Hyper Japan Photos + Shopping Haul

Hello Lovelies!

As promised here are my photos, video and shopping haul from Hyper Japan!

First things first! When we eventually got in we went to find Keren at Tea Time Treasures! Keren and I have been friends for quite a long time now but we've never actually met in person until now. I didn't realise how much of a giant I am until I saw this photo!

Keren's stall had a lot of Lolita, Kawaii and Die Milch merchandise - Tea Time Treasures was one of the very few stalls I found that weren't scalping.

From here I bought two Die Milch Cd's (which they very kindly signed for me! Yay! I'm so happy!)

And a Sailor Moon Twinkle Dolly charm. 

Keren also very kindly picked up a few items for me in Japan on her last visit (Another post on these later!) But she also gave me this adorable Rilakkuma bottle cover! I've gotten a lot of use out of this already and I just love the picture on it.

Next we went to find Love Jojo's stall as my sister and I had joined in the give-away event - we both got given these cute little squishy panda charms.

We then had a look around the other stalls and did a little shopping, whilst trying to work out where everything was.

We came across LoLiBuNNi quite early on as my sister happened to know one of the people running the stall! They had some goregous items for sale (You should go check out their site) but my favourite thing was the Sailor Moon necklaces.

Look how pretty these are!

I bought one of the necklaces - I really like how it has both cord and ribbon for the chain as it gives it a softer look.

Close up of the charm - it's just such a pretty image and is really lovely on too.

Last year I bought a ton from Dreamy Bows - this year I could only find one of the items I wanted in my price range, they did have the powder compacts, room fragrance and perfume but these were all out of my budget.

I did buy the locket tablet case - now oddly, and I didn't notice at the time as my purchase was taken from the stock they had an put straight in the bag, the candy is missing! There is a sticker on the bottom of the box saying that the it doesn't contain sweets but I'm 99% sure there should have been some in there - it's rather odd as it means someone has gone through, taken these out of the packet and removed the candy? I found it a little odd but not a major thing.

Now I'm not sure whose stall I bought this from as I couldn't see the name of the stall, but I bought Sailor Uranus's liprod, two petite chara (I was hoping for Sailor Moon) and two of the little capsule prizes (I've wanted the Grail for such a long time!) I think this was my favourite stall next to JP Books and I do wish I'd bought Neptune's rod and more of the petite chara as well.

From Roxie Sweethearts stall I bought this adorable pair of pastel bat earrings! I have a necklace already that would go really well with these too!

There was a stall selling all sorts of traditional Japanese tableware too - I bought this cute little kitty bowl to use at work. Next time I would buy some dinner plates for home too!

Lastly was JP Books - I love this stall, and I'm definitely going to go find the store next time I'm in London to buy a Rilakkuma bear! I bought the kitty bag mascot, 3 scented pens and a magnet.

I've wanted the mascot from this series for quite awhile so I'm really happen to have been able to purchase this! There's a little bell on him too so he jingles!

Then it was time for Die Milch's performance!

 I managed to get some of the performance on my phone!

Afterwards I was lucky enough to get a photo with them.

And that's pretty much it! We headed home shortly after that as we had another engagement to go to!  We did buy some Taiyaki, Takoyaki and nice ice but forgot to photograph it before scoffing it. 

I hope you enjoyed reading! Did you go to Hyper Japan? Let me know in the comments!

Ta-ta for now,

X

Hyper Japan Summer Festival 2015

Hello Lovelies!

It's taken me a little while to write this up as I wanted to reflect on the event, and it's turned into a bit of a wall of text which I hadn't intended on. 

Two weeks ago I attended the Hyper Japan Festival with my youngest Sister at the O2 in London. Now, many of you know how much I was looking forward to this, not only so I could finally meet my lovely friend Keren, watch Die Milch perform, but also so I could watch some of the other performances and events such as the bento making. I hate to say it but all though I had good time (So much so I almost went for a second day), but it was absolutely chaotic, and not set out in any sensible way what so ever - and oh my stars, it was so, so, SO hot! I don't think there can of been any kind of air conditioning in the area.

For those of you that have been to the O2 it was based in building six, across several floors and separated out into different sections, with the gaming area and a couple of random stalls as you walked into building six, the Hyper Kawaii on the right in the next part and most of the food stalls wedged right in the back. Lord only knows where the maid café and garden was as we sure as hell couldn't find it, nor find any signs as to where it was. This was also the same situation with finding the restrooms - when we approached the staff to find out where they were, we were pretty rudely told where to go and it turned out they were using porta-cabin bathrooms outside the building (Which were pretty gross, if I'm honest.)

