Junichi Nakahara exhibition

Hello dear readers! How are you?

The good weather is continuing! I hope it is nice where you are too.

Today I'll show you a couple of pictures from the Junichi Nakahara exhibition I went to last month in Yokohama.

I love Mr Nakahara's work and I have written about him before. Though best known for his illustration, he was talented in many areas and this exhibition commemorating 100 years since his birth showed that in abundance.

It was held in the Sogo Museum of Art (where I went to the Marie Antoinette exhibition last year) and there were displays throughout the department store. This one featured two dresses made to his designs.

The exhibition hall itself was packed with his work- from his magazines (such as Himawari), to his fashion designs for women and children, also his dolls, storybook illustrations, and even his interior design work. This cute and airy model room looks like it is straight out of one of his pictures. 

This was one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen. Although the scope of his work was huge it didn't feel tiring to see it all. Although his work is stylised it is possible to see the changing fashions as they would have really been worn throughout the decades. I feel that he had a real sympathy for women and a sensitive observation for everything that made up their lifestyle. He had a vision of beauty that was clean and stylish and yet sweet and nostalgic too. 

I enjoyed the visit even more because I went with a dear friend who loves him just as much as me! We finished the day with tea and cake, a lovely finish to a lovely day.

If you would like to see this exhibition you still have four days, so hurry hurry!

More details here.

Now then, I'd better get back to packing for this weekend. I am attending Austen and the Abbey, a lolita event in Warwickshire. If you are coming, please look out for me and say hello! I'm very excited, because I'll be modelling for Victorian Maiden and fairy wish and also in the Mori Girl fashion show. When I'm not doing that, I'll be wearing boystyle for the first time in years!

Thanks for reading and hope to see you there!

Sapphira

My celebrity lifestyle

Hello dear readers, how are you? Hope you are well!

Today I'll show you some pictures of me hanging out with celebrities.... they weren't very talkative, but it was nice to see them anyway.

First is everyone's favourite, Jackie Chan!

Then I went bicycling with E.T....

Then I met Audrey Hepburn for a late breakfast at Tiffany's....

Then a game of tennis with... some tennis player??

Had my portrait painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, who looked remarkably well dspite having been dead for almost 500 years....

Stood in for Jane Russell....

Did a little dance with a sumo wrestler (no, I can't remember any of the sportspeople's names, sorry)....

And finally I acted with Shakespeare!

You have probably guessed that I went to a waxwork museum, and you are quite correct. I went to Madame Tussauds in Odaiba. The weather was miserable so I didn't have much enthusiasm for dressing up for once, but I enjoyed the museum. My father took me to Madame Tussauds in London when I was little, I still remember it very well, especially the 'brides in the bath' murderer! 

It's a shame they didn't have more bloodthirsty/ historical things in this one, but there were props and things so you could pose with the wax works so it was fun taking pictures. I wish I could have taken E.T home, he is so cute!

In the same building there is a takoyaki 'museum', though it isn't a museum at all, it's a gaudily decorated self-service restaurant.

Anyway they had lots of different takoyaki to try and it was very delicious.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! See you again soon,

Sapphira

Cherry Blossoms and Creepy Dolls

 Hello dear readers! How are you?

I'm afraid this is a very belated post but there are some nice pictures you might enjoy. Back when the cherry blossoms were out, the Tokyo Lolitas went to a Mari Shimizu (doll artist) exhibiton and to Shinjuku Gyoen to admire the blooms.

My photo of a photo at the exhibition.

I like her blue ribbon and hair like a lamb.

This was my outfit! Jumperskirt is Jane Marple, coat and necklace Innocent World. Others all offbrand. Thank you Aviva for the photo!

Doll with tattoos.

This was very nice, it was a bust of a girl and inside the chest cavity there was a Madonna and little cherubs fluttering around her. Some things were a bit too gruesome for my taste but some I liked a lot.

Sakura! Now just a distant memory. It lasted such a short time!

Her expression is very sweet.

