[Outfit Post] Plaid & Robot Cat + J-pop Haul

Life and outfits have all been pretty unexciting since classes started.  I don't even have that many classes, it's just they all have a lot of reading and I feel like I'm spending my entire life teaching my ESL class.  Anyways, I remembered to take a photo of my outfit today!

Skirt: Innocent World

My t-shirt has an upside-down robot cat with lightbulbs on for its feet.

Also (perhaps more excitingly), my latest J-pop haul finally arrived!  That's what happens when I tell them to "ship after everything is released."  I get to wait until the last release date before I get anything XD

Anyways, I got the #AAABest album along with their relatively recent single "Daiji na Koto" which I absolutely adore.  Those came with photocards (luckyyy!!) - Chiaki and whole-group.  The album also came with an awesome poster that is currently laying face-down on my floor with books on it in an attempt to uncurl.  I also got Takahashi Ai's farewell Morning Musume single (TTT_TTT) featuring her solo song.  *sigh* it was a good run, Ai-chan... I will miss you T_T  She's one of my favorite J-pop singers of all time <3<3<3  And last but not least, Arashi's "Love Rainbow" just because.  I'm slowly trying to collect more of their singles, although it's going to be harder and harder to get the older ones >_<

And that's my haul ^_^  Whee!!

Next Dance to Learn... AKB48's Kaze wa Fuiteiru

Usually I only post about actually finished dances, but this time, I can't contain my excitement about AKB48's newest single (the PV of which I just saw). "Kaze wa Fuiteiru" Not only is the song exactly to my taste (angsty, but still with a hint of gentle), but the dance just looks like so much fun!!!



That screen cap I think captures exactly how I feel about this song/dance. It's got attitude (tons of it), but it's also flowing and breezy. I looooove this sort of combination.

So, this is officially the next dance I'm learning!! Starting now! o(^o^)o

[Outfit Post] Fun at Mitsuwa!

My roommate and I made a trip to Mitsuwa this past weekend, just to stock up on things and to de-stress (I just can't resist their food court).

It was a bit warm, and I was feeling too lazy to dress in anything elaborate, so I just went with a cute pop-kei type of outfit.

In addition to food and stuff (yeah Asian bread!!) I also bought a KERA and the first 2 volumes of Shugo Chara, because all the text in there has furigana so I can read it easily.  I'm guessing Ciao Comics has furigana on at least some (probably all) their stories, so maybe I should look into reading them.  Maybe I'll even learn some more kanji more quickly this way ^_^

And the adorably tasty baked good for this time is... a Doraemon custard bun!!

[Outfit Post] Playing Catch-up ^_^;;

It's been awhile since I've posted my everyday outfits!  I usually post them on tumblr, but forget to make a post here, so here's a compilation of some of the more recent ones ^_^

Overdress: 59 Seconds

Boots: Sugar

Hairbow: Chocomint

Brooch: handmade by Oli

Skirt: Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Shoes: Secret Shop

Hairbow: Chocomint

Skirt: Bodyline

Headbow: Innocent World

Necklace: handmade by Oli

Skirt: Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Parka: Angelic Pretty

JSK: Rose Melody

Blouse: HMHM

Salopette: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Geoxx

Blouse: Gap

Paris: Tour Eiffel

Day 2 of my trip finished with a long walk from Montparnasse over to the Eiffel Tower...  Very long walk, but very nice.  We passed a couple of landmarks and otherwise interesting things on the way. First was le musée de l'Armée.

And then this store in particular was amusing ^o^

I do not think they had in mind the implications of the store name in English... ^o^

There wasn't anything really Sioux about the products I could see in their shop window...  It looked like a pretty average cute baby clothes store.

In any case, with such amusement, the Eiffel Tower was finally reached!  I stopped at the far end of le Champ de Mars to get a pretty picture.

And then continued on my way to go up the actual tower.  Needless to say, there were hordes of street vendors with little Eiffel Tower shaped trinkets hanging on giant keyring-like things, trying to sell them for super-cheap (compared to the souvenir stores with physical setups).  It was like an obstacle course, trying to circumvent them...

As it turns out, there's a choice to take the stairs, or take the elevator.  You can only go to the very top of the tower if you choose the elevator option, although that seemed iffy, because half the time while I was looking at the sign, it said the top was "full" and therefore closed off at the moment.  It also cost more than twice as much.  I felt like just the observation deck was sufficiently high to satisfy my Eiffel Tower experience.  Soooo many stairs... but I climbed a lot of stairs in Paris, for some reason (maybe because I stayed with someone who lived on the 3rd floor?).  In any case, it was actually quite a nice walk up the tower, and the view from the observation deck was already plenty amazing, I really didn't need to crowd with the tons of people going to the very top (I hate crowds...).  I managed to snag a photo from two sides of the tower (the two most interesting sides).

