A-Z: Get To Know Me!

I recently found a post of the same title by Be over at Love From Be (link) and I just loved the post so much. It was just a nice and different way of getting to know the blogger you enjoy reading, or have just discovered. So I thought I would give it a go myself! Make sure to go and check out Be’s blog, as she’s so lovely and down to Earth.

Anime – I love anime so much, it’s something I have enjoyed watching from a young age, and the older I’ve got the more anime shows I have found myself watching. Some of my favourites are Elfen Lied, Nana, Azumanga Daioh, Himouto! Umaru-Chan, Sword Art Online, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Blogging – I didn’t want to have to use this as the letter B, but I really couldn’t think of anything else! I love my blog. It’s my number one hobby, and something I would love to turn into my job in the future. I’ve been running my blog for four years now, and I continue to carry on with it for as long as possible.

Coffee – Well, the title of my blog does have the word coffee in it! I do really like coffee, so much so I worked in Costa Coffee for nearly three years. That is probably the first time I’ve admitted to working in Costa on my blog. 😛 My favourite coffee is vanilla flat white. I love my coffee strong! 😛

Dirty Sanchez – One of my favourite shows has to be this. I love not only that the guys are from the UK, but I also love how they do some worse off stuff than what Jackass have ever done. I’m sad that they aren’t still around, but I’ll always think of Dirty Sanchez as one of the shows I grew up watching and loving.

Evanescence – My favourite band for over ten years now. I fell in love with them when I first heard “Bring Me To Life” on KERRANG! Radio. I ended up buying their first album Fallen and listening to it none stop. I still have that album to this day! I have seen them live twice, and hope to go again in the future. I’ve also met all the band mates (apart from Amy!) from the Evanescence album days. My favourite song is “Imaginary”.

Fuerteventura – This place is legit my second home. I’ve been going there since the age of 5 and I love it. I didn’t go for 10 years and it broke my heart, I forgot how much I loved it and how amazing it was there. I really want to live there one day… But we shall see. I would want to work in a cocktail bar, or hell even run my own on the beach! 😛

Gaming – I’m a gamer. Not a hardcore one, but I still love to play my games! I’m also a console collector too, and I currently own 7 consoles (Nintendo SNES and GameCube, Playstation, PS2, PS3, and PS4, and an Xbox 360), as well as my handheld collection of the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS Lite, and my Nintendo 2DS. Go me! But I love playing games. Currently obsessed with the LEGO games. I can’t wait for the Star Wars one to come out.

Hyper Japan – I went to my first Hyper Japan convention last summer in London and I loved it so damn much! It wasn’t as good as I was hoping it was going to be, but I still enjoyed myself. I really hope that me and Dane can attend the winter one this year, seeing as we went to the summer one last year.

iPhone – I own an iPhone 6 and I love it to bits! It’s by far the best phone I have owned to date, and I just love it. It feels nice to hold, is great to look at, and to be honest my new phone case just makes me happy. I only got it in the post yesterday when I got home from work and it’s just so adorable. Who can say no to a sleeping Mew, huh?

Jackass – Another one of my favourite shows. I grew up watching this too funnily enough! I would skip school to stay at home eating toast and watching TV shows on MTV. Or I would stay awake all night watching them on Viva. God those were the days! I was gutted when Ryan Dunn died too by the way. It really hit home as he was my favourite one on the show. I’m sad that this has also come to an end, but I love Bad Grandpa, it’s amazing!

Kawaii – A Japanese word for cute. I love cute things and often say kawaii about them to try and be cute myself. It rarely works and I end up looking like a complete loser. 😛

Lipstick – This is really the only makeup I wear, and I’m pretty damn proud of that! I love lipstick, and I’ve recently started to get braver in wearing darker lip shades than I already wear. I love liquid lipsticks the most right now. My favourite brand being Jeffree Star Cosmetics. I also love my MAC lipsticks too, my favourite shade will always be Rebel. I love wearing reds, dark pinks, and purples. Can never get enough of them!

Manga – I love reading manga. I started to read it back in 2011 when I finish university and had time on my hands. I started with Elfen Lied, then moved onto Azumanga Daioh, and Nana. I currently have some Nana to finish reading and then I’ll be moving onto the Sword Art Online series. I need to read the Attack On Titan manga too… But I only have enough time on my hands for one thing at a time.

Nendoroid – These are the awesome figures that me and Dane collect, and we really do love them! We have a nice little collection going at the mostly, which are mostly Dane’s. I only have 3 at the moment whilst he has (from memory) 10 figures… My collection is really lame in comparison! Good Smile recently announced they were creating a Deadpool Nendoroid, so me and Dane are really excited for him!