Another photo of me, hopefully not as creepy as the dolls. Sorry I was not more sakura-like, it was chilly! But the pattern on the coat is a little like falling blossoms, I think.

This is the one whose insides I admired.

Another photo of a photo, wish the postcard of this had not been sold out!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and maybe now you are a fan of Mari Shimizu, if you were not before.

See you next time,

Sapphira

横浜人形の家 Yokohama Doll Museum

Hello dear readers! How are you?

Today I'm going to share some photos from my visit to the Yokohama Doll Museum. I found out about it by chance wandering around Yokohama one year ago, but on that occasion it was closed! I'm glad I managed to make it back there in a day it was actually open.

First of all, here's my outfit:

Headbow: Ange

Cutsew: axes femme

Jumperskirt: Innocent World

Bag: Metamorphose

Others: Offbrand

My petticoat looks so flat again! It seemed fine in the morning....

I feel like this outfit is a bit different from my usual style, perhaps the colour combination and the cardigan? But I'm pleased with how it turned out! 

Being a port, Yokohama has an interesting history of cultural exchange with foreign countries. The first exhibit we came across was a doll illustrating a sad little story from Yokohama's history- the little girl with red shoes. 

She was a girl from Shizuoka whose mother gave her to be adopted by American missionaries, thinking this was the best thing for her. They took her to Yokohama in order to travel overseas, but before they left they discovered she had tuberculosis, and she died without leaving Japan. Her mother didn't know this but went on thinking about and sadly missing her daughter.

You can read more about it here:

http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/japan/attractions/AkaiKutsu.htm

A song that was composed about her going away in her pretty red shoes is a very well known nursery rhyme in Japan (it's the first song in this video). 

Well, on to happier things! The next room was dolls from around the world. It seems like every civilisation that there has ever been has made dolls, and there were cases and cases of dolls from Japan alone, all of them varied and reflecting the different regions where they were made.

Apparently this one is the Japanese version of me!

We certainly have similar legs.

I really loved the Thai dolls! Thai costumes are so beautiful and I love the elegant way they turn out their hands and feet. I want to visit Thailand some day!

On the next floor there were Japanese dolls on one side and European dolls on the other. This pretty doll was very interesting, because though she is Japanese she was made using French doll-making techniques. I really like her cute expression and her elegant height and slim figure. She's wearing an outfit for a particular dance which I've forgotten at the moment!

There was also a Japanese doll's house with such cute accessories! I have a doll's house at home that I'm still working on (I will take pictures sometime) and now I really want this Japanese one. Just look at all the perfect little plates and cups and squids!

On the European side, there were some examples of automata. I'm really interested in them but they are quite rare so there's not often a chance to see them. They had a couple here and they also had videos of them in motion. This writing pierrot was my favourite!

He was very lifelike and very dainty at the same time. There was also a dancing Rococco couple but they just turned round and round and made you giddy.

This last case showed the difference betwen the way that Japanese dolls and European bisque dolls are made. Both girls are very cute! I was suprised to learn that the Japanese dolls usually have human hair. There are some creepy stories about the hair continuing to grow....

As we left the museum, there were a few more things on display,  dolls that have been made very recently. I liked this one because he reminds me of Közi!

 Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I think this museum is well worth a visit. Hina Matsuri is coming up next month, so it seems like the perfect time to go!

See you next time,

Sapphira

A day in Tokyo with my mother

Hello dear readers! How are you?

I still haven't got round to posting all the pictures from my mother's visit back in October, so I'm sharing a few with you today.

On this day we went to a couple of museums- the Edo Tokyo Museum and the Sumo Museum, which are very close to each other in Ryogoku.

You can guess where we took this picture!

I'm the referee!

Although I've been to the Edo Tokyo Museum several times before, this was the first time I've had a guided tour. I really recommend it; the tour is free, available in several languages, and you can choose how long you want the tour for and which part of the museum in particular you'd like explained. 

