Wallet, say hello to Lolita

Sad days lay ahead for my wallet as from the end of last year have become highly interested in Lolita fashion.  For those who don't know, lolita is a part of the Japanese street fashion scene rising in popularity in the 90s. It is mainly based on stylistic trends of the Rococo and Victorian era, but also reflect the romantic period and vintage fashion. It is well known for its Doll-like look and elegant demeanour. There are different styles to lolita such as gothic, sweet and classic.

I could go on, but that's the generally info. If you would like to know more about lolita fashion I suggest you visit Hellolace or the EGL community on livejournal. Also forgot to mention that there are specific brands that cater lolita fashion which require quite some dosh to buy from them.

So the story wallet is, you can lose some weight.

My interest in Lolita began many years ago in 2007. Sad to say, but I was somewhat of a weeaboo . I was obsessed with Naruto and appointed all my friends a shinobi rank, drew cards dramatically like Yu-gi-oh, danced the Caramelldansen everywhere... you can read more about this in my otaku evolution post. Through titles like Vampire Knight, Rozen Maiden, Rose of Versailles and Umineko no Naku koro ni I desired to wear cute, dolly clothing. Also the fashion shown in Downton Abbey, Jane Eyre, Becoming Jane and other period dramas were so striking and I basically was inspired.

This inspiration led me to the EGL community on livejournal where I just lurked for several years learning about the brands, how to style, designers and the jargon eg. jsk, op, aatp, otk... It wasn't till I got a job about 2 years ago where I started seriously researching what I wanted and began stalking the egl sales community on livejournal for a deal. Technically my ''first'' lolita item was a Baby the Stars Shine Bright blouse and pannier from Shinjuku Closet Child, but I say it's this item (shown below) as I paid for it before the other 2 items and it completed my first ''look''. It was the BTSSB Olivia Regimental Stripes JSK in navy. After this I joined the Australian Lolita community on livejournal which proceeded to me being added to the Sydney Lolita group on facebook. Since then I have worked very hard at work to buy new clothes and met some awesome people within the Lolita circle! 

 

My Otaku Evolution

Despite ''otaku'' being a derogatory term in Japan, I believe that it is a good word to overall describe my interest in anime and manga.

Sorry this will be a long post it IS basically a recount of a large part of my life story.

 I haven't always been an ''otaku'', as my interest didn't peek till c. 2007, however I have been watching anime since I was about 5. This was when I thought anime was just any cartoon that spoke Cantonese. As a kid I grew up with anime in the Cantonese dub such as Doraemon, Cardcaptor Sakura, ママはぽよぽよザウルスがお好き (uber old aired in 1995), とんでぶーりん (1994), Chibi Mariko-chan and of course Sailor Moon. So I thought the home of asian cartoons was Hong Kong! Now that I think about it, all the anime VCDs mum got must of been bootlegs...

Either way watching anime in my childhood made me wanting for more as I finished more titles days by day. It was during primary school that I (after learning to understand the English language, yes I was a sad ESL student) seriously I don't even- watched anime in English dub.

There was a children's television program called '' Cheez TV'' broadcasting cartoons and anime. From my memory I watched Sailor Moon, Yu-gi-oh!, Pokemon, Cardcaptors, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Digimon. The program was replaced by '' Toasted TV '' in 2005 where I also grew an interest in western cartoons like TMNT, Winx Club and a French production which I hated called Code Lyoko. I also loved cartoon network and the Disney channel but that's 's unrelated here. However, it was a certain show on this program which changed my life forever...*drumrolllllll* NARUTO~~~ omfg dis show.

Naruto was the first anime I finally realised was Japanese- (the ninjas sorta gave it away). Before all this ''Toasted TV'' business I was still a girl who read magazines with titles like Dgirl (Disney Girl) and Total Girl. I mashed avocado into facemasks in my freetime and gave myself pedicures on the weekend (well I still do these things but then I bragged about it a lot more). What I had then but not now was a friendship circle of Anglo-Saxons who invited me to the best slumber parties watching Australian Idol, hearting Dean Geyer and served me lasagnas and baked potatoes. Excuse the stereotypes but they weren't into anime and such. 

However due to the inevitable events of growing up and increase immigration into Australia I made friends with a band of Asians towards the end of primary school. We happily discussed the latest Naruto episodes at school and graffitied each others pencilcases with '' Believe it! '' and ''I <3 Sasuke/Gaara/Itachi/Rock Lee''... (how did that happen?). It was all very fun and crazy and we gave each names from the Akatsuki, I was f-ing Zetsu but that wasn't the main issue. We grew more fanatic as we watched more anime and ate more Pocky so I'm sad to say- I WAS A WEEABOO .                     There I said it.                  It only got worse after I discovered fanfiction.net and created OCs and stories in my head where I'm dating Draco Malfoy whilst two timing with Zero Kiryu... anime was my lyf. Fanfiction also opened up a whole bunch of new vocab eg. yaoi, yuri, lemons, fanservice, seme, uke, ship, canon, non-canon etc... I avoided most of these tags- I was still so innocent.

