[Japan Travel Fair] Welcome to Yokohama

As most of you might already know, I'm very fond of traveling and one of my favorite place to go for is Japan (Tokyo in particular). I'm still trying to live my long term goal of visiting Japan at least once a year, covering all of Japan if possible! I usually plan for my own trips, reading all sorts of information and reviews online, creating my own itinerary etc; however all the planning can be tedious without a proper direction, and I tend to skip out places with lesser reviews/less popular even though there may be some sort of hidden gems that I didn't know off. 

Which is why I was very excited to attend the Japan Travel Fair last week (9th-13th November) organized by Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) held in One Utama Ground Floor - Highstreet. I was very hyped up after hearing this event; I mean, what can be better than getting to know different prefectures specialty and culture from Japan, while participating in mini games for more travel goodies and discounts?

  

The main stage where all activities are held. Each prefectures took turns explaining about what is good to visit, and how do they differentiate themselves from other prefectures. There's even wagashi (Japanese handmade sweets) demonstration and tasting session which my Japanese colleague took much interest in. 

Free Yukata experience available as well :), and you can get your photo taken and printed out for remembrance. 

What grabbed my attention in this fair was a small booth promoting the city of Yokohama. To be honest I have always left Yokohama out of my travel itinerary because I couldn't find much info about the area, and it is less popular as compared to the other Japan travel hot-spots.

Look who i found! Ash from the GG Twins was the MC for the fair :)

 

Yokohama locals who promote at the booth were very kind, and they have spent around 20minutes explaining to me about Yokohama. And wow I was amazed and feeling all the regrets for not visiting this awesome location sooner ><.

Yokohama is actually the second largest city in Japan by population (with over a 3 million!!??), and is also known as Japan's first port of call. To me, this is probably the best place to go for a one day visit while staying in Tokyo, as it is only 30minutes away from Tokyo. This port city is suitable for travelers of all age: there's historical building, different sorts of interesting museums, awesome sceneries and even amusement park! There's no need to worry about transportation, as the railway access is as good as Tokyo.

Just to name a few attractions from Yokohama that caught my attention:

Skyline view and Sceneries

Minato Mirai 21 is the central business district of Yokohama city, and for those who are fans of skyscrapers views, you can head over to the Landmark Tower (Sky Garden observatory) located 273m from the ground - you can even see Mount Fuji and Tokyo Sky Tree from the observation deck! Get all your cameras ready XD

I may not be so much of a nature lover, but I do love beautiful parks and gardens as well~ For those who love beautiful Japanese parks, the Sankeien Garden is definitely for you. The locals recommended visiting the garden on Spring (sakura) and Autumn (maple leaves) for the best view.

Family Fun Time

For those going with family and kids, there's the Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise which is one of the most visited amusement park in Japan with an impressive aquarium. The entrance fee for Sea Paradise park area is free, so you could have a nice stroll and family picnic at the park area. Entry fee is only required for the attractions of Aqua Resorts and the rides of Pleasure Land.

Besides the aquarium, family could also bring kids to Zoorasia, currently one of Japan's newest, largest and best kept zoos. What is so special about this zoo is that the animals are kept closest to their natural habitat, spreading out among seven ecological areas: Asian Tropical Forest, Subarctic Forest, Oceanian Grassland, Central Asian Highland, Japanese Countryside, Amazon Jungle and African Tropical Rainforest. 

For the bold and young

Yokohama Cosmo World!!! I'm a huge lover of theme parks so I was really excited when hearing about this. The Cosmo World amusement park has a handful of roller coaster rides, carnival attractions, and symbolizes by a large Ferris wheel that doubles as a clock. In the evening the park is illuminated, and adds to the night view of the city.  

 

Ladiesss~~~

Shopping is the best in Japan!!! Yokohama is filled with tons of shopping malls, like the Queen's Square, Landmark Plaza, World Porters, just to name a few. Motomachi shopping district 

After shopping, there's also Manyo Club, a spa and relaxation center, offering hot spring baths with water brought in daily by truck from the Izu Peninsula. Paid services include acupuncture, foot pressure therapy and various styles of massage. Other services include restaurants, internet access and relaxation rooms. 

  

Food

What's traveling without good food :) There are many places to hunt for awesome food, like the Shin Yokohama Ramen museum (known as the world's first food themed amusement park). You could try out all the different ramen flavors because all stores offers mini ramen with super small portion for taste. 

