Recent Purchases

Hi cuties! Today the weather is super grey (classic England) and the lighting is crazy, so I wanted to just do a super quick post to share some of the things I ordered recently! I'm currently saving up for my trip to Japan in July, so I'm trying to keep my spending to a minimum, so these are just a couple of super cute things for my trip/for the spring! ^^ I hope you like them!

1. Scallop Pumps from Dear My Love at DreamV

When I saw that DreamV were releasing purple pumps, I was so excited! Ever since Kokokim released their purple heart heels, I had really wanted a pair, but they were always super expensive even second hand (over £100!), so I was ecstatic that DreamV were selling a far cheaper alternative. I bought some boots from DreamV back in the winter which are so comfy, so I'm confident these shoes will be equally lovely. I couldn't resist the cute scallop details and heart charm at the front. I was also really tempted by the beige colourway to, so perhaps I'll order those to if I like the purple ones enough! They were only 3,299 yen plus about 600 yen postage to my shopping service, which is a steal!

2. Off-the shoulder top from Dear My Love at Dream V

Since I bought an off the shoulder top from Ingni and loved how it looked, I wanted to get another one for spring! I love the cute shoulder ties on this one, and also how loose and comfy it looks. I think it'll go perfectly with a simple lace skirt or cute shorts, and some beige ballet shoes. I chose beige, but the other colourways are all adorable so it was a difficult choice!

3. Liz Lisa x My Melody Fukubukuro Top

Apologies for the absolutely titchy-teeny photo! It's a little hard to find stock photos of the lucky pack items. I got the skirt from this lucky pack from the sales comm and adore it, so I really wanted to get the top to go along with it. I regretted not ordering the fukubukuro back in the winter, so I'm collecting various bits from it over time. I ordered the top off Yahoo auctions for a really good price (about 2,500 yen) using Japonica Market as usual. It looks really soft and warm (it's still freezing here in good old England) so I'm excited to try it!

4. To Alice Strawberry Bunny Skirt

I was really sad when I preordered the one piece version of this and it turned out to be sold out T.T luckily I was able to buy the skirt instead on preorder and swap the cardigan I had wanted for the long-sleeved top instead. I absolutely adore this print, partly because I love bunnies and also because I love strawberries and don't own many strawberry-themed items. To Alice handmakes their items and they are really good quality, and super cute. Prices are a little higher than some taobao shops, but for the quality it's a definite bargain. The skirt was only around £13 with about £3 domestic shipping, so I was very happy! I'm so excited to wear this on my Japan holiday with a plain white lacy blouse and some cute strawberry accessories.

5. To Alice Strawberry Bunny Top

I fell for the cute bunny design on this top and just had to get it. It was really cheap (about £7) and the stock photos look like its a loose and comfy fit, and you can either wear it casually with some comfy shorts or dress it up with a jacket and cute pink skirt! It somewhat reminds me of the cherry bunny print Angelic Pretty brought out a few years ago ~

So that's all the things I bought recently and am waiting (not patiently at all) to arrive! I hope you like the items as much as I do, and I'll be posting a review of things when they come. I hope you all have a lovely rest of the week!

Love, Cee x

Places I'll Visit In Japan 1 (Tokyo)

Hi cuties! Ive been home for the last few days so ive had to postpone my closet tour slightly, but ill be posting about it later in the week! While I was away, I thought I would make a post about the places ill be visiting in Tokyo! I will also be visiting Osaka and Hiroshima, but I will talk about those in a separate post. This will be my 2nd trip to Japan, and this time i'll be going with a friend, which is super exciting!

Ill be arriving in Tokyo on the 20th July in the middle of the morning, after a 15 hour trip including a stopover in Frankfurt (i'm going to be so sleepy!). We are staying in a rented house close to the Chuo line, which is super convenient and easy to reach the Yamanote line to take us all around the city! We are staying in Tokyo for 8 nights before we travel to Osaka, and will be returning to Tokyo for 2 days at the end for lots of shopping! 

Last time I visited Japan, i missed some of the popular spots in Tokyo because I spent a lot of time visiting Akihabara, as well as lots of shrines and temples. This time, I really want to visit some of the anime cafes, and amusement parks and museums I missed before, as well as seeing some of the beautiful cultural landmarks again. 

So let's have a look at where we plan to go!

1. Tokyo Disney Sea/ Disneyland

The Tokyo Disney resort is located in Chiba prefecture, close to Tokyo, close to the seafront. It has a Disneyland park as well as the Disney Sea park which is unique to Japan, where you can find unique characters like Duffy bear and company! Tickets cost the same (6400 yen) to enter each park, and can only be used on one park at a time. I'll definitely be visiting the Disney Sea park as it has an area where you can meet Duffy, dinner shows with performing characters, a mermaid lagoon, lots of shops, as well as the Tower Of Terror ride which is so much fun! During July the summer matsuri festival will also be happening, which will be lots of fun to see. I would also love to visit Disneyland so we can meet Minnie and Daisy! 

