I Left My Heart in Tokyo: Gyaru Life in Shibuya!

I remember the excitement building as I stood grasping onto the train handles, counting down the stops on the Yamanote line to Shibuya. I have been waiting for this moment ever since I found out about gyaru - it is the birthplace of gyaru after all, and I couldn't wait to be walking along Shibuya crossing in front of my beloved Shibuya 109. After we stepped off at Shibuya station I whizzed straight to see Hachiko, the world's most loyal dog! The story about how he waited for his master years after his death at Shibuya station is one of my favourites, and struck several heartstrings when I finally saw the statue in person.

And then it was time to join the crowd of people at Shibuya crossing to walk towards the beacon of all things gyaru - Shibuya 109. And I was extremely disappointed.

Mini Life Update

Hello, hey, hi. It's been a while since I've been able to have a proper sit down chat with you so I thought it was time we did this before I get into doing more of my posts on Japan (how exciting). Right now I'm nursing an awful cough that was actually caused by my hayfever but I'm trying to get my thoughts together for this post.

The past couple of months has been... Hectic, to say the least. I've got so many new obstacles thrown in my way and I find myself tripping up most of the time, but I'm slowly getting back on my feet. Every time I accomplish something, more problems crop up, but I'm doing my best! I'm still battling all of the things that I said I would no longer care about, and it won't be a quick turnaround, but I'll get there.

Because I know that I'm a rambler, I'm going to separate everything into sections for you peeps to skim through if necessary.

Chasing Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms are my favourite flower; there's just something so beautiful about their ephemeral state and it was the thing I was looking forward to the most during our stay in Japan. You could imagine my dismay when we arrived and it was too cold for them to bloom... It wasn't until our very last few days here that they started to blossom, and so we went to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace and it seemed like we weren't the only ones, however, and soon all of the spots surrounding the trees were taken.

Luckily I learnt from the last time I took outfit photos outdoors that I didn't have a lot of time, so again we adopted the mindset that we'd take no more than ten photos and then that was it. I put on my newest ma*rs dress on (which I'm in love with, by the way) and couldn't have picked a better day for it. It was lovely and sunny, and so worth getting hayfever over.

My Japan Haul - DaTuRa, MA*RS, Sanrio and Many More

I've been to Japan and haven't bought a thing... Said no one ever! And trust me, I am still on the road to financial recovery despite it being over a month since I've been in the magical land of Hello Kitty and matcha KitKat. It was so worth it, though, and I had been saving for this moment for a long time...

When I look back at the things I bought I kind of wish I had bought more, but it was physically impossible to fit any more into my suitcase. My suitcase weighed 17kg before and then 23kg after. Oops. I've made the decision, however, to buy more things over from Japan. It might not be good economically but their clothes are just so much nicer and I want to keep supporting my gyaru brands from afar!

In the meantime, though, let's delve into my Japan haul a.k.a the part where I sold my soul.