Japanese makeup stores have ENORMOUS sections for mascara and false eyelashes. Ridiculous and kind of awesome! There are even carrying cases for false eyelashes you can keep in your purse in case you want to change them up and put new ones in!
Fun fact: even the Disney Store in Shinsabaishi (or Namba? I forget) sells false eyelashes. There are different styles for different characters, like Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck.
A makeup store ad with Matsumoto Jun and a woman I don’t know.
$&*#~*)$% Arpakassos. So impossible to win.
A Kyoto young girls accessory/candy/junk store inside a pink train car!
Resting from the sun on the street leading to the Fushimi Inari Shrine
Crossing a street in Gion, Kyoto
Women walk down a narrow side alley in Gion wearing yukata (lightweight summer kimono.)
Gion in Kyoto. A traditional district of teahouses and restaurants. Geisha still enertain here, but are rare to see on the streets.
Editing my Japan pictures while listening to the soundtrack of ‘Lost in Translation.’ Cliched.
This is one of many fox statues that ‘guard’ the Fushimi Inari temple in Kyoto. The grain of rice in their mouths symbolizes success and luck in business.
Japan is a great place to go shopping because there are a lot of unique things you can buy there and many of them are not available outside of Japan because you could say they are a little ahead of the fashion curve… or, actually, it seems like they just make all their own trends and couldn’t care less if anyone else follows them… I love it! Luckily I didn’t feel the need to spend too much money shopping because there are a lot of things that are available in Korea. If I had never lived in Korea and I had come straight to Japan from America I would have been tempted to buy every giant hair bow and cute stationery and funny English t-shirt I saw! But since I can get those things just as easily in Korea, I was able to resist. Kind of!
Here are the things I bought at the Osaka Pokemon Center! It’s on the thirteenth floor of the Daimaru connected to the JR Osaka Station and it was very easy to get to. It was also packed! I don’t know if it’s always so crowded, but… oh my God. Not just crowded with little kids milling around everywhere, but with just as many grown men, many in business suits, hanging around and playing Pokemon on their DS’s and waiting to get free in-game items and stuff from the special kiosks! Crazy. I got a sweet Pikachu decorative phone screen protector, a Mudkip phone charm, this cute limited edition makeup bag, and the cute Pikachu notepad that I mostly bought because it says it’s from Osaka. I also got a Mudkip clear file that I will never use, but it was just so cute! Next time I go back I want to get a DS case.^^
Souvenirs from Nara, where trained deer just walk around the temple and park like it’s completely normal! The coaster and the figurine of the deer with the cookie in its mouth were the only real “I went to Japan” souvenirs I got, I guess.
Random stuff. The Arpakasso alpaca toy I won from a UFO machine. Two phone deco stickers. (I put one on my phone now and it looks so ridiculous!) A glittery bunny and rose coin purse/metro card holder from Swimmer at Hep Five in Umeda. And some Totoro playing cards, because I needed to get rid of some left over yen at the airport.
Shiseido Ma Cherie hair products. You can buy some of them in Korea but the selection is much bigger in Japan and they are a little cheaper. The rose water was 1,300 yen and probably the most expensive thing I bought in Japan this time, but it smells really good and lasts a long time. I would go into makeup stores and spray the tester bottle into my hair and I would walk around smelling roses every time I moved my head for the next few hours.
The thing I bought the most of was tights! Tattoo tights are really big in Japan and I’ve never seen anyone in Korea wear them. I got this pair which has a nautical theme and two pairs that are more plain: one just has little hearts all over, and one has lines going up the back that end at the bottom of the leg with kitten silhouettes. If you buy tights in Japan I would recommend the Tutuanna brand because they are really long and stretchy! They are also cheaper than other brands. These nautical themed tights were a different brand and were almost 3 times more expensive and way less stretchy. They barely fit me lenght-wise or width-wise.
Also in this picture you can see the tatami floor of our hostel in Osaka. We slept on the most comfortable floor mattresses I’ve ever used! If you go to Osaka, stay at Han Hostel, because the beds were super comfortable and the location is amazing.
And this little figurine because it was cute.
I also bought some clothes at g.u. which I think is a fairly new store because I never saw one in Tokyo or heard about it before. It’s Uniqlo’s sister store, and it makes cheaper and way less plain clothes than Uniqlo. g.u. is famous for their 990 yen jeans (like $12) so I got two pairs, regular and rust-colored, and also a skirt for like $4. I hope g.u. comes to Korea soon!
Those are all the interesting things I bought in Japan and I love them all! Next time I go I really need to bring a bigger suitcase! I will share more pictures later, of food and arcades and temples and weird Japanese male hairstyles. Right now I need to go do some stuff.
Dotonbori, like Osaka’s Myeongdong. Our hostel is really close to here on Amerikamura (American Street) which is kind of like Hongdae with its cafes and shops and park where young people hang out. The only difference is the kind of shops here. Lots of vintage stores, stores full of stuff with Bob Marley and pot leaves, and a “Satanism Boutique”… stores with crazy t~shirts like you would find at a boardwalk at “the shore”… and now my friend is done talking to her boyfriend on the phone so I will stop uploading pictures and get some much needed rest!
Omg im crying they’re so perf omg
I will DIE if I do not own a macaron-themed Arpakasso by this summer! Considering spending some of my summer vacation in Japan (again.) And flying there via Hello Kitty Air. If you go to Japan and see some pathetic Caucasian girl sobbing in an arcade, it’s me, and it’s because I wasted hundreds of dollars trying to win one and still failed.
(via goodlooksociety)
Once you find one cute Japanese video on Youtube, there’s no turning back. And the more you click, the stranger they get.
Snapshots and stories of Seoul. Saying "Let's go together" and eating cake with chopsticks since August 2010. I love Big Bang, Choo Choo Cat, dessert, and buying cute things in Korea.
Email: partyintherok @ gmail
