A Savory Ordeal

While Lolita fashion frequently incorporates sweets into the designs, our monthly meetup for October challenged this by using the theme of "savory foods"!!  Well, all our themes are drawn at random, and this was my suggested theme from over a year ago!

It turned out to be very challenging!  Though we joked about going for 熱炒/quick/hot stir fry food to fit the theme, we actually ended up going for a very decadent/unique dessert place called 微兜/Petit Doux!

Strawberry pancake

Filled!!!

Honey 吉桃/Jitao

National Day Meetup 2016

October 10 is Taiwan's National Day!  Also called Double Ten Day(雙十節) and we had a small get-together at a hotel afternoon tea.  As most of my clothes are packed up, I had a pretty lackluster coordinate that day...

Pink and Navy makeup

 I have some seriously dark undereye circles :(  There has been ongoing construction just behind the apartment where I live, causing a lot of noise and also a disturbance in the air pressure so some mornings I wake up with deafness in one ear. Rather annoying; I cannot wait to move!!!

So I got lost on the way to the location, which was in a confusing mess of buildings!  However, the birdcage afternoon tea sets were very beautiful and made me forget my frustrations.

Double-person set
It is hanging!

 Because we had a Gomaji coupon, it ended up being only NT$699/two people compared to the regular price of NT$12000!

This is a cat (apparently)
I think it looks like a bunny

Keys to Unlock Your Heart Meetup

Shortly after arriving home from Japan, we had our September Lolita meetup!  The theme was "keys" and luckily, the Putumayo dress I'd purchased at Closet Child had an all-over print that included keys!

We went to a really unique little restaurant called 舒服生活(Comfortable Life)/Truffles Living which was FILLED with Western antiques!

Bear and Sheep

 All the items had little price stickers on them.  Yes, they were incredibly expensive. I have no idea how they got things like the desks and couches here??

Awesome-looking typewriter

 This restaurant apparently also rents out their space for photoshoots/wedding photography. It would definitely look very beautiful!  However, they also let us take photos as dining customers ^_~  We arrived early and there were few people around, so we got many photos!

The more you look, the more details you see
Like the onion cat

2016 Universal Studios Japan Halloween

On September 19 I had no plans so my friend suggested we go to Universal Studios Japan, as he'd never been either, despite living in Osaka for a decade ^^;

There is a USJ app you can download (just search "USJ" in your application store for your mobile phone) that has handy time slots, schedules, and waiting times.

Takoyaki!

Outfit rundown:

Vest: Black Peace Now

JSK: Putumayo (from Closet Child)

Bag: Ozz(?) (from Pure Sound)

 Given that it was a last-minute decision, I did zero research on the place and had no idea what to expect.  It is very easy to get to, however, as there is a train station for USJ only. There is actually hotel space there if you'd like to just live there, but I'm sure it's quite expensive.

Also, USJ has Halloween specials!!  I'm loving Halloween time in Japan!!!  Many people dress up in costume at USJ. There is a Claire's and some other shops near the entrance where you can buy prosthetic parts and makeup to complete your look before entering, or use the face-painting and SFX face paint services.  There were many group costumes, making it easy for them to find their companions, I suppose!

As it was rainy on this day, it wasn't so crowded and it wasn't hot. The rain was on and off, so a bit bothersome, but overall very nice.

Drinking blood

 I'm not sure where they even store these Halloween edition figures the rest of the year, as there are many.

I was most excited to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!  You do need to exchange for another ticket to enter, but you do not need to actually pay a separate entrance fee. I think it is to help manage the number of visitors in the Wizarding World at any given time.

Note: this post is going to be massively picture-heavy!

2016 Kyoto Lolita Shopping

Going from Osaka to Kyoto is much simpler than I thought it would be. There are a variety of train speeds, but as long as you get on one that gets off at your stop, it should be fine. We took a faster train which skipped many stops, and then alighted and switched trains (on the same track) to one that made more frequent stops as we approached our final destination. Really, I find the maps quite self-explanatory, but if you have trouble, you can ask the station staff as they are quite helpful.

Wearing the BABY dress I got at Near

 In Kyoto there happened to be an Angelic Pretty sales event!

Both the Angelic Pretty and BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT shops are in a department store called OPA (see map) on the seventh floor.  Unfortunately, photography is forbidden in the entire department store!

However, it was still a fun experience to go line up before the department store even opened! I was third in line and there ended up being a long queue of Lolitas in front of the shop. Because it is a tourist-heavy area, there were many people trying to take photos of us :o  

When the doors opened, everybody filed in in one line and headed up the escalators like a Lolita train.  If you are not queuing for something, you can also just take the elevator ^_~v

Once we reached the Angelic Pretty shop, the shop staff (same shop staff from Osaka! She must be a manager?) counted the number of customers and cut up number slips for us. It turns out you do not get to shop and check-out based on the order you arrived in, but in the order you draw your number. This could be either good or bad. It may seem unfair if you've arrived especially early (I arrived at 10:30 for the 11:00 open, which is not terrible) and drew a late number, but doing it this way also prevents people from trying to cut in line or push out of order to try and get an earlier spot in the line.

Anyway, the first round of drawing was messed up somehow. I think it could be that a couple more Lolitas (my friend and her friend, actually) arrived right after the shop staff did the original count so they redid the drawing. I drew number 3 the second time around ^u^

The shop staff then announced the times for certain number groups, so numbers 1-9 were recommended to stay and later numbers could come back at 11:30.  It actually ended up taking much longer for the check-outs to happen. Though I picked through the Tops Set and Accessories Set for quite some time, in the end I gave my number to Laina so she could buy the special sets she wanted without needing to wait around for ages. 

Instead, I headed over to BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT which is back-to-back with Angelic Pretty and had a look around. The shop staff was very kind and let me try on the BABY Border Usakumya Set on Taiwan Teddy

It ended up costing too much, however, so I bought the BABY icing cookie brooch instead.

Afterward I wandered to a nearby street on my way to find the Metamorphose shop!