Japan 2020 Highlights: Tansuya

A somewhat unexpected highlight of the Japan trip was shopping at Tansuya, a secondhand kimono chain. It started while we were in Tokyo when we went to the branch at Nippori, the fabric district, since I had read that they had lots of cheap, damaged or worn kimonos for sale very cheap. Indeed they did, and we actually visited this shop twice.

There was also one in Shinjuku Station, which we did not visit, since we thought only the Nippori store had the cheap kimonos. We were wrong...

...because we went to Kyoto, and in the mall right near our hotel we discovered another Tansuya! So we added more kimono and obi and other pretty things to our purchases.

And then we moved onto Hiroshima, and I just happened to be wandering around on my own while James got a much needed massage when I spotted, you guessed it, another Tansuya! If memory serves me right, this is where I bought the brown haori.

To make things even more ridiculous when we went to a particular Book Off in Osaka we passed a Tansuya on the way, where James found the most stunning furisode and we bought way too many obijime.

We thought it was hilarious that we'd stumbled into a Tansuya every city we travelled too. But it did get a bit excessive when we walked past another one in Namba Station on our way to transfer to the airport train ^__^

I never thought we'd own such lovely things as the kimonos we bought at Tansuya. As we were on a budget we only shopped their cheapest items, most of which are damaged in some way. But the quality of Japanese secondhand items hold true even with kimono - most of the damage is tiny snags or stains, or at worst, yellowed lining. The garments and still whole and still amazingly beautiful.

There was also a lot to admire in these stores, like the vegetable patterned kimono above! James even found a gorgeous kimono raincoat thing, which is really cool and not what we thought we'd be getting at a kimono shop. And he got himself a very attractive red and black haori, which he look amazing in!

As you'll have seen in my coord posts, I have been experimenting with wa lolita, and James has started using some kimonos in his photoshoots. We still need to acquire the proper undergarments and such if we want to dress me or models properly, but for now it's just been great fun to have bought such beautiful clothes and be able to wear them in non-traditional ways.

Japan 2020 Highlights: Shining Moon Tokyo

I like Sailor Moon. Like, a lot. My first tattoo was Sailor Moon's Crisis Moon Compact. It was my first anime, and back when I couldn't actually watch the anime in high school there was a website where I read literally all the scripts for the original anime. Sailor Moon matters to me.

So when I realised the we could go to the Shining Moon dinner show while we were in Tokyo, you bet that I stalked their website until I could book tickets! And then the waiting happened, during which time I watched lots of YouTube videos about the show. To say I was excited would be a massive, massive understatement.

Also while we were planning the trip James surprised me by buying us a pair of Luna and Artemis beanies! So cute, so warm, so weeby ^__^ And relevant to the story a little later on!

After I started writing this post I realised that unfortunately the venue has closed, so I won't talk about the booking process or getting to the venue or anything. Instead, prepare for some gushing, because there will be gushing...

Alright - let's go back in time ^__^

When we arrived at the venue, we were greeted by a staff member at the door who confirmed out reservation and took our drink orders. Tickets came with dinner and a drink, but we had to specify our meal when we booked. I found it a lot harder to choose a drink but in the end went with a pink lemonade, which was delicious.

Then we entered the venue, which was in a basement area. The stairs to go down were decorated with gorgeous hanging pretty things!

And then we were there, and right in front of us was the giant moon I'd seen in pictures. We were greeted by another staff member, who took us through into the theatre and showed us to our seats.

We had booked "A" seats rather than "S" seats, but I have to say our seats were just as good. The S seats were right in front of the stage, and there was a tiered section behind them that was the A section, as well as in an area to the right which is where the costumes were displayed. It was a quiet night though, so our seats were right at the very front of the A section so I was very happy. A bit cheaper and just as good!

At the tables were pretty pink menus, which of course deserved a photo. I was just so excited to be there! I was wearing the Artemis beanie James had bought me, but he'd exchanged his Luna one for a tiara and looked very, very cute. So of course, we took selfies ^__^

But seriously, I was bouncing in my seat I was so excited. Though the house lights were still on the stage looked shiny and amazing already and I was just so ready to see the show!

Our food and drinks arrived very shortly after we sat down, and James got lots of nice attention from the staff over his tiara! I didn't understand what one lady was saying to him exactly (gotta love not speaking the local language), but I heard the word "Serenity" as she gestured to his head. All the niceness made us both even more happy!

The food was nothing to write home about, but the drinks were delicious! I also appreciated that the food was served on a plastic plate on top of the ceramic plate, because we actually got to take the plates home. What a great souvenir!