2. Shirokuma Cafe

Shirokuma Cafe is my all time favourite anime, and my friend and I were so excited to discover that there is a real cafe dedicated to it in Tokyo! It's located in Takadanobaba which is easy to get to on the Yamanote loop line. The cafe serves a selection of tasty drinks and food, and their menu can be found on their website. You can also find character merchandise, as well as full-size plush models of the characters sitting around the cafe to enjoy a drink and sneaky selfie with! Its open from 10am to 10pm as well, which lets you enjoy the cute atmosphere any time of the day. I can't wait to see all the cute products and try a real shirokuma cafe mocha!!

Look how cute and tasty the panda roll cake looks! 

3. Sanrio Puroland 

I visited this park on my 2013 trip to Japan, and it was my favourite day of my entire holiday! My friend who lives in Tama took me there and we had a lovely and magical day. The park itself is in the suburb of Tama New Town, which is about 35 minutes from Shinjuku by the Keio express line. Luckily the line is easy to find as Shinjuku station has lots of signs! The park itself is all indoors, and only has a few rides, as the main attractions are the characters and the shows you can watch! Last time, we watched a Jewelpet show, a character competition and a Twin Stars play, which were all adorable! They have added a new Jewelpet show which I would love to see, as I adore the anime.

(This show looks so lovely!)

The park has a few different dining spots, including a buffet cafe where you can eat until you're stuffed for 2,000 yen and watch Kitty perform a cute singing and dancing show. There are also a few different shops, including a huge shop with a different display for each character!! I especially adore cinnamoroll, and can't wait to buy a little plushie of him. 

4. Tokyo Skytree

Last time I was in Japan, I stayed in Minamisenju which is close to Skytree, but I was too much of a wuss to visit as I'm a little afraid of heights! This time, I really want to see the tower, even if I don't go all the way! At the time it was built, it was the world's tallest tower! Tickets for the observation deck can be bought online if you have a Japanese credit card, or otherwise you can buy them at the tower ticket office. It costs 2060 yen to go to the first deck, which will definitely be high enough for me!! There is also a shopping centre and aquarium at the base of the tower which are a good place to recover after being up in the sky...

The tower itself is in Sumida and can be reached by the Asakusa subway line to Oshiage station, or the Tobu Isesaki line to Tokyo Skytree Station.

5. Studio Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

This is the place I most regret not visiting on my last trip to Tokyo, as the Ghibli films are what got me interested in Japan initially, before I knew anything about the fashions or culture. We both adore Ghibli films, as do my friends and family back home, so i'll be buying lots of gifts for people there. The museum is located in Mitaka and is easily reached on the Chuo line from Shinjuku (and from near our house, mwahaha).  Buying tickets is a little complicated, as you must buy the tickets from a different provider depending on your country of origin (details are on the official museum website). Tickets cost 1000 yen, and in the UK can be bought at specific travel agencies. 

Sadly, photos aren't allowed inside the museum, but there is a guide book available to buy, as well as a wealth of character merchandise. There's also a huge model of the robot from Laputa outside, which I can't wait to see in real life. Inside the museum you can view many of Miyazaki's sketches on display, which must be so awe-inspiring to see.

6. Shibuya 109

I totally missed this department store on my last trip, as I didnt have a big interest in gyaru or himekaji fashions at that time. I spent was too much time and money in Harajuku, in closetchild and the LaForet department store! Shibuya 109 contains a huge range of gyaru and other populat young womens brands like Liz Lisa and Honey Cinnamon, a brand I recently discovered and love. Conveniently, the store and its website accepts foreign debit cards which is so nice as it means you don't have to carry lots of cash around. The reviews i've read so far say it can get very busy and is somewhat expensive, but I'm very interested to see what little gems I can find, and how it measures up to LaForet, which i'll be going back to for sure!!

(I will be spending a huge amount of time in Angelic Pretty and Nile Perch)

7. Ueno Zoo

This was the first landmark I visited in Tokyo, as I visited Ueno park after I got off the plane, to kill time before my hotel allowed me to check in. The park itself contains various shrines, temples,mstayues, museums, tea houses and so on in addition to the zoo, and is a huge and beautiful area. The zoo itself is very cheap at about 500 yen for an adult ticket, and has a lovely range of exhibits. They even have pandas, and lots of different bears, including Hokkaido bears who are huge and a little scary O.O. There are lots of stands selling merchandise, as well as food stalls where you can get snacks like ice cream and fries. It gets very hot in summer, so a water bottle and umbrella are a must to keep cool! Shirokuma Cafe was based on this zoo, and so we are so excited to visit the animals from the show, particularly Lesser Panda for me! 

