Thursday, 25th December! Christmas!

Today is our last full day in Japan. We got up and ate the hotel breakfast which was Japanese food only. It was okay, but not great. As usual Chucky was anti. I think he just wants weeties.
I HATE WEETIES.
Despite feeling jibbly, we went out on the train to Akihabara Electric Town. We took the Yamanote line because it is JR and as such we get free travel on our passes. Isn't Chucky clever to book us a hotel on the Yamanote line? Clever boy.
Electric Town is just full of electric parts shops, anime shops, computer and other electrical appliance shops, and maid cafes. We saw a beautiful Lolita and followed her discreetly. She went into a maid cafe where she probably works.
We looked at headphones all morning trying to find some nice noise-cancelling ones for the plane. It was great. I got some pink ones and Chucky got some extremely nice ones. The morning was not spoiled at all, even when I had an upset stomach.
Next we took the train to Ebisu, because I wanted to see what it was like. The train took about half an hour. On the train there were two girls who were totally goth-loli and looked amazing. One had blue hair! Yebisu Garden Place is a place visited a lot in my favourite J-drama, so we went there and took photos of us being like film stars. I can't believe I stood where Matsumoto Jun and Inoue Mao stood!
Lunch was a McDonald's affair, which was surprisingly awesome. I think people take their jobs very seriously in Japan, whatever their job is. It makes for good burgers.
We took the train another stop to Shibuya, where there is a famous pedestrian crossing. It was amazingly busy and was packed with beautiful people. I followed another Lolita for a while until she got boring. Shibuya has lots of big video screens and neon signs, very exciting. I was mainly astounded by the beautiful people. We went to a few shops but didn't buy anything. We were starting to feel tired.
We walked to Harajuku. I love Harajuku. First we went to the Laforet building basement where there are many awesome fashion shops, including Metamorphose, Angelic Pretty, and Putamayo. I bought a ring and some earrings, all with deer on them. They were from different shops but go together well. I still didn't buy anything from Metamorphose. I'm beginning to dislike their thing of having everything stupidly overpriced just because it's a name brand that people want to show. We also saw two guys who were the most incredible goths - white makeup and long straight hair with blonde streaks.
We walked down the famous pedestrian street in Harajuku and had fun looking at people and shops. At Harajuku station we took the train back to our hotel and collapsed.
We got dinner at a don restaurant. I got Buta-don (pork rice bowl) which was better than usual. There was only one guy working at the shop. He was doing the cooking and the serving and was incredible. I felt sorry for him, because people kept coming in and saying "Sumimasen!" while he was cooking.
Got two desserts at am/pm - one cream and cake dessert and one creme broulee. The creme broulee was the best ever.

Friday, 19th December

This morning I got my sleep in as promised. Then we went downstairs to the cafe in the hotel. We were given a drinks menu and Charles cleverly asked in Japanese whether they had anything to eat. The waitress said a whole lot of things and we picked out "Toastu" and said "Yes! Toast! Hai!" so were given toast. Expensive toast.
We took the train into the city one stop further than last night, to a place called Namba. There we went to a Marui department store - the same department store we went to in Yokohama. I was looking for a nice dress to wear to a wedding but everything was too wintery. Charles bought an amazing jacket. We saw the same one in Yokohama weeks ago, and today it was on sale! Hooray! We even managed to get the tax refund.
We found another underground shopping arcade and stopped for a break. Chucky bought a burger and I had a coca cola. Japanese coke is different from Australian coke.
Next we started walking from Namba to Shinsaibashi, the place we were last night. We stopped at a McDonald's because I started to feel hungry. I bought some chips and a chicken fillet, which turned out to be so incredibly spicy that I almost choked and even Charles could hardly eat it. Harrumph.
There were so many interesting shops around. I liked looking in a bead shop that was selling every kind of bead you could think of at a cheap price, plus jewelery components. I didn't buy anything but I got lots of ideas.
We found our way back to Aranzi Aronzo and bought some band-aids with characters on them and a little tin.

Band-aids story: Last night I reached into my health bag and was attacked by my razor, which ate some of my left ring finger knuckle. I bled SO MUCH and then I realise that I'd lost an earring (a handmade one) and then I banged my elbow. So I needed band-aids.

