Tag Archives: London

Hyper Japan Summer (July 27, 2014) in London, UK

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A couple of years ago I attended the Hyper Japan Christmas event in London, England – and it just worked out that I was in town for the summer show this year! I met up with GabrielVH and MikeFoxtrot1985 at the venue to shop, eat, hang out and eat some more! Another friend that intended to come had asked me to wear a lolita dress, and it was a bit ambitious of me to bring a full lolita coordinate with me but I did it!

Here we are hanging out with Domo-kun at the NHK Japan booth.
with Domo

Mike brought his lovely Mirai with him and she got lots of attention! We found this cute Arpakasso backpack for her at one of the vendor booths.
Mirai

Gabe and I learned from how crowded it was last time and opted to not bring any dolls since it made shopping difficult @_@ I was quite pleasantly surprised that the hall they used this time had a lot more casual seating for guests to rest and relax. It was much more spacious and was properly air conditioned. This was one of the few days this summer that was nice and not, but I was practically melting in all my layers! After walking around we sat down in the food stalls area and I got some yakisoba noodles and takoyaki to snack on.

BatB coord

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Alice and Yaya Go to the Park in London – June 29, 2014

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I met up with my cousin, her boyfriend, as well as fransgaard and GabrielVH this past weekend for lazy Sunday dim-sum at Ping Pong. I was a bit late since my flight was delayed but the point of lazy Sunday is taking things at a very slow pace. (At one point our food was taking a bit too long, and after we inquired about it we were offered a round of complimentary drinks!) After lunch Gabe and I went for a walk to try to find the bus stop made entirely of LEGO in front of Hamley’s toy store.

It was quite cleverly done!
LEGO bus stop

Since Gabe and I both had DD’s with us, we went out to a nearby park to take a few photos while there was still sunlight.
Alice & Yaya out in the park

 

Alice & Yaya out in the park

Alice & Yaya out in the park

I love being able to see my London friends on my layovers 🙂 but on this particular visit I was bringing home a very special parcel. Here’s Alice helping me out with it. Can you guess what’s inside? ^_~”

Alice helps bring home a parcel 0_0"

– ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):
Our fabulously girly drinks from Ping Pong –
Free round of drinks since they lost our order Strawberry muddled with tequila and aloe foam! Great lunch with @fransgaard @igabrielVH Michelle & Arif

The Kyoto Garden in Holland Park (Dollfie Dream Meetup: London, UK – July 20, 2013)

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Last weekend I was in London, England, and made plans with Jezatron, GabrielVH, bethykins and fransgaard for little doll meet. However, my job comes with it’s own set of challenges and things can change in a split second – last Friday there were some very heavy thunderstorms over Toronto, most of Southern Ontario and New York @__@” and as a result I ended up being delayed a few hours. I was super late to meet up with everyone (sorry!!! >__<“) but at least the weather in London cooperated and it was a perfect day. Rather than one of the big central parks in the city, we chose to meet up at the Kyoto Garden inside Holland Park and it was a beautiful place.

Here are the dolls all ready for a nice afternoon picnic!
Doll Meet in London, UK
Left to right are Bethykin’s Freya (DD Moe) and Sa-Chan (DD Sakuno), Jezatron’s Kanu Unchou, GabrielVH’s Sakura Matou, my Serena (DD Yuki Morikawa), Beth’s Yuki (DDH-06) and Jez’s Ryomou.

I wanted to bring Serena back to the UK as a belated birthday trip for her, it’s been just over a year since I adopted her into my doll family. I dressed her up on Thursday afternoon and packed her into my doll carrier so imagine my surprise when Gabe dressed Sakura in a coordinating outfit! This was totally unplanned!
Doll Meet in London, UK

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Asuna & Micaela at the British Museum! (Mini Dollfie Dream Meetup: London, UK – June 30, 2013)

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A couple of weeks ago I was back in the UK for the first time since March, and took the chance to meet up with Pink_Blaise and GabrielVH on a lovely Sunday afternoon. We met up in Chinatown for bubble tea and crèpes before walking around in Soho to take a few photos.

