Third Japan trip: Day 10: 28-03-2009

This day we travelled to Tokyo.
We had to take a train 1,5 hour later as planned because it was so busy
with Japanese people also going to Tokyo because it was a weekend.

In the train....



Our new hotel is great! So luxurious. Shinjuku Washington Hotel.




In the evening we met up with my friend Junne and he took us to the
Alice in wonderland restaurant in Shinjuku,
later in the evening my friend Tocco also met up with us.

pretty lamp


heart shaped ketchup


Junne's drink before


And after: paint the white roses red...


My drink


Tocco's Cat dish..


Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

First Japan trip Day 11 Osaka Den den town Metamorphose lolita 6-01-2006

Today I had the business meeting with Metamorphose.

I first looked around in the shop, a very small but cute shop.
I asked the girl in the shop if she could call to the office and tell Aya that I am in the shop,
she did that and Aya picked me up in the shop.
At the office I had a meeting with the owner and the designer of Meta, Aya translated everything.
I think this meeting was a very good thing,
because now the owner really knows everything about our shop
and probably he's going to make sure that I stay the only shop that carry Meta in Holland.
I gave them some gifts, after that the owner had to leave.
It was okay to film today in the shop for the TV show,
and also to interview the designer,
I wrote all the questions down in English and Aya translated it into Japanese.
I e-mailed my boyfriend that he had to come to the Starbucks
nearby where Aya and I would pick him up, so later he can film.
We did the interview and after that we went to the Meta shop and filmed there.
I saw a long skirt that I really liked, a red one and it was on sale,
I asked Aya if she could send that one with my next order for the shop,
since my suitcase is already too full!
Again we went back to the office where the designer had a surprise for me,
she had a gift, a box full of meta goodies. I am so happy with it.


On the table you can see the bag with the present box, I am already wearing a brought from it.
Picture with also the other staff and Aya and the designer, the girl with the hat looks so cute.


When we were leaving the designer also let me choice out a umbrella from the biscuit series,
I chose the red one.
Hennie wanted to go to Den-Den-Town so we tried to find it,
on our way we passed a 100 yen store where I bought some candy, and a Miffy (Nijntje) hairbrush.




We ate at Wendy's


At the end we didn't find Den-Den-town, so we just took the subway back to the hotel.
We were tired.
Sunday we give it another try, when Hennie looked on the map in the hotel he saw
that we were very near Den-Den-town, well next time we'll find it!!!

Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

First Japan trip: Osaka - Shinsaibashi - Day 10: 5-01-2006

Today I had a business meeting with Victorian Maiden.
Kimika from Victorian Maiden who can speak good English picked me up
at Osaka business park station, funny a English station name.
(At the moment we don't sell this brand any more, because the sizes were too small) 


First we went to the office, there the trade advisor from Osaka joined us,
a very nice man, who spoke a bit English.
We've discussed the business, the main thing is that we now really
can expect the first order around the end of January.
The conversation was very relaxed, it went about almost everything..
After this we went to the shop that was in the same building only a few floors down,
the shop was as little as mine, it was very antique like decorated! I like that a lot!
I could see all the clothings, and I also tried some things on,
I was kind of amazed that I fit in some things.
On the hand of that I order some items.
It was very nice to know the real sizes.
Also I bought a pair of gloves, brown leather ones with rabbit fur, very very soft!
I keep those for my self because it is cold in Japan right now.
I also asked them why they use foreign looking girls in their advertisement.
But they didn't had a real answer to it, mainly it comes to like it is their image.
I think those girls must be very skinny.
But now they saw me and I told I am like average size in Holland,
only I am a bit shorter, they are going to examine if they can make clothing that we would fit .
( in the end they changed nothing in their sizes)
I've spend around the 3 hours there.
After this, I said goodbye to Kimika and the man escorted me back to the station
where my hotel is, he had to go one station further. Such lovely people.
I was back in the hotel around 17.30 where my boyfriend still was,
he had spend the day exploring the neighbourhood and surfing the internet.
Together we went again to Shinsaibashi first to the Sanrio gallery shop,
but I didn't saw something that I really wanted.

Oh my, she is bigger then me.


after that we went back again to the little dining place like yesterday, I took the same.
On the picture it looks kind of weird.






Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

After this we also went to the Starbucks, I got something with marshmallows and caraml.
When we went to the station we passed a book shop,
there I bought another Gothic lolita bible 19 and also I bought this book:


At Victorian Maiden they had also that book, and after I saw it I really wanted it.

First Japan trip Day 9 - Osaka Shinsaibashi Okonomiyaki - 4-01-2006

Today was the day that we left Tokyo for Osaka.
Yesterday evening we had a hard time packing, I've bought too much.
First we went to the ATM that was open again today.
After that we went with all our luggage to the bus stop and took the bus to Tokyo station.



