goodies as souveniers.

 

A postcard set that tells the whole story and has ridiculous quality... a lovely cameo which is used to make our bags pretty and a lovely pin. Spent less than we did on two movie tickets but I still felt like a spender.

Accross the Aeon movie complex there's a supermarket with some stores and since we had time we went for a walk, I love spending time in the kid's section... i love the trains, the licca stuff, the cute looking dolls, even the baby sort ones which i find scary in my own country, Japanese people just make everything look so cute... i am looking forward for Mari to grow up playing with these ones!

 

We found a small café type place with affordable lunch menus (700yen (5 euro) for the dish, a side serving of rice, miso soup and coffee (cold or hot)) and went for it.

My husband caught washing his hands with the hot towel provided.

A very odd mix for me: 3 fried shrimp with mayo, two different pasta (one with mayo, one with ketchup?) na omelete, cucumber, I forgot the name of that brown looking tube thing, and a piece of banana and Orange as dessert). It was marvelous and super fresh though.

 

I tend to go for iced coffee in the summer. It comes with cream and the syrup which substitutes for sugar.

And for those of you who have not been to Japan, they also provide with free water or tea and keep refilling it for you if its not on the table.
 

It was a lovely place, it felt like the sort of place whereyou become friends with the people running it, it had books (a lot of manga), movie posters as well as food descriptions on the walls, two very clean fishtanks and the clientele was varied, older man Reading and flicking their cigarettes as if they had all the time in the world, working ladies in their break, young loner looking types and 3 kids jumping around and 3 ladies keeping them company. I really liked that... the feeling that everyone was welcome there.

 

We left soon after and the idea was to take the bus to the Oji train station but I asked if we could go walking because I felt like it despite the fact that is hot and humid outsider. My husband, to my surprise, said yes instead of "are you nuts woman?" so off we went holding hands, laughing and chatting. Felt nice even though people stare a bit from the confort of being hidden in their cars.

On the way to it there's a big shoe retail store where my inlaws took me to buy sneakers in the past and since I got all those blisters and am still planning on jogging I went there and got some.

Yes the red thing with the big shoes kanji, Not obvious enough for ya?

 Unfortunately there were no Nike as cheap as last year and I wanted to be safe and order appropriate running shoes and not just some sneakers so I spent another "movie ticket" amount on shoes which look super boring.

 

Paid for them and got a drink from the vending outside (it was cheap, they have apparently increased a lot of prices including vending machine drinks): which proves we have not been out much because I am addicted to them and cannot believe we only got 1 so far!

 

We then continued walking for a while untill reaching the train station area, this is what Oji looks like, a bit more lively than where we live even though its just the next stop in the train line.

Normal places in Japan look like this, people just think Japan is the land of perfection but its a normal place.

Spotted this fella, love this photo.

Koi fish in a regular river

Oji traffic

 We went to the local 100yen store, Seria which is a store i love in Japan and where i get my stationary from. I sort of overspent there and got like 10 euros of stuff for myself, my dolls etc.

 

I also stepped by the local bookstore to get the new Muchacha bag, a copy of Kera (they do not sell Gothic Lolita Bible there even though its not a small bookstore and I got a cheap Miku x Milk colab notebook because it was cute even though I have never watched or read anything vocaloid related ever.

We then got on the next train and walked home. My mother inlaw fixed us dinner which was amazing! Japanese meat is heaven, its like butter! You have no idea...

Meat heaven <3

And Mari's meal because its adorable <3

And dessert: Matcha icecream, yes I am spoiled here, so happy

To finish here are pics of the things I got that cannot be uploaded to my Poupéegirl account. I will post more relevant things one wears here but the small irrelevante ones i'll just post there so if you are nosey like me, go there. haha 

KERA magazine, its gotten me severely hooked on Angelic Pretty's Cameo Window series which I'm sure i'd get if the JSK with the full shirring was not already sold out in wine. I hope i can resist the brown and ivory because nnng.... its so pretty!

Miku now looks appealing, she had to get rid of the ugly uniform and dress like a normal person. haha

MUCHACHA ACHACHUMU's new box, small bunny bag + postcard set

Seria stuff for my dolls: their own playing car, a open/closed sign, a staircase for the garden and a small brush set just because.

Seria card, letter set and random bunny&cat decorations I want to put on a beret or make rosette's with.

 And then we slept like babies. No jogging still because I still have the blisters but i made up for it by walking and being more active, i guess.

Hope you liked reading.
Love,
Jo