The next day we wanted to take things a bit easy, since we were planning to go to Disneyland on Wednesday, the day after. But of course, we had no rest whatsoever.br > We started our day by having breakfast. This time we did take some pictures, so feast your eyes on our glorious breakfasts of the most varying tings, including matcha-flavoured mini cakes!
After breakfast, we got our things together upstairs and left the hotel. We had a planning made up for our day, but we had plenty of time so we could take things easy. First we would go to the Disney store in Takashimaya to get our Disneyland tickets, then we would go to find the Bic Camera store and then we would go visit Ikebukuro.
We went to get money and then went on our way to Takashimaya, which is right across from our hotel. We took the elevator up and soon arrived at the Disney store. We looked around for a bit (too many cute things again) and then went to ask for buying tickets. However, there seemed to be something wrong. Then one of the employees gave me a piece of paper, which explained in English that unfortunately this shop didn’t sell Disneyland tickets anymore. We should either go to Shibuya or Ikebukuro. Since we were going to Ikebukuro anyway, it was ok, but we were still a bit disappointed. Oh well.
On our way back, I spotted some amazing Japanese school bags (you know, the typical cute randoserus), but they were sooo expensive! I even spotted some in collaboration with Innocent World. So cute, so costly.
We then went on our next mission: finding my mom’s alarm clock. Now, I will need to explain a little bit in advance. When I first went to Japan in 2011 with my dad, my mom stayed back home and we skyped every night. I sent her hundreds of pictures, including of our hotel room. On one of those pictures was the hotel alarm clock and my mom somehow really loved it. We have stayed multiple times at this hotel and this alarm clock has always been there. To my mom, it has become a symbol of travelling, Japan and good memories, but of course she couldn't just take it with her. Last time, she asked a hotel employee whether she could buy one or if he knew where we could purchase one. Even though the staff member was kind and patient and gave us the series number of the alarm clock, obtaining it never happened. The evening before this day, my mom asked again whether one of the staff members knew whether we could purchase one and the man said we could buy one at the Bic Camera shop only a few blocks away! I forgot the kind man’s name, but we will surely remember him! ^^
We went on our way to the area right behind the orange clock, a place we had never been before. And whoa, what an adventurous place! Everywhere we looked they were colours and texts and advertisements. It was quite a sight.
We soon found the Bic Camera, but they send us on to another shop: something like Bic Watch or something, haha! XD We entered the store, asked for the right floor and soon found ourselves surrounded by giant clocks and tons of alarm clocks. Everywhere you looked, there were clocks. It was quite incredible!
We went to ask for our specific clock and the kind staff girl helped us. Finally, after so long, my mom could hold her beloved clock in her hands. It may be difficult to understand, but she was really happy with it! And so was I. ^^
We looked around the floor for a bit (we especially drawn by some amazing and huge Disney clocks) and then went to pay. My mom was so happy, yay! ^^
I believe we returned the clock to our hotel and then went on our way to Ikebukuro. During our last time we also went to Ikebukuro, but we didn’t spend that much time there. Something had happened back home and we had promised to Skype with my brother, so we needed to be back on time. This time however, we had plenty of time! We went on our way to Shinjuku station and waited for our train to arrive.
The train soon arrived and we sat down until we reached Ikebukuro. We walked through the never-ending station, bought some cute Cola bottles and finally arrived outside. I was determined not to get lost and this time we didn’t. ^^ I recognized some building and knew we were going the right way. We quickly entered a shop in hopes to find a present for a friend of my mom’s, but the shop was not interesting unfortunately. Outside, one of the shops had a huge camera coming out of the building. It was hard to miss!
soon we reached a familiar-looking crossing and I spotted the Milky Way Café, indicating we had arrived at the big shopping street we were looking for.
We entered the shopping street and headed toward the first shop we wanted to visit: the Sanrio Gift Gate (As if we hadn’t seen enough Sanrio yet, haha). But it was closed!? The blinds were down almost to the ground. It seemed there were people inside though, cleaning perhaps. Later I spotted people cleaning outside and asked whether they would open that day, but apparently they wouldn’t The next day would be fine. Shame, I really liked that shop..
We walked on and looked around us wherever we could. There were so many colours and sounds everywhere!
We walked on and headed for Closet Child. By this time it should be open, unlike our last trip when we arrived too early and the shop hadn’t opened yet. I could see the familiar shop window above a Starbucks from afar.