Ocean – I love the ocean. I love how beautiful it looks and sounds with the colours, and the crashing and gentle swishing noises. I finally got to swim in the sea/ocean on my holiday last January with Dane and I loved it so damn much! I can’t wait to do that again someday.

Image taken from We Heart It

Pokemon – Since the age of 6 I have loved Pokemon, and that love is still just as strong now 10 years later. I still play the games, lust after the cute plushies (as you’ll have seen from my recent wish list post here), and get excited when any new news comes out to do with the franchise. I don’t care if I’m a 26-year-old woman, I love Pokemon! 😛

Queens Of The Stone Age – One of my other favourite bands, and one I really want to see soon! I have always ended up not going to see them live due to having no money, no one to go with, or them playing too far away from home. When they tour again however I won’t let the chance slip away!

Red – Not my  favourite colour (that’s purple) but it’s my colour of choice clothing wise! I love the colour red and how bold, and sexy it looks. It also suits me due to my warm yellow skin tone, as well as my brown hair and eyes. I’m after a gorgeous red rain coat at the moment, but alas I haven’t found much.

Studio Ghibli – This is my Disney. You know everyone loves Disney movies? Well I love Studio Ghibli movies. Me and my boyfriend between us have pretty much all of the films on DVD and whenever a new one comes out we try to go and watch it at the cinema. My favourite is Spirited Away, it always has been and I’m pretty sure it always will be. I do rather like Grave of The Fireflies, even though it’s a really sad film.

Teachers – Another TV show I grew up watching! This used to be on Channel 4 back in the day when I was still at school myself! It always made me want to be a teacher deep down due to how much fun all the teachers had both in and outside of school. Alas that hasn’t happened… My favourite season is probably season 2, but I love them all!

Image taken from We Heart It

Umaru – I am legit Umaru… Constantly hermitting away in my room playing games, eating crap, reading manga, and lusting after things I can’t afford to buy. I’m not cute like her though… Just a very sad 16-year-old stuck inside someone 10 years older than herself… Oh dear. 😛

Vitamin D – This is an odd one, but I actually recently found out I have a vitamin D deficiency… Which of course sucks but I’m currently on medication to help it. The little pills I get are tiny blue ones, which remind me of The Matrix. 😛

Writing – I love to write. I do it for my blog, I write books and stories in my spare time, and I even studied critical and creative writing for my masters degree (as well as for my BA too…). So it is safe to say I love writing. 😛 Need I say more than that???

X (I apologise but I couldn’t think of anything with this letter…)

Yankee Candle – I love these candles! They’re my candle of choice whenever I go to buy any new ones, so I’m always burning them at home. I currently have Christmas Eve burning at the moment as I’m trying to use up all my  tea lights and votives. 🙂

Z (I apologise but I couldn’t think of anything with this letter…)

Image taken from We Heart It

So that was my A-Z about me! Thanks again to Be for posting about this, as if she hadn’t I might not have gotten the chance to have a go at it myself. I also apologise if any of my answers were lame… 😛

Will you be having a go at talking about yourself through an A-Z post? Make sure to let me know if you do so I can read yours!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far.

Hyper Japan 2015 Part 2

Well here it is, part two of Hyper Japan, as well as me showing more of what I bought.

After we had rested up at the hotel we got ourselves ready in some fresh clothes and headed back out. We decided we would get dinner at Hyper Japan as we hadn’t yet properly visited the Eat Japan section and were excited about all the food we would be able to try.

When we arrived we decided to go back into the Game & Anime Park to see if we missed out on anything, which is where we finally got to have a go on the Sword Art Online game, which once again, was awesome.

As well as that there was someone cosplaying as Jolteon, which was amazing considering the position they would need to stand in all day! They got a huge crowd, including us and were having pictures with people too, which of course I did.

We had some time to kill before we could go and pick up the picture we were having drawn of us both so we walked around the other areas again for a while. We had heard that there was a stall set up where people would have a Domo Kun around to take pictures with, something we had wanted to do previously in the day, but had missed. However we didn’t miss the second time and made sure to get in the queue for a picture. The guy who took our pictures took loads and they’re all amazing!

The person in the Domo Kun costume swayed back and forth between us so it looked like he was leaning on us, which is incredibly cute! I love Domo and have a largish plush of him in my room, I just wish I could have a life-sized Domo as a friend… Sad nerd is sad.

