Tuesday, 26 October 2010

she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes

HI!!!

IM READY TO POST! JUST GIVE ME MORE TIME! I Shall bring a new blog post tonight, with the start of my Japan trip photos!

I've been busy, and lazy, since I got back! And if you think i've forgotten, I HAVEN'T. Remember my little giveaway? She's coming too!

p.s. i'm going to Helsinki in November, who else is going that I don't know of?

Monday, 18 October 2010

1 day

Hello!

This is my last blog post before I leave Japan! :( sad times

This week has been really eventful, yet relaxing, which is nice. I found out that my laptop DOES have an SD card slot so I? could have uploaded photos all this time but it doesn't matter, I'll do it when I get back to UK~ I can't really take any new photos properly as my camera is broken! It will turn on, and I *can* take photos/videos, but the screen has screwed up so you can't see anything!

see :(


I was flicking through CARRY's books for aaaages until I came across this exact design on another girl and wanted it! They were so nice in there too! I took my friend Gen from Fuji TV along to translate for me which was great~ They were surprised to hear about Gaijin Gal and were also asking about how I did my hair and just general girl talk lol. They thought I was an artist at first and were like "omg omg omg" and I was like, no, i'm just a person lol. After CARRY, we took some puri and then headed to the Lock Up, as Caryn hadn't been there before. Unfortunately Gen had to go back to work :z so the three of us went instead. Here is some puri!





The Lock Up was pretty classy, and I really missed their spicy chicken! Although it's not really that spicy haha. The next day, Caryn went with her friend to the beach on the other side of Tokyo while me and Dec went to Tokyo station to change our Shinkansen tickets. Our flight is from Kansai Airport, so we get to experience the magic of the bullet train! Everyone says it's cool, so i'm quite excited to give it a go. We bought a special reduced ticket for Y12,000 which must be purchased one month to one week of departure, BUT, the time we selected would have meant we would have arrived at the airport with 1hr before our flight left! And we need to be there at least 3hrs before,(thanks to Caryn for bringing that to our attention!) and I had read on the JR website that you can change your ticket once with no charge, so off we went to the station.

At first we were told "you can't change your ticket" and we were like ...!!!!!! and panicking, but the woman behind the desk was kind and helped us out and said that if we wanted to change the ticket type rather than the time (as we bought a set time ticket and because it was a special fare and the time to buy it had passed, we wouldn't be able to change it) we could do so for an extra Y1,770 I think it was in the end, which is their commission (she said!). So now we can travel at any time which makes things easier and we're much more relaxed now! It's such a relief when you manage to sort out problems like that, especially last minute! That definitely teaches me for trying to be too casual about times~

We went back to Harajuku to see if we could find any cheap things for family and friends but there wasn't anything my lot would like so I went back home and Dec stayed out. When he got back, we went to the Denny's next to the station near our hotel, lol! I thought it was supposed to be American food, like burgers and stuff, but it was like Royal Host (if you've never been, it's like cheap curry, pasta and those hamburg steak things - like Little Chef in the UK) and we were a bit like "oh.." haha. The Caramel Pancakes were SO BLOODY NICE THOUGH. Yum. We took Caryn there the following afternoon haha and we all ate so many carbs, like a potato croquette, rice AND wedges, wth. In the evening, me and Dec went to the Tokyo Decadance bar in Shinjuku. It was ....okay, I guess. Sorry Adrien :z

On Saturday, we went to Shinjuku in the daytime and then met up with someone we met at the Hyper Japan event in London the day before we went to Japan (nice photo on gal secrets lol!!) ans she brought Satomi from Happie Nuts with her! She was soooo classy and so funny. She is the QUEEN of mad faces! She has a whole load of photos on her phone of her doing crazy ass faces! We went to a really small, and really yummy Yakitori place just opposite Shibuya station and stayed there for about 3 hours or something. Hiromi from Nuts also came to join us, and she is one of the most friendliest and down to earth people I have ever met! We got on straight away, it was like we'd known each other for years or something, which was good, considering she's a model and dj and well known and i'm just me lol. We went to Freshness Burger after everyone went home and chatted for ages. Her English is really good, and she was like "I want to learn English more! my English sucks!". She's so generous and kind, I hope she takes my advice!


