Poupée Mécanique

九月に東京へいきます！ドールショウであいましょうね！

Plane tickets: check
Hotel deposit: check

I was sooo lucky with the tickets, amongst all the £800 deals I found one for £577 with Alitalia! The only “catch” is that I end up staying more than I planned, two whole weeks. But how could that ever be a bad thing? The day after my return I have to enroll at uni. Well that was close!

I’ll be staying at the little Koenji guesthouse again, I think they gave me the same room as last time, up on the roof, where I can watch the trains go by.

Now I just have to prepare for Doll show. I will display my U-noa dolls from my Dollybird “Alice and the Twin Mad Hatters” spread and sell some outfits for Blythe. I also need to start preparing for Blythecon UK in October, but there’s a little more time for that.

I’m looking to book tickets to Tokyo for September so I can attend Doll Show 29, but they’re extremely expensive at the moment! I usually pay about £550 return and now the cheapest I could find was over £700. There must have been some promotion over there because the flights back to London are packed. Now all I can do is keep checking constantly online if something cheap pops up, otherwise I’m not going at all. :(

The only cheap option is with Turkish airlines but it involves an overnight stay in Istanbul. If I had company I could treat this as a little adventure but I’m on my own…so no.

The booth lottery results were revealed yesterday and I scored a double table for the next Doll Show on September 12. Not sure if I can come up with the money until then but I’ll try to go!

It would be nice to visit Tokyo one last time before university starts.

We met this beautiful Lady Gaga cosplayer in Harajuku this past Sunday. This is the spot where all the lolitas, cosplayers etc gather on Sundays to show off and be photographed, but there’s less and less every time I visit. This time there were only 3 lolitas and they were all old men. O__O

Takeshita dori has some new decoration.

Laforet is my favourite department shop because it hosts small japanese designers and alternative fashion instead of big international brands. You can find big lolita brands like Angelic Pretty and Alice and the Pirates in the basement as well as Jane Marple and Emily Temple cute in the upper floors. I always check out Hare that make nice simple but elegant clothes for men (didn’t find anything special), and Gadget Grow that do really great knits and mostly work with black. I got two long cardigans from there. I also went by Milkboy and was thrilled to find a remaining pair of these shoes from last season for a really reduced price. This brand is VERY expensive, the original price of these was higher than my Vivienne Westwood rocking horse shoes.

I always regret missing out on this wonderful shirt and suit.

This time they had a very cute black polo shirt with a polka dot bib but it was too short on me. Oh well, still so happy about the shoes.

And what’ a visit to Harajuku without a visit to Kiddyland?

Kapibara-san!

Mameshibaaaa

Aleister with Totoro

Studio Ghibli. Did you know that despite the H in the name, the japanese call it “Jiburi”?

Rilakkuma!

The room I stayed in was in Koenji’s red light district haha. I don’t think these were exactly brothels next to us though, probably hostess bars.

The house was very Tokyo style. Everything was tiny and narrow and the staircase was so steep! I couldn’t believe how well they utilised every little corner.

My room was up in the roof, almost right next to the train tracks. Tokyo romance!

I really loved staying here, it was the next best thing to living in a real house.

Another self proclaimed idol haha! This hot number was performing on a Saturday night right outside Studio Alta in Shinjuku – MAJOR busy spot! Props to her for the courage, I have to say. She wasn’t even asking for money or anything, just performing. I love Tokyo. <3

The next day we bumped into her again in Koenji!

I love Akihabara!

I dragged Yu and Natsuko with me to a hentai shop to get Idoloid – I’ve never seen so much boobage in my life! They nearly gave me nightmares.

There’s a building opposite the station with a few doll shops, Azone, Volks, the above hentai shop etc. I went to have a wee in one of the toilets and two guys were having loud sex in one of the booths. I’ll spare you the details but it sounded very kinky. Guys were coming and going, and nobody was blinking an eye.

Idols in Japan are “talents” that do a bit of everything – singing, acting, modeling, TV, etc. They release CDs, photobooks, DVDs, play in ads and so on and make loads of cash thanks to japanese consumerism. I’m not sure when this whole thing started but it probably peaked in the 80s and is still going strong, with quality steadily declining. Nowadays you don’t even have to sing right as long as you’re cute, people will buy your photobooks and merchandise anyway.

As we were walking down the street, this girl literally turned around the corner dressed like this and started posing for the crowd that immediately formed.

Natsuko said she’s probably not even a real idol but probably keeps a blog where she takes donations in order to appear in public. She said these girls can make up to $100.000 in one day. O_______O

I managed to snap a few pics in the Mandarake before my camera died for the day. Taking photos in shops in Japan is usually prohibited so must be done with discretion. ;)

Nearby this cute sight was taking place. They release fish in the water here, so people can enjoy fishing.

これはぼくのいちばんすきなレストランです。たまごていしょくがだーーーいすきです！＾＿＾

This is my favourite tempura place in Koenji. Their special is egg tempura, served over rice with a soy based sauce, one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever tasted! The place only fits about 7 people so usually you have to wait a while for a seat.

I realised that 90% of my pics were u-noa. ^_^ Can you tell I’m in love with them?

Unfortnately I didn’t think of keeping every artist’s name, so I can’t properly caption these.

Starting off with this wonderful U-noa Zero Latea! I love Latea but I don’t like her huge boobage, though I have to say it is not noticeable here. I like fitted clothing however so it would be a problem for me.

This was one of my favourites things at the whole show. Amazing outfits, dolls and setup!

I was especially enamored with him. :3 The first time I’ve ever liked bunny ears.

This display and L-bi are in the latest U-noa freak.

Really beautiful work, love the colours.

This is Sist right? She looks so much like a Volks dolls here.

Freie /These dolls appeared in the latst U-noa Freak

This made me laugh – Arashi cosplay!!!