Kobe, Meeting with Ashley Dy & Blogger Kei

A couple of days ago I had the great pleasure of meeting up with a blogger who I have admired from afar for about as long as I've been blogging - Ashley Dy of Candy Kawaii Lover! I was so happy when I spied Ashley also wearing platform shoes that were, while totally amazing, also a little impractical for spending the day walking around the city! From that point I knew we'd have a lot in common. My boyfriend Luci who also came along thought we were so scarily similar that we might as well be twins! You can definitely see from the photographs that our aesthetic is basically identical - we both decided to match browns, neutrals and pastel pinks with tights and platforms shoes without any collaboration on our outfits beforehand! Above is basically the only "serious" shot of the whole bunch - every other photo on my camera ended up more like this: But I still really like these shots because they're a nice reminder of how much fun we had! It was so nice to meet up with another person who understands the awkwardness and hilarity involved in taking photos of yourself with a tripod and timer while being watched by strangers who think you're either completely mad or a total narcissist, and how hard it is to explain to people what you "do" as a blogger! Neither of us have people in our daily lives who we can really talk to about this stuff, so it's really nice to meet up with someone who understands it! Ashley couldn't have been nicer and she showed us all around some amazing parts of Kobe, including a gorgeous spot up near the mountains full of old houses and beautiful Japanese flora, and is probably the most beautiful place I've visited in Japan thus far. And if you follow me on facebook, you may have already seen us being "hilarious" in this photo: Ashley luckily got a lot more serious shots of our outfits than this, haha (at least, I think she did...). If you want to see what I'm wearing, then head over to the awesome street-style shoot Ashley did of me here! And I totally forgot to ask Ashley where she got what she was wearing, although I do know that you can get those pretty pastel platforms from her store (click here!) I hope you're all having a lovely day! Make sure to visit Candy Kawaii Lover and say hi to Ashley as well!

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! :)