Japan 2015 Day 1: Arrival in Japan & Disney Sea

Sorry that it took so long to write my first blog post about our Japan vacation. But I've been really enjoying my time in Japan as a student, with way more of a social life than I'm used to. While I could write a whole chapter about that you'll have to wait for a post about my experiences as a student in Japan, as I will finally be sharing my vacation posts :D

Usually your worries begin when stepping in the airplane, "did I turn of the lights?", "I hope we have a smooth flight", etcetera. For me the worries starting a day before take-off. KLM managed to delete me from the flight, which not only meant I lost my pre-selected seat, but I was also not on the plane anymore. After a lot of calling and driving all the way over to Schiphol they finally managed to get me on the plane again, though on a different seat (long story short I would advice anyone against flying KLM if they are expecting any kind of service fromt the ground personnel).
The flight itself went smoothly, and the inflight personnel is not short from awesome. We ordered the special menu so we had a delicious meal.

We arrived at Narita airport in the morning, where I had to get my ID pass. This went easier than expected, so we were on our way to get a ticket for the Limousine bus way earlier than expected. The Limousine bus service goed almost directly to the Disney Resort, where we had to get off at the Disney Sea stop.

After arriving at Disney Sea we went straight to Miracosta, this is one of the 3 official Disney hotels and the hardest one to book a room for. Th hotel is located on the border of the park, so you can actually look into the park from certain rooms, it also has its own entrance to the park.
Because we arrived way too early for check-in we did an early check-in, which basically means you complete the normal check-in procedure and get your key, but you won't be able to use it till 4:30pm.
After the early check-in we got ourselves 4 day park hopper tickets for the two parks, the 4 day parkhopper is also a special perk for hotel guests, normally only the last 2 days allow park hopping.
Now we were finally ready to enter the Disney Sea park!

Yes, it was raining, and it would keep on raining for another 2 days, I will come back to that in a later blog post.
We walked around Disney Sea for a while, but our feet were starting to kill us. We decided to find somewhere to have lunch, easier said than done. Japanese people have an irritating habit of occupying tables for unnecessarily long times, so it seemed almost impossible to get a table anywhere. Luckily we found a place at New York Deli, where I got the special Halloween set which came with a souvenir bag, a red sandwich and fries with cheese sauce. We also got the famous alien mochi with a matching souvenir container.

As we still had some time to kill we decided to go to the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. We were all getting pretty tired and we had to wait in line for quite a while. I actually fell asleep a few times, that has never happened before :o
Though the wait was a bit hard, the ride was totally worth it. You basically ride a jeep through the temple of Indiana Jones, I won't reveal too much because it is just something you should experience for yourself ^_^

After the ride we could finally enter the hotel room, thus we quickly returned to Miracosta. The room was completely amazing, it was renovated really recently so everything looked brand new. We had a room on the venetian side of the building, so we could see gondolas row by. The theming of the room is amazing, everywhere you look you see Disney characters integrated in the decoration, even in the ceiling. Furthermore, the room is pretty big, especially by Japanese standards. There are 2 normal beds and a turnstile bed, which is pulled out under one of the "normal" beds, but do net be deceived as this bed is just as great as the other two. There is a hallway with a big closet and a safe, facing the hallway is the sink, with on one side the entrance to the toilet and on the other side the entrance to the badroom.

After a short nap we went back to Disney Sea for dinner at Ristorante di Canatello, where I had made a priority seating reservation (yay for more hotel guest perks ;) ).
We got the option to side inside or at the covered outside area, and while it was raining the temperature was pretty high. So we decided to sit outside, where you could see the gondolas row by while we were having dinner.
As starter we order bread and assorted cheese, while both were pretty delicious we were blown away by the cheese. It was some of the best cheese I had in all of Asia.
For our main dish we all ordered pizza, my parents chose the margeritha and I the seafood pizza. The margeritha pizza was pretty tasteful, but in no way near as awesome as the USJ pizza (see my 2014 trip report for reference information :p). The seafood pizza on the other hand was nothing short of delicious. I'm always a bit scared when ordering seafood pizza that the seafood will have too much of an overtone, but not this time. While there was more than enough seafood on the pizza to make it an actual seafood pizza, the ingredients were balanced absolutely perfectly.
Finally, as desert we ordered the gelato and assorted desserts plates. Just a small tip, order everything at once, they expect you to order your starter, main dish and dessert in your first order, but it is no problem to order later on, you just have to ask for the menu again. Back to the desserts, they were both heavenly!
One of the great things of this restaurant is that you get free refills with your drinks.

