KERA snap and picnic

Hello dear readers! How are you?

It's a nice day in England, and I have been doing some writing in the garden. Also, I've taken the opprtunity to handwash some of my clothes! Handwashing is a never ending task for lolitas, isn't it? At least it should all dry quickly today.

This post is from a while back, it was the day I went to the KERA snap at Marui and then had a picnic in nearby Shinjuku Gyoen. This was my outfit:

Hat: Handmade

Blouse: Atelier Pierrot

Skirt: Jane Marple

Gloves: Vintage

I really love this Atelier Pierrot blouse with big puff sleeves. It is very historical looking and I feel like a girl in a story book! For the purposes of the snap I said my theme was 'Country Lolita'. I really like the idea of country lolita and I want to make more outfits in that style. Alice a la mode/Alice Deco used to have a lot of nice country coordinates that weren't typical. What happened to that magazine? It was so creative!

Here's a better look at my hat. As you can see, this was taken at the park. It was such lovely weather- sunny and warm but not too hot, windy or humid! There were lots of young families out and very cute children tumbling about.  

It was a good situation for wearing country lolita. One strange thing though- there appeared to be cat litter sprinkled on the grass all around!

Is it fertilizer or something? Weird!

I'm delighted to say that my picture got into the snap, along with Shinobu and Aviva/go_slow_ly!

I can't tell you how happy I am to see my picture in there. I wish I could go to the snap every month but I've only made three so far. I hope I can go to many more when I return in the autumn!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Have a lovely weekend wherever you are!

Sapphira

Showa Kinen Park

Hello dear readers! How are you?

It's a drizzly day today, I suppose rainy season is getting started. However, I'm going to show you pictures from  nice sunny day! I went for a picnic at Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa.

I was suprised at the size of the park, it's huge! It's the one place I've been in Tokyo where you can look around and not see a single tall ugly building. It almost felt like I was back in Sussex.

The park includes a lake, bicycle track and a herb garden. I took this picture in the herb garden, it's really pretty! And I saw a fat little lizard sunbathing among the herbs :)

Blouse: Franche Lippée

JSK: Innocent World

Bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

I wanted to make a light-coloured, dreamy classic coordinate like Fanny Rosie! Do you know her? I expect you do, since she is very popular, but if not she's a Canadian lolita with the most perfect classical outfits.

There's a cafe at the park serving all sorts of drinks and herbal teas. I had lavender tea. It was a delicate taste, and very relaxing.

I drank it surrounded by lavender bushes! 

It was a windy day but I still really enjoyed the picnic.There were wild flowers and strawberries growing in the grass, and I had a nice view of the lake.

There's also a Japanese garden. It's beautiful! Unfortunately the trees were full of hairy caterpillars.... I am fond of caterpillars so I was quite pleased to see them at first, until one tumbled out of the tree an inch from my nose. I kept my parasol up after that.

I met a wise old cat in the Japanese garden! I saw three cats in the park, this one, a roly poly ginger one, and a scrubby black one. Why are there so many stray cats in Japan? Everyone seems to love cats and feeds the stray ones, but where did they come from?

There was also a bonsai garden. Some of the trees were 300 years old.

I hope that you enjoyed the photos. If you fancy going to a park for a relaxing day, I think this one is the best in Tokyo!

See you next time,

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

Inokashira Park Zoo

Hello dear readers! How are you?

Back in March I went to do another day of cherry blossom viewing, this time at Inokashira Park. I had another special reason to go there, as you'll find out soon!

First, here's my outfit:

Onepiece, Jacket: Vintage

Hat: corgi-corgi

Bag: Metamorphose

Others: Offbrand

I think it looks a bit Ghibli-esque, which was appropriate as the Ghibli museum is not far from here.

The cherry blossoms were still a bit sparse here, but it was romantic to see the branches drooping down to touch the lake. 

So, here is the main reason I visited:

Guinea pig! And what a handsome one~

At the so-called "Molmott House" you can go in and hold a guinea pig for a few minutes. They were all remarkably good natured. I suppose they rotate the ones that are held so that none of them get stressed. There were hundreds of them, it seemed! I really liked my one, he was a dear little chap and I wish I could have kept him....

I also saw a racoon! Very cute and cunning.

Lovely camelia flower (I think that's what it is....)

Perhaps these are wallabies? Oh dear, I should have posted these when I still remembered all the names....

A magnificent fowl in the bird house, just sitting on the stair rail looking fabulous.

Ice cream! It was such a childish day, zoo and then ice cream....

Look at this dear little squirrel! Japanese squirrels are so small, and it's quite uncommon to see them apart from at the zoo. I saw a wild one in Kamakura the other day though!

