The sleepy cats of Nekorobi

Hello dear readers!

Regular readers may remember my visit to Nekorobi cat cafe earlier this year (click the name to go to their homepage). During the summer hoilday I decided to go and pay the cats another visit and see how they're doing.

Everyone had grown! And everyone was very sleepy that day....

A bit like Postman Pat's cat!

Flat out....

really flat out!

A disgraceful pose for such a pretty cat! Still cute though~

Look at that pudgy cheek!

Haruki is smiling! 

Awake and snooty.

Burt looks grumpy even while sleeping.

I like him, I think he's got a yanki attitude! 

I really enjoyed my afternoon with the cats and I'm already looking forward to my next visit!

Before I go back to revising for my Japanese exam, here's a snap of my outfit that day:

Blouse: Anna House

JSK: Innocent World

Cuffs: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Hope you liked the photos! See you next time.

Sapphira

xxxx

Robot Kitty in Omotesando Hills

Hello everyone! How are you enjoying the weekend? I'm going to see D tomorrow! Can't wait!

Today I'm going to show you some photos I took at the Robot Kitty exhibition at Omotesando Hills in Harajuku.

I didn't know this exhibition was on, but I'm glad I chanced upon it!

In this exhibition, Hello Kitty has been re-designed as a robot, and many celebrities were asked to dream up outfits for her. For example.....

Kishidan Robot Kitty!

Colourful Robot Kitty by Sebastian Masuda (founder of 6%DOKIDOKI)

Baby's contribution was a bit.... unexpected?

I knew this flamboyant robo-cat must be the work of someone special!

Sure enough, the designer is IZAM.

Yuko Yamaguchi, the designer of Hello Kitty since 1980, was present at the exhibition. She was wearing Emily Temple Cute!

She spent a long time signing things for this lady, who was obviously a big Kitty fan! She was wearing a Kitty yukata, with a Kitty obi, Kitty handbag, and had an endless array of Kitty good to be signed.

What do you think of Hello Kitty? I used to like her a lot when I was 12 or so, but these days my favourite characters are Jiji (Ghibli), Duffy (Disney) and Kutusita nyanko (are they more mature perhaps?). Rilakkuma has taken over from Kitty as Japan's most popular character, or so it seems to me. Still, I don't think she'll ever be forgotten!

Here's my casual coordinate for that day:

Cutsew by an another angelus (f.i.n.t) and JSK by Metamorphose

No fringe!

I just pinned it to once side, it's not gone forever. I really love my new cutsew from f.i.n.t! There was a choice of dusky pink or lilac, pink would probably be easier to coordinate but the lilac was too pretty to resist! I like how it picks up the purple roses in the print of this JSK, and in fact it makes it look like a onepiece. 

~I'm making a new tag for f.i.n.t because I know I won't be able to stay away from there XD~

Sapphira

xxxx

HATTIFNATT café

Hello everyone!

Do you like Mont Blanc? It's a type of chestnut-based dessert, I suppose it is French but it's very popular in Japan. Recently I had the best Mont Blanc ever!

The marron on top was really pretty and tasty too! And the base was so light and crispy! Besides that it  tasted wonderfully fresh. 

I had it at HATTIFNATT, a cafe in Koenji. The interior is all wooden, and you reach the top floor by climbing a ladder! It made me think of Uncle Alp's house, with a very natural, quaint and relaxing atmosphere. It seemed very popular with lolitas too, a few pairs and groups came in while I was there.

I was really fascinated by the adorable sugar cubes they had! Each was decorated with a botanical drawing. I don't take sugar with my tea so I took the cubes they gave me home to decorate my shelves. I also got an edelweiss and dandelion one! Japanese for dandelion is タンポポ　(tanpopo),  how cute! The English name is cute too I think.

Thanks to my friend for snapping this lovely picture of me looking like a toothless hag. Can you see the  hand-knitted doilies? So adorable!

For more information about HATTIFNATT please check their homepage:

http://www.hattifnatt.jp/

Please click the buildings to take a tour of the cafes. The one on the left is the Koenji one and the one on the right is the Kichijoji one.

If you visit, I recommend the Mont Blanc!

Sapphira

xxxx

Kiyosumi Teien

Hello dear readers! It's a rainy day here in Tokyo. I hope that means it's going to be cooler for a few days!

I recently visited a Japanese garden recommended to me by my friend liemzie.

It was really beautiful!

There's a big pond in the middle of the garden, and stepping stones in the shallow parts. The building you can see is a tea house! It was so nice to be surrounded by nature for once. I'm still getting used to living in a big city and I really miss trees and plants and little birds. There are a lot of singing cicadas and giant ravens near my house but it's not quite the same!

Here's my outfit for that day:

Onepiece, bag: Metamorphose

Parasol: Innocent World

Others: Offbrand

There's a little shop selling food for the carp that live in the pond, so I bought some. It seemed that the pigeons and turtles were also very fond of this food and lots of them gathered to try to grab a bite! 