We asked the girls at Aranzi Aronzo if they knew where Victorian Maiden was, which is another Gothic Lolita shop. I like Victorian Maiden because all of their designs are actually wearable (maybe) and really pretty. The girls at Aranzi Aronzo tried really hard to help us, even printing out a map for us to follow. So we followed it and ended up in the America Mura district, which is a shopping area with apparently American things.
We couldn't find Victorian Maiden no matter how hard we looked. We found a 2nd hand Lolita shop though (maybe it was old stock from the good brands) with relatively cheap clothes. I actually tried on a Victorian Maiden dress, and an Angelic Pretty dress, and a Metamorphose skirt. They were all a little bit wrong for me, but I got to think about the styles more.
We went for a walk down the road and found an Apple store where Charles tried all the headphones.
We went down a little side street and I saw a familiar sign: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright! Unfortunately (or fortunately) the shop was closed as it was past 7:30pm. I got to look in the window though!
Took the train back to Shin-Osaka and had a late dinner at the station. Dessert was a creme broulee or something... they sell about 20 varieties of creme broulee in the convenience stores. Some are gross but tonight's one was good.

Wednesday, 10th of December

Chrissy: Today we moved into a different room within this Hotel. It's a bigger room and has an ensuite bathroom, which means we don't have to use the communal toilet and shower or go to the public baths. They were scary. Everything about this room is nicer: nicer curtains, nicer cups, nicer saucers, nicer kettle, nicer futons, nicer table, nicer cupboard, nicer light. However, Chucky noted with disappointment that the toilet is not heated and doesn't have a bidet. He says he's going to use the communal toilet anyway. I think he should start a blog about Bidets of Japan.
We took a bus around 9:30 to get to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. It's woderful to enter this temple's grounds to see such a visage. Up close it was beautiful too. It has a rooster weather vein on top of the roof, and the thatched roof was steaming in the sun.
The gardens were not as amazing as Ginkakuji, but I really enjoyed looking at the pond and the little islands in it. It was a clear still morning, just perfect for viewing reflections in the water.
Next we thought we'd go to Ryoanji, which is supposed to be famous for its Zen garden. We walked about 500m in A Direction when we realised it was also the Wrong Direction. Then we decided to go somewhere else instead.
We went to a bakery and got some Meron bread and a pastry called a Curry France. I liked it mostly because it sounds more like our percussion teacher than a food. It was curry. The meron bread was delicious. It is a bun-shaped bread with a crisp layer of sugar on the outside.
We took the bus to Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). At the bus stop, some schoolgirls wanted photos with us for some reason, and they had to take one with each of their 3 cameras. They could only say "Excuse me! Camera!" and gesticulate. So we posed with them in our usual punch pose which they enjoyed a lot.
Nijo Castle is most famous for its Nightingale squeaking floors. These were made so that ninjas couldn't creep up on the Shogun. I tried sneaking and I ended up squeaking. It's amazing! It's done by putting metal wedges under the floorboards so that they rub together. Then we walked the grournds of the castle. It has two moats! And a garden with 300 Special Rocks from All Over Japan!
We were pretty tired then. So we took the bus back to our hotel, bought some foods from the 7-11 and ate and rested.
Later, we went out again and I finally got to see my shop, Metamorphose. The first and second nights we couldn't find it, and then yesterday we found it but it was closed. It was a great shop! Pretty big for a Lolita shop. It had a couple of beautiful dresses and some lovely accessories and socks and things. The petticoats were... 10,100 yen... so I didn't buy one. I didn't buy anything actually, but I had a great time looking.
Then we went down a road with lots of electronics shops for Charles. We found a shop with lots of cool headphones so he was happy for a while.

Charles: The electronics shop was great, but they had the most headphones I've ever seen ANYWHERE. Sony, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Denon, Bose and even Stax. They had some Stax electrostatic earspeakers on display which I tried out. Ridiculously cool.

Chrissy: We ate dinner at an Okonomiyaki shop which was amazingly delicious. We walked all the way home, which was quite a way. At a convenience store I bought a dessert which was creamy and cakey and chocolatey yum.
Tomorrow we're going to go to the Kyoto Costume institute, despite its website saying that it has 3 dresses and 4 undergarments on display. I'm hoping that it's more like 400 dresses and it was lost in translation.

