Kobe Cat Cafe and Ashley Dy!

So the other day while browsing the internet I slammed my fist down on the table in frustration, thinking "gosh! There's just no photos of cats anywhere on here!" Luckily, I went to a cat cafe with Candy Kawaii Lover blogger Ashley yesterday, and was able to get plenty of pictures of cats, so now I can add some pictures of cats to the internet and solve that problem once and for all. No, no need to thank me, it was my pleasure :) Ashley surrounded by cats, who came to her purely out of love and not because she was holding any food... This cat was my favourite. It's name is Marimo but I prefer to call it gump-cat. It's little flattened ears and permanent shocked expression were too gosh darn adorable. A kitten named Yomoza pulling a heaps sneaky move with the box there... Serious cat faces. The cat cafe is called Nyanny (in Motomachi) and you pay to stay by the hour, which is around $10. While we were there we were stuck in permanent-squeal-mode and kind of forgot to eat any food or drinks for ourselves, so it was less like visiting a cat cafe and more like visiting a cat... room or something. Still, it was pretty much the most relaxing and kawaii hour of my life. Ashley wrote a post about the cat cafe too, which you can check out here (with even more photos of cats - goodness, we're going to overload the internet at this rate!) More about hanging out with Ashley really soon (and outfit pictures too!)

Comic Book / Japan-France

These shots were taken in a gorgeous little street in a suburb called Kagurazaka in Tokyo. This suburb is heavily influenced by a phenomenon Luci and I have decided to dub "Japan-France". It's where shops, restaurants and buildings are designed to look European in style, with a Marie-Antoinette, Rococo kind of feel (and also for some reason, Christmas-themed, as Japanese people seem to think it's always Christmas in Europe), but the style is also unmistakably Japanese at the same time. Anyway, this sloping shopping street was veeeery Japan-France. And very pretty (I love Japan-France!) I've just spent a few days in Yokohama, and have now arrived in Osaka! Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Japan-based blogger Candy Kawaii Lover, which is very exciting, and we're both bringing our cameras with us so I'm sure I'll have some photos for you guys very soon! wearing dress - Some cheap store in Sydney (I forget the name) necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - c/o My Tights shoes - from Koenji headband - Thank You Mart Hope you're all fantastic :)

Devil's in the Details / Nakano

Today it is snowing, but not in a nice way - just icky, icy stuff - and there's also been a very very small "tsunami advisory" issued for the entire east coast of Japan (nothing to worry about, it might just mean some train lines are stopped), so I'm taking that as an excuse to stay inside, get some blogging done and watch some bizarre Japanese tv. This is the outfit I wore the other day to Nakano! It's a suuuuper cute suburb, the most dense in Tokyo in fact - there are 20,000 people living in each square kilometre, although you wouldn't be able to tell on the Monday afternoon that we were there - with hundreds of both adorable and slightly grungy side-streets to explore, which at night are full of 80s-themed bars, great Izakaya and delicious places to eat. wearing t-shirt - Thank You Mart necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy skirt - c/o Sheinside tights - c/o My Tights shoes - Shoe store in Koenji headband - Accessory store in Harajuku belt - Vintage And as a quick science fact today, here's a picture of me in an installation at the Trick Art Museum we visited while in Odaiba the other day. This is an optical illusion known as the Ames Room. Here's a video of the fantastic neuroscientist Ramachandran explaining the Ames Room, and this google search shows some awesome pictures of it at work. The room didn't duplicate me by the way - as there was only my boyfriend and me to take photos, we could only go in one at a time, so I just merged the photos of me standing at both sides of the room, haha. The ames room works by tricking the observer into thinking they are glancing into a normal, rectangular sized room. In reality, the room is an irregular shape with the floor slanted upwards as you get bigger and bigger (there's a good diagram of the room on the wikipedia page too). I hope you're all super well! Much love,