Pink_Blaise asked me to bring Micaela (DD Aoko Aozaki) to compare her with the 07 head I had brought along on my previous visit. She brought her beautiful Neris & Kimiko, and I asked Gabe to bring his newest girl, Asuna, out for the day so that I could see her in person! Here are the girls relaxing against a tree.
June 30th London Trip
Photos by: GabrielVH (I didn’t bring my camera >_<” so Gabe did all the hard work!)

Gabe changed Asuna’s eyes so they are more soft and friendly – her default eyes were very cat-like. She has a very fresh peaches and cream face-up and a sweet smile.
June 30th London Trip

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Mini Dollfie Dream meetup in London – March 3, 2013

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Earlier this month I made a quick visit to London and was able to meet up with some awesome DD owner friends from across the pond. I met up with GabrielVH, Jezatron and Pink_Blaise for a day of eating, chatting and goofing around and it was a wonderful way to spend the day!

March 3rd Dinners-1
Nana, Kimiko and Kanu say “Hi!”
Photo by: GabrielVH

I met up with Pink_Blaise in the afternoon and we enjoyed tea, pastries and macarons on the sunny patio of the Ladurée tearoom in Covent Garden. It was still a bit chilly but sunny days in London are such a rare treat! I hadn’t seen Pink_Blaise since last November so it was great to be able to catch up on exciting news going on in her life! ^__^”
Afternoon Tea and Desserts at Ladurée with Pink_Blaise
We had the St Honoré Rose Framboise Pastry, Cassis-Violet Religieuse pastry and a trio of macarons (salted caramel, violet marshmallow and green apple). Delicious!

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Dollfie Dream Meetup at Hyper Japan, London – November 24, 2012

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My sister and I went to London last week for a short vacation to visit our cousin, and while we were there we met up with several UK-based Dollfie Dream owners at Hyper Japan!

I had arranged to meet up with Jezatron, GabrielVH, CookieDude_2332, Aquilla429, UiNeonSkittles, Pink_Blaise, Fransgaard and Bethykins at Hyper Japan to hang out and of course, the Dollfie Dreams came out as well!
Girls at HJ

What exactly is Hyper Japan? In my attempt to describe the event: it’s a small Japanese cultural festival + 1-Day Anime convention + Japanese Food Festival. My friends told me that it’s grown a lot but having attended massive anime conventions like Anime North, Otakon and San Diego Comic Con, HJ is very small by comparison. But what it lacked in size, it made up for with substance! What I loved about it was the abundance of Japanese tourist information, language course info, and the food hall which was almost 1:3 of the whole space, since I’m not really into shopping around dealer’s rooms anymore.
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Doll mini-meet in London, UK: October 8, 2012

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This past Monday I met up with Pink_Blaise and Jezatron while I was in London, and we took a few of our girls out for for dinner with us. We met up at a nice bar/ restaurant in Shoreditch and it was a relaxing way to spend a Monday evening after a busy day at work.

I apologize in advance for the photo quality! >;;__<;;” I left my digital camera at my hotel, so I only had my iPhone. At least the camera on the iPhone 4S isn’t too bad. I brought Sidonie (Saber Extra) with me, Pink_Blaise brought her Yukino and Jez brought Tamaki with him. Aren’t they an adorable trio?

Sid, Yukino and Tamaki
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Doll meetup in London, UK: September 3, 2012

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Annalise had quite the jet-setting weekend! No sooner had she arrived home from her visit in Vancouver that I packed her into another suitcase and off we went to London, UK! I met up with fransgaard, GabrielVH, Jezatron, cookiedude_2332, Pink_Blaise and JRuzzy on Monday evening, at The Light Bar in Shoreditch for drinks and dinner. GabrielVH and I had brought Dollfie Dreams with us to our last outing in July, but the restaurant was very small and crowded so our girls didn’t get to come out of their bags! This time fransgaard helped us pick a more spacious location and the venue was actually fantastic. Fransgaard picked the Light Bar because I had mentioned that a space with lots of natural light would be fantastic, but the time we brought out our DD’s it had gotten dark! >__<” My little point-and-shoot camera is awful at night so I didn’t take a many photos as I would have liked. *sigh* Despite the lack of pictures, we had a lovely evening – and the DD girls in attendance were GabrielVH’s Moe, my Annalise (DD Rise Kujikawa), Jezatron’s Ryomou, JRuzzy’s Haruka Niimi and Pink_Blaise’s Inari (DD Neris).

