Category Archive for Tokyo + Japan
BAR-HOPPING IN KOENJI, TOKYO: JAPAN OTAKU CAFES, NAKANO ANIME MANGA COSPLAY STORES.
A makeup-free Happy Phantom took La Carmina on an alcohol-fueled romp through Koenji, the Tokyo district where he resides (although he’s now moving in with Dravarious). Nakano is a station away — home to the Broadway mall, or mini-Akihabara, where you’ll find cosplay, anime, toys, manga and (to my delight) kawaii jigsaw puzzles. Koenji is as much of a geek-fest.
First, we stopped for cheap fast food — which, in Japan, means vegetarian tempura and miso soup. I doused my bowl with my beloved shichimi togarashi (7-spice powder).
Koenji has one of the oddest restaurant mish-mashes you’ll encounter: a rockabilly curry house. My 80s-inspired outfit fit in with the hot pink walls and vinyl discs hanging from the ceiling.
If David Lynch and David Cronenberg opened a bar, it would be The Matching Mole (3-45-1, Eiwa building 3F, Koenji-minami). The owner is a glum otaku who surrounds himself with bloody fake fingernail sculptures and disemboweled cat keychains. Not even my friend’s Banana Brothers art could lift the gloom of the disturbing hentai.
Off to Vamp Bar, a retro-cluttered hole manned by a rock chick. She showed us camera-phone photos of her thrash band; we forced her to watch our YouTube videos. (You, too, should subscribe to his and my channel.)
On the way out, we stumbled across a 100 yen ($1) grab box. What do you think Happy Phantom took? The golf club, of course!
The next time you’re in Tokyo, come to Koenji for an unusual and inexpensive bar-hopping experience. If you run into Manabu (the emo kid with the hot Prince Valiant haircut), tell him we say hello!
Song of the Day #189: My cat Basil Farrow loves to listen to classical music… he’s currently dangling from a chair and twitching his ears to this Mozart playlist.
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READER QUESTION ABOUT HONG KONG LOLITAS. JAPANESE STREETS SWEET LOLITA TEENS, ANGELIC PRETTY HARAJUKU FASHION PHOTOSHOOT.
NOTE: This blog post was written years ago…I’ve since visited Hong Kong and done many more articles about Goth/Lolita and Visual Kei culture. You can read all my articles here, and there’s some Lolita shopping maps here.
Japanese Streets, a comprehensive resource on Harajuku street style, kindly gave me permission to post these Sweet Lolita photos. The models are aged 13, 14, and 19 and mostly wearing Angelic Pretty — and their candy-floss hair is to die for! You can see more from the shoot on Japanese Streets.
Now, let’s reach for the Reader Questions mail bag. Liz writes, “I’ve got some questions for you Carmina :) They relate to Hong Kong…”
1. When you travel to Hong Kong do you dress to the nines in Lolita gear? I find HK to be a pretty conservative country, being blonde attracts enough attention for me — I’m curious how your experience with the HK people is if you dress “crazy” here? Do you get a lot of photo requests, etc.?
Ah, you gotta love Hong Kong attitude. In Japan, you can be half-naked and drenched in fake blood — and everyone will politely walk by. Whereas in Hong Kong, you’ll get scrunched-up faces and pointing fingers and a chorus of “Ai-yahs”! HK fashion can be pretty crazy, but the acceptability standard is: would a Cantopop singer wear it? If not (eg, Lolita/Goth/Punk), then you can expect some rudeness from strangers.
2. Do you have any favorite HK fashion spots for Gothic Lolita style?
I did a post about Hong Kong Lolita stores Spider, Baby Cupid and Dracula; you can read it here. It includes a map and detailed directions.
A few more to add to the Hong Kong shopping list:
† Sogo in Causeway Bay has a Liz Lisa (Princess Kei) and Hangry and Angry (the casual cat mascots from h.NAOTO) on the third floor.
† Right behind Sogo is Laforet. Several of the boutiques sell Japanese young women’s brands such as Milk and Jane Marple.
† Anna House sells custom-made Lolita clothing. The shop is near the Kwun Tong subway stop.
3. Where are all the HK Lolitas?! I’ve seen a small handful, usually in TST taking photos so I presume they’re not locals :( It’s such an interesting genre of style, and you probably know how into “street” fashion people are here. I’d love to get some photos of girls here dressed up & start publicizing more “unusual” fashion.
You’ll see Lolita and Harajuku-inspired outfits around town, but other than individual meetups, there aren’t really any events where the girls gather. Hong Kong is funny about fashion and money. Cantonese stars don’t wear the fashion, so few girls are interested. And there isn’t any money to be made by having Goth/industrial parties. However — dum dum dum — there may be an invasion in the works… keep reading and all will be revealed!
I welcome you to ask me questions, which I’ll reply in this blog feature (shoot me an email any time!). You can see my previous responses to Reader Questions here.
Song of the Day #188: Genki Rockets – Heavenly Star (the first song in my new Scottish Fold video — have you seen it yet?)
LA CARMINA