So those are the principle places, both old and new, that we will be seeing in Tokyo this time. We will also spend lots of time seeing Harajuku, and possibly Odaiba and the Tsukiji fish market as it's very close to us. I'd also like to see the old Edo style town of Kawagoe near the city, but it all comes down to having enough time! 

Thank you all for reading and I hope this was interesting! Ill post more about my trip in the coming months before we leave and please ask if you have any questions! 

Love, Cee x

Shibuya 109 Review / Tenso Review

      Hi cuties! Today I'm going to be talking about the order I placed a few weeks ago with Tenso; I had been wanting to order something from the Shibuya 109 e-shop for a while, and when the Liz Lisa store had its New Year sale I decided to give it a try!    

I wanted to try out Tenso's forwarding service for the first time, because I know its a super popular service with lots of bloggers. I just ordered one item to test out the process, so I picked a cute winter top from Liz Lisa! (I didn't like the look of the matching sukapan very much sadly). 

Here is the top I chose;

 

This caught my eye because it suits the model's dark hair really well, and my real hair is a medium brown colour. I also have a slightly olive-ish complexion, especially in the summer, so I thought a light pastel colour would suit me really well!   I signed up with Tenso, which is super easy to do; you just enter your personal details, and your address, then provide them with I.D for your address and to confirm your identity. Once they have checked it and confirmed everything, they provide you with an 'address' and phone number you can use to shop at Japan-only websites. They have a little advice section on their website which tells you how to enter your address and details when you shop, so its super easy to use!

I went ahead and placed my order through the Shibuya 109 e-shop; please note that the website is in Japanese so you may need to use a browser translator to find your way around! I put the top in my basket, and checked out, entering the details Tenso had given me. Fortunately, Shibuya 109 accepts international bank cards, so I was able to pay using my regular card. Shipping was around 600 yen which was totally reasonable for a heavy-ish winter top! I got a confirmation mail from the shop soon after to say my order had been received. I had a follow-up mail 2 working days later to say that my order had been sent from Sibuya 109, and a few days later it showed up on my Tenso account as a 'pending order'. I was super happy that Shibuya 109 sent it out quickly, and I was relieved that there were no problems with ordering from a Japanese website.    

    This was unfortunately where I had a little difficulty with Tenso; initially I chose registered airmail as my shipping method, and paid through paypal. A few days later, I noticed that my payment wasn't showing up on the Tenso page, and my item was still 'pending', so I contacted them through the help form on their website. They mailed me back saying they had already contacted me (they hadn't) saying that my item was too large for registered airmail (which is odd for a single top?) and that I had to change to SAL parcel instead. They offered to reduce my package size, which they did in a day or so, so it could be sent SAL small packet, which was cheaper. They refunded me the original shipping and I paid again, this time for SAL, and my item got posted a few days later. This whole process was a little stressful, as their communication was somewhat slow and I was a little put off that they claimed to have already contacted me, when I had received no messages from them whatsoever. Fortunately, once my item got posted out, the shipping was super speedy and the top arrived to me in about 5 days (so quick for SAL!!). As a result, my opinion of Tenso is somewhat neutral as I had to chase them to find out what was happening.  

I was pleased to see that Tenso had packaged my top in a sturdy box, and I was so excited when I opened it and saw that the Liz Lisa shop had included a cute shopping bag along with my purchase. I thought that was really nice of them, as I haven't been into a physical Liz Lisa shop before (I totally missed it in Harajuku, but this summer I'll be paying them a big visit!).

 

Here's the top in person!  

The gold detailing around the buttons is such an elegant touch!

I love the rose embroidery detail on the waist!

The pom pom on the neckline is detachable which is super useful!

There's a layer of chiffon material on top and a knitted cotton layer beneath!

It's so floaty and dreamy! 

I'm really pleased with the quality of the top; the collar and cuffs are so soft and fluffy and the under layer of the top is very soft and comfortable as are the sleeves. It's a lovely fit and very cosy in the cold weather; it is worth bearing in mind that the top is a small size compared to a lot of Western sizes (as is typical of Liz Lisa clothing), so it wouldn't fit over about a 84cm bust comfortably. Some of Liz Lisa's clothes do stretch or have larger size options, but most are relatively small.

Something I love about this top is that it's super versatile and can be dressed up with a fancy skirt or shorts, or toned down and worn with some light coloured jeans and comfy fluffy boots!

Worn photos;

(Apologies for the silly lighting, it was very sunny and then very shady >.< )

*Silly faces*

*Shellie May is lounging around in the background*

    

 

So that's it for my little combined review! Overall I felt neutral about Tenso's service and would probably stick with my normal service Japonica Market in future. I was super happy with my Shibuya 109 experience however, and will be ordering from their web shop again soon! I'm also really excited to be visiting the real Shibuya 109 in July when we visit Tokyo again! I want to visit as many Liz Lisa outlets as possible, as I'm beginning to love the brand more and more!

Thanks for reading! 
Love, Cee x