Tuesday 30 April 2013

Hime-Gyaru day in London + Okonomiyaki restaurant!


In the super rare event of me having a day off, I decided to take a trip to London to meet Pixie_Late, stuff myself with food and drink as much bubble milk tea as possible o(≧∇≦o)
We decided that day to wear Hime-Gyaru, Tania's co-ord was gorgeous with a floral Liz Lisa one piece and a huuuuge bouffant! (So as you can imagine, I had much hair envy). I wore an offbrand Princesss sleeved blouse, Alice and the Pirates Gather Chiffon OP in pink and Floral Cat ears made by Bee-Scuit.
AatP isn't a brand usually associated with Hime-Gyaru, but I felt this dress too cute and princess-like to be not be worn with it. I must say that, after wearing Hime-GAL around London a few times now, it goes get a lot more chilly than Lolita, so maybe next time it's best I wear some nude tights with my co-ord.

 
 
One memorable moment from the day was when I was waiting for Pixie_Late at the Trocadero and some random French man came up to me and said "Eh, excuse-e-me, are you waiting for me? ;D" I think my silence and shock was enough for him to realise that I was indeed, not waiting for him and he flounced off.  (,,#゚Д゚)
After meeting Pixie_Late, we went to Eat Tokyo in Picadilly, i've heard a lot about their bentos before but, I was most surprised about the size of the menu - It was enormous!
I'm pretty sure I could have killed someone with it.
Not only that, the food was fairly cheap and delicious, I also had an Aloe Vera and blueberry drink, it was really refreshing and tasty but it had some bits it in that uh...Resembled Sea Monkeys xD
I had the Tuna and Salmon Jyu - Salmon and Tuna sashimi on a bed of rice with miso and Yakitori Skewers, all of it was delicious!


Then we headed to Boba Jam for some bubble milk tea, this wasn't my usual place but I was very surprised at the menu, although they didn't have as many flavours as Cafe De Hong Kong, you could choose the type of bubbles in the drink and also topping! I picked a coconut milk tea with yogurt bubbles, and they actually burst in your mouth!
 
 
 
I then met up with my friend Naoki and after much wandering around London and Ice cream, we headed to Abeno, the Okonomiyaki restaurant by Leicester Square. The last time I had Okonomiyaki was in Osaka, pretty much the birth place of the dish, so I was extremely excited. I was surprised that much like in Japan, they cook it in front of you on a grill! We had the Tokyo Mix which was prawns, squid and pork.
 
 
 
Step 1: They bring the ingredients out to you in bowls so you can see all the different things that go into the mix.
 
Step 2:
They mix them all together and put them on the grill, the grill was incredibly hot so it was fun watching the mix just sizzle and bubble away.
 
 
Step 3:
 
After the Okinomiyaki was nice and brown they ask you for your choice of sauce, We went for the default with plenty of Mayonnaise!

 
Step 4:
Sprinkling on the bonito flakes and then cutting it up into sections and eating it. It was delicious and as expected, super filling. You can choose between Deluxe and Super Deluxe, I'm glad I just picked Deluxe because I already felt like I needed to take a wheelchair out of the restaurant at the end >_<



Finally I had a Shochu cocktail to wash it all down~


 
 Overall it was a great day, with tasty food and lovely people. I can't wait to come back to London, and when I do I'll be sure to head back to Abeno~  ヽ(´ー`)ノ
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Tuesday 2 April 2013

Styling job with Little Hill People!

 

My first styling job!
My friend Sayuri actually cancelled at the last minute and she suggested that I do it instead. this is ahead of the Japanese events I will be styling so I was really nervous and felt like I didn't have enough experience. However when I got there and saw how lovely the owner of the brand was and how friendly the models were, I loosened up a lot and became very confident at styling all the models.
The brand is called "Little Hill People" and sells gorgeous hand bags and jewellery, they are fair trade and all their products are designed and made in Northern India. Being up close to the products I could see how extremely well designed they were and how a lot of love and effort went into each piece.
There were whole sacks full of hand bags and purses, I didn't count exactly but there must have been about 60+ different styles, all with various bright patterns and designs, which I first thought would be a nightmare to style, but soon found outfits to compliment the bags perfectly.

http://littlehillpeople.com/



There was both a studio shoot and location shoot, which meant a lot of rushing around to get everything sorted! The themes were patterns on patterns and a very hippy or boho look, I incorperated a lot of braids into the models hair and used ethnic jewellery such as head necklaces. Various coloured feathers were clipped into the models hair which accenuated the vibrancy of the products. For the location shoot I had to bundle all the bags into a huge duffle bag and run around like a headless chicken giving the right model the right bag, it was extremely exhausting but at the same time a very fun and exciting experience! The pictures will be featured on the brands site, ASOS and also Elle Magazine! How exciting!  (*^▽^*)

To put the icing on the cake, my boyfriend and I were each given a bag each for styling and helping out in general, Look how gorgeous and well-made they are!