Day 16: Maison de Julietta

Okay, I lied in my last post, this wasn't our last full day in Japan. The insurance company couldn't get seats on todays plane back to Amsterdam, so we leave still had 2 more days. This both was great as I could do some last minute shopping, but it also meant we had to leave our dad alone in the hospital for 2 more days.

As everything wasn't going according to plan we were kind of at a loss what to do. We walked around the Harajuku area till it was time to go to Maison de Julietta. Our first stop was Kiddy Land, a huge toy store whit multiple floors and a lot of items are on display for you to try. It is really awesome, and we could've spent all day there on a normal vacation.

However, as we weren't really in the mood for hanging around in a toy store we went back to get some crepes. There is a really cute pink stall in the middle of Takeshita Dori so we decided to try our luck there. We tried one whit cake and ice cream (we shared one as they are huge!), it was really delicious, but really filling, even though we shared.

After finishing our crepe we went to LaForet for my appointment at Maison de Julietta.
Maison de Julietta is a photo shoot service that allows you to get pretty pictures all dressed up in lolita (and you get the same backdrop often seen on pictures from Misako!). You have to make an advance reservation, which can be done by visiting the shop. Beware that there seems to be only one person who speaks decent English, so you might have to use some sign language (-‿◦☀)
You start out by choosing a dress, there are dresses from all kind of brands (including BtSSB, AatP, AP and Meta) and in various sizes (even full shirring (・∀・)). Beforehand I had decided that I wanted to try something different for the shoot, thus I was looking for a dress that was a bit sweeter than I normally would wear. My final pick was the Meta dress Secret Library, not extremely sweet, but not something I would normally pick for myself. The dress came with a matching cape, socks, little hair bows and hairband. My biggest concern was a blouse, because of my bust size. You can rend one or bring your own, but I was assured that there would be blouses in my size, and I found a lovely one that fitted like a glove. Finally I could decide what shoes I wanted to wear, and I picked a pair of cute boots whit an awesome heel (this got me started on my twisted heels addiction ╰(✧∇✧) ). A nice detail is that they constantly help you choose what to wear, like what dresses would fit nicely and which shoes would match. You are also the only customer in that timeslot, so you get full attention.
After deciding on all the clothes it is time to put it on. Everything is brought to the dressing room for you and there are instruction on there how to put it on. There was also a huge pile of pettis here, I had to ask if I was meant to put them all on (yes, there were that many of them!), so now you know the awesome photo shoot petti secret ＼（＠￣∇￣＠）／.
Once you're finished dressing you go to the back of the shop to get your hair and make-up done. For an additional charge you can hire a wig, or you can use your own hair. I opted for the last option and they curled and put my hair in to sections whit one little hair bows at each side. They also showed me a hat that they figured would suit the outfit, and gave me the option to pick the hat or hair bow. Being a hat lover I obviously chose the hat.
Being done here you go to the photo background area, here the photographer (who luckily did speak a little English) explained what you have to do, how to look, etc. The pictures won't immediately be ready, instead you will be given a card whit a code to find you photos. There are 3 free digital photos included with the shoot, you'll have to pay an additional charge if you want more (this can be done with Paypal later on, so you won't have to decide on the spot). You will also be allowed to take photos with your camera and for a small fee they will take a Polaroid picture of you.

Now all that is left is to get back to you "normal" clothing and with a broken heart hand the lolita items back to the shop girl. Before leaving I was handed a cookie to celebrate 1st anniversary (I couldn't bring myself to eat it so it has gotten a nice place in my room (*~▽~) ).

And here is the final result:

My verdict (if you're just here to read about my experiences in Japan this is it for this day, we ended the day in the next doors sushi restaurant where we had dinner for €12 for 2 persons including drinks, who said Japan was expensive? (っ˘ڡ˘ς) ): you can't really give 1 advice, there are 2 groups of people, not lolita girls who want to try lolita and lolita girls who want an awesome lolita experience, and they both should be given a different advice.
In general Maison de Julietta is pretty expensive, especially if you consider what you get for the price, just 3 digital pictures. If money is a constraint at all I would skip this. If you aren't sure if you would want to spend quite a lot on money on the service try to figure out why you want to go here. If you want to try out lolita and get an idea if it is something for you I would really advice you to do the shoot. While this might seem like a lot of money, buying a full outfit is way more expensive and would be a waste if you find out that it doesn't suit you at all.  If you're already a lolita it really depends on your budget and available time. Even though it was an awesome experience, if you are pressed for time or money just skip this and you won't miss that much.

All photos can be found at my flickr page