Japan Archives - Page 3 of 3

Where to buy Pullips in Tokyo!

I have visited Tokyo four times now, twice as a Pullip admirer and twice as a Pullip collector. Seeing Pullips in person in different stores is something very special and definitely influences your view on certain models, when you see their individual beautiful faces in person. As I have found out in the past, there are places, which are overwhelmingly amazing and some are a little disappointing, when it comes to your expectations. That is exactly, why I am writing this article to give my honest insights to help you get the Pullip experience you want.

Radio/Rajio Kaikan in Akihabara

Radio Kaikan is a big complex of different Japanese hobby related stores, full of figures, gashapon and goodies for doll collectors! Fans of BJDs might already have heard from it, since the Volks Store is on the 8th floor, but there are three stores on three different floors in total, which sell Pullip dolls.

The most famous one is the Azone Labelshop on the 7th floor, which primarily sells its own brand of cute dolls, but also carries a nice selection of recent Pullips next to a cute display case. They also sell MIO products and nude dolls, even though they do not come cheap for a price of approximately 8000 yen. Super exciting is the big selection of obitsu products and Azone’s own Pure Neemo clothing, which can also fit Pullips. My favorite pieces are two kimonos, which I will show in a separate dolly haul soon. If you are a fan of other dolls than Azones or Pullips, you also have a selection of Cu-Poche, Blythes, Momokos and Rurukos. It is also wonderful to browse their lovely displays, which you are allowed to take pictures of. There goes a lot of detail into these and you can basically feel the dolly love! Continue reading Where to buy Pullips in Tokyo!

Visiting the Junie Moon Store in Shinjuku!

The Junie Moon shop inside of Shinjuku’s Marui Annex building was the first I have ever visited, but I do not believe that I will not sneakily stop by once more (Edit: I did a few days after I wrote that! 😀 ). Their main focus are Takara Tomy’s Blythe dolls and they sell lots of accessories; even cute stationary, bags, wallets, etc. for super fans.

The Neo-Blythe dolls available were Vera Florentine, Joanna Gentianna, Gracey Chantilly, Ufo A Go-Go, Varsity Dean and Playful Raindrops, along with Middie-Blythes Dainty Meadow and Rampion of the Valley.

Junie Moon also produces their own doll clothes, which are mostly on a 1/6 scale and will also fit dolls like Pullip or Momoko. Their label is called ‘Junie Moon Dollywear’ and often collaborates with different brands. Right now they sell two gorgeous sets designed by Japanese lolita fashion brand ‘Alice and the Pirates’ and four lovely sets in collaboration with Sanrio’s ‘Little Twin Stars’ characters. Their doll clothes are not cheap, but they are lovely and well made. Definitely worth a splurge!

My most favorite part of the shop, was the corner with lots of pretty hair clips for super reasonable prices. I cannot imagine more kawaii hairclips than those available in Junie Moon! Almost as exciting was their tiny selection of doll clothes created by other creators, formost Jiajiadolls. I had a hard time resisting, but I have so many items from Jiajiadolls on my wishlist that I plan to order them through her Etsy shop.

Also very interesting is their small selection of glasses (or their plastic frames) and shoes, which are mainly by the obitsu brand. My favorites were cute ballet flats in baby blue and pink that I had already seen on Etsy. I don’t know their exact label, but they were also available in black and white, as were other pleather platform heels and boots. Super cute is their 3-pack of cute dolly panties for just 1000 Yen.

If you want to own lots of accessories with cute Blythes on them, you are in luck: You have a wide selection from washi tapes to notebooks and various calendars. You can even go as far as purchasing totes, shopping bags and wallets.

There is also lots of eye candy in the store, starring stock Blythes redressed with new hairstyles. This is how I spotted a wildly popular and therefore sold out Neo-Blythe Pineapple Princess. You can even bring your doll to the store as well and use one of their petite and über cute photo backgrounds.

With a logically higher price tag, there are also some custom dolls available, which were so interesting to check out. Especially for me, since I have never had seen a custom Blythe in the wild before! 😉

Before you visit the store, I can absolutely recommend you its Instagram account, which gets frequently updated and where you can check out any sales or promotions. Actually, the next day after my shopping tour, lots of Halloween and even some Christmas outfits became available in the Shinjuku location with a 50% off discount tag.