We took the tiny elevator up and entered the store… which had completely changed! During our former visits the shop was divided into a part for CDs on the left and Lolita clothing and dolls on the right. There were many racks and it was pretty neat, but sometimes hard to oversee everything. Also, the punk and gothic clothing kind of dominated the room. Now, the racks of clothing were placed vertically and parallel to the walls, the cash register desk was now next to the door and everything was really easy to oversee. In fact, there were separate racks for each brand and it was much easier to see where you could find what. It seemed Classic and Sweet Lolita dominated now, or it was just because they were more upfront in the store. Also, the had so much more clothing this time! They had a long rack of Angelic Pretty talking up a fourth of the store and another rack with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright clothes another fourth. The shop seemed much more classy, except for the horrible screamo music. x)
My mom and I started browsing together. There were so many Angelic Pretty dresses! I quickly spotted a familiar print: Crystal Dream Carnival! It was actually the exact cut and colour I had initially wanted, however I was far too happy with the version I had bought in Osaka! Plus, this dress had a strange colour, as if it had faded in the wash. Such a waste…
What happened next is something I cannot really describe. I was very tired at this point, so maybe that played a part. Anyway, I found two dresses that had been on my wishlist for a very long time! The halterneck jumperskirt of Memorial Cake and the red jumperskirt of Rose Toilette! But somehow, I was not as wowed as I hoped to be. I also found two pretty Baby, the Stars Shine Bright dresses and went to try everything on.
Then another strange things happened: I tried Memorial Cake on, a dress I had been looking for for years… and I hated it. Despite the dress being black, which is usually a good colour for me, I looked like a balloon! The dress didn’t look good on me whatsoever, it was terrible! And the even stranger thing was: I didn’t feel very upset about it? I thought it was a shame, yes. But I wasn’t feeling down because of it, while normally I would. Maybe I was too tired and my emotions were levelled down.
After that, I tried Rose Toilette. Unfortunately, sometimes older Angelic Pretty dressed don’t fit me and here it was that case as well. Even though the dress was so gorgeous, again I didn’t care that much. I was getting too hot and was too tired I guess. Actually now, months after, I am more upset about it! XD Oh well, one day Rose Toilette, one day…
The Baby dresses weren’t my thing after all and my mom and I ended up getting some accessories. ^^
We left Closet Child and went on our way to Sunshine City. We had wanetd to check out this mall during our previous trip but ended up not having enough time. So this was our chance!
We found the right entrance (there was some construction going on) and then went to find the Disney store, while entering shops we liked on the way. Like the Sanrio Vivitix shop (to make up for the closed Sanrio Gift Gate, haha).
Once again there were too many cute items. Many corners were filled with pink and pastel-coloured items of Hello Kitty, My Melody and the Little Twin Stars. Maybe that’s why the Gudetama corner with all its yellow was so refreshing. Ah, did I even mention Gudetama before? I can’t remember… Well anyway, Gudetama is a Sanrio character. It’s a yellow egg with a very prominent butt and he is always lazy and depressed (he is my spirit animal). I really love this character, but somehow I ended up buying nothing Gudetama! Boo me.
We then proceeded to the Disney store, which was right around the corner. It was quite a pretty store, with a dark blue glittery floor and a yellow path leading through it. Quite a nice store.
Something that wasn’t so nice however was the line to buy Disneyland tickets! You needed to get a ticket with a number and when it was your turn to officially stand in line your number was called! And our number wasn’t quite up anytime soon. By the time, my mom and I were in a real dip of energy, so I lead my mom out of the store and told her to sit down next to the entrance. I didn’t care whatsoever that this is usually not allowed in Japan, but my mom was too tired and her knees hurt too much to keep up appearances. ‘If someone comes to tell you off, just cry!’ I said. XD Meanwhile, I made sure to stay close to the line so I would be there when my number was called.
Finally, after what seemed ages, it was my turn. I received a form where I had to fill in the tickets I wanted and for which date. It was quite neat actually. I paid for my tickets and left the line again. Writing this makes it sound so easy! While it actually took sooo long…
My mom had rested for a bit and we went on our way to find the Swimmer store. Can you tell there are a few specific stores we really like? ^^’ I checked the map I had taken when we entered the mall and suddenly we passed an Axes Femme. It was really big and nice and there were even a few Lolitas shopping there, but once again the shop disappointed me for some reason and we didn’t stay that long. Soon after we found the Swimmer, again a small shop filled to the brim with tiny cute thingies.
I found a really cute see-through jewelry box that I instantly fell in love with, a cute bracelet and hair pin set and a pony ring while my mom found two cute mirrors and a cheap biscuit bag. Too many cute things, damn you Swimmer! >0<
My mom and I were super tired at this point, so we decided to drag ourselves to the Milky Way Café and have dinner plus dessert there. We walked all the way back through Sunshine City, passing several lovely shops and left the building. We walked back to the street towards the café. I saw a lot of cool posters on the building, including one from Love Live! (I tried playing this game but my phone can’t handle it). My mom and I were very pleased to see people handing out packages of tissues with advertisements on them. We loved this during our previous trips and eagerly took some (ahem, we may even have passed one person twice to get an extra package *shame*). We also spotted a maid with a sign, promoting her maid café. She looked very cute!
We finally reached the Milky Way Café and walked up the stairs. In case you don’t know about this café: everything in the Milky Way Café is star-themed or star-shaped. They have ice cream coupes based on constellations, star-shaped plates, even the bases of their tables are shaped like stars! I like it very much there.
