Sakura start to bloom in Koenji

 Hello dear readers! How are you?

The season I've been waiting for has finally arrived- cherry blossom season! I'm very excited. Although I have been to Japan many times, it is my first time to experience this. 

Wednesday was a public holiday, and it was the first day that the sakura began to appear! By the afternoon, the ones near my apartment were blooming quite a bit.

In my excitement, I put on a spring outfit. It was a bit chilly though, to be honest, but I stuck it out.

Onepiece: Metamorphose

Overdress: W<3C

Parasol: Innocent World

Bag: Jean Paul Gaultier

This outfit features two of my latest purchases, the long lace overdress which I got in a second-hand shop in Daikanyama and my beloved embossed JPG bag.

My first lolita friend had a green version from this line, and Rizzell has a bigger pink one. If I could, I'd collect every version! Artherapie made a similar line last year, but the Jean Paul Gaultier ones have so much nostalgia, and I think they are more beautiful. I was looking wistfully at this one in Closet Child for a long time, and pounced on it the other day when I saw they had lowered the price.

As for the lace overdress, I hope I can make some interesting coordinates with it. It's a bit different from my usual style, but it seem to be very versatile.

I did some shopping, and stopped for tea at an interesting cafe near a temple. The inside is like a woodcutter's cottage, an English tea room, an art gallery and a forest all in one!

I think it was called Nerken, which I thought might mean something romantic in German, but doesn't seem to. The closest I can find is "nelken" which means cloves according to google.

Anyway it was a very nice place, and the biscuits were nice too!

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to Inokashira Park to enjoy the sakura even more and visit the animals at the petting zoo. I'm very excited!

I hope you enjoyed this entry, see you again soon!

Sapphira

xxxx

PS Apologies to the sleeping beauty who can be glimpsed in the right of the above picture.... Hope you don't mind being on my blog!

A lovely weekend in Tokyo

Hello dear readers!

Can you believe it's been over three months that I've been living in Tokyo? Time has passed so quickly.  I've already done a lot of things that I've dreamed of for a long time, and last weekend many more dreams came true!

As you know, I live in Koenji, a very nice area full of all sorts of second-hand clothes shops and interesting cafes. My friend Aviva had been wanting to check it out for some time, so on Saturday she came to visit. We both wore retro outfits! I wore my Pink House onepiece.

We found a couple of suprise Lolita pieces, an ancient black velvet Baby onepiece with ladder lace and hardly any poof, and very cute eau de nil pumpkin pants from Metamorphose. I really wanted the pumpkin pants actually, it's been ages since I wore trousers or shorts and I miss them a bit. The colour was very pretty too. I was tempted by the Baby dress too, it was so cheap and so old. We said we might keep it for a Lolita museum!

I really enjoyed shopping with Aviva, she's open-minded to many different styles and has a great sense of taste in all of them. We went to a huge number of shops, and saw so many Gunne Sax dresses! About 90% of the world's Gunne Sax dresses must reside in Japan now. No wonder they were so hard to find in England....

It was pretty tiring, so we had a rest in Hattifnatt cafe, which I blogged about before. I got more sugar cubes! After that, we decided to go to the lolita boutique Seraphim, as it's on the same train line as Koenji. 

I have loved Seraphim for a long time! It's not one of those brands one hears a great deal about in the English-speaking community, but it really is lovely. Since I picked up the flyer in Sumire no Tenmado I was determined to go to the physical shop.

It's located in Kunitachi, and carries not only Seraphim but also various indies brands. I'm afraid it was dreadfully hard to find because though it's not far from the station it is tucked away down a little alley in between some houses.

When we did find it though, it was very charming. There is a little garden to walk through first, with a sign for Seraphim hanging on the gate. Inside it's very small but very pretty, with lots of lace draperies and the items displayed in off-white, antique style cabinets and tables. There are a couple of racks of clothes, mostly Seraphim. There are also some household goods (clocks etc) notebooks, and of course lots of corsages, brooches and other accessories. The shop staff kindly brought us tea while we browsed. There were such lovely things, the handmade accessories were particularly pretty. This tiny, delicate bracelet caught my eye:

I'm very fond of fine, dainty jewellery, and the little chain finished with a pearl where the clasp is is so charming! I think the brand is Bell de Poupee, but I'm not 100% sure.... It was with other Bell de Poupee items! I got a Seraphim members card, which I was very happy about. I love point cards and this one is so pretty, isn't it?

Of course it's a bit dangerous, because once you get one you can't help but feel like you need to fill it....

Please check Seraphim's homepage from here:

http://www.k-seraphim.com

*****

Sunday was the day of the Marui One KERA snap! You've probably seen these in KERA. I've always wanted to participate, and finally I did. This was my outfit:

My theme was "茶色ずきんちゃん" (Little Brown Riding Hood)

I'll tell you a little about the snap process, in case you'd like to participate someday!

