【Release】Sweet Lolita MEGA DRESS UP

Play this "Mega" dress up, featuring over 200 beautiful items that you can color, mix and match to your heart's delight! You can even apply kawaii fabric patterns, featuring cupcakes, ponies and lollipops, then decorate your lolita with fashionable stockings (woo, argyle!) and adorable shoes.

Special thanks to my gifted friend Dentelle127 for the amazing music
Sponsorship by dolldivine.com

It's finally finished!!! Finished!! FINISHED !!!

It's been a year but... I'm back with a new Sweet Lolita game, the Japanese street fashion based on Rococo and Victoria-era clothing. Please try out the powdery pastels, cupcakes, fruits, candies and ribbons, you can arrange your lolita outfit from over 200 items

..PLAY SWEET LOLITA MEGA DRESS UP..

The game also includes a character sheet to create a Lolita ID card (in the menu click on "Finish" > "Create lolita id").
So don't forget to use the finish button!

NeoLolitan

Lolita style: sweet

Special ability: likes both sweet loli and goth loli.

Goes for a special sweet x goth style!

Favourite colour: pink and black

Favourite food: strawberry macaron

Favourite brand: Angelic Pretty

Personal quote: Wanna be friend with lolitas

Also I have decided to relaunch an outfit contest and the prize will be one of these!!
To find out more, go on my doll group on deviantArt!

【日本のココが嫌】 What has disappointed you regarding Japan?

*yawn* the weather this spring is so bad in Europe and London particularly
I feel I haven't done much besides work - just staying at home and sleeping!

While waiting for the sun , I have been wandering on rocketnews24, a website that brings all kind of strange and funny news mostly from Japan and Asia. A bit like Yahoo's oddly enough, except that coming from Japan you can except another level or weirdness ha ha

They started recently to translate some of the articles in English but this one got my attention
So I share it here

「あなたが日本でガッカリしたことは何？」ソーシャルニュースサイト『reddit』で、外国人と思われるユーザーがこんな質問を投稿した。「日本に行ってあなたが失望したこと、想定外だったこと、過小評価もしくは過大評価していたと感じたことなど。たまたま自分にだけ起こったことから誰にでも起こり得ることまで、日本でガッカリしたことをシェアしよう」。

"What has disappointed you regarding Japan?" Someone posted this question on reddit. "What thing(s) disappointed you, things you thought wouldn't happen in Japan, stuff you underestimated (or overestimated), stuff that just happened to you and more common things that could happen to anyone. Share your let downs."

According to rocketnews24, these are the top 8 most frequent answers.

①　なにかとお金がかかることにガッカリ
      Everything you do requires money / requires a fee

②　「また近いうちに会おうね！」にガッカリ
     "let's meet again soon"

③　地方の医療レベルにガッカリ
     Quality of local medial care

④　「本音と建前」にガッカリ
     Keeping face VS one's real opinion

⑤　変な外国人が多いことにガッカリ
     A lot of other strange foreigners

⑥　英語が通じなくてガッカリ 
     Their broken English

⑦　声が小さすぎてガッカリ
     Speaking too low

⑧　盗まれてガッカリ
     Also stealing (umbrellas, bicycles, etc.)

I can't agree more with ①!
There are fees to pay everywhere in Japan and it seems normal to people that fun equals spending money. Since you don't throw a lot of house parties there, everything happens in restaurants, karaokes, during tabehoudai, nomihoudai, (all you can drink/eat), and so forth. And it's about 2 000-3 000 yens each time (15 to 20 GBP), so imagine how much you need per week to attend all the parties at uni

Full article here.

..Being an Oiran 花魁変身..

One funny thing I did in Kyoto... I became an Oiran for a day! 
I can hardly recognize myself in the pictures though...

And yes it's really me!

Oiranって? Wikipedia attack:

Oiran (花魁) were courtesans in Japan. The oiran were considered a type of yūjo (遊女) "woman of pleasure" or prostitute. However, they are distinguished from the yūjo in that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among the wealthy and, because of this, cultural aspects of oiran traditions continue to be preserved to this day.

I think a lot of people tend to confuse Geisha for Oiran...
I wasn't very clear myself until I saw the movie Sakuran, starring Anna Tsuchiya ... A very nice movie. Definitly recommend! And I love Anna Tsuchiya, she always plays strong women. She is gorgeous in real life too, I was lucky enough to touch her hand during a live show

Nowadays Oiran henshin is very popular because:
1- kimono used are usually more beautiful and more glamourous
2- the general outfit is more sexy and you can do some pretty sexy photoshots

So I went to the traditional area of Kyoto...

And after 40 minutes make-up and dressing...

I also met 2 maiko-san (apprentice geisha)...

Notice the difference of hair, obi (belt with front lace) and kimono!

They were going out after the picture. Usually you can keep the maiko outfit for the day and visit Kyoto. I imagine a lot of people and especially foreign tourists can confuse them for real maiko-san and chase them for a picture haha!

As I chose Oiran, I could not get out (Oiran were not supposed to go out anyway, they would wait for customers in the main house), so I did a few modelling pictures with the photographer

I like the last one a lot! Even Oiran need to keep up with technology!

..I miss Osaka!..

Some cute food from Japan

I need to fly back...

I also miss Paris...

I think I am getting homesick...

That probably explains why I remained silent for so long here.

Sorry, I wish I can start updating this blog again!

And keep on doing my dress up games.

I have been delaying my new game for so long... have to persevere!

Pictures taken with my friend's phone.

..Time for omikuji.. 御神籤

A new year has begun ... and it's time for 御神籤 (omikuji)!

Omikuji is a written oracle you can buy in shrines and temples around Japan and it tells you how you will do in many aspects of life.
You can draw an omikuji any time you like when you fells you are about to begin a new chapter in life or for special events such as 初詣 (hatsumode), the first shrine visit of the New Year in order to make new wishes and pray for the new year.

On this omikuji performing picture I was travelling last September with friends around Hiroshima.

We stopped at the 厳島神社 (Itsukushima shrine) on 宮島 (Miyajima island), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Actually I am sure everyone has already seen a picture of this place as the big tori that welcomes visitors to the island is used as a cliché on book covers, website about Japan, etc.

Here is a front view picture from the island

Back to the first picture you can see my friends holding a wooden container box. It's the omikuji box!
When you shake it, an a numbered stick eventually come outs and you can get the corresponding fortune paper from the paper trays.

The oracles are ranked as follows: 大吉 (daikichi, great blessing), 吉 (kichi, blessing), 凶 (kyou, curse), 大凶 (daikyou, great curse) with different intermediary blessings.

And my friends got... 凶 (kyou, curse)!

However, in such case, you can fold up the fortune paper and tie it to the shrine in order to be protected from the bad luck!
And all the bad oracle will not happen to you.

As for me, I got 吉 (kichi, blessing)...
But that was 4 months ago, it is interesting to see in details if the omikuji became reality

方角 (hougaku, direction): West is good
旅立 (tabidashi, travel): Good
病気 (byouki, illness): Recovery without doubt
建家 (tateya, home): Migration, marriage/engagement is good with that
失物 (shitsubutsu, lost thing): Will be retrieved
待人 (machibito, person being waited for): Coming close
商売 (shobai, business): Good enough
勝負事 (shoubugoto, competition): Ennemi has advantage

Remember I am moving to London after my stay in Osaka?
And my boyfriend is coming with me. We are actually planning to move in a studio flat!

Wicked!

If you want to try your luck too with omikuji, I found an Internet version of it! Follow the link below

http://www.omikuji.ne.jp/s_kaiun/