I also visited their Shibuya location as well and do a detailed dolly haul separately! 😉

Thank you so much for reading!

Theri

My Dolly Week #30: Summarizing my 2nd Week in Japan!

Welcome to the latest Dolly Week yet, which gives me the chance to catch up on my second week in Japan, after I was crashing super hard due to jet-lag. I cannot remember ever being this tired and having my bio-rhythm destroyed after my previous Japan travels. Also I was trying to make the best out of the last days there and tried not to get super sad because I love Tokyo so much! Tomorrow I will post a full on Dolly Week post with all new announcements and how I plan to work through all of the material, I have gathered while being away.

This leads me to say that the second week of my honeymoon passed way too quickly. I managed to daily update my Instagram account (all posts will be listed after the jump), but it just got super hard to concentrate on the writing of this Dolly Week’s post, which I want to apologize myself for. The same applies to the answering of comments.

When it comes to dolly purchases, I have been pretty good by mostly buying the three missing obitsu bodies for my type-3 girls and some more shoes. Because, if there is one thing a dolly collector always seems to be missing, are a proper pair of shoes to fit a certain outfit. I really wanted to take Pullip Eternal Sailor Moon home with me, but resisted, since it is a way more sensible option to get her through Western retailers. I did had to put in all of my restraint, though – like for all the gorgeous Azone dolls in the Azone International Store, but my luggage space simply said ‘no’! (Ask my hubby, how the packing on the last night went…haha!)

I will now go to work on writing my post on the Junie Moon store in Shinjuku and also hope to see everybody tomorrow in Dolly Week #31! 😉

Thank you so much for reading!

Theri Continue reading My Dolly Week #30: Summarizing my 2nd Week in Japan!

My Dolly Week #29: Happy in Japan!

Welcome to Dolly Week #29, which is released a few hours too late because time in Japan flies. I love being here so much, there really are no words. It is my fourth time being in Tokyo and it still does not get old or less exciting. Especially, when you are a dolly person!

Last week was a whirlwind. We travelled more than 24 hours to arrive in Ikebukuro on Tuesday night and thanks to my amazing husband our first adventures on Wednesday were mostly dolly related. This is how Miss Poppy was welcomed into my Pullip family on the first day. She is a Pullip Summer Purezza and I simply could not help myself, when I saw her sitting NRFB on the shelf. Now I think the reason, why I instantly liked her so much, is that she reminds me of Groove’s upcoming Belle release. Do you agree?

Poppy also was my first Pullip ever to come to the beach, when we went to Kamakura. I did not think a lot about her outfit, when I bought her, but her yellow shorts and bandeau top, which can be covered by an emerald green top, are really nice quality and won against the test of time! (Her necklace was another story, but more about this issue in her upcoming review.)

Until right now, I have checked out several dolly places so far, but I have to say that Akihabara’s Radio Kaikan building wins every time, when it comes to availability of different dolls and accessories. I definitely have to go back this week, also due to the fact that Groove announced the release date of Pullip Eternal Sailor Moon, which will be this Wednesday, the 13th of September!

Another girl that was on my mind a lot during the week, was Pullip Prunella. My biggest problem with her was the look of her wig (which I am even less fond of now that she is unboxed), but thanks to the internet and mostly instagram, I was completely blown away with how pretty her eyebrows are and how good she looks in different wigs. I still need a name for her, but I am leaning towards a Japanese one.

I need to stop writing now because the bustle of a city like Tokyo is making every day so fun and exciting that I am super exhausted every evening. ><

Thank you so much for reading!

Theri

PS: I will embed all of my Japan Diary Instagram posts so far at the end of this article. So please click ‘read more’, if you haven’t seen them already!

Continue reading My Dolly Week #29: Happy in Japan!

Japan: Stationary Heaven (Part 2/2)

This is the second and final post (for the time being) about Japanese stationary. Here is part 1 and I hope, you will enjoy reading!

Pens

Japanese pens are, simply put, a dream. I especially love gel pens. I got two favorites: The Juice up pens from PILOT, which I own in a 10 pack with standard colors, a 6 pack solely with metallics and the loveliest 6 pack with pastels! The pastels are beautiful and unique: If you can only get one set of gel pens, I highly recommend these pastel colored ones! I got them from Tokyu Hands.