Sunday, 30th November

Chrissy: Today we finally got to go to Harajuku and Shibuya! We took the train to Omote-Sando and walked down Omotesando street. We went into the Spiral builidng which is full of pretty yet expensive shops. It was beautifully decorated with lights and chandeliers and red carpet! Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.
Next we went to Kiddyland on Omotesando. It is 5 or 6 floors of toys! I mainly wanted to look at the Licca-Chan and Blythe dolls, but there was enough to keep me occupied for about an hour. I really like Blythe dolls.

Charles: They had some nice remote controlled helicopters and cute little robots! Perhaps I'll buy one later in our trip. One whole floor was Snoopy and on the other floors the space was neatly divided into areas corresponding to each franchise. Totoro, Disney, Hello Kitty and many others we didn't know.

Chrissy: We kept on walking and found Takeshi-dori, which is parallel to Omotesando. It's pedestrian only, and was jam-packed full of hip kids (some dragging their long-suffering parents) and fashion shops. The clothes in these shops were gorgeous! I saw a shop that had a really pretty little dress on the mannequin, and Iasked if they had any more. The lady took the dress off the mannequin and PUT ME IN IT. It was way too big, so she adjusted straps and things and then another assistant came and attacked it from the back with a big stretchy clasp to pull it in. They assured me that I looked "kawaii", but then I found out that it was 19,000 yen. Chucky and I skillfully extracted ourselves.

I looked at some Gothic and Lolita shops that were on a little guide I found on the internet. They were mostly punkish, which I found pretty surprising. It's probably more fashionable to be punk-gothic-lolita right now that just Lolita.

I found a shop called Body Line that sold really cheap Lolita clothes. I could get a whole outfit (skirt, shirt and bolero) for 10,000 yen. That's about 4 or 5 times cheaper than the famous shops like Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty! I thought it was a really good deal! I wasn't allowed to try on the clothes at the shop, so I was a bit worried that it wouldn't fit well. There were so many beautiful outfits I could have bought, but in the end I got an outfit the same as one on a mannequin: see below! I didn't get a petticoat because I thought the prices were exorbitant, and I think I can make one easily at home. So my skirt is not as full as it should be. I also need to figure out some shoes and socks!

We went to the Cosplay Bridge and saw a couple of kids posing for the cameras. It wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be! Then we walked to the Meiji shrine in Harajuku park. It was a really beautiful park, thick with huge trees. At the shrine, we were lucky enough to see a wedding procession! At first I didn't know what was going on, so I just took photos like all the other foreigners around. The bride was so beautiful!

It was so crazy to go from Takeshi-dori, with its super-modern cosplay boys and girls, to the Meiji shrine, which is peaceful and beautiful despite being full of people. Those two places are over the road from each other. Those cosplay kids may have a traditional wedding like the one I saw at the shrine!

We tried to find Metamorphose, which is a Gothic and Lolita shop I really wanted to see. It totally wasn't there! I used the address that was on their website from about 3 weeks ago. Bizarre.

We went to the Laforet building, which is a shopping plaza with about 6 floors of fashions. We went all the way up to the top floor and worked our way down, to find that the Lolita fashions were in the BASEMENT. Gosh we were tired by the time we got there. They had an Angelic Pretty store there, which sold some really cute clothes. I'm not into dresses with cakes and stuff on them, I like flowers and things more. The price for a dress was 26000 yen, and shirts were around 18000, as far as I can remember. There was also a small Metamorphose shop there! As expected, their clothes were amazingly beautiful and amazingly too expensive for me.

We went to Tokyo Tower next. It was quite a long trip on the train, as we had to stop over somewhere. We were SO tired and it was a long walk to the tower. It was worth it! Tokyo Tower is beautiful at night, it shines bright orange. Out the front there was a Christmas illumination complete with a miniature Tokyo Tower.

At the hotel I finally got to try on my clothes. Hooray!

Charles: Note dainty teacup and Winter edition of the Gothic Lolita Bible.