It's held monthly at Marui One in Shinjuku, usually the on first Sunday of the month. The date of each snap will be announced in KERA, and you can check it on the blog too. On the day, get there a bit earlier than the snap start time so you can start lining up. It takes place on the 7th floor, by the stairwell next to the Girl's Room event space (behind Angelic Pretty and Metamorphose). 

When you line up, you'll be given a form to fill in with a number on the back. The form is all in Japanese, so be prepared. Of course they ask your name, where you're from, what you are wearing etc and on this occasion they asked what my plans are for Christmas (so I guess the photos from this will be published in the December edition). When it's your turn to have your photo taken, first they'll take a picture of you holding your form with your number on. Then hand the form to the staff, and they'll take a few snaps. After that, you'll be given a slip of paper so you can pick up your photo sometime from the top floor of Marui. Then, you're finished! All that remains is to see if your photo is picked to be published or not. I'm not especially hopeful, but I enjoyed taking part. I hope I can go to the November one!

After the snap I went to Harajuku to meet with a couple of friends and go to La Couronne du Fleur, a lolita indies market. It was a bit tricky to find, in the quiet part of Harajuku, but like Seraphim it was well worth the effort.

I'll list the brands that participated, in case you'd like to look them up. I always find it interesting to look at indies brands. 

・金田アツ子 　・ひかり
・Ange 　・dolce piu amabile
・Royal coffin 　・Jeune fille
・Bell de Poupee 　・Sacherie
・Loulou 　・K plusoi
・Radiostar 　・Bisque doll
・香莉 みあき　・かわい金魚
・lilga 　・Traumerei
・CHIRUBARA 　・NEW ATLANTIS
・孔雀洞雑貨舗 　・SERAPHIM
・遊星商會 　・水中標本
・トリッチ・トラッチ 　・鈴木亜章
・スパン社 　・Hug me,kiss me!!
・RE: 　・Nastro Rosso*
・あっちょんぷりけ 　・sha*lan*ra
・poppemonica

I was really happy to see Sachi of Kokusyoku Sumire there! She looked lovely and perfect and beautiful as always. She was selling the pretty handmade hats from her brand Sacherie. I loved the ones with cat faces! You can see them at her blog entry here. 

I wish so much that my Japanese was better so that I could have talked to her more, and also to the other girls there. They were all so nice! I will keep studying and practising, and maybe I'll get to talk to her again when I go to Sumire no Tenmado in November. I hope so!

Among the lovely things for sale, I found this big gorgeous ribbon! The design is very simple, just two shades of bordeaux velvet combined in stripes, but I find it so pleasing. I think you'll see me wearing it a lot over the next few months, now that the cooler weather has truly arrived!

The brand is Ange:

http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~xxangexx/

Of course, we finished the day with tea and sweets and purikura!

So with the vintage shops, cafes, lolita boutique and indies market, meeting Sachi again, going to the KERA snap and enjoying time with friends, it was a wonderful, wonderful weekend. I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

My new home

Hello readers!

How are you? Today I've been exploring my neighbourhood. 

First of all, would you like to see the view from my apartment that I mentioned yesterday? 

(with scientific annotations)

I'll have to visit Sky Tree sometime, and there's a new bulding in Shibuya called Hikarie that's also on my to-do list.

My apartment block is right next to a very beautiful temple, I can see part of it from my window:

I had a healthy breakfast yesterday, sakuranbo and yasai juice!

It's the first time I've tried this type of cherries. I love the dark red kind, but these are also lovely, with a more gentle taste. I love this juice, it's full of all sorts of vegetables, very good for you and delicious too! I don't know if any of my readers are AKB48 fans (I'm not really) but some years ago they were promoting this juice and even made this PV in which they dance around dressed as vegetables:

As I was mentioned earlier, I was out visiting my local shops today. I'm staying in Koenji- it's such a cute neighbourhood! I was delighted to find lots of second-hand shops and charming cafes. I had to go into this cafe when I saw the sign:

It's Owl from Owl at Home! Owl at Home is one of the first books I can remember reading with my mother. It seems that this cafe is in a very old building (or else it's very cleverly decorated) and there are all sorts of cute touches like an embroidered menu board, old fashioned china and lots of owls!

It's only a casual oufit (it's hot!) but I'll give you the rundown:

Onepiece, bag: Vintage

Parasol: Innocent World

Hair ribbon: Anna House

Ah, and I couldn't resist a little clothes shopping:

It's a vintage cardigan jacket with bracelet sleeves. It's the perfect length to wear with lolita and I've been searching for a cream jacket for ages. Yes, I'm very good at justifying my purchases! I can tell it's going to be dangerous living in such close proximity to all these lovely shops....

I hope you've enjoyed this post! There are lots more exciting things coming up. I'm going to Versailles presents Tokyo Metropolis tomorrow; a special three-man live with D, Moi dix Mois and of course Versailles! It will be the first time I'll see Mana-sama!

As well as that I'm going to a lolita meet up and a Tanabata festival. 

The next post will be about the live! See you then,

with love from Sapphira

xxxx