Le Champ de Mars:

Trocadero:

And this is what the tower looks like, looking up from the 2nd observation deck:

WHEE!!  It was pretty awesome ^_^

And then of course we had to climb the stairs down... XD

Annual Midwest Lolita Meetup 2011

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the Midwest Lolita Meetup!!  I had a lot of fun both seeing old friends and getting to meet new people!!  It seems like the meetup has grown in attendance since last year, so that's also really awesome ^_^  Too bad it ended up raining (spectacularly, if I might say so) so we couldn't have our picnic outside in the park, but we ended up taking over the Cultural Center's cafe area, which worked out pretty well.

First off, my Dessert OP from BTSSB arrived just in time.  Well, technically they tried to deliver it Friday but my roommate decided to be awesome and deliberately ignore the mailman (*sarcasm*).  So I ended up picking the package up from the post office in the morning before the meetup.  In any case, it worked out pretty okay XD  It's a simple outfit, but I rather like that about it - I think I tend to have a penchant for simpler outfits anyways.  My hairstyle was inspired by a recent post from Midori, in which she showed off "Minnie Mouse" hairstyle with a giant bow.  Good thing too, since the only hairthing that really matched was my giant sax bow...

OP: Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Headbow: Handmade (LJ Millenaire)

Shoes: Secret Shop

And I actually remembered to bring my camera to the meetup this year (although I  still failed pretty bad at remembering to use it XD).  In any case, here's a few snaps of my friends (old and new)!

Paris: Catacombes + Cimetière du Montparnasse

Day 2 of my trip started with a quick stop at the neighborhood bakery, where I picked a delicious pain au chocolat.  Somehow it was just more delicious than any chocolate croissant I've ever had in the US... maybe simply because it was nice and fresh.  Who knows, but it was delightful!

And then, I went to the catacombs...  I waited in line, in the burning sun, for almost an hour before I finally got in.  The tour is entirely self-guided, and goes through both a quarry section and a catacomb section.  There were a lot of pretty things in the quarry section, which I didn't quite expect.  For example, this lovely model:

We also walked past several wells, of which this one was the best lit and the prettiest.  My camera was not so good at taking photos in dark places without flash, so things in lighted areas were pretty much the only things that came out.

As we went from the quarries to the catacombs, we were greeted by this lovely entrance message:

The catacombs... they're so cool!  So many bones and skulls all piled together, complete with random concret slabs with morbid inscriptions on them.  Also, just generally dark and wet (there was water dripping from the ceiling).

There were also several interesting crypts and other structures, including this Sepuchral Lamp.

And as if I hadn't gotten enough of death, I stopped by the Montparnasse Cemetery after a quick lunch break.  The cemetery was very pretty, but pretty unremarkable - I mean, it's just like many other cemeteries.  There were some pretty crypts, but I felt sort of weird walking around being too obvious about taking photos.  I stuck to photographing really old graves, or more "famous" graves.  Including that of Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion!!

Next stop: Eiffel Tower!!

Monster - 嵐 (Arashi)

Guess whaaat??!! That's right, another Arashi dance cover ^o^ I started learning the dance to "Monster" fairly soon after I learned "Lotus" but it took a bit longer to really polish up since the footwork is a little more complicated and I didn't have as good a set of reference videos (all the live performances have mostly been taken off Youtube already). Also... I had to learn how to do it in 2-inch heels.

Yes... 2-inch heels... Because this was also a project in sewing for me. I decided to create a Lolita version of Oh-chan's outfit. I chose Oh-chan rather than Nino because his outfit was the most distinctive without looking tacky or hard to construct, given fabrics available to me and my own sewing skills. The outfit will get its own post as soon as I have time to touch up the photos XD

So yeah, anyways, here it is! A dance + dub + cosplay of Arashi's "Monster"!

Paris: Jardin du Luxembourg

Last stop for my first day (I'm surprised I wasn't collapsing from jet lag or anything... yay malleable sleep schedule?): Jardin du Luxembourg!

I think I always had a very... childishly ideal image of this garden consisting of small children running around the fountain with their little sailboats.  Interestingly, it wasn't far off - there were in fact children playing with sailboats (complete with the poles you use to steer/poke at the boats)!  If only I was a small child and could engage in such play... T_T

The greenery was absolutely amazing (as was the case for every other garden I visited in Paris).  It's just too bad it was so hot and the sun was so bright - I probably would've enjoyed it more had the weather been a little bit cooler... alas, what can you do?

Here's the palace and the fountain all in one shot:

And the lovely lawn where we relaxed in the shade for awhile (did a crossword puzzle):

There were so many people there just hanging out (particularly in the nice shaded areas).  It was pretty interesting just people-watching and trying to eavesdrop on conversations.

We also saw the Medici Fountain, which was in a lovely tree area, except that ducks in the trees kept either dripping (from the fountain) on us or peeing on us (we couldn't tell).  We didn't hang out there long...

Paris: Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris

The second landmark was the Notre Dame Cathedral!  I didn't end up actually going inside...  There was a huge line, and I didn't realize that was for going to the top of the bell tower, not just walking inside the cathedral.  Oh well, now I know?  I would've liked to see it from the inside, but it was nice from the outside too!

Here's me with the cathedral:

I also walked around to the back of the cathedral (there's quite a nice little riverside park around the cathedral).

So there you go! That's Notre Dame ^_^