There's actually so much more to Yokohama that I don't think I could cover in one single blog post; but for now Yokohama is definitely in my top list the next time I'm going back to Tokyo. If you want to understand more about the Kawaii (cute) and artsy aspects of Yokohama, do visit Kurumi's Blog here .

Thanks to Yokohama tourism, I got to dress up in Hakama during the fair too~

YAYYYY~ I still prefer the hakama I owned, but this one looks awesome as well! In Yokohama, there's Hakama rental service where you could rent one of these outfit and spend the day walking around in Hakama.

 

With the beautiful model from Amber Chia Academy. Am feeling like a potato standing with her haha.

 

Love the selfies taken that day >< But I do wish to put on some hair accessories to match with the outfit. 

To end my blog post, I wanna express my thanks to the Yokohama tourism staffs for their time explaining to be the specialty and culture of Yokohama, I really learn a lot during that short period of time; and of course friends whom I met during the fair for bringing me around for freebies. Won't you guys give Yokohama a try when visiting Japan? 

#haikara_yokohama #japantravel

Animax Carnival 2016

As you can see I'm working hard to clear as much backlog posts as I could .___.

 

Dressed up properly during Animax Carnival 2016! It was held at Sunway Convention Centre, my usual buddies (Sayoko and Aoi) have decided to attend with Lolita fashion instead of cosplaying :D It was their first time wearing proper lolita coordinates and I hope they enjoyed their time~

 

Four of us! Me in my Antique Piano barouque style coordinate; Sayoko and her black bodyline lolita skirt; Aoi with her purple Skirt from Soufflesong (I love her wig sooo much!!!!); Reiki with her chocolate print JSK (cuteeeeee~~).

 

 

There isn't much stuff to do at Animax Carnival, other than to queue up for the games and chill/hobo around the area. So obviously this means that we spent most of our time hanging around taking selfies/wefies, chatting etc.

 

The Trio with Megane (glasses):

 



 

I got my round frame glasses from RedEye Korean Accessories shop, and removed the plastic lens to avoid the light reflection during photo taking :D After this event I actually bought a new similar glasses from O.W.L and love it till now~~

 

Us and the mini cute coser! I've been following her page ever since, all the best in your cosplay little girl :)

 



I basically just walk around with this few KGs heavy old luggage bag. This was a real luggage bag from the 80's (or 70's?) that my mum borrowed me, so it's not really a fake photo prop lol. My arms was about to fall off towards the end of the day, the bag was really SOOOOO heavy T____T.

 

#LolitaCoordinate #OOTD :

Brown English Noble Hat: Ank Rouge

Lace blouse with Wine Red ribbon details, English Roses collar design : Liz Lisa

Antique Piano Scarf and Skirt : Abilletage Japan

Round frame glasses: Red Eye Accessories

Wine Red enamel gloss heels: Forgotten the brand LOLOL

Old School Luggage Bag: borrowed from Mummy~

 



 

 

 

This is probably one of my favourite Lolita coordinates! I love every single details I put my heart into, deciding which accessories to match, my hair style, makeup etc. Spent a whole night trying to figure out what matches the most! And it looks like my hard work pays~

The trio + Rin + Azu~ Chee Ren and Azu were cosplay couples that day :D

 



Met Fishie!!! I missed you a lot! Let's find a day to chill and hang out again!

 



 

Lol what are you doing behind, Aiko??

 



 

Chooi Yi - One of the MLC members I met during the February CNY dim sum meet.

 



 

Us from MLC!~

 



 

PEACE!!!!!

 



 

Thanks Forat Shot Photography for this photo~ Love the color and warmth!

 



 

 

Haha, this was from Sony Camera booth, I kinda doubt if they could sell their camera well. But after some edits I think it looks okay-ish.

 



 

Could see my earrings from here hahaha. They are the Red Galaxy earrings I got from Harajuku :)

 



 

Anddddd of course, my favourite full body shot will always be from my sister :D For some reason she always manages to take great pictures of me!!!! I wish I could do the same as well >__<

February & March 2016 Malaysian Lolita Club Meetup/ Gathering

MLC: Malaysian Lolita Club

February 2016 MLC Meet : Dim Sum~

 

MLC Feb meet was of course in the theme of Chinese New Year! And we went to have dim sum (halal because there's muslim Lolita joining) at K Dolly. Food there was average but I really do enjoyed the meet a lot because it was actually my first time ever joining a Lolita meet up!!! Started Lolita quite looong ago but somehow just keep failing to join the meetups, either having some other events or performances sobss.