On our way back to the hotel we passed a small crowd gathering in front of the harbor. It turned out that Fantasmics, a show, would start in 30 minutes. We decided to wait for this show and acquired a really awesome viewing spot. The show consists of a variety of techniques, ranging from boats to projections and it is something that should be pretty high on your to see list if you go to Disney Sea.

All photos can be found at my flickr page

Busy, busy, busy

Hi everyone!

As you've probably noticed not much has been happening on my blogs. This has been due to various reasons, but the main one being me moving to Tokyo in September for a 6 months period to study at Waseda university.
I'm really excited and can't wait to settle in, but before that time a lot has to be prepared, so I haven't had too much time for writing.
I did upload some movies of our last vacation on youtube, so please take a look!
I will be using this blog for writing about my non-lolita, noteworthy experiences in Japan, my other blog Lace Country will be used to write about my lolita experiences in Japan. I will also try to update my youtube from time to time, but I'm not sure if the internet connection in my dorm can handle it haha.
Voor de Nederlanders die nog wat meer over mijn dagelijkse dingen in Japan willen lezen, ik ga ook een waarbenjij.nu bijhouden, geheel in het Nederlands!

Hopelijk tot snel!

Day 17: (Real) Final Blog Post

So here it finally is, the real last blog post of my 2014 trip.
This was our last full day in Tokyo, and we started it in Harajuku, where Angelic Pretty had a special event with a special set I wanted to buy. We arrived a hour before opening and I was surprised to see that the queue wasn't that big, though it did grow substantially during that hour. A lot of people had dressed up, I've never felt more underdressed ପ(⑅ ॣ•͈૦•͈ ॣ)ଓ

We were handed numbered papers, and while I had read about this on other pages, we got a number identical to our position in the queue, not a random number.

Once we were allowed to enter we had to queue some more for the Angelic Pretty shop. But after a short while we could finally enter! I was so excited, especially when I saw that they also offered lucky packs. I would normally not try my luck on an AP lucky pack, but as I had quite some spare money and I wanted to at least try a lucky pack once in my life I caved in.

We decided to make our last round to all the Closet Child shops in Tokyo, so I had a huge pile of clothing to pack (but that wasn't too much of a problem as we could take 5 suitcases with us of which 4 could weigh 32kg). We also passed Hachi, so we had to take some photos.

I just to give you an idea of part of the items I had bought take a look at the following photo.

For dinner we went to The Lockup, this is a restaurant in jail theme. You have to enter through a dark alley with all kinds of scare effects. Once you enter the 'real' restaurant one person from your party (me) gets cuffed and a prison-guard takes you to your personal prison cell. The menu consists of weird drinks and foods. The drinks are served in syringes and test tubes and can be a bit hard to drink (･ω<)☆
We ordered charcoal chicken (black colored chicken pieces), french fries with weird dips, a Russian roulette platte (we didn't find out it was the Russian roulette type of dish (so one is realllllly hot, while all others are normal) until I took the first one and felt like I stood on fire, while no one else seemed to have any problem with itヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ), some octopus like sausages and satanic anchovy (they were speared!).
After we had decided what we wanted to order we pushed the bell, as usual in Japanese restaurants, but after quite some waiting we tried again and still no one came to take our order. We were pretty confused until a siren sounded through the building and all kind of weird monster like things came running by. Obviously we just wanted to order when a show was going to be performed, but we were unaware there was this kind of entertainment.

I would definitely advice anyone to go to The Lockup. The prices are decent, the food tastes great (and is really enjoyable to see the weird creations) and the whole experience is awesome. I would also like to urge you to stay till a show has been performed, it is awesome and will definitely make your evening!

As mentioned earlier this is the final blog post for our 2014 trip, though a 2015 trip is already being planned. Here is a small sneak peak of a room we will be staying in for a couple of days!

All photos can be found at my flickr page

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

Day 15: Hospital

Just a little disclaimer before I start this blog post, this part of the blog will be less happy than all the rest of it. Most of this day is spend in the hospital, where my father got admitted with acute liver failure. We had to go back to Holland as soon as possible, so there will only be 1 more blog post after this one for our 2014 trip. Before everyone gets all sad, it is too bad that we had to leave early, but we had a really great time and our top priority was my fathers health, he is all healed now and we already have plans to redo our Tokyo trip this year.