Furthermore I love my UNI Style Fit 5 color gel pen, which has a special Little Twin Stars collaboration cover. The colors I chose are their prettiest pinks, violets and a luscious grass green. The quality is outstanding and I love how smooth these pens basically glide on their own. Another great product are FRIXION pens, which some of you might already know. I love my three color pen, which has a black, blue and red color. Their speciality is that their ink can be erased with the plastic on top of the pen. A nice addition is that the casing of these pens comes in different colors. Of course I chose turquoise! Pentel ENERGEL Liquid Gel Ink pens are also a successful Japanese import, meaning that even I can get them in stores here in the middle of Europe. They are amazing and I can only recommend them. Still, I can save up to a third, if I buy them directly in Japan. Another pen I love and that comes with three colors (black, red and blue) is from JETSTREAM. They are nice, when you need super precise fine lines! Dr. Grip, here in a KIKI’s Delivery Service version, has lots of collaborations with character goods. It gets its name from its thick rubber band that goes all around the pen to prevent your hand from getting stiff or hurting. My last pen is probably my most expensive one (about 2000 Yen, if I remember correctly) from Tombow JAPAN. This pen writes such delicate lines that you have to be very aware of your hand motions, since it notices basically verything and is therefore not very forgiving. It is a pen that is best used for your finest handwriting and not for your spontaneous ideas! Continue reading Japan: Stationary Heaven (Part 2/2)

My Wishlist for Japan 2017!

In a few weeks my fiancé and I will go to Tokyo on our honeymoon. Japan is our favorite destination to travel to and absolutely worth saving up for! The first time was the most stressful, when it came to planning and not knowing your way around the busiest areas. Now I can actually find calm and piece in the buzzy metropolitan area of Tokyo in contrast to my everyday life in a much smaller capital in Europe. This year I also want to be more calm and collected, when it comes to shopping! My biggest nemesis are gashapon, when I set my mind on getting a certain item, but only get doubles and triples! >< I always had more luck with blind boxes, but still it can come down to such a waste of money! I am also going to try to invest more in experiences, as long as I plan beforehand and everything works out.

1) Tickets to the Sailor Moon Musical ‘Le Mouvement Final’

Last year we missed the Sailor Moon musical, when it was playing in Tokyo, but this year we could be actually lucky. I will know on July 29th, when the official pre-order for Le Mouvement Final starts in the middle of the night. It would be such an amazing experience to see Eternal Sailor Moon on stage! She is my favorite form of Sailor Moon and I also love the Starlights. Last year, they also had funky glasses for visitors, who needed English subtitles. I am so completely sold on going there, what could go wrong! 😉 Continue reading My Wishlist for Japan 2017!

Japan: Stationary Heaven! (Part 1/2)

After visiting Japan your view on stationary will change forever. Stationary has always been a fun factor related to my love for writing and unfortunately cute affordable stationary is hard to find in my country. This has lead me to stock up on stationary, when I am visiting Japan. My fiancé and I are pretty much the same, when it comes to stationary, even though our tastes differ. While he prefers cleaner designs that maybe have a cute element, I go for kawaii overload! Last December we took our stationary shopping in Japan to a new level and we cannot wait to go back to discover more cool stuff! Continue reading Japan: Stationary Heaven! (Part 1/2)

Tokyo Disney Sea Mascots Haul 2016

Disney Sea is a wonderful place to find the cutest treasures! Meet Gelatoni, Duffy & Shellie May!

Last year one of my dreams came true: After wanting to visit a Disney Park for nearly two decades, I finally got to visit Disneyland Tokyo. But there is not only one Disney Park in Tokyo, but also Disney Sea, which is located right next to it. Both visits were absolutely spectacular, but there was something about Disney Sea that I enjoyed a little bit more-not only from an experience-, but also from an exclusive merchandise-perspective. You all have to know that Disney movies are the foundation of my childhood (especially Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Robin Hood and The Lion King), but I am not very savvy when it comes to lesser known characters. Combine this fact with my inner cat lady and now imagine that everywhere in Japan a pistachio-green colored cat appears in form of bag charms or even as a bag itself. I did not know its name, only the horrendous prices for its merchandise on the secondhand-market. 2016 finally made me wiser: It is Gelatoni, the Mediterranean friend of bears Duffy and Shellie May. Altogether they are the exclusive mascots for Tokyo Disney Sea and not to be found in regular Japanese Disney Stores! Continue reading Tokyo Disney Sea Mascots Haul 2016