No I don't want to see anyone naked, thank you.

When I entered high school those friends disappeared so I was on a lone wolf journey of re-self discovery. By the time I was in year eight I dropped the ''kawaiis'', ''baka'' and ''urasai'' and watched a wide range of genres. As nobody around me liked anime etc. I was left to choose what I read and watch without judgement. I also started to read a lot more manga as I didn't have anyone to pass me the avi.s and mp4.s anymore. I learnt more about the genres eg. shoujo, shounen etc. However, I still only read/watched mainstream eg. Vampire Knight, Gakuen Alice, One Piece, Deathnote, that bandwagon. I also played a lot more videogames on my nintendo ds which was technically the first handheld I called my own. Started playing pokemon, mario, final fantasy here comes my J-gaming. Only used to play GTA and Prince of Persia but I finally found out what the hell a Chocobo was.

farming is lyf

I also started figure collecting and attending conventions my first being Supanova in 2008. I also made my first cosplay for that event which was Rukia from Bleach in her school uniform. Fanart was also a strong hobby of mine and you can still find some amateur drawing on my deviantart: @jelloxmello. At first I was a noob buying bootlegs, but after reading some posts on DannyChoo I became more accustomed to what legit ones looked like. On a holiday to Hong Kong I bought tonnes of merch including magazines and posters. I was on a otaku rampage again, but this time, not a weeaboo. thank god.

Now things get a bit complicated chronologically but can't tell you everything!

With higher education came a higher desire to learn about human relationships. Many things came up during this period:

- first ecchi scene in a josei manga
- finally got the guts to read that NatsumexMikan fanfic with lemons

- realised Sora will always be Riku's uke

- Xion is a cockblocker

- Togainu no chi is not for kids

- I love bishounens, whatever they are doing.

much more...

My all time favourite canon pairing~

Also played my first visual novel! (not saying which) My favourite genres were post-apocalyptical, horror and survival. I thoroughly enjoyed Battle Royale, Bio-meat Nectar, Eden:It's an Endless World! (which is still one of my favourites). Also went to baka manga updates for more manga to read. Watched a hell lot of anime a few seasons ago including HOTD, to aru kagaku no railgun, durarara, hakuoki shinsengumi etc. Stopped drawing fanart as well cause of study and lack of skills. Developed an interest in guro for a while, especially the works of Junji Ito.

Fast-forward to the present... 

I now enjoy manga more than anime and like a lot more that isn't mainstream. In my old age reading vintage shoujo as well now- I recommend Glass Mask by Muichi Suzue. Only mainstream I've read recently would be One Piece, but stopped after Ace's death... Haven't watched anything new anime wise since Anohana and Fate/zero. You can say I've lost my passion, however I've expanded my interests in not just Japanese anime, but culture, language and fashion. Still then I've found my leaf village flag and burned it, no longer buy bootleg nendoroids and finally bought a pretty hot Lelouch figurine. I mostly play PC games now as I've married every bachelorette on Harvest Moon DS. Went to Japan for a 2 week exchange program and had a holiday in Tokyo at the beginning of 2012. In the future I plan to teach English in Japan and study Japanese at university. 

That's it guys! My otaku evolution, hopefully this post wasn't too long...

~Still a closet yaoi fan- what will I become?~

Review: MISO

Restaurant review: MISO, Sydney, Shop 20 World Square.

Sorry not my own image, but from their own blogspot so I think it's okay to use?

Miso is a Japanese restaurant in Sydney's CBD famous for their Tonkatsu (Fried Pork) that is quite popular in Japan and Australia. I went with a friend last holidays and I'll have to say it's pretty good :)

I just had to have their famous tonkatsu dish with their light and crunchy panko coating. Here's what I got.

Very nice and filling, for me I could barely stand up after this meal. This was the Tonkatsu loin and Udon set which was $17.80, a bit pricey on my end, but definitely worth it! Also if you compare to other asian restaurants eg. Seoul Ria and Mamak the pricing is quite acceptable. I especially liked the strawberry yoghurt. Rice was...Japanese? haha I never liked Japanese rice because of it's stickiness and roundness. (I need Basmati rice)

Me with a mango smoothie which was approx. $4. $4? for a dine in it's pretty good. It was delish. The idea of 2 straws pissed me off though because the drink ran out quicker than I thought.... Good marketing trick aye?

