Harajuku Fashion Walk and dinner with Misako Aoki!

Hello dear readers! How are you?

I really need to do my Japanese homework... but I just want to post about the wonderful day I had on Sunday!

I attended the Harajuku Fashion Walk for the first time. People who love Harajuku style gather together and take a walk through the streets of Harajuku. Everyone's outfits were wonderful, and there was a great variety of styles. People from all over the world participated!

Your can see a report on the Japanese Streets website here:

http://www.japanesestreets.com/reports/1866/11th-harajuku-fashion-walk

Please watch the video, there's a great bit with eveyone's fancy shoes walking by! Look out for mine and my friends~

After the walk we took pictures together near Meiji Shrine, and then took purikura <3

We have divided into light and dark! Don't worry, we're all friends really.

 

Somehow I always take pictures by this bridge, and it always looks like it's snowing!

It was my first time to take purikura with them. I'm sure we'll do it a lot more in the future!

Long live Harajuku fashion!

That's plenty of excitement for one day, isn't it? However, in life in Tokyo always offers more excitement than usual!

My friend had invited the number one lolita, Miss Misako Aoki, to dinner. Kind friend that she is, she invited me too! Four of us went to a Singaporean restaurant in Ebisu.

Three beautiful ladies and me! And one handsome merlion too. 

Misako seemed to like the Singaporean food, and she said that she loves English scones! So both halves of me were very happy. 

Afterwards we did a little shopping, had tea and took purikura.

 Spending the evening with Misako was wonderful. She has travelled to many places, so I really enjoyed hearing about her visits overseas. My Japanese is so poor compared to my friends' though, I was a bit embarrassed. But she was very patient.

This first month in Japan has been full of precious memories. I have met so many nice people and gained friends from all over the world. Coming to Tokyo has been even better than I imagined! I wonder what's waiting for me in the future?

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

Live at Sumire no Tenmado

Hello dear readers!

How are you? My cough took a turn for the worse last week, but now I'm feeling much improved. 

In fact, I feel wonderful, because last night I saw Kokusyoku Sumire perform at their cafe in Shinjuku!

Not only that, but I had cute curry and a cocktail called 赤いバイオリン(Red Violin).

And I bought their new album, and got it signed!

It contained cassis, ginger ale and something else yummy that I forgot!

My curry has a face! Look at the cute coasters too~

That evening was like a dream. Yuka and Sachi are so pretty, and wonderfully talented, and kind and friendly too! Sumire no Tenmado is tiny so the performance was very personal. I was quite amazed by Yuka's voice, it's so clear and powerful! Sachi's violin was beautiful, and she looked adorable playing the recorder. Who would have guessed a recorder could sound so lovely? My mother still hasn't recovered from the trauma of the days of my recorder practice.

Sorry Xin Yu, I stole your photo! Thank you so much for inviting me~

I'll never forget this experience! I hope I'll meet them again sometime.

Dear readers, do you like Kokusyoku Sumire? Have you seen them perform? I'd like to hear from you!

An impulse buy!

Hello readers! Hope you're all well today. I'm a bit sad, because I had plans to go to Disneyland as my birthday treat (my birthday's on Tuesday) but I had to cancel them because I have a really awful cough :(

Anyway, I'll cheer myself up by posting about nice things! Last week I met up with Emma, another English lolita currently living in Japan. We spent the day in Shinjuku, going to Marui One and Takashimaya. Of course we spent most of the time on the lolita floor of Marui. It's summer sales now!

In Takashimaya, we checked out all the wonderful things in the craft section. There were fabrics, felting kits, resin jewellery kits, all sorts of things! It makes you want to be more creative. I feel like making some jewellery actually, but I wonder if I'll get around to it.  

We stopped to have a drink in Takashimaya. You might have noticed I cut my fringe extremely short; it wasn't entirely on purpose! I think it can look a little harsh, so today I placed my half lashes very low to create a drooping effect. I think it makes one's expression more gentle. Oh, and I wore my straw bonnet. Japan feels so safe, I think I could wear a bonnet everyday if I wanted!

Emma is so cute! She looks very fresh and pretty in these light colours. I hope we'll go shopping again soon. It might be a dangerous move though- on this day I tried on IW's Germaine onepiece in navy in the KERA shop. I thought it looked so fancy and elegant on the hanger, but I wasn't sure if it would look nice on me or not. Emma said "I think you should try it." So I did, and it seemed to fit very well. Then she said "I think you should get it!" so I did! Whoops! 

I don't regret it though, it's a lovely dress and I don't have a party dress apart from my Juliette bisque doll.  The back neckline is particularly lovely, so mature and gorgeous! Besides that the longer length is very good for me. I'm planning to wear it for the D tour final next month, so please look out for it then!

Here is today's coordinate, country and classical combined:

~Outfit Rundown~

Bonnet: Handmade

Cutsew: axes femme

Wrust cuffs: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Jumperskirt, bag: Metamorphose

Socks: Mikazuki Momoko

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

平塚の七夕まつり~Tanabata festival in Hiratsuka~

Hello readers! How are you today?

Last Saturday it was the 7th of July. This day is the Japanese star festival called Tanabata!