I wanted to give some of the bubble tea at Hyper Japan a go so eventually when the stand went quiet, I went to get some. I’m not going to lie, this wasn’t the best bubble tea in the world BUT the tapioca pearls were amazing! Very soft and squishy and definitely some of the nicest ones I’ve had. But although it wasn’t the best, it did the job and was very yummy.

As we had a further look around we found a stall that was writing your names in Japanese, as well as another stall that was making badges with your name on in Japanese. We of course got one of these each, and these are mine. We also found a travel stall that when you filled in a survey you got a free cute eraser, we of course did one each. These little cuties are now in my room.

There was only one (but a very good one) Japanese beauty stall in there that we had visited before leaving to go back to the hotel the first time around, but I forgot to mention it in part one. But I picked up this hair styling tool that is used to curl your hair whilst you dry it. If it works for Japanese hair, then I don’t see why it won’t work for mine! I still need to try it out properly and will do Friday before I’m off down south for a BBQ. I’ll make sure to update how it goes! The one thing that appealed to me the most about this is that it is plastic, not ceramic and therefore won’t do any damage to my hair. It was only £3 which I thought was a bargain!

Finally it was time to go and pick our picture up and I was so excited to see what the artist had done. So when she handed it to us I was really taken back. It’s one of my favourite things from Hyper Japan, London in fact. When we visited Comic Con in Birmingham we had our first manga picture of us together drawn and I loved that, but we did get a lot of comments saying that the drawing of me on it looks nothing like me, which if anything was upsetting. So the fact that with this picture everyone is saying this one actually looks like me, it makes me really happy! The artist just got all our details, including the plait of my hair, my bow necklace, my boyfriends sunglasses, and cap, etc. I’m just so happy with it.

After this we decided to get some food. I’m not going to be positive here, but I’m being honest. The selection of food at Hyper Japan was rubbish. There weren’t many stands and even so there wasn’t much on offer. We ended up having loads of chicken and vegetable gyoza’s, as well as some fried noodles that my boyfriend had as they made me feel a bit ick (I HATE bean sprouts!).

We ventured around taking in anything we may have missed and eventually we were told we needed to leave. Since Hyper Japan one of the sellers there has uploaded a video of the weekend onto YouTube and who is in the video? My boyfriend! It’s at 6:07 and you can see my boyfriend walking past the dancers. We were looking around the stall when they were dancing and it’s here we were told we needed to go, which sucks as we wanted to sort of blend in with whatever fun they were having.

After this we decided to go and claim our free pina colada’s from Malibu and they were delicious! It was pina colada day on the 10th July so we decided to take advantage of the free drinks.

When we were walking away from the O2, I took advantage of getting plenty of pictures of how gorgeous it looked at night. We got our train and then the DLR back to the hotel and had a lovely bath together and went to bed. We were shattered and it’s safe to say our legs were killing us the next day. Even though we went out for more adventures!

Before I wrap up this post I’m going to just talk about the negatives since Hyper Japan, as over on their Facebook page there has been nothing but people moaning about this years event. Saying it was too big, it was too public, the food range was awful, people kept getting lost, the list goes on.

I agree with some of the things that people say, the first one being that cosplayer’s were on show to the public which is true. If I was in that position I would feel incredibly anxious. Another being about the food and drink selection being rubbish, which it was in all honestly. My friend who has been for years even told me herself that side was rubbish. I was very disappointed. Another complaint was that the staff that Hyper Japan had hired were rude, which they were! At one point towards the end we bought a beer to share but we had to stay in the Eat Japan section to drink it, although people were drinking beer in the section we wanted to go into, which was extremely annoying. You would ask them questions and they would snap at you, which wasn’t nice at all.

Somethings that people are complaining about that I don’t agree with is how much room there was to walk, I didn’t honestly mind the walk and neither did my boyfriend. We put this down to how crowded and horrible Comic Con Birmingham was in November. I also don’t agree with the rantings about queuing either, we never had to queue much and if we did it wasn’t for long to be honest.

Either way, we loved Hyper Japan and I would love to go again for the Christmas Market in November, but it depends on money. We didn’t spend as much in Hyper Japan as we thought we would which is good, but I think that’s down to the fact there wasn’t really MUCH on offer for us to buy.

I recommend it, especially if you’ve never been like I never had. It’s definitely a different experience and I recommend any Japan  lover to do it at some point.

Have you ever been to Hyper Japan? What did you think? If you haven’t been before, would you like to? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time though, take care all and I hope you enjoyed my Hyper Japan two-part post.