Speaking of souvenirs, there was a gift shop upstairs from the theatre. I was determined not to buy anything but...well...you'll see...

Before too long, meal time was over and it was show time!

It's almost impossible to describe this show so I'm not even going to try too hard. It was amazing. For a small venue and small cast it was so well done and featured a variety of styles of dance and acrobatic type performances. Nothing was not amazing, and I have to say the ensemble cast was particularly amazing. All the main cast were too, of course, but I was just so impressed with the "background" performers as well.

It was exciting and nostalgic and so well done. I really, really hope that after the pandemic is over they can re-open because if you're a Sailor Moon fan you really ought to watch this show!

Something that was a lot of fun is during the show sometimes the performers would go through the audience. And, so cute, one of the ensemble cast noticed my beanie and made an adorable cat ear gesture to me ^__^

The show finished with Moonlight Densetsu which the audience was allowed to film and take photos during, which as you can see, I did. And then I was surprised because the house lights came up and the main cast wen through the audience to say hello and pose for photos at each table!

Most of my photos came out super blurry, but I'm glad I got this cute one of Mars and Venus because oh my goodness, the Venus was such a wonderful ham of a performer. So cute! James and I also got more barely-understood compliments on our headwear, which was lovely - all compliments are better from the Sailor Scouts!

And then the show was over, leaving me a happy, tired, emotional mess. After sitting a little longer to recover we went to check out the costumes. They were so gorgeous to see up close! I did take photos of all of them but in the interests of some kind of brevity I'm only sharing my favourite ^__^

And we also went to check out the gift shop. Because yes, I had changed my mind, and when I told James you could gets photos of the cast in costume he encouraged me to get them. So I did!

On our way out a staff member was available to take photos for us on the moon, and then it was time to ascend the stairs back into the regular world. Back at the hotel I took photos of our souvenirs, and for the whole rest of the trip I don't think a day went by where we didn't talk about how great this show was!

Writing this post has made me all nostalgic and excited again. I really hope that this show can open up again because it was a really wonderful experience. And if it's fated to have only existed for a short period of time, I've very grateful that I was able to see it in that time!

Japan 2020 Highlights: Love Live

So if you follow me on Facebook you will know that I am very much into Love Live. If you don’t and you didn’t, well, you totally should and now you do!

I didn’t go into the trip intending to buy quite so much LL merch. In fact, I initially swore off buying any figures at all! But well, things happened and in the end I got quite a haul and that I’m very happy with!

See, the sort of things I thought I’d mostly get was a few keychains and gachapon thingies, like this stuff!

The Dia keychain was from a gacha, as were the two thing at the bottom, but I picked out all the other keychains. The Rin ones were just too cute (and big!) to resist, and I’ve cosplayed that Eli. Technically we did get the Eli for James’s camera bag, but he changed his mind and put her on my handbag instead, so she’s mine now! I got these all around the place - some in Tokyo, some in Kyoto, some in Hiroshima.

In Tokyo, specifically in a store in Akihabara on the fourth floor with the steepest and most deadly stairs I’ve ever encountered, I discovered a new type of collectible - towels. At about $10AUD I couldn’t pass this up! It’s the perfect size for a gym towel, and I love making that part of my life nerdy. James and I spent the rest of the trip looking for other suitably sized weeb towels. He found a BNHA one and I found…

...yep! Another LL one! James has already taken this one to the gym, where he was already the cutest person in attendance but is now even more cute!

I was pretty well behaved in Tokyo aka the first half of the trip, but when we got to Kyoto there was an anime goods store quite near our hotel which we visited more than once. And James is a fabulous enabler which meant that after quite a long time of me saying “no” to a lot of pretty and reasonably priced figures, I finally said yes to this Hanayo and Rin pair.

I am actually selling a Love Wing Bell Rin that I bought last year in Japan - I love her but she was kind of annoying on my desk and I was trying to minimise stuff. But since by this point it was obvious that we were going home with a bit of a figure collection (James kept finding amazing cheap things!) when I saw these two I finally gave in. They are so cute and honestly this is one of my favourite moments from the original LL series, so no regrets.

Now I have to confess to a lapse of memory. I thought I also bought Snow Halation Hanayo at that same store in Kyoto, but I think I actually put her back to get that pair. Regardless, with some encouragement from James, I spent the rest of the trip buying as many figures as I could (for under 800yen apiece though, had to be cheap!) in this Snow Halation series. I ended up with six out of nine.

I don’t even really like Snow Halation!

But with the arches and the dynamic poses these figures just look really cool, and it was really fun to track down the different girls. I can see why people get so into collecting full sets of things. My set will remain incomplete until the next time we go to Japan though, I checked out prices online and that’s a big nope from me.