Yesterday we went to 109 for the last time and also to SEF Deluxe (para para event) and on the way, we randomly bumped into Lexi (gaijin gal) who you might remember from the Fuji TV segment on foreign gals~ It was cool! Today we went to Disneyland and i'm ADDICTED to the Halloween Street: Welcome to Spookyville song! I NEED IT AS MY RINGTONE AND I DIDN'T BUY THE BLOODY CD IN THE SHOP AND I CAN ONLY FIND SOME EXPENSIVE ASS CD ONLINE.....:z

ANYWAY long blog, sorry! Off home tomorrow! 2 lovely flights :(
See y'all on my return, or in Dubai!



Monday, 11 October 2010

hisashiburi

Hello!

Sorry I haven't posted much on here! I still can't get a cable for my camera so there won't be any photos until after I get back home I think :( Nevermind!
I'm in Tokyo now, and arrived here last Friday :D Me and Dec came on the night bus straight from Tokyo, and what a LONG joruney that turned out to be! I'll carry on from my last blog;

So, I wrote about Wednesday! We went to Universal Studios in the day, and that was pretty cool, but to be fair, we didn't enjoy it as much as we could have done. We only went on two rides, Jurassic Park and Jaws! I'd been wanting to go on JP after seeing a video of Downtown from HEY HEY HEY! Music Champ go on it with Namie Amuro, Puffy Ami Yumi and Morning Musume:


(hahahaha)

and it was okay...lol. Not as exciting as people make out to be, and it was over damn quick! Nevertheless, I did buy some cute stuff as gifts for family, and a mug for work. In the evening we met Dec's mixi friend Ryo, and his surprise? Well, he knows Geha and a lot of the current manba so Dec thought the "surprise" might be Geha and convinced us both that it was her...Who was it? A really classy guy named Chiaki instead lol. But he was a laugh! He had 2 (Women's) Dior handbags with him, and while we were walking, he just happened to get a phonecall from Dior about a brand new bag haha! They took us to an alternative hair salon where Ryo used to get his hair done and the staff were really impressed by us :D We also went to Karaoke and Puri, and then we headed back home:







I don't know why Ryo drew himself when he was manba and then Geha? lol!

We went to Kyoto the next day to meet with Rox who is studying at a University here. She is really really gorgeous in real life and in photos! And also super nice! We had met our Japanese friend Miho like one hour before, and Ryo joined us also later on, both separate meetings! We took some puri and wandered around Gion also~





(Wrote this too quickly and spelt name wrong!)


We ended up seeing 2 Geisha and 5 Maiko!!! GET IN

That evening, we were due to get the night bus from Kyoto to Osaka, and we had left our cases at our place in Osaka after thinking that the lockers in the station wouldn't be big enough....wrong :z we had to go alllll the way back to Osaka and back to Kyoto again, but we made it in the end! We arrived at Tokyo at 7:00, and got a cab to the place we're staying at. We ended up sleeping for the day, which kind of sucked, but we're all well rested now! just...!

Caryn came to Japan on Saturday too! So she's also here to live it up with us haha.  One of our Japanese friends that we met in London came to Tokyo at the weekend to see us which was really nice! I've missed her (and Miho!) so much! We went to Atom on Saturday night with Julia/Yuri, Ai-chan, and one of their friends and we had a blast! Although me, Dec and Saki (our JP friend) left earlier than planned as we were tired, STARVING and my chest was being a bitch, so we went to all night Karaoke for a few hours before the first train came. They had awesome fried chicken!

They have a puri machine INSIDE Atom lol! But you can only take 2 photos. BUT, you can retake them haha. We happened to run into a lady we met in London at the Hyper Japan event while we were sitting outside a posh building in the back of Shibuya so we didn't get wet! It was such a chance meeting!

For the last 3 days i've been dragging Saki around with me trying to find any alternative coloured hairdye and I FINALLY managed to find some Manic Panic in Harajuku yesterday, and now my hair is bright again, yay! I haven't been able to wear my extens as the ends of my real hair are more porous and started to wash out more than the top (even though i've only washed my hair twice since being in JP and using dry shampoo the rest of the time lol) but now I can! And I had to buy some new curlers as the ones I bought last year don't work! I gave them to the hotel we're staying in...haha

I'm going to go now, I woke up an hour ago at 6:20 and can't sleep, and I don't want to wake the girls up as i've been a bit of a twat and tanning and dying my hair at like midnight and 1am :( sorry guys!

I have a nail appointment tomorrow (Wednesday) at CARRY!!!! daaaamn excited :D

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Osaka

Hello!