Annalise, Moe, Ryomou, Niimi and Inari

I had a minor fashion emergency when I unpacked Annalise at the hotel – I had transported her in 2 pieces so that she would fit in my carry-on suitcase and somehow when I switched luggage her skirt got left behind at home! >__<” Luckily fransgaard came to the rescue by bringing a cute pair of Mai Little Alien jeans for her to wear. They are so much more stylish than my backup plan of crafting her a sarong with a bar napkin!

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Mélisande & Gabrielle meet the Pygmalion Society of London

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My sister and I are London, England right now, and luckily for us, our visit coincided with a get-together of the Pygmalion Society! They are the local doll collectors who meet up on the last Sunday of every month, usually organized through the Den of Angel forum. I’ve been hoping for almost a year to be able to attend one of these meets so I was very excited that my schedule allowed me to attend! I would have loved to bring a resin girl with me, but I was travelling light so I opted to bring a couple of DD girls since they are easier to transport.

Pino, Mélisande, Delilah, Lareine and Nono Continue reading →

Gabrielle goes to London for Art and Food!

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My newest Dollfie Dream girl arrived a few days before Christmas, courtesy of an amazing seller and my aunt bringing her up from Los Angeles – Volks DDS Akira! She’s my first Dollfie Dream Sister doll, and I adore this body type! I like that she’s a little bit smaller than the other big DD girls (but not too much) but still has great poseability! I spent the first couple of days with her trying on lots of wigs to see which one will be “hers” and in the end I’ve decided that while she may masquerade as a blonde or brunette every so often, she will be my peach baby!

I love her adorable little smile and her big green eyes! Her smaller body also lent itself to being packed in a suitcase easily I brought her with me this past weekend to visit London, UK! She borrowed a pretty outfit from Lily, some boots from Alisanne, put on a lovely wig to coordinate and off across the Atlantic we went!

First stop was lunch at L’Atelier de Joël Robouchon with my cousin (our favourite lunch spot), and afterward we were joined by Jezatron, Cookiedude_2332 and PockyKai and we moved up to their lounge for dessert and cocktails. I stupidly forgot to charge my camera battery, so I didn’t take too many photos because I was trying to conserve the 1% battery power that I had left >__<”

Here’s the artichoke soup appetizer, and the delicious pork belly main course – and some super girly cocktails!
Le Topinambour - L'Atelier de Joël Robouchon, London La Ventreche de Porc - L'Atelier Joël Robouchon, London Cocktails at Joël Robouchon
Photo by Josh Ng (CookieDude_2332)

After lunch, my cousin went off to do her own thing, and the rest of us walked up to the British Museum because I was interested in one of their temporary exhibits. Hokusai’s Under the Wave, off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami-ura), also known as “The Great Wave” on display until January 8, 2012 and I wanted to take advantage of my time in London to check out this famous wood-block print! As with most famous works of art, I’m usually struck with how small they are in real life since museum posters always make them seem huge and you can never get a sense of scale out of a book. The Great Wave was much smaller than I anticipated, but the beautiful blue colours were so vivid and striking. Here’s Gabrielle showing off the print –

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Moe-chan goes to London!

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This weekend Moe came along with me to London, England and we met up with fellow Dollfie Dream owners Dark Dollhouse, GabrielVH, Jezatron and fransgaard for lunch.

I was quite concerned about how to pack her compactly and safely into my carry-on luggage but I shouldn’t have been worried at all. The best way for a Dollfie Dream to travel is in First Class! ^__~”

After getting off the plane and traveling to our hotel in London, Moe was nice and fresh – but that didn’t stop her from claiming the bed all to herself!

Moe got very excited when she spotted a double-decker red bus on the street! It’s one of those sure signs that you really are in London.

Moe got to ride on one of those buses, but she was safely packed away in my bag for transit so no pictures of that journey. However, we did take a short stop at Picadilly Circus to take a photo of the Eros Statue.

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