There's a romantic legend about Tanabata, which involves Orihime and Hikoboshi, a couple who lived on opposite sides of the Amanogawa river. Long long ago, Orihime spent her days weaving beautiful fabric for her father to wear. She liked to please her father, but she was rather sad because she never had time to meet anyone to fall in love with. Her father felt sorry for her, so he introduced her to Hikoboshi, who herded cows on the other side of the river. The two fell in love right away and were duly married, but since they both neglected their work after getting married, Orihime's father was angry and forbade them to see each other anymore. However, Orihime begged her father to let the couple be reunited, so he agreed that on the seventh day of the seventh month they would be allowed to meet again.

This was the first time I experienced a Japanese festival, and I really enjoyed it! It was very busy in the streets of Hiratsuka, with a real party atmosphere. There were decorations put up by various shops, like the one above (it's by Mos Burger!), lots of food stalls and many people wearing yukata (summer kimono), including me!

It's by no means perfect, but I put it on pretty much entirely by myself including tying the obi, so I'm quite proud. I had a really good teacher though, my friend from Kanagawa who I was visiting on this day. She advised me not to wear geta if you're not used to it, it might hurt terribly and ruin your day, and besides that many Japanese girls do not. I matched my bag and hair accessory to my sandals to make it more balanced. Next time for my hair, I'll try an updo with braids.

I look extremely derp in this picture, but I wanted to show you some of the festival food. We had this (slightly pickled cucumber on a stick), Hiratsuka curry-pan (deep fried bread with curry inside- very yummy!), takoyaki, yakisoba.... lots of nice things! There was also some entertainment on the main stage, dancing and so on. We caught a bit of hula dancing!

It was so much fun, and I really enjoyed wearing yukata! There are various summer festivals throughout the season, so I hope to go to another in a month or so. 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! If you come to Japan, please try to catch a festival! I'm sure you will enjoy it, and it's something you can only experience here. I think you should try wearing yukata too!

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

下北沢 Shimokitazawa

Good afternoon readers!

How are you? My school started this week, and I felt an earthquake for the first time! I thought at first the boy behind me was kicking my seat, then I noticed that everything else in the room was shaking too. It's quite different to how I imagined; rather than the earth itself moving, it feels like someone has picked you up and is shaking you about! I was a bit frightened, but it was only a tiny one. At least I'll be more prepared next time.

Also, I got some cards from modelling and talent agencies... but I think learning Japanese takes more priority at the moment! These type of things can sometimes be scams, or the wrong sort of modelling, so until I feel more settled here it's best to be careful. I sure many foreigners in Tokyo get approached for the same thing, so if it happens to you, please take care.

However, if a lolita brand asks me I'm saying yes for sure!

(Just in case some designer is reading this....)

Today I wanted to share some pictures I took with my friend in Shimokitazawa. This neighbourhood is great for used clothing shops, and there's a branch of my favourite 300yen shop Mikazuki Momoko. It's also home to Grand Bazaar Lolita, which has lovely second-hand Jane Marple, Emikyu and Juliette, as well as bits and pieces of other loli brands.

Here's a rather washed-out picture of me wearing shiro loli outside the shop:

~Outfit Rundown~

Onepiece, ribbon: Handmade

Bag: Metamorphose

Necklace: Innocent World

I just realised how funny the jeans on the right are! The lolita section of Grand Bazaar is only a small (but lovely) part of the shop, the lower floor has brands like Journal Standard, axes femme, franche lippee and sometimes Jane Marple Dans le Salon (although that also lives upstairs with the other JM stuff). There's also a mens floor and some higher end brands.

The purikura near the station is only 300yen! I really like this machine called "Milk Beauty". Magically I became 10 years old, with super-fair skin! My friend wrote "Who do you think we are" as this machine completely transformed her face... I think the real one is better, but this is also very cute! Since it was so cheap, we also tried "Lady in Tokyo" but I prefer the other one.

Have you ever seen this cleaning robot?

It's sooo cute! It scoots around the floor by itself, polishing as it goes. It made the floor of this arcade very shiny indeed. Good work, cleaning robot!

You can find Grand Bazaar Lolita's homepage here:

http://www.grandbazaar.jp/lolita/

I hope you enjoyed this post! See you next time~

ベルリン International lolita meet up at The National Museum of Western Art

Hello readers! How are you?

The lolita meet up yesterday was great fun. I met a lot of new and lovely people and I got to see an old friend again too!

We took a group picture in front of the gates of Hell.... it was fancy enough to make a fairly good background! Everyone wore quite varied outfits, it was very pretty to see on this nice sunny day. 

There was a lot to see in the exhibition, which consisted of pieces on loan from the Berlin State Museums. There was a Vermeer and a Rembrandt, and a lot of very nice religious wood carvings which I'm quite fond of. The most beautiful painting in my opinion was Ricci's Bathsheba, I could have looked at it forever! I'd like to see the permanent collection some time.

Outside we came across this rather ponderous gentleman.... 

~Outfit Rundown~

Hat: corgi-corgi

Blouse: Anna House

JSK: Jane Marple

Parasol: Innocent Wold

Bag: Metamorphose

Others:Second hand, offbrand

I finally met Aviva, after admiring her on LJ for so long! She's beautiful, and very sweet.

It really was an international meet up, with lolitas from Europe, America and Asia. Emma (next to me in Angelic Pretty) is also from England, and Xin Yu (in Juliette et Justine) is my friend from Singapore!

Finally, let's have a shoe shot. 

Thank you, everyone, for a lovely day! And I hope you didn't mind me pinching some of your photos from facebook. Hope to see you again soon!

Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you come to Tokyo, please join our lolita meet up!  

Sapphira

xxxx