From Tokyo station we took the Shinkansen train to Shin-Osaka, it took about 3 hours.

I was kind of hungry so we ordered something in the train.
Bento box, I did not like everything.


Mount Fuji.


Snow, I think it was very local.


Finally we arrived at the station in Shin-Osaka,
now I needed to figure out how the ticket machines worked,
they were different then the ones in Tokyo.


Besides our heavy luggage it was very easy to go to the new hotel,
very close to 2 subway entrances.
Our room here is very good!!!! and spacey!

This evening I met up with Jessica and went to Shinsaibashi.
She showed us around in American town where a lot of gothic lolita brands are located.

Baby the stars shine bright store, that was kind of hidden.


After that we went to a place that Jessica recommended I took Okonomiyaki, very good.


Next time when we are in this area we'll eat here again!
It was owned by a men "mister Osaka" and his son, who is the cook.


Sign at the entrance.


After this we went to the Vivienne westwood shop, because I was very curios about it.
But it really was nothing really special,
I only liked some of the jewellery and the rocking horse shoes
But damn why must it be that expensive?
Across it was Starbucks, here we had some nice "coffee" and talked a lot.

Jessica and me


Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

First japan trip day 8 - Tokyo Harajuku gothic lolita meetup - 3-1-2006

Today is the day of a international Lolita meetup in Harajuku.

This day we filmed some footage for:



Sorry for the evil face.





First we went to the post office to check if it was open,
we kind of ran out of money yesterday and the ATM's were closed that day
and today it still was closed :s Damn now we don't have money..

So if you are in Japan around new year,
keep in mind the first few days every ATM is closed!


We do have a credit card but that is only for emergencies like food.
We went to the station trough a other way then usually we passed something,
I really don't know what it is.


All girls are from the EGL livejournal community.

Group shot






We decided to take a look at Laforet, Closet child and Bodyline.





After this everyone went their own way. It was very nice to meet them all!.

Hennie and I went looking for a place to eat again,
we could only pay with credit card so that was a bit hard,
they only place that accepted credit card was Starbucks.




Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

First Japan trip Day 5 - Tokyo and Shinjuku - 31-12-2005

Today we had a sightseeing day!


First we went to Tokyo central station,
that was build on the hand of central station Amsterdam, The Netherlands


In the station there were a lot of shops and stands,
even this one with Hello Kitty food items.
The cat ear hat I am wearing is from Heart E.


Picture from the front of the station,
I'm not really sure if it really looks like the station in Amsterdam,
since the station is being renovated already for a few years.
(and it still is, 6 years further now)


After walking a bit around we went to Shinjuku to see the governments building.
A lot of high buildings are located there.


Nice decoration across the street of the building.


After this we went back to the station to the underground mall,
here we found a nice noodle restaurant.
The menu was unreadable,
but pointing in the showing window helped a lot with orderin.


In the front the food of my boyfriend and I had noodle soup with vegetables.
It was very tasty!


later we went to Kamiyacho, Tokyo Tower,
on our way to that there was a girl dressed up in Kimono,
I think it is very brave to walk on those shoes,
because the street was very steep there!


Of course the Tokyo tower had to be a little bit higher than the one in Paris.
Only 13 meters haha.. not much!


We went up to the main observatory,
here is a picture of the view, the view was very nice!


I think because it was new years eve it was very busy!

We went down one floor and had some coffee and a piece of chocolate cake very yummy!!
On a other floor we had some ice cream!!! Oh my I ate too much!

Now we went back to our hotel.


It is now 23:12 so it is here almost new year!!!!!
Happy New Year to everyone!!!
I'm going to finish my Vieux (Dutch alcoholic) x cola
and celebrate the new year with my boyfriend!


Pictures by: Hennie Ummels

First Japan trip Day 4 - Tokyo Ueno - 30-12-2005

Today we decided just to go to Ueno and go to the park but
somehow we did not got further the a toy store..
It was huge! 6 floors.



I really bought too much here! Spend around 130 Euro.
Here are some things: Corps bride figure, Chi figure, Hello Kitty lolita phone strapp,
Minnie Mouse lolita dress dolls, Alice in wonderland key cord,
Charmmy kitty wallet and some more.
Here is a pictures of what my boyfriend bought,
my Chi is sitting on the table and those hello kitty cups are filled candy.


When we saw everything in the store we took the elevator down
and the elevator ended  up outside, very weird.

We ended up with a lot of yellow shopping bags.


We went looking for a place to eat,
after about 10 minutes we found a nice noodle restaurant the food was very nice!


After we finished the food we went back to the station
and went to Starbucks to get some good coffee!

Pictures by: Hennie Ummels