Tokyo Metropolis

Hello dear readers, hello from Tokyo!

Today I'll tell you about the Versailles special anniversary live, Tokyo Metropolis.

Remember my 'rock kei' outfit from a little while ago? I went for the same sort of look with a more elegant atmosphere. I used the same hairstyle. I wore my bisque doll onepiece from Juliette, though in this photo the print is sadly washed out. 

~Rundown~

Onpiece: Juliette et Justine

Tights: Vivienne Westwood

Others: Offbrand/Handmade

The live was in Liquid Room in Ebisu. I got a bit lost and couldn't find who I was supposed to meet, so I just followed some people who looked like they were going to a concert and sure enough I got there, and, thank goodness,  met my friend too. 

D were the first to play, wearing their Dying Message costumes. My friend later observed "Wow, you really changed when you saw your drummer...." Haha, yes I'll confess I'm a big fan of D and particularly HIROKI.  I feel like he's a very reassuring sort of person, so with his presence and knowing their songs and furi quite well, I suppose the result was a complete evaporation of my natural shyness. I hope I didn't look too mad, but anyway I had an amazing time! 

Moi dix Mois were next. There was an almighty audience reshuffle of fans getting into their desired places (ie in front of Mana). I was very excited but a bit apprehensive too. I've spent so many years admiring Mana, what would he really be like? Well, the answer is he's beautiful and just as I thought he would be, but with the added bonus of a guitar with a light-up cross that flashed blue and red. He looked into the audience most of the time, giving us lots of opportunity to admire his lovely face! I really do want to see Moi dix Mois many, many times more and get to know them better. So, I'm very very very glad to have a ticket for Deep Sanctuary III in September!

Me and the lovely Angelica! She's a long-time fan of Mana. 

Her straw hat is soooo cute!

Versailles were last, and it was obvious that the majority of the audience were there for them. I loved Kamijo and LAREINE for a long time, so I always want to be more of a Versailles fan, but few of their songs really capture me. Even so, I enjoyed their set. It was a huge contrast to their live in London last year when they were obviously rather tired; tonight I think they were at their best. Kamijo was wonderfully flamboyant and Teru and Hizaki were really cute! Something about Teru's face makes me want to laugh.... it's a good thing though! 

During the MC, the bands all expressed their friendship and admiration for each other, and Kamijo talked about his time as a Malice Mizer roadie. Sadly I could only understand bits and pieces, but it seemed very heartfelt and I feel so glad to have been there on such a special occasion. It would have been nice if all three bands had been on stage together at the end, and I did expect it, but it didn't happen. Perhaps it would have been a bit of a squish with all those hairstyles and costumes.

I'm also really happy to have found some new friends! Everyone I've met has been so kind and friendly. Tomorrow I'm going to a lolita meet up, so I'm sure I'll find even more good friends there!

Thanks for reading,

Sapphira

xxxx

The name of the ROSE

Hello readers! How are you enjoying your weekend?

I'm having a photoshoot with Lauren Pinhorn Photography tomorrow, I can't wait! I'll share the photos with you as soon as possible.

Today I will tell you about ASAGI of D's original bath salts!

My friend Yami No Geisha recommended this product to me. She has written a very nice review of it which you can read here. I love to take baths, and I love roses, and I love D, so I had to try it!

As you can see, it's called "The name of the ROSE" like D's album and the pretty packaging features lots of beautiful red roses. The scent is "rose garden".

In the box you get five sachets of bath salts. Also included is a photocard of the band wearing their Schwarzschild costumes which is very nice apart from the awkward photoshop of poor Ruiza! He could carry a tea tray on his head if it was really that flat.

The ingredients include rose hip oil, rose water, wild rose essence, hyaluronic acid and collagen. Lots of lovely things for your skin! The last two seem to be very popular ingredients in Japanese skincare at the moment.

Since my friend had praised this product so much I couldn't wait to use it! I wasn't disappointed at all. As she said, the scent is very natural, a kind and gentle rosy smell. Sometimes rose scents can be too sickly sweet, like rose syrup, but this was very delicate.

However, it does rather look like rose syrup (Malaysian and Singapore readers- it's like taking a bath in bandung!) Luckily this pretty shade of pink does not leave any trace apart from a delicious rose smell, but at the time I was worried that my mother would see the water and accuse me of ruining her bathroom! 

Although the colour looks strong, the bath was pleasant and mild on my skin and had a nice moisturising effect. Of course, everyone's skin is different but I do think that this is a high quality product. I had a lovely and relaxing bath and felt so pretty afterwards with this beautiful scent!

So there you have it, not only is ASAGI a talented musician but he makes wonderful bath salts too! Many thanks to Yami No Geisha for the tip.

You can buy The name of the ROSE bath salts from cooljapan store here, or if you're in Japan from ASAGI's brand Rosen Kranz.

Thanks for reading! 

D Talk and Handshake

Today's post is another Japan write up!

Since I bought the A- and B-type package of D's latest mini album, I got a ticket to a fan event. 

Huang di ~Yami ni umareta mukui~

皇帝（ファンディー）～闇に生まれた報い～

A- and B-type. A-type comes with the PV, and there was also a making-of dvd included in the package.

Happily my stay coincided with my friend's, who is a big fan of D. As I wrote last time, we had fun shopping together in Harajuku. The next day was the event! 

The event wasn't until the evening, so before that I did a bit of shopping in Shinjuku. There was a time sale in Marui One, but I didn't get anything. However, I did go back to Closet Child for something that had caught my eye before.... here's a teasing picture!

Sometimes my camera takes super-clear pictures!

