Since I got told I should check out Kōenji (高円寺) while I'm here (thank you anon in the last post!!), that's where me and Paris headed yesterday.

Used/vintage clothing stores, small bars and restaurants, the birthplace of punk in Tokyo, alternative styles and what not. That's what Kōenji is all about. With these on our minds, we hopped on the train and rode all the way to Kōenji. The original plan was to check out Nakano broadway as well (since it's the next stop from Kōenji), but we stayed in Kōenji a bit too long so the stores in Nakano were already closing down when we got there. Maybe another day then!

Anyway, some pictures from yesterday:

overall spinns second hand top jóuetie cap fig&viper shoes fig&viper socks fig&viper
belt somewhere in tallinn necklaces somewhere in harajuku

Woooppp have an outfit shot for once! I've never really been into buying used clothing, because I hate the idea of not knowing who's worn it, and in Finland all the second hand stores I've been to have been suuuper messy and full of crap, so I haven't found anything. And to me, the smell of old clothes is off-putting as itself as well lol.

But some days ago, I visited Spinns in Harajuku and noticed they were selling some pretty neat used clothing side-to-side with new items and they we're displayed really nicely in the store, so it didn't feel like buying something used at all (infact, I didn't even notice they were used at first!). So, as I didn't feel like I was digging through somebody's garbage, I actually found this cute denim overall and bought it!

I was also pretty impressed that I was able to find something that fit me here and is not stretchy material! Maybe I have done something right lately and shouldn't totally cross out the option about buying bottoms here in Japan...




While me and Paris were taking some pictures in front of this cute little store, a japanese lady came to us and asked if she could interview us for some TV program for a moment. After we said yes, a whole camera crew appeared out of nowhere lol.

They just asked us the basic questions like where are we from, what do we think about Japan/Kōenji, are we musicians or fashion designers (this is weird because we hear it almost everyday hahah, why can't I dress like this and be a nobody) and so on.

Then we went into the store above and they filmed us while we were checking out the clothes and took us to another store next to it. The other store was on the second floor and it would've never crossed my mind to go there if the TV staff wouldn't have told us to. Because the stairs were super scary and rotten like, and then you arrived to a little balcony and found a small door to the actual store. It beats me how do people find these places if you don't know where you're going??

I don't know where the footage will end up to, but I got a t-shirt that says "I ♥ 高円寺" on it as a present from them hahah.





After the filming, we decided to check some more stores on our own, and this one especially was super cute! Used clothing and toys galore!



They had a room like this inside the store and I just couldn't resist to snap a couple photos there. It would be a perfect set-up for some pastel themed photoshoot!






More pastel goodness. They look so nice like this but I don't think I could pull off wearing something like that.

After we were done with Kōenji, we met up with our friend Laka in Nakano and continued the night at Shinjuku Nichome and Kabuki-cho. I have no plans for today yet, but I think I'm gonna go ask Paris to go grab some food with me now. So, laters!

Hellooo! It's been a week since me and Paris arrived to Tokyo, and because it has been raining since last evening, we decided to take today off and just relax at our guesthouse. If you've been following me and/or Paris on Snapchat (me: @kisumaikuchuuru paris: @pariseffect) you might already know what we've been up to, but if not (I'm highly gonna recommend you to do so!) here's some pictures I've managed to take so far.

This is my third visit to Tokyo and for some reason it doesn't feel like I'm on a holiday at all, but more like I just came home. Ok, the fact that I'm staying at the same guesthouse in Toritsu-daigaku (and the exact same room too!) as last summer, might have something to do with it.

Aside from the rain, the weather has been good and quite similar to Finnish summer I'd say. Except the air is more humid, but not nearly as bad as during the summers I've spent here.

And now off with the pictures! So far we've managed to...



That's it for now, I'll try to update something from here every week, so I won't have a shitload of pics to go through when I come home. Bye for now!

I'm not much of a tourist when it comes to traveling and I prefer doing things in my own pace and enjoying regular things like hanging out with friends, having lunch/dinner at a restaurant, shopping, partying, you name it, which is pretty much what I would do in any location.

Which makes me wonder why I'm even writing a post called "what to see in Tokyo" when I literally have no suggestions for you to give :D Well, in the end, this post is more like what I saw, which places I visited and where I liked to hang out while being in the capital of ~the land of the rising sun~.

Well, there is one tourist-y like place I visited and it's the 明治神宮 (meiji jingū = meiji shrine) in Harajuku (see the pics above). Tiina and her friends wanted to go check it out, so I decided to tag along. Although, the third picture shows how far I got before I had to run back from the forest to see Jojo and her friends whom I had agreed to meet with later that day. Went better than last time anyway, when I didn't even cross the gate, haha. Maybe I'll actually get to have the full experience next time lol.



My main districts to hang out at in Tokyo were 渋谷(shibuya > fashion & night clubs), 新宿(shinjuku > bars, night clubs and shopping) and 原宿(harajuku > youth culture & street fashion) and I bet nobody is surprised about that.