To get in any of the areas you had to queue and present your wrist band which you needed to collect before entering the O2 (I'd heard a lot of people didn't realise this and were turned away to go get the wrist bands). I don't understand why everything was sectioned off like this, it made everything so much harder to get in and out of, and most of the sections didn't make much sense as part of the food court was in the back of Hyper Kawaii.

Hyper Kawaii itself was pretty full as well and we were continuously finding we couldn't get to the stalls we wanted due to people filming and taking photos (I gave up trying to film anything for you on my phone it was so busy). Unlike at Kensington Olympia, this time they had two stages for performances, once seemed to be for official acts like Die Milch and had a big lit stage with a very small seating area and the other was for dance groups and other performers. The problem with this is that they were so close to each other you could hear both performances going on at the same time, and the sound was very loud! (At one point someone was murdering karaoke songs. The other issue with the performer stage was that most of the acts seemed to be dancers to anime songs, whilst some were very entertaining it became very repetitive very quickly.

The food court seemed to be split between a sectioned off bit at the back of building six and Hyper Kawaii - there was far less seating this time and we ended up sitting on the floor to eat our lunch - I think we must have started something as a lot of people joined us on the floor for a make shift picnic!

I have no idea where the actual events were that I wanted to see, we never found the Bento making or anything else. I had found a schedule on line before we left that said Die Milch would be on at 4:00pm - it was only when I got back to see Keren that she told me they had already gone on and we could here Rosaria playing - I don't think I've ever run so fast across a building whilst trying to work out which of the two stages they were on (I picked right thankfully!) But I'm gutted that I missed the beginning of my favourite song.

The last thing that really irked me was the insane scalping on some of the stalls and people pretending that bought items were handmade. In some cases I saw items being sold for more than 3x their actual cost to purchase. I understand that people need to make a profit but a huge mark up is just disgusting and meant that I didn't purchase some of the planned items I wanted, and other people felt utterly ripped off when they realised, for example the bag they just paid £35 for actually retails at £13. Items bought on aliexpress or similar being sold as handmade. Yes they may have been handmade somewhere in China but not handmade by you, this isn't the same thing and you can't pass them off as being made by you, there were quite a few people doing this.

Hyper Japan is advertised as being a cultural event too. How ever I didn't see this in the slightest this time round. There were far less traditional stalls. I did see the Sake stalls in the food court, and one maybe two travel companies, but that was it, considering this was one of the main draws of the event it was pretty disappointing.

I know I'm not the only to think this. I've spoken to several people since HJ weekend and I don't know if the Saturday or Sunday were any better but from what I've been told it was even more chaotic. The winter event is being held in a different location and I'm hoping that will improve the situation as it'll be in one place and probably not as split up as this one was. I'm also hoping there will be a better schedule for events and that they will be easier to find as well, I think though I will be treating this as a shopping event rather than anything else.

Don't get me wrong, I really did have a great day out with my Sister and I finally got to meet my friend and I did a ton of shopping and did find some pretty good bargains! (Which was what this post was originally going to be about, but will have it's own separate post). But I have to say that if I wasn't as close to London as I am, and I wasn't going to meet up with friends, and if it was at the O2 again I think I'd have serious doubts about going again as I could have saved myself the ticket/travel money and bought everything I wanted on-line instead.

Anyway! Enough of the downsides, next post up will be my small haul from Hyper Japan!

Ta-ta for now

X

Hyper Japan Festival 2015!

Hello Lovelies!

I am so excited! It's finally the week of the Hyper Japan Festival! I will be attending this on the Friday with my youngest sister! Come and say 'Hello!' if you spot me! I had been intending to wear cosplay for this but due to the recent heat wave in England, I think I'll save it for the Christmas event and just wear something kawaii to avoid heatstroke! This event looks like it will be so much bigger than the last one I attended in November - for starters this one is being hosted at the O2 arena! I've never been there before so that's exciting in itself!

There is literally so much to see and do, I cannot wait to see Die Milch perform!

I hope we can see this too! The Hello Kitty bento how-to! I've always loved the idea of bento but I've never been very creative with them. I'd love to see how to make kawaii bento.

Hyper Kawaii looks like it will be fun too! There's always lots of shopping to be done - I'm definitely going to check out Teatime treasures and Love JoJo's stalls first! Not forgetting of course that there is a dedicated gaming zone too! I do believe Nintendo will be attending.

For those who are fans of traditional Japanese culture, there are things to see and do too! I'll definitely be checking out the kimono and picking up some information on travelling to Japan.