We were seated at a table next to one of the big windows, which gave us a nice view over the crossing down at the street. The café looked as cute as I remembered and our waiter was also very cute. :3 Before we were given a menu, I just looked around the café. It’s such a nice place. ♥ Even the salt and pepper dispensers were star-shaped, aaah!
The Milky Way café is mainly famous for its ice cream, but since we wanted to have dinner my mom and I both chose a plate of fries. Our waiter tried to tell us something about the choice of sauces, but we didn’t understand him and ended up just asking for mayonnaise. Soon, our food arrived and beside the fact it looked really cute with the star-shaped plate, the fries were also really tasty!
It was getting dark once we started looking for a dessert. We wanted to try different ice cream coupes than last time, but we didn’t feel obliged to choose the ones matching our own constellations. So I chose one that had a lot of red and pink in it, so probably something fruity, while my mom chose a coupe in more Japanese style.
Of course, you don’t need to know Japanese in order to understand the little drawings next to the pictures of the desserts to find which constellations they match, however we had some trouble finding which was which. So while waiting for our desserts, we tried to find out which was which. I believe we continued to discuss about it until we went to sleep! x)
Finally, our ice cream came and of course pictures needed to be taken first!
Everything tasted so good~! What a great dinner. While we eating, I said to my mom how much I loved the watch I had bought at Swimmer. I liked it so much I felt the giant urge to give it to a friend of mine too. So my mom said I should do it and we finally agreed to go back to the Swimmer shop in Sunshine City to get one. I don’t think my mom realised how tired she was or she just didn’t tell me.
I went to the toilet (just to see what it looked like, haha), we paid for our food and then went back to the mall. I bought the watch and a cute little hair clip I had missed during a couple of hours before.
We walked back through Sunshine City when I asked my mom if she was ok with visiting one more shop. My eye had caught this super cute floral skirt at a shop called ‘Lodispotto’ and I was eager to see what more they sold.
The shop turned out to have super cute skirts and cardigans, very much my style! I did spot, however, that most items were ‘free size’ or ‘one size’, which doesn’t necessarily means everyone fits them… XD I was looking at a skirt when a shop girl walked up to me and said ‘One size!’ I am not quite sure what she was trying to say, but I am guessing she was referring to the piece of clothing as being too small for me. Or rather, me being too big for it. Usually I would be pissed off about this (I wasn’t even planning on buying it?), but now I shrugged it off. Weirdo. XD Anyway, I kept on looking and discovered the most beautiful skirt! It was made of the softest, off-white tulle and there were beautiful rhinestones sewn onto it. So fairy-like! Actually, we discovered another skirt my mom and I really liked! It was also made of tulle, but a bit more casual and covered in little white hearts.
Both were so cute!
I wasn’t planning to try them on when another shop girl came up to us. Her name was Yuko and she happened to speak pretty good English. She showed us the skirts were quite stretchy and said I should definitely try them on! ‘Eh why not?’ I thought. I shouldn’t have done that. XD Because completely unexpected, both skirts fit very well and looked super cute! ♥ ‘Aaah, like a fairy!’ said Yuko. (Not helping, haha) Aaah, it was instant love… I wanted them! Unfortunately, I am a terrible chooser and the skirts were not very cheap, but my mom offered me one as a present! ;_; Isn’t that just super sweet?
We went to pay and noticed you could get a 10% discount if you bought more than a certain amount if you showed your passport. We gave the poor shop girls quite a lot of work! x)
Finally, the shop girls were done and Yuko handed us our bag. We had talked a lot while I was trying on and she was just so sweet! Apparently she was half Japanese and half French and she asked us about our trip etc. ♥ Suddenly, she spotted the Misako Aoki badge I had pinned to my bag. Yuko turned out to be a Lolita too! She wears mostly Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, but likes Angelic Pretty too. I showed her a picture of my Angelic Pretty Tea Party outfit and she said she owned Milky Berry too (if I understood correctly)! Isn’t that amazing? For a moment, poor Yuko misunderstood something we said and thought for a moment my mom was a Lolita too, haha!
We left the store and Yuko waved us goodbye. Ah Yuko, thank you so much for the great experience. ;_; I will never forget you. ♥
Finally, it was really time to go back to Shinjuku now. We were pretty much dead. Near the station, we bought some drinks from a vending machine. I mean, they had my dear milk tea, how could I ignore it?
We took the train back to Shinjuku, dragged ourselves to our hotel and rested for the rest of the evening. Our plans of taking things easy hadn’t really worked out, so we needed it. I took some purchase pictures and then we went to sleep. It had been a very nice day.
And to end this post with, here is the first video I made about our adventures in Tokyo (there are two parts)! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 11 from 5:08 until 6:41. Please take a look if you want! ♥
Thank you for reading! ~☆~
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