This one even crawled out of the water and chased us for food!

I had a lovely time at the gardens! Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

Look what I bought!

Hello all! How are you?

Today's post is very materialistic. I always enjoy seeing people's "haul posts" on their blogs, but I don't really do them myself. However, the other day it rained and I decided to take pictures of some of the things I've bought since I started living in Tokyo. There are lots of cute things here as you can imagine! Nonethless I think I've been quite restrained. See what you think*

Angelic Pretty pass case, pink hair ornament for wearing with yukata, rose and pearl bracelet and mini rose ring from Closet Child, rosary from Clare's.

The pass case is my first item from Angelic Pretty! I really love this biscuit series, and the colours actually give it quite a classical taste. It's nice to have cute items you can use everyday!

Socks from 3 Coins and Tabio (navy with flowers)

Ankle socks are a summer saviour, and there are so many cute ones around! I especially love ones with a ruffle like the ones in the middle, and the transparent ones give a bit more of an elegant look. 

Germaine onepiece and Versailles Rose jumperskirt by Innocent World, button-front onepiece by Pink House

I already wrote about getting the Germaine onepiece, I still love it! The chiffon is so light and fluffy and the neckline is so pretty. I really fancied a floral jumperskirt for summer and I found this IW one in Closet Child. It's the long version, which is good for me and I really like the gorgeous floral print and fleur de lys lace. I think it's very versatile too.

Close up of the bodice

 The Pink House onepiece I found in a second hand shop in Koenji, near my apartment. There were a lot of Pink House and Wonderful World items there, I got quite excited! Readers, do you know this brand? I think many of you will, it's a natural kei brand that was founded in the 1970s, and without it we would not have lolita fashion! 

Pictures on egl community:

http://egl.livejournal.com/10299064.html

 I'm very happy to own something from Pink House now. I really like the elbow length sleeves and full skirt, it makes this onepiece so ladylike. The print looks very Kaneko Isao in style, but I don't know enough about Pink House to estimate when it was made. I think I will do more research into this brand. 

I would like to look at more (old) items from Pink House, does anyone know of physical stores in Tokyo specialising in selling Pink House second-hand? 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Sapphira

xxxx

*Actually I bought a bit more stuff of course, but it was hard to photograph everything nicely!

Sakizo exhibiton and uchimizu in Harajuku

Hello everyone! How are you?

Yesterday was a really fun day! I went with my friend Aviva to the Sakizo exhibition held at 月夜のサカス, a cafe in Akihabara.

I really like Sakizo's work, it's so gorgeous and detailed! There were about 16 pieces on display, pairs of girls and boys, plus a few sets of deco false nails. I didn't know that Sakizo had drawn boys, but they are just as lovely as the girls! I'm afraid we were not permitted to take photos of the exhibition, save for this amazing cosplay:

The photo doesn't do it justice! It was remarkably like the original illustration, right down to the details of the skirt lining.

They were selling Sakizo books at the cafe, it was hard to decide which one to get but I chose this one in the end:

The pie-ears made my mind up! The girls in this book are all wearing outfits inspired by various desserts (the cover is apple pie, of course). I also got a postcard for spending over 1000yen, plus the free flyer with the perfume bottle on. 

Now, sweets and teas and perfumes are all very well, but I think Sakizo should do a series of British food next. For instance, Sunday roast, full english breakfast, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, scotch eggs etc. I may write her  a letter.

You can find out more about Sakizo here:

http://sakizo.jp/

Aviva had heard about an event going on in Harajuku that afternoon, so we headed over there to join in.

We unintentionally had matching shoes and socks!

The event was called uchimizu,  have you heard of it before? I hadn't! Uchimizu is where people gather to sprinkle water on the streets or at a temple in order to clean and cool the area. The one in Harajuku is co-organised by Angelic Pretty, so Maki and Asuka were there, along with models RinRin, Chikage, and Kanzaki Rin. 

RinRin's coord is so cute and summery!

There were lots of lolis in attendance, mostly in Angelic Pretty and some in Putumayo. Aviva and I were the only classical girls! There were also people in yukata and some in 'normal' (I don't know what else to say?!) clothes.

After the speeches were over, it was time to cool down Harajuku! We all took one of these buckets and set to work. 

AP girls looking perfect! We had a chance to chat with RinRin afterwards. It was the first time I have met her. She is truly lovely, both in looks and personality. 

I'm so glad we went to this event, it really was fun. The atmosphere was so happy and wonderful, and it did indeed cool you down! As well as that, it's nice to take part in these old traditions and see them kept alive. 

Dear readers, have you done uchimizu before? Would you like to someday?

Thanks for reading,

Sapphira

xxxx

PS: One of the other participants asked if we do uchimizu in England, I said no but when I talked to my father later he said that many years ago there used to be a water cart that would go around at night watreing the streets so that in the morning they would be fresh and cool! So we did have something  a little similar in England, at least.