Just look how big this! It looks like it's across quite a few floors too! There's even a maid café this time around! I'm not sure if we'll be checking that out as there's so much to see and do, but I'm sure we'll pop up there to see what's going on!

This is so exciting! Only two days to go! Add the fanpage on facebook for live updates through out the day on Friday!

Ta-ta for now!

x

Teatime Treasures will be at Hyper Japan Festival 2015!

Hello Lovelies!

A quick shout out for one of my dear friends who has a stall at the Hyper Japan Festival this year! (10th-13th July!) They'll also be hosting CD signings with Die Milch!!! Go find them at stall Y44 in the Kawaii Fashion section for all your Lolita and Kawaii Lifestyle needs! You'll be able to find Sanrio and San-x, Sailor Moon and Lolita brands Haenuli and Atelier Pierrot for sale!  If you want to check out what will be available at Hyper Japan, or stay up to date with announcements you can check out their facebook page here:

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Teatime Treasures are pleased to announce our stall location at HYPER JAPAN Festival 2015! Come find us at stall Y44 in the Kawaii Fashion section!!

You'll also have the fantastic opportunity over the long Hyper weekend to meet Coco and Mocha of Gothic & Lolita unit Die Milch, so come get your photos and CDs signed by the band! 

We'll see you there! 

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Please drop by and check out Teatime Treasures, I'm sure you'll be able to spot me around too!
(More on my Hyper Japan Plans later!)

Ta-ta for now

X

Shopping spree!

Hello Lovelies!

With summer fast approaching, and the United Kingdom having a sunny spell, I decided to take a visit to Reading to treat myself to some new spring/summer clothing. Primark currently has a gorgeous range of clothing in (and the usual questionable items!) So I thought I'd take a few photos of the items I brought to share with you!

Style Icon jumper - How cute is this? It's quite a light sweater so it's perfect for chilly evenings!

Minions T-shirt: I couldn't resist this, I do love the Despicable Me films! The only thing I'd say about this is that it's rather short in the body. I'd probably wear it with high waisted shorts or jeans.

Shorts! These were on offer at £3.90 a piece - they had a wide range of colours and styles available for purchase. I may have to go back to get more as they are pretty comfy and made of a nice denim material!

Lavender socks: Cute and reduced to a £1.00 too!

Pink floral skinny jeans: These are really comfy though a little on the short side for me (I'm 5'8) so I'd probably roll them up a little and wear them as cropped trousers.

Cropped leggings: these have a sweet lace trim, pretty light and comfy for the summer.

So that's it for now! Have you treated yourself to anything new for the summer? Let me know in the comments below!

Ta-ta for now

X

Afternoon out in Reading

Hello Lovelies! I was very lucky on the Easter bank holiday week and my lovely Beccy came to visit! We don't get to see each other that often as we live at opposite ends of the country. We spent the Friday after shopping in Reading before going for Dinner at Cosmo with my Husband.

Beccy drove all the way to our house and Harry was very happy to see her when she arrived! (He really does love everyone, especially Beccy!) He spent most of the weekend being Beccy's shadow.

We stopped for coffee at BBS Muffins - it's been for ever since I went out for coffee and it was lovely to sit and chat. We'd been walking around the shops for quite a few hours by this point and it was very busy in town because if the holiday. We did get quite a few nice things though! My highlight was the River Island sale where I got a dress reduced to £10 from £100 and a cute pair of pink shoes for £3.75!

Somehow we both ended up wearing leather jackets! It was probably a good choice as it started raining quite hard.

 Beccy wanted something from the Urban Decay Counter in Debenhams - I really love their counter, it looks so pretty.

 

We found this funny little Iwako whale eraser in one of the stationary shops. There seems to be a lot of 'kawaii' stationary shops cropping up aside from paperchase recently. Reading has at least three of them.

Then it was time for dinner at Cosmo! For those of you that don't know, Cosmo is an all you can eat buffet place - but it has food from all around the world to choose from! My favourite is the the Dim Sum and some of the other dumplings, but that was out of order when we went (Can I use that as an excuse to go again??)

So I totally forgot to get photos inside the restaurant, because it is a little rushed (You have a time limit as it's so popular and it's always super busy).

 Beccy's cute plate of desserts - they have lots of tiny little cakes to choose from.

My plate of dessert - I didn't each much of this as a lot of it wasn't what I expected. The apple crumble and the chocolate cake were nice though!

All in all, it was a fun day out, even if the weather was bad and it was so, so busy! (The queue in Primark was half way down the store!!) I can't wait till Beccy comes to visit again.

Ta-ta for now,

X