I also grabbed this Mijuku Dreamer Mari. This is one of my favourite costume sets and something I want to cosplay eventually so I finally gave in and got her.

And then, the crowning achievement of my haul, the μ's →NEXT LoveLive! 2014 ~ENDLESS PARADE~ Day 2 live DVD which I found in I think the last anime store we visited in Osaka. I’d spent the trip trying to find any of the live DVDs for an affordable price and had failed up until that point, so I was really happy to find this one! I’ve already watched the first disc and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s really gotten me excited for dancing again, which I’m very happy about.

I love every single item I got in this haul, though I think I’m most happy about the DVD and oddly enough the towels. I just like useful things!

Are any of my readers fans of Love Live? If so, tell me your favourite thing about it!

Japan 2020 Highlights: Lolita

I am back from Japan! It was a wonderful but thoroughly exhausting trip. And, to be honest, I've realised that I don't actually want to do a blow-by-blow blog series about this trip. Instead I'm going to be sharing a few highlight posts focused on some of the most noteworthy aspects and experiences of the trip. Starting with, of course, the lolita side of things!

My lolita shopping this time around was actually rather modest, especially compared to last year's Tokyo trip!  This was not entirely through lack of trying, but ultimately I just didn’t find much that suited me and my budget. Still, as you can see below I did still come home richer in lolita than I left!

In the end I bought two cutsews, a haori, a bolero, a bracelet, some hairclips and a headband. Because I’m me, here’s some ramblings about every single thing, starting with the small bits.

Smallest thing first, I bought this bracelet at Ikebukuro Closet Child. I have the same one in pink x white and red x white, so knew that I get good wear out of this colourway. Unfortunately the little ribbon bow came untied and fell off and I decided not to put it back on. Still cute though!

These Hello Kitty clips came from Don Quijote, and they had a whole bunch of other Sanrio ones as well. But I exercised restraint and only got one set. I did spend a while debating between these ones with pink bows or a set with the traditional red bows but James suggested I get these ones so I did.

When in Akihabara James and I went to the maid cafe Mai Dreaming, which was ridiculously cute and fun. They loved James’s Sailor Moon knuckle tattoos, and even put on Sailor Moon music because of us! As part of the package we picked, we got to take home a souvenir each. James picked a keychain, which started his camera bag collection, and I chose this little bear headband! When I thought we may be going to Disney Sea I was thinking of getting some Duffy ears there but hey, this is a great alternative! Not super high quality but they’re cute and I love getting wearable mementos.

Moving onto the actual clothing items, I got this cute Nile Perch bolero from Shinjuku Closet Child. A bit frivolous for sure, but it was very cheap and cute and definitely gives me a good sweet outerwear option which I was very much lacking. It’s a bit snug at the moment but oh well.

I must admit, however, that the trend of buying things that don’t really fit has continued to be a trend for me. What can I say? I see cheap things, get excited, and just buy them! Case in point, this Angelic Pretty cutsew from Osaka Closet Child. It’s super adorable but I’m 90% sure it’s going to go straight to my sales folder. Not only am I too big for it right now, I think it’s just too short in the torso and the sleeves for me no matter what.

This Axes Femme cutsew, bought at the same time, is also too small but I know that Axes Femme fits me okay when I’m a smaller dress size. It’s not an exciting piece but it is pretty so I’m glad that I snagged it from the sale rack. It’s new with tags too!

Lastly, at secondhand kimono chain Tansu-ya in Hiroshima I found this pretty haori. I love the use of haori jackets in wa lolita, and thought this one was perfect for the classic (and maybe even chocolate-y sweet) side of my wardrobe. I especially love the vibrant lining! Tansu-ya in general will be its own highlight post, because thanks to their affordable pricing I now have a massive love for kimonos and am so excited to learn more about how to wear these beautiful garments.

In terms of where I went for lolita, I actually stuck wholly to secondhand loltia stores this time around; four branches of Closet Child as well as Maiden Clothing. Though I’d have liked to have acquired some brand socks as well, I didn’t have much desire to visit any of the brand stores. Too much out of my price range at the moment and there was so much to see and do that I didn’t want to spend time window shopping.

I also wore lolita twice while in Japan, once for Harajuku and then for the Kyoto Railway Museum. I’ll write more about these outfits when I do my quarterly outfit roundup in a bit but I thought they deserved to be featured here regardless. I very nearly didn’t take any lolita with me and I’m glad I did.

So that’s the lolita side of things from this trip! Not too extensive, but certainly still a highlight of the holiday ^__^