Service was alright as staff was polite and efficient, however for the businessman next to us he waited for 10 mins after he was seated for a menu. I thought staff could of been more cheery and friendly. however, I guess you have to put the language barriers into the mix. Overall, they got the job done.

I recommend Miso to any Japanese cuisine lover looking for a more modern appeal or a bit tired from the usual sushi train.

Overall rating: 4/5

Mirai's 1st Giveaway

So I'm pretty new to blogging but I stumbled on this ''giveaway'' and didn't want to miss out! 

Items from this giveaway includes:

1) Candydoll lip concealer

2) Candydoll Mineral Powder

3) Luminous Change Eyelashes (4 pairs, 3 top & 1 bottom)

4) Dollywink Eyelash Case

5) Bihada Ichizoku Pink Lipgloss

6) Bihada Ichizoku Nude Lipgloss

7) Bihada Ichizoku Orange Blush

Eyeing the Candydoll lip concealer especially >.>

Please visit Mirai's blog it has a little bit of everything and has a few interesting reads- 

http://mi-aow.blogspot.com/2011/11/mirais-1st-giveaway-d.html

1st G-market Haul

Around last week I got my first G-market package! For those who don't know what G-market is it's like a Korean Ebay. Although I was on the English site most stores still write in Korean so it is annoying at times to click the translate page button or go on Google translate. However the site is really good and most stores offers great quality and service. you can get anything from pens to clothes to make up :) 

For this particular haul my friend Angela organized it so a bunch of people can order together to get a lower shipping rate. I got Etude House's Precious Mineral Make up Essence, Baby Skin Veiling, Golden Ratio 02, tear drop liner, Smith's Rosebud Salve in the tube and EOS lip balm in Honeydew. (review links up soon so stay tuned)

Stuff was packaged real cute with complimentary oil face wipes. The Etude House products gaves me freebies too: My favourite mask Etude House moistfull and a box filled with their moistfull collagen range.

I really enjoyed my G-market experience so I shall be ordering off them myself soon! :D

Formal food- sorry not food porn!

So formal food was....disappointing actually :(  The only thing I really liked was the chocolate mousse with strawberry syrup in a heart shaped chocolate bowl? base? tart thing. Well I kept saying it was a heart shape, but others said it was just triangular =.= Out of the photos above I only got the chicken and chocolate dishes- I REALLY WANTED BEEF! The chicken was like a oven bake fillet with the usual crumb coating, but there was a slice of ham sandwiched inside! ew I hate ham. Then people on my table decided to discuss the difference between ham and bacon....and I still don't get it.0.o

VERDIT: THERE BETTER BE BETTER FOOD AT THE NEXT FORMAL!

but I'll give the dessert a 9/10 (strawberry syrup a bit too sweet)

Pre Formal Fun

IT'S ONLY A DAY TO MY FORMAL. I've been waiting for this day for 4 years, not to sound like a loser but I was very disappointed with my Year 6 formal (which consisted of hamburgers, plastic cutlery and cheap lollipops for dessert.) I hope the menu this year is good, hehe heard there's pesto chicken >.<
So to celebrate I have been going to Sydney with my friend Lily and Hazel to chill after a stressful month of exam preparations. 


Lily and I got our free drinks at Macca's as it expired that day and they were handing out free samples of the new smoothies, too good, however I prefer the Bananberry one. (fellow Australians go try it)

Then we discovered HappyLemon! It's my favourite drink shop, I had this everyday in Hong Kong.

Had Cocoa with Rock Salt Cheese which both Lily and Hazel were skeptical about, but it's really nice and different! It's more like a salty cheesecake than an salty mozzarella pizza :D

 cutest interior design~ really bright.

 they call out your number once your drink is made. However they were yelling mandarin for a good minute before I realized my drink was ready :S

Had cheapo lunch at DIXON'S! Got beef in black bean sauce on a sizzling plate for Lily and I to share. Mad good, but not enough rice... and the oil kept spitting on my hand..ouch

Went for karaoke and had Hazel laughing her head off at the band BUMP OF CHICKEN as I was singing Zero. (Can't wait for Final fantasy type-0)

Went back home for a manicure!!! The ladies there were nice and polite, but I wished they take off their masks as I couldn't hear half the things they were saying. I got baby pink nails and Hazel got a more Frenchy pink. As this was a first time experience I was terrified when the lady opened those sterilized bags like the ones with dental equipment. Phew thankfully just cuticle cutters and pushers. :>

Quite happy about the turn out and our Capitol Purikura in the background! Went into the machine with Marimo as the model- popteen <3

 Hazel said my nails were too barbie-ish =.= oh well I wish my nails never grow out!

Had a great two days with Lily and Hazel and prepping for formal! I shall review on the food when I get back.