I'm now safely in Osaka and thought I would write you a blog post! Unfortunately I left my camera cable at home (idiot) so I can't show you any photos just yet until I buy a cable from somewhere, which will probably be on Friday in Tokyo, unless I can find somewhere in Kyoto tomorrow! (Thursday)

We've only been in Osaka for one real day but already we're really liking it a lot more than Tokyo! All the residents seem to be much nicer and much friendlier. The airport was a really good example of this; when we arrived in Tokyo last December, everyone was really really grumpy and as we collected our bags and headed through the last security before being allowed out into the airport, the officers snarled and shouted at us "WHERE ARE YOU STAYING IN JAPAN?!" and when I showed them the address and told them it was a hotel, "THIS IS NOT A HOTEL, WHERE ARE YOU STAYING IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!" and it took a couple of minutes before we were just dismissed really with a wave of the hand :z

HOWEVER. In Osaka, when we went to immigration, the officers were really chatty and nice and one kept joking around and asking if I was alright because I was wearing my big pink fluffy boots, and he thought I was cold lol! And even when we went to get our bags and do the last security check, the men with the dogs checking bags were really nice too, saying how cute our luggage was and apologising for having to send the dogs round and laughing and just generally having a better attitude to things than the staff in Narita~

Yesterday (Tuesday) me and Niijii went shopping! We went to the EST mall in Umeda and also to the OPA mall in Shinbashi. WE LOVE THEM. We think they're better than what Shibuya has to offer! And all the shop staff are really nice and cuuuute. We saw a lot of Gals as soon as we got to Osaka, and the Gals here are incredible! The fashion is really different to Tokyo and the shops really cater to that. There are a lot of off-brand stores here and they sell really awesome clothes; i'm in love! d.i.a is officially my new favourite store! The shop staff in both EST and OPA were really nice and commented on both of our styles as soon as we walked in and asked for a picture straightaway! The staff-chan in OPA is actually my mixi friend which I didn't know! That was a really awesome and surprising thing! We went to Karaoke and Purikura (standard!) yesterday also, and had a lot of fun trying to get one hour at the booth as I completely froze and forgot how to say one hour and basically everything else in my known vocabulary lol, but it was okay..just haha.

We've been stopped a lot for photos and have been recognised already from TV, but we've also incurred a lot of ugly stares and a business man on the train said something horrible to Nij in Japanese and tried to stop him from getting on! :z Today (Wendesday) we're going to Universal Studios and meeting up with a couple of Nij's mixi friends who used to be manba a long time ago. Apparently they have a "surprise" for us.....

I'll leave you with this, and update maybe tomorrow or Friday and then hopefully i'll have a cable for my camera!

Sunday, 3 October 2010

fly me to the moon

Hello! I'm writing this blog post from Dubai! Well...Dubai International Airport!
To be more precise, the hotel in the airport!

I need to try and sleep so i'll (try to) keep this entry to a minimum :D Our flight from London this morning was delayed but they didn't bother to mention it until we were in the lounge and waiting to get on the plane! We were due to fly at 8:40 and ended up leaving at around 10 instead....grumpy passengers!! lol

The flight was pretty smooth to be fair and didn't feel like 6 hours at all. I also think Emirates is better than Virgin! The staff were nicer, the plane was nicer, and I feel weird saying this, but the food was nicer too! And that's a compliment, as airplane food is usually gross! They gave us soooo much too! Like, for breakfast we had a fruit salad, a croissant and an apple turnover (not really a breakfast item but it was nice!) and damn good orange juice, and then for lunch we had this chicken curry; which was actually not that good, the chicken was funny so I just ate the rice and sauce lol; wait! and we also had an appetiser for that, of noodles with chilli and prawns which also came with a bread roll and a lemon/vanilla pudding AND bloody crackers and stuff too! Insaaaaaaaaane!

Our hotel is soooo nice! I think its supposed to be like 5 star quality or something!

Anyhow, I must go as I need to catch a few Z's! Dec says hi!

Catch up with you all in Osaka tomorrow!
p.s. yesterday's performance at Hyper Japan! went really well, and I also embarrassed myself on a live Nico Nico Douga internet web stream ;p
p.p.s. thank you for all the comments about my new hair! im glad you like it!

Friday, 1 October 2010

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Sorry for the rubbish quality, its from my mobile....what do y'all think?