We started this day in Ikubukuro, for some geek time and to shop at Closet Child.
We were quite early, so it was a bit quiet, but this allowed us to have a good look around. There are a lot of arcades, figurine shops, and maid cafes.

One of the greatest features of Japanese advertising is the free handouts, I had a small bag filled with handkerchiefs when I left Tokyo.

I love arcades, and especially ufo catchers (though I am really, really bad at them) so we entered a random arcade to play some ufo catcher games. One of the games that caught my eye was a bit different from the "normal" ufo games. There were various items on small ball strings, that you had to pull down with the machine, with every go the machine would only go down a small bit, so you had to be lucky that someone had given up early. On top of that, it was really hard to catch the string in the device. However, my mom was able to pull out a small sailor Mercury figurine, yay :D

After the tiring ordeal at the arcade we went to eat something at KFC, they offered a special menu for Halloween, wish they had that here in Holland （￣へ￣）

We walked around some more but decided to go back to the hotel due to my dad not feeling too good.
Back in the hotel we finally convinced my father to visit a hospital (we had been urging him for a few days already, as he was slowly turning yellow ⊙﹏⊙ )

I think above picture says it all? My poor dad is a guy of about 185cm long and they had him wear a pink hospital dress (ᗒᗜᗕ)՛̵̖ Actually the whole hospital had a pink theme going on, it was pretty quite cute, though I can't imagine the men enjoying it just as much ;)

We had to leave him in the hospital till tomorrow so after a long day in the hospital my mom and I went back alone late at night. Normally in Holland I wouldn't have felt safe traveling with public transport as woman, but I didn't feel unsafe here. We had take-out at a nearby McDonalds because it was already pretty late and decided to eat our burgers at the hotel.

Being emotionally exhausted we fell asleep pretty quickly.

All photos can be found at my flickr page

Day 14: Godiva Cafe

I had already claimed this day as my lolita shopping day back home, so that is what we mostly did today.
We started this day by going to Closet Child Shinjuku, only to find out it wouldn't open for another hour, oops. Thus, we decided to get some breakfast in a nearby coffee shop.

After finishing our food and drinks we tried Closet Child again to find it was now opened. Though I was really happy to finally enter a real Closet Child store, it was a little bit disappointing compared to Maiden Clothing. I didn't buy that much here, however I did buy some really pretty pieces at this Closet Child later on.

Our next stop was Harajuku! It was so magical to finally enter the street I had seen on so many pictures, I wanted to enter all the shops, but managed to contain my excitement and pick my top shops for today.

My first choice was, of course, Closet Child. While this store was way smaller than the previous location they offered way more items that were up to my ally. I think at least one hour (might have even been a few hours, sorry dad!) was spend here by my mom and me shifting through clothing racks and picking out pieces to try on. I exited the shop with 2 bags filled with lolita items.

We visited a few more shops before reaching the end of the street. A cafe I had listed in my must visit list was the Godiva cafe, as chocolate lover I couldn't miss it.

The cafe, of course, has a chocolate theme going on, with chocolate bricks on the wall and chocolate dripping from the ceiling. Downstairs you can order your drink and/or your pastry and they have a small sitting area upstairs.

We all ordered a different taste of cold chocolate drink, they were all really delicious, though a bit sweet (my mom and I didn't mind, but my dad thought it was a bit too much).

After finishing our drinks we crossed the street to the Laforet building. I wanted to visit the lolita shops and make an appointment at Maison de Julietta. This department building is a must visit for any lolita, the main brands are located at the basement of the building, including Maison de Julietta.

We managed to make an appointment at Maison de Julietta after some confusion, cause they only have one employee who speaks decent English, and it turned out to be the photographer.

I had a good look around the various lolita brands and discovered some awesome shoes at AatP, sadly they were sold out in my size in my preferred color (I ordered them online back home).

After dropping off mu purchases at the hotel we went to look for the Alice restaurant. We had to look around for a bit, but did find it eventually, only to find it was closed for some unknown reason. Thus, we moved on to the Christon restaurant, situated almost next door.

The Christon restaurant has a church theme going on, though the food is pretty standard. Even though we had a delicious meal I wouldn't really recommend this restaurant unless you have time to spare, the theme is pretty minimal, and for a themed restaurant the food was pretty disappointing (no theme going on at all).

All photos can be found at my flickr page