The pictures above are something I snapped while walking around Shibuya by myself and it was probably the only day I had my big camera with me.

In the second pic is Tower Records, a huge 9 floor music store where I did some cd shopping and bought some newer cali≠gari mini albums. My favourite place to buy visual kei cds is Closet Child in Harajuku though, because you can buy used cds for so much cheaper than new ones. And to japanese people "used" often means a new one that still has the plastic wrap on it, lol. In the end I bought seven albums/singles in total during my trip.

Below is a Vine clip I filmed in front of Shibuya station on the very same day ↓

One place I also have found myself at (surprisingly often too), is お台場(odaiba). I mean, sure it has a few big shopping malls, livehouses and what not, it's still a bit.. mehh, in my opinion. The Venus Fort mall is pretty (see the pics from my first trip: 1, 2, 3) but the shops are not really for me.

In front of the Venus Fort mall you can also find 大観覧車(daikanransha), a big ferris wheel from where you can get a great view of the city. Last time I rode it during the day time and now me and Anna rode it during the night! My iphone pics don't do any justice for the view but it was great.

One of the carts has transparent walls and floor and you can ride that too by paying a little extra, but Anna was too much of a coward to ride it with me :(

Odaiba also is one of the few places in Tokyo where you can go to a beach of some sort, not to swim but to hang out. I've seen some people letting their dogs play in the water but that's pretty much it. Where do the people of Tokyo go if they want to go swimming? That I have absolutely no idea of.



Here's Shinjuku by night and it's known for it's flashing lights and signs, especially in 歌舞伎町(kabukichō). But then again, which part of Tokyo isn't?

In the third pic you can see the east exit of Shinjuku station, which was the usual meetup point for me if I was supposed to meet friends in Shinjuku. The station was also one of the few places where I managed to find free wifi, so it was also a good place to stop at if you wanted to check your social media accounts during the day.



And lastly, 横浜 (Yokohama), where me and Anna ended up going one night when we had nothing else to do. It was really easy to get there, because Yokohama/Minatomirai was the end station of the same train route I used daily to get to my favourite districts from Toritsu-Daigaku.

I'm actually a bit bummed, because when we arrived to Yokohama, there was tons of people who were wearing yukatas, arriving to the station and it seemed like there had just been some matsuri -thing going on which had ended just before we got there. Would've been cool to get to witness it but we had no idea such thing was happening in the first place.

Yokohama was really pretty, but since we couldn't figure out anything to do there, we took a train to Shinjuku and the evening turned into bar hopping.


What are your favourite districts in Tokyo? Or where would you like to visit the most?

Btw, I'm actually going back to Tokyo in September! I'll try to get the posts about the previous trip out, before I go again. I have two posts left to do, so that should be possible. This time I'm traveling with my friend Paris and we're staying for 5 weeks (the exact dates are 17.9.-22.10.). Is any of you going to be there at the same time? If so, let me know!

photo © Indiedays

Just wanted to share these few snaps from Indiedays' blogger event which was held last Saturday at restaurant Maxine in Helsinki. It had been a while since I last attended this event, because the previous one was held during my blog absence and I didn't dare to go back then, having an unactive blog and all :'D

Other than last time, the venue was much nicer this time around and had a pretty nice view from the balcony! I asked Sini to come to the day event with me, but went to the evening gala by myself and ended up hanging out with Milja and Sara there.

The event itself was pretty dull, goodiebag was full of things I don't really need and I managed to miss the food in both events and I don't know how that's even possible :'D Meeting other bloggers is always fun though! The music in the evening gala was way too loud for chatting with people, so me, Milja and Sara sneaked our way to the "closed" part of the venue so we could actually sit down and chat with eachother lol.

Overally it was a fun day and it was nice to get to know some people better! I kinda wish in the future they would have a bit more variety in the companies represented in the event... They've been pretty much the same every year and I don't know how many times you can collaborate with the same companies.

See ya!

I'm assuming most of my readers know what purikura is, but just in case there is someone who doesn't here's what in short: the word プリクラ (purikura) comes from the words print club (プリント倶楽部 = purinto kurabu = purikura in short) and basically means photos taken in a photo booth, which you later decorate with different backgrounds, stamps and text, and then print them on a sticker paper. Depending on the machine you pick, they have options that make your eyes look bigger or your legs slimmer and longer.

One sheet usually costs about ¥400 (about 3 euros) and you can choose different layouts for the printed version, depending how many people you're with, so you get to share the photos with your friends. If you have a japanese email, that way you can get the digital version of the pics to your phone too. I don't, but some of my friends do and that's how I got some of the pictures for myself as well. The rest are scanned.

I guess I don't have anything else to say about purikura. These are the puris I took during my trip with different friends and different occassions. It's gonna be pic heavy but I'm sure you'll manage!