This funny fellow may or may not be a spiny echidna *edit- he's an African porcupine. Thank you, clever readers! There were a pair of them living together, one lazy one snoozing in a box and one active one who rushed about all over the place, snuffing at everything as if his life depended on it. Finally he decided to go and wake the lazy one up. He gave him such a fright all his spines stood on end!

All in all it was a lovely day, especially the guinea pig who I will never forget. He was ever so much nicer than the orang utan I held at Singapore Zoo who wouldn't stop picking his teeth and made a dreadful photo souvenir.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Thank you so much for reading and see you again soon.

Sapphira

A new side of Shimokitazawa

Hello dear readers! How are you? The weather is warming up nicely in Tokyo, I hope it's pleasant where you are too!

Today I'll tell you about a recent visit I made to Shimokitazawa. I first heard about the area because there is a second-hand Lolita shop there, Grand Bazaar. They usually have a nice selection of Jane Marple pieces so I like to go there, however I haven't found so many other nice spots when I visit. 

Here's what I wore:

Knit: Vintage

JSK: Metamorphose temps de fille

Tights, shoes: Offbrand

I wanted to try something new this visit so I searched the internet for a nice place to have tea in Shimokitazawa, and came up with a place called La Palette. It turned out really lovely, and there's a nice pasta place next to it! I had a big bowl of seafood pasta for lunch, and then crossed over to La Palette for tea and cake. Luckily for me I don't put on weight easily, but I don't recommend this kind of lifestyle for everyone!

Apart from discovering delights for the appetite, I also discovered some other nice things. La Palette is on the north side of the station, the opposite site from Grand Bazaar Lolita. Well, all this time I had been going to the south side, but the north side is ever so much better!

It's a bit like Brighton Lanes and a bit like Camden Market, a bit like Ura-Harajuku and a bit like Daikanyama. So all in all very nice! A relaxed atmosphere, not overly crowded, cute vintage and used clothing shops, and sweet little boutiques and things. 

After exploring the north side I went across to the south and to Grand Bazaar. I tried on a few things but couldn't decide on anything particularly so I left empty handed. By this time I was getting hungry again. These 50s/60s film posters caught my eye.

It turned out that on the second floor there was an old-fashioned izakaya. There was a long wait before I could go in but I really wanted to so I was patient.

The inside was decorated with all sorts of old advertisments and magazine cuttings. The fare was not particularly good, but very cheap and besides the setting more than made up for it.

I had to resist the temptation to pull out those little tacks holding up the posters!

I really enjoyed this day in Shimokita though it was very full and tiring. I hope you enjoyed my account of it! Thanks for reading.

See you next time,

Sapphira

Disney Ambassador Hotel and Ikspiari

 Hello dear readers! How are you?

Here's the second part of my Disney trip, which is really the first, because I took these on the day I arrived at Maihama.

We checked into the Ambassador Hotel, which is decorated in Art Deco style with Disney motifs, and went shopping in Ikspiari, a mall that is connected to Tokyo Disney resort.

Here's my outfit for that day:

Hair accessory: Handmade

Blouse: Vintage

Jumperskirt: Emily Temple Cute

Others: Offbrand

Here's a close-up of my hair accessory.

The ribbon is from Laduree! It's so pretty, I had to use it for something.

This is the view from our room. It's lovely isn't it? And you can see the volcano at Disney Sea in the distance! It was much to cold to enjoy the swimming pool though.

We had tea in the hotel cafe. These were some of the desserts on offer.

I had the smoked salmon and cheese pancake set. It was really good! Plus the Mickey-shaped cheese was too cute <3

I ordered the Alice dessert to follow. Inside the cup is Earl Gray flavoured mousse. Delicious! 

We had dinner in the Rainforest Cafe in Ikspiari, and I took a picture with my lookalike. Ikspiari is like a little bit of Disneyland, there's all sorts of fun things there. There were animatronic elephants, butterflies and monkeys inside the restaurant!

This was also in Ikspiari. It's pretty as you can see!

There were all sorts of funny things going on in that big mural behind me, like this lady with a note for 'Big Daddy Iizuka'. I don't know who Big Daddy Iizuka is but he sounds scary!

Have a look at it if you visit, it really is strange!

Oh, and there was a concert being given by school children outside the Disney store. It was so adorable! The four couples at the front were doing a little dance where the boys gave the girls flowers. So cute! I think English boys would be much too bashful to do something like that, which is silly of them but there you go.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Thank you for looking and see you again soon.

Sapphira

xxxx