Pretty lace~

I wore my new Emikyu jsk and vintage lace collar blouse, plus a lot of perfume! According to our old friend Novala Takemoto, who likes perfume a great deal, eau de parfum does not fade, whereas eau de toilette quickly loses it's scent. Therefore I always buy/ask for eau de parfum, but it seems to fade anyway. I bought some with me to touch up before the handshake! I wear Paul Smith Rose, a simple rosy scent. Any readers know of a good rose perfume? I'd like to try another one next time!

The event was held in a community centre in Yotsuya. It seemed like a funny venue, but the auditorium was really quite nice, and luckily huge enough to accomodate the many fans.

Seeing the other fans was great fun for me, and very interesting. We were 80 or even 90% Lolita! A mix of sweet, classic and gothic outfits, tending to be fairly toned down. I did see a harlequin bonnet though! Although it was probably 99% girls, there was a good mix of ages. I noticed a slightly incongrous girl who looked rather like Xiaxue sitting in the front row. I'm sure it wasn't really Xiaxue but maybe this girl caught her appearance on NHK's Tokyo-Kawaii TV and admired her style. Everyone was nice, and I met a very sweet lady who spoke good English- we've talked on twitter a little since!   

It was quite a long wait to get in. First we queued outside to get numbers then we waited inside for our numbers to be called. When we were let in the staff stamped our flyer with a little dragon stamp. I've mentioned before that my year is dragon (this year) so it's a really lovely momento!

He's quite a cute little dragon!

On the left the questionnaire, on the right the flyer/ticket

Once seated we were given the little form above to fill out. The top box is for your question, and the bottom box is where you write what you'd like each member to say. Unfortunately I couldn't read it at the time and didn't fill it out! At least I got to keep it.

The event was called a 'talk and handshake'. The talk part was the band answering questions. They came on stage wearing their suits from the PV, and very nice they looked too. I had expected them to be wearing street clothes and no make-up. I wouldn't have minded either way I suppose!

They all sat down behind a desk in the usual sort of way, and a staff member with a rather alarming hat (huge, electric blue, woolly, bobble on top) sorted through the little questionnaires and asked them some of the questions. 

I'm afraid neither I or my friend could follow much of the talk, but evidently HIDE-ZOU was being the star that evening. He took off his jacket and did one-armed push-ups at one point!

Although we couldn't follow it closely it was nice to see the band smiling and laughing so happily, and all the talk was very jolly! It was nice for me since I arrived in Japan after the tour was finished and so didn't get to see a live. 

I think the talk lasted half an hour or so? Next up was the handshake! Oh, I feel nervous now just thinking about it. We went up row by row. A lot of people brought presents and letters. The first person I shook hands with was HIROKI. He said "Hello!!" very brightly in English! In fact the others all said "Thank you" in English, which I thought was ever so sweet of them. But perhaps I liked "Hello" best.

Ruiza's fringe needed cutting and the way he looked through it, blinking, was very cute! I wished ASAGI a happy new year, and when he replied voice was so refined and gentle. Tsunehito kept touching his eyelashes during the talk. I suppose he was checking that they were fastened on properly. 

They are all wonderful I think, and I'm really happy that I had the chance to go to that fan event! I can't wait to see D again!

D are having a European Tour this year! Here are the details:

[D Europe tour schedule]

Date / Venue / City / Country

04/20 Replugged Club, Wien, Austria

04/22 Feierwerk, Munich, Germany

04/24 Legend54, Milano, Italy

04/27 Poste à Galene, Marseille, France

04/28 TGS Ohanami, Toulouse, France

04/29 Apolo2, Barcelona, Spain

05/01 Divan Du Monde, Paris, France

05/02 Melkweg, Amsterdam, Holland

05/04 Werkstatt, Cologne, Germany

05/05 Charlatan, Gent, Belgium

05/06 Knust, Hamburg, Germany

05/08 Gloria, Helsinki, Finland

05/09 Plan B, Moscow, Russia

I just copied and pasted from the OHP, so please check here it in case there are changes after this!

Thanks for reading,

Sapphira

xxxxx

D live

Hello everyone! I wasn't going to touch this blog until my work is handed in on Tuesday, but I had such a great time seeing D that I want to write about it while the memory is still fresh.

I LOVE D!

I actutally haven't been to any lives before, so though I was excited I was a bit apprehensive too. I'm a very reserved person and I thought I would end up standing stock-still like an idiot throughout the whole thing. 

I did freeze up a bit at first, since seeing them on the stage made me shy (I didn't realise Hiroki was so handsome! It doesn't come across much in photos, but in real life....). However, very soon it began to feel as if the crowd and the band were connected, and I lost myself in the perfomance. Asagi was wonderful and his voice never faltered. The whole band were really energetic and seemed to be putting their all into it. 

The lovely friend I went with recommended that we buy D flags, since she saw them in Japan and was the only one without flags! I was glad we got them, since the flag dance was one of the best bits for me. 

For my outfit, I tried to reflect D's vampiric theme, in black, blue and white. I didn't have time to take a good outfit shot since I had to rush from uni, so apologies for the mirror shot in my housemate's room.

~Skirt is Metamorphose, everything else offbrand~

The waistcoat, cravat and high-collared blouse make my outfit a bit sharper than usual I think! 

For my make-up I used blue eyeshadow in the crease to make it more showy, and pick up the blue in my skirt and earrings. I was thinking to use false lashes but I didn't want them flying off in the middle of the concert.

As well as the flags, I got a gorgeous coffin-shaped USB!

It's so well made, though as it's metal it's rather heavy. I had one of my flags signed at the suprise autograph session afterwards!

While Tsunehito was signing my flag, I looked over to Asagi and he gave me the sweetest smile! All the band seemed to be very happy to be there, and I really felt that they are such nice people. It was wonderful of them to come to London, and to give their very best even though they were only playing to about 100 people. 

I want to see them again before too long. Thank you, D!