We told the guide we only had 20 minutes, in case it was boring! It wasn't at all though, so we asked her if we could extend it, haha.

The museum is divided into different time zones, and I found these adorable Junichi Nakahara postcards in the Showa section.

I also saw this cool kimono/jumpsuit thing! There was some footage of a girl wearing one, she looked so stylish.

I picked up a couple of postcards and a "Modern Girl" pack of oil removing papers. It is a testament to my extreme oiliness that none are left now :( 

After that we went to take a look at the newly restored Tokyo station. It was originally built in 1914, and I think that the architect who designed it was a student of an English architect who went to Japan to teach.

It's very interesting to see a Western-style building like this here in Tokyo! My home town in England is close to Brighton, famous for the crazy Indian/Chinese palace built by George IV while he was a decadent prince. This building is less crazy and more tasteful, but strange nonethless.

Anyway I like it! The imperial palace is nearby, and we wanted to visit that next, but all we found was a big "CLOSED" sign and a lot of angry tourists!

I hope we'll get a chance to go to the palace next visit, and we'll be sure to arrive earlier then.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Next time, I'll tell you about the Tokyo lolitas' adventures in ice skating and the El Dorado carousel!

Thanks for reading,

Sapphira

International Lolita Day

Hello dear readers! How are you? Perhaps you know about International Lolita Day, that happens on the 1st of June and the 1st of December, giving lolitas a chance to wear summer and winter outfits (providing they such things exist where they live!).  Did you do anything with your lolita friends on the 1st of December?

I went to a meet up in Tokyo to see an exhibiton of the Lichtenstein collection. I wore my new bonnet in honour of the occasion!

Lichtenstein is a principality in Europe with close ties to Austria (the Lichtenstein princes acted as advisors to the Habsburg family, according to the information at the exhibition). I've always thought principalities seemed like the most romantic sort of countries! I'm not sure why, but perhaps because I can imagine princes getting up to more exciting things than kings, haha. 

Outft shot with the exhibiton posters

The exhibition constisted of pieces collected by the Lichtenstein princes, very fine European art, mostly Baroque, including a splendid collection of Rubens. I wasn't a particular fan of Rubens before, but having seen those works I now appreciate him a lot better. When his paintings are on a very grand scale they certainly are majestic, and there was a one of the Lamentation which was very affecting. They used a portrait of his daughter for the poster (the picture on the right) which I have to confess I don't like at all and I actually find her face quite scary. I suppose I am a philistine, but he has this fleshy style which I think doesn't really suit tender subjects like a child's face.... Sorry Mr Rubens. But I do like him better than before!

The other lolis were very taken with Bruegel's The Triumph of Death! Maybe, just as with our clothes, it was all the little details that appealed to them. There were also tapestries, sculpture, ornaments and furniture, including a Baroque sofa that one of our group pointed out would have been perfect for a group photo! If the Prince of Lichtenstein had been there, I'm sure he would have let us, in fact I think he would have offered to take the photo.

We took another set of outfit shots outdoors, this one is a little clearer so I'll put the rundown here.

Bonnet: Triple Fortune

Coat: Victorian Maiden

Onepiece (you can't see it!): Juliette et Justine

Others:Offbrand/Vintage

After the exhibition, we hit Harajuku for shopping at Closet Child and Usagiyouhinten, purikura and tea at Christie's, a cafe off Takeshita Dori that's popular with local lolitas. 

The cafe is really nice! My cheese on toast was great too, even with the funny spongy bread they have here.

We managed to fit 8 lolis in the purikura booth! Quite a feat.

We also marked the occasion by taking a group photo at the famous bridge. Poor old bridge, I hope we brought back some memories of it's golden age to it. A sweet and mysterious person made the photo into a valentine!

Thank you very much to the dear secret maker and to all the wonderful people in our community. It was the first Loliday I've spent with other lolitas, and I'll keep it as a special memory always. I'm looking forward to the next meet up I go to!

I hope you had a lovely International Lolita Day, whatever you did.

See you next time,

Sapphira