..Hong Kong getaway.. Part 2

Sasa shopping in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong island

Second part of my little getaway to Hong Kong!
Although I could only stay for 5 days, I really wanted to do the following:

1. Hike the Hong Kong trail (see previous entry)
2. Eat at my favourite sushi chain (see previous entry)
3. Get cute gifts for Christmas
4. Refill my make-up vanity
5. Get inspiration for my next dress-up games and check the latest fashion trends

Cute gifts

Generally speaking, I find it hard to buy 'small presents' in France or UK other than food such as wine, chocolate boxes and tea. Anything else starts to be quite expensive when you want to offer brands or good quality gifts (scarfs, jewels, etc.)

In Japan and Pacific Asia on the contrary there are so many mascots and cute things. You can not lack inspiration!Lately my friends are really into LINE, the Asian version of Whatsapp with cute characters such as Cony the rabbit and Brown the bear.

So naturally when I found these...

LINE character plushies selling in La Foret (Causeway Bay, Hong Kong island)

La Foret shopping mall looks like an outlet with a lot of designer shops. Despite its name and unlike Sogo, the mall is specialized in Asian stuffs and has a lot of shops dedicated to Japan, Korea, etc. It's definitely a must-go when you visit Hong Kong!
How to go there:

Name: La Foret
Address: 24-26 East Point Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Fashion trend watch

Unfortunately I didn't have time to try any regional brand, so I just wandered around. I felt totally in love with this shop in La Foret, called Sugarman. Yes I know the clothes are made for kids below 5 years old, but when I see them I feel like doing a chibi dress-up game with very colorful and hip-popish items (most people would probably think of having kids instead haha).

So cute and colorful

Sugarman shoes selling in La Foret (Causeway Bay, Hong Kong island)

Make-up hold-up

Last but not least, cosmetics hold-up at Sasa!! Sasa offers huge variety of beauty & health care products and can be found in numerous areas of the city, a bit like Boots in the UK and Sephora in France, except that you can find both Western and Asia brands there

I could easily stay a day in Sasa but I managed to buy everything in less than 1 hour!

• Dolly Wink Black Mascara 02 Volume special set
• Dolly Wink Eyelashes 10 Sweet Cat & 11 Pure Sweet
• Dolly Wink Eyelash fix
• B & C Browlash Ex Water Strong Liner (Deep Brown)
• Narisup Long Lasting Eyebrow Powder (Dark Brown)
• Angel Aqua Moisture CC Cream
• 10 x random aburatorigami (oil blotting paper) - because I can't find any good brand in Europe!

I also managed to get a bunch of green tea products and Koala's March (Lotte) at a random Seven Eleven store. A colleague also gave me some snacks and face masks she brought back from Seoul.

Sasa hold-up in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong island

【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.

..Best marketing campaign in Japan: ロッテ Fit's ダンスコンテスト..

How far can marketing go in Japan? 

I blogged about this back in April 2009 but since the article is not online anymore, I'll update it here

Do you know Lotte?

It is a Japanese-South korean group in the food industry , world-known for its Koala biscuits (コアラのマーチ) and many other candies

At that time, the company created a new chewing gum brand called Fit's and launched with popular idols such as 佐々木希 (Sasaki Nozomi) and partners such as Youtube a series of TV commercials to encourage people to participate in their dance contest, ロッテ Fit's ダンスコンテスト  (Lotte Fit's Dance Contest).

The dance contest as little to do with Fit's chewing gum since participants are not requested to talk about it and don't even need to buy it!
But here lies the power of Japanese marketing: creating viral marketing buzz with the dance and choregraphy

Here is the first video

What I liked back then is the diversity of the entries: all the clichés of Japan in one contest!
Gyarus, maids, robots, but also traditional women in kimono, etc...

Here is my selection

In order:
Gyaru - Maids - Futsu style - Office lady & Salaray man - Salary man
School girls - Sport uniform - Pompom girls - Little Koda Kumi - Wedding & Kimono
Kendoka - Karateka - Hip hop - Mori style - Nurses
Alluring - Belly dancers - Gaijin - 3D - Robot

The contest had a huge success, and when I checked its website last week, I discovered that they have been doing 4 seasons of it, the last one just ended this summer

What changed today?
Well it is still the same tune and still based on a dance context, but in addition to new idols, I have to say the winning process is more elaborated now:

【共演者賞】
厳正なる審査のうえ、2組にそれぞれ100万円
【再生回数ベスト5】
再生回数の1～5位までに、それぞれ 100万円、50万円、30万円、20万円、10万円
【イイネ！賞】
「イイネ！」を最も集めた人に100万円

Translation:
Group performers
After strict evaluation, the 2 best groups get 1 000 000 yens each (13 000 USD)
Hit counters
1st place gets 1 000 000 yens (13 000 USD)
2nd place gets 500 000 yens (6 500 USD)
3rd place gets 300 000 yens (4 000 USD)
4th place gets 200 000 yens (2 500 USD)
5th place gets 100 000 yens (1 300 USD)
Like counter
The video that has the most "Likes" get 1 000 000 yens (13 000 USD)


You too can learn how to dance it

Follow this link: How to Fit's dance

And if you want some more Fit's, here is the link for
entries for Season 4...

And the link for winners of Season 4

I personnaly don't like this year's winners, but well I guess that's the law of popularity on Internet

..More baby sushi! Are you a Nadeshiko?..

My last blog entry reminds me of other cute baby sushi I got to eat
However, this time I could order them in a real menu

Back in June 2010, my friends in Tokyo took me to this place

Very nice feeling?
Unfortunately I don't remember where it is

When I opened the menu, I saw this:

"Special menu for girls
Nadeshiko 1790
When hand-rolled sushi become tiny cute!"

And after waiting a few minutes...

It's even better in real!!

Why is it called Nadeshiko menu?
Nadeshiko is a Japanese name but here means "lovable girl"
...because you can eat the sushi with elegance and courtesy (≧∇≦)
Indeed, they are smaller than the regular ones so you don't need to chew like a cow or bite them in 2

Well to say the truth, it would be weird to call a gyaru a Nadeshiko because it actually refers to the ideal of Japanese women with "good old" characteristics such as:

• unlimited devotion for her husband
• willingness to suffer pain and poverty
• readiness to die for her country or to keep her chastity, etc.

Well all I can say is that I'm not a nadeshiko either lol
But it is still the ideal girlfriend for a lot of my male friends in Osaka Uni!

Are you a Nadeshiko?
Please comment below!