Harajuku & The Uncanny Valley

Aren't these just the best shoes that have ever been conceived of?? I was pretty sure that Japanese shoes didn't fit me - last time I was here, even their Extra-Large was just a smidgeon too small - however this time I seem to be getting really lucky - all the X-Large sizes fit my giant western feet! These tights (sent to me by My Tights) go so perfectly with the shoes as well, because the stripes match up and make my legs look super cool from behind, haha. They're also perfect for Valentines day and I'll be wearing them again come February 14th - they're cheesy, but kind of perfect. In these photos I'm posing in a side-street just off the main shopping street (Takeshita dori) in Harajuku. I decided purple hair was appropriate for a Sunday afternoon in this suburb, and I was glad I got all dressed up because "dressing-up" over-the-top in Harajuku is the norm. It has not been cold here AT ALL, more like autumn weather in fact, and I haven't even needed my coat in the daytime. wearing dress - c/o Sheinside boots - from a store in Koenji tights - c/o My Tights cardigan - Forever 21 Continuing with my Japanese-themed science posts, today I'm going to talk about the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon. Uncanny Valley was proposed by a Japanese robotics professor named Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, but has become more relevant today now that we have started to create life-like animations and robots that look like humans. The Uncanny Valley Humans react most positively to the sight of other humans. When we see animations and robots that have human characteristics, our reaction towards them is more and more postive the closer to humans they become - until a point. When the robots/CGI start to look almost identical to humans but just not quite, our reaction to them is quite severe. They make us shudder. They make us cringe. We don't like them one bit. For example, this is a robot called CreepyGirl. You kind of just want to punch that robot in the face, don't you? But a robot like this, that doesn't try to look too realistic, we find likeable and even cute. This video explains the uncanny phenomenon really well and I recommend you watch it! It explains why even though CGI has become really quite advanced, all the animated films that we see still feature very cartoon-like characters. Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday!

Vintage Shopping in Koenji

wearing sweater - a store in Harajuku skirt - Vintage (from Koenji) ring - c/o Oasap necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - Ebay socks - Thank You Mart shoes - Rubi Shoes If I were to list my favourite suburbs in Japan, Koenji would be in the top five. The main shopping street features a ridiculous amount of cool vintage stores, both boutiques and the cheaper "used clothing" variety. Plus the whole area itself is super cute. I have a fantasy plan to come back and live here for a year before I start my science phd, and Koenji is where I'd most love to live. In the photo just above I'm standing in a super cute vintage store, holding a dress which I really wanted but didn't buy as it was just a bit too expensive... looking at it now though I'm wondering WHY I didn't buy it! From this same shop though, I bought the corduroy overall-style skirt I'm wearing in the top photos for only $10. Oh Koenji, you're so cute. I think I had a Kawaii-attack at every shop front that I passed. The attention to detail in all the stores is incredible and something that you don't find at all in Australia. I'm definitely going to live here one day. Hope you're all having a lovely Monday! p.s. I loved reading all the comments you guys left me on my blog post yesterday. You guys make me laugh so much, I'm so happy to have such lovely people reading my blog and leaving such thoughtful messages! :)

Boardwalk - Tokyo Bay and Odaiba

Sorry I haven't updated you guys for a few days on my trip, but I think I have a pretty good excuse, because this happened: (I'm trying to look sad and forlorn here in order to score some sympathy points, haha). So the "official" story is that my left foot got horribly and dramatically crushed by an entire circus that rode through town. Because that's a much more interesting story. (And I'm also looking forward to some comments from people have merely skimmed through this and think that's what actually happened.) However the real (and boring) story is that I have inflamed tendons and wasn't able to walk for a few days, due to me being over-enthusiastic about exploring all of Tokyo on my first day here. Although it's been a lot more slow-going, luckily it hasn't stopped us doing too many things and we've still had some great days hanging out at bath houses and riding ferries and exploring the Trick Art Museum at Decks in Odaiba. And shopping, of course. So I've made sure not to not mope around, and look at this whole slightly-crappy situation more like this: If you get what I mean. Anyway, I have a billion photos to share over the next few days of all the awesome places we've been exploring, so look out for them soon! wearing: sweater - Vintage scarf - Shibuya 109 necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - c/o Oasap shorts - c/o Wholesale socks - Vintage beanie - my boyfriend's shoes - Rubi Shoes Here's a few pretty shots from Odaiba. It's a crazy, weird and wonderful place - the whole area is built on top of an artificial island and half the buildings are department stores or amusement parks of some sort. Highlights are a replica 1980s game arcade, a "Trick Art" Museum and an Edo theme-park onsen. That's all from me today! Hope you're all well. Much love,