I am back! I had a wonderful weekend away for Hyper Japan and my birthday with my best friend and my other closest friends ugh I miss them all already someone save me! I honestly haven't had such a good time for a while now and my head space was starting to get a little muddled again until last weekend. I won't bore you with any more details, on with what happened!
On the Friday, it was spent packing (and unpacking, the repacking to make sure I didn't forget anything) and travelling to the hostel - which was located in Earls Court. I honestly believed that we got such an amazing deal for the place - £12 p/n for three nights?! How could anyone refuse? Plus is was the cleanest hostel I have stayed in... ever. After Sapphire and I had finished settling in, aka throwing our suitcases into our room, we headed out into central for food as we were both pretty hungry by this point. Originally, I was going to take Saph to 'Eat Tokyo' but the location I knew about had moved to Soho and upon arriving at the destination... we found out that it was closed until the 17th!! Typical. So instead we hopped over two doors and went to eat at Taro's. I've only been to Taro's once previously but I remembered that the food was delicious so it wasn't an ultimate loss for us. We did however, eat for more than two people;
Gosh we were super full afterwards but we took the long route back to Piccadilly Circus station (through Soho and Chinatown) and even stopping off at Hotel Chocolat - where I treated myself to a couple of goodies as a pre-birthday present - we felt a lot better walking off the food.
On the Saturday, we woke up way before our alarms - excitement had set it - but we weren't going to get there super early and were aiming for the venue around 10.30/11am as that would give up plenty of time to go around before the closed session. Meeting Sharan at Earls Court Station, we eased on over to Kensington Olympia where the event was being held. We were a little confused at first on where to go as there was another event being held at the same location, on the same weekend, but we managed to find our way to the entrance and walk on in. It was super quiet in the morning, there was no pushing/shoving/cramming to get to the tables and honestly, I prefer that kind of atmosphere to that of MCM. We then met up with Victoria and mooches around the bottom level most of the first session, even getting to the front of the stage to watch the fashion show was a good sign! I was excited to see the show as I knew that a couple of my friends were participating;
Just a select few of my favourites! There was a massive spectrum of Japanese fashion on the catwalk... ahhh everyone was just so pretty! The best surprise at the end was seeing Anna Yano come onto the stage! She's super small and doll like in person and she has such a lovely singing voice as well... ahhh I could have just put her in pocket and kept her forever!
After her performance, we went around the bottom level again and purchased some food, took some pictures with friends and before we knew it, it was time for the first session to end! Saying goodbye to Victoria at this point, we headed outside and waited until the second session had opened and was in full swing... it was much busier in the afternoon than in the morning! Squeezing through people to move around and look at things makes me feel a little anxious but we managed somehow! Despite getting distracted by things... I did manage to take some form of pictures of stalls with goodies for sale;
After going around the top level, buying more goodies and also being spoilt by my noonim *shakes fist at her* Sapphire, Sharan and myself headed into central London to go and eat at Shroyu Ramen! This place has been on my bucket list of restaurants for ages and I was extremely happy to be finally going to go and eat there! We had a twenty minute wait before we could be seated but it was certainly worth it in the end;
Again, lots more food purchased and consumed! I remember ordering an onigiri, chicken karaage (to share), a spicy pork hirata bun and curry ramen with a non-alcoholic yuzu mojito to wash it all down with! Being super full at the end of it was worth it as the food was sublime! I honestly recommend it to anyone wanting to go and eat ramen! I forgot to add... before we headed to Shoryu Ramen, we popped into Japan Centre as it was (literally) thirty seconds away and I was lucky enough to pick up the last copy of ANAN magazine with Hiroki Nariyima on the cover!!! Extra special birthday present to myself there! After our food escapades, Sapphire and I said our goodbyes to Sharan and headed back to the hostel as we were exhausted from the day already! Normally, I feel awkward going back to the hostel so early (around 11pm) but the hostel had a nice atmosphere so it was all good really~
On the Sunday (my birthday yay!!) we awoke around the same time as on the Saturday... but I was surviving on only four and a half hours sleep as we had an extremely loud snorer in our room... fucking perfect. Sapphire surprised me with birthday presents and a card ;333; and after much appreciation of what she got me... we got ready for HJ. It was quiet again on the Sunday, kind of like the Saturday morning session the day before, and it was nice to properly go around the stalls and talk to people etc. I did take some more pictures of things again;
Around 3ish, Sapphire's Sei cosplay decided to break on her so we went back to the hostel to change and for myself to have a short nap as there was no one around... I honestly get really cranky if I have little sleep so a nap was the best decision! When we left the hostel around 5ish, it decided to rain on us! Just typical.... it's not my birthday unless it decides to rain on us! We met Monique and Richard at Misato's... cheap and massive portions of food? How could anyone refuse? After we had our fill, we walked over to Costa and sat talking in there until closing time! I cannot remember the last time I stayed in a coffee shop until closing time... we just had that much of a good time together;
I loved taking our group picture together and spending time with this people, my face hadn't stopped hurting from all the smiling and laughing that happened until Tuesday afternoon? It's crazy how certain company will do that to you...
And thus... Monday came and Sapphire and I had to travel back to Essex - so Sapphire could be picked up to be taken back to Telford and for me to go back home for work the next day. It felt like the weekend went by extremely fast and that we never stopped! Heck, the lack of sleep from snorers in our hostel room made me feel like that I had been out clubbing all night... I had such an amazing time with my friends, meeting new people whom I hope I can call friends for an extremely long time and I was spoilt rotten with presents for my birthday... and extra surprise being a birthday cake and cards upon my arrival through my front door - as well as being tackled by two excited dogs!
This is such an extremely long post and I apologise for the length of it.... but hey I did cut out some pieces to make it less of a feat to read! As I had purchased a lot of stuff and been given a lot of stuff, I had to put them in categories! The picture on the left is all of my birthday treats whilst the other two are pieces I purchased from Sushi Noms, Third Windows Films, a k-pop stall that I can't remember the name of and JPU Records!
If anyone would like to see any reviews about any of the above products - I do have a post planned about the Sailor Moon items in the top left picture - then leave a comment below and I shall what I can do! Thank you so so so much for putting up with an extra long post from me, I really hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