 

My mum dropped off Reiki and I at the LRT station, and we both took the train there :D I really do enjoy wearing lolita dresses in public because I'm somehow used to public gaze anyway >___> with my performance outfit and all. Both of us went to the wash room to prep up our hair-do, touch up our makeup etc, a routine for girls before meet-ups haha.

 

And of course, tons of selfies LOLOL:

 

 

I'm wearing Qi-Loli this time! A chinese style Lolita influenced by Qi Pao (chinese traditional outfit). I got mine from Miss Point, and fall straight in love after seeing the color (i rarely have pink dresses so I've always wanted to have one) and the flower prints. Really matched what I had in mind so I had it tailor-made to my size yay~

 

Never ending selfies with my Loli-partner Reiki~~ I'm so glad to know her through Aiko, we stayed soooo close to each other!!!! She's pretty good at singing too, hugsssss. Cheers to more outings and karaokes to go :D

 



She was busy selfie-ing + looking at herself through the phone mirror lolol.

 

 

Of course, Me toooo~

 

 

We moved to our meet-up venue at K Dolly after Aiko arrived.

I have totally forgotten to take any food pictures; was so busy getting to know more new lolita friends and getting so hyped up with talks about new dresses, lolita brands etc.

 

Here's my full body #LolitaCoordinate #OOTD of the day:

I matched my dress with a antique butterfly shawl, and a super expensive wooden hand fan I bought from Spain. For my hair I did a small braid on the sides (I don't think it is shown in the pictures haha), and added a nice blue pink feather hair pin as decoration.

 



Usagi bag sooo cute!!!

 



 

A final group photo before we leave:

 



 

We went to the lobby area for some photos as well, Year of Monkey :D

 

March 2016 MLC Meet : Tea Party at The Majestic Hotel KL ~

 

YUP!!! I joined the March lolita meet-up as well XD Can't stop bonding with the lolita girls so I've made a point to try to attend as much meet up as possible ( as long as it doesn't clash with my events or performances). I went Hi-Tea with my mummy during her birthday last November before, but I booked the entire Orchid room for her, hope she enjoyed herself. Lolita meetup this time is at the Tea Lounge, where we can see the live piano performance nearer!

 

Our toilet preparation took almost 40minutes =____=. Yup, thats how long the girls prepping themselves. I prefer to dress up at home (for any events haha), so I'll just wait for them while selfie-ing~

 



 

Aiko was there pretty early LOL, she was saying that every time she decides to be early, it was the time everyone else will be late .___. Her table almost finished half of their tea set by the time we arrived our table haha.

 

My Lolita outfit this time - Red x Brown Tartan Chess Print JSK (jumper skirt) from White Forest, a korean indie Lolita brand. I got myself a full set including the beret, because I'm a fan of beret myself :) After posting my OOTD pictures on instagram, the designer of White Forest actually messaged me!! And we have been instagram friends since, just that she speaks korean and don't really speak english =____=, so communication is slightly difficult.

 

 

Majestic Blend tea, to me it's just a normal English Breakfast Tea lol. Hi Tea spread is somehow similar to the ones I had during my previous visit.

 

With my cute purple Reiki!!~ Forgot to mention that I drove both of us here at the hotel, achievement unlocked :) Reiki studies Photography so I'm counting on her to take good pictures for me~~~

 



 



 

I quite like the scones here~ has the texture I prefer, not too hard nor soft. Of course my favourite tea jelly is always from TWG. Heard that ritz carlton hotel has better scones though, can't wait to try them next time.

 

Yay for group photo! Some of the girls went back though ><

 



 

Some of the food pics, I like the savoury plate a lot!!

 

 

Selfie with the cuteeeeee Aiko!!!! Thanks to her joining MLC has never been easier. Her hard work and commitment to the club is sooo admirable.

 



 

LOL non edit photos, you can see the colors aren't vibrant:

 

 

The red team!

 

 

My dress from behind:

 

 

The all mighty group photo!!!~ Love you girls sooo much :D I'm already looking forward for the next meet. We are gonna have one in July, but I hope there's one in June as well maybe?

 

I'll end this post with a final #Lolitacoordinate #OOTD picture of me and my lovely dress. Tartan x chess print combines both my favourite, and I hope to discover more Lolita favourites and try all of them out (Gotta try all the Lolita dress!!). I matched this dress with a Clock design sling bag and a pair of wine red old school style heels.