Hyper Japan 2015 Part 1

I have struggled to start this post because I just didn’t know how to start it, and due to that it’s actually a day late… Oops! I’m literally just going to throw myself into it and ramble on about things in the order they occurred on the day, which I’ll warn you was long and also picture heavy! I also bought quite a few things at Hyper Japan or was given plenty of freebies, which you can see above, but I’ll go into more detail about those throughout the post.

This post is actually going to be split into two parts, because as I’ve been writing it, it’s just appeared to be WAY too long! So I’ll have part one up today, and part one up tomorrow!

Although we were shattered, we were ready for Hyper Japan and made sure we got up bright an early to get a big breakfast and then head over to the O2 where the event was happening. I’ve never been to the O2 in London before so I was in shock when I saw how big it actually is. But to get there we took the cable cart over which was pretty cool, although I was really anxious when we went over the first time, damn anxiety!

We arrived and the queue was ridiculous… However we had paid a little extra to get fast registration tickets, so we were lucky and didn’t need to wait in that queue. I later read online that it took people an hour to just over it to get into the arena. Not good! We had a bit of trouble waiting in the queue but for once my anxiety didn’t hold me back from voicing my concerns and I spoke to a member of staff about what was happening. Basically, people were pushing in and then laughing at us all who they had pushed past. Me raising these issues got us to the front of the queue, which we couldn’t complain about.

When we finally got inside we were even more excited! The O2 wasn’t that busy but it was sure heaving with restaurants. It just meant if we didn’t wish to eat at Hyper Japan, we had some choices around us.

There were various places you could visit at Hyper Japan including, Eat Japan, Hyper Fringe Market, J-Culture, Hyper Kawaii, Hyper Live, and the first place we visited, Hyper Game & Anime Park. This was probably one of the funnest places for us so it being the first place we went into was pretty awesome.

As the name suggests the Game & Anime Park was of course full of those. Nintendo was of course the main gaming event in there with loads of different demo areas for various different games, as well as a huge stage where members of Nintendo were talking people through new and upcoming games, as well as some cool events happening. We went there to watch about the latest game from Animal Crossing, Happy Home Designer (I’ve already pre ordered it!). I’m a huge Animal Crossing fan so I was super excited when we were told that event was happening on the stage. We watched the whole thing and due to being such awesome people, we were given a free Mario Kart 8 keyring, which I gave my boyfriend.

As well as that there was also a Playstation 4 console where people could demo the new Sword Art Online game, which is coming out in autumn this year! Exciting news for Sword Art Online fans like me and my boyfriend. We both had a go on the demo which latest about ten minutes and it was a pretty straight forward game. There was a huge queue when we first went into the Game & Anime Park so when we went in for a second time, that’s when we got to have a go.

Of course due to Nintendo being there, they also had some of their Amiibo items on display for people to look at, which of course we did. The ones I got most excited for were the yarn Yoshi ones, which have come out to accompany the Wii U game Yoshi’s Woolly World. They come in three colours, my favourite of course being the original green Yoshi. These are made out of real wool so not only do they look like little woolen figures, but they actually are!

Going back to Animal Crossing and the new game Happy Home Designer, these are coming out alongside it so it was nice to have a look at the cards that will be coming out for it. You use these cards to call different villagers and people in the town then and there instead of waiting ages for them. It was also nice to discover that Nintendo are bringing out an add on for old 3DS, and 2DS ‘s where you can use the cards, instead of needing to but the new 3DS.

Not long after the event where the people of Nintendo were talking about the new Animal Crossing game, a Pikachu suddenly waddled past us and over to the main Nintendo section. We followed it to discover that you could have pictures with it, so we got in the queue and got our pictures taken! It was so adorable and I wish we could have gone back and had some more pictures of it. But alas, we had things to do.

Before we left the Game & Anime Park I had a quick picture (or two!) with a massive Colossal Titan head that had been blown up with air for people to take pictures with. It’s from Attack On Titan, one of mine and my boyfriends favourite manga/anime. My boyfriend didn’t bother having any pictures with it, but I made sure to take advantage of it, as it was pretty awesome and the picture I got of me with it is definitely one of my favourites from the day.

We picked up a few bits and pieces from the Game & Anime Park and my boyfriend was lovely enough to buy me a handbag. I had my eye on it since the seller announced they would be selling them at Hyper Japan over on their Facebook page. When I told them I wanted to buy one they were lovely enough to let me look over the bag I got to make sure it was okay and such, which of course it was. It also came in a dust bag which I love! I keep it in there when I’m not using it to keep it nice and fresh looking. It’s a dupe of the Samantha Vega handbag which I’m fine with, as it’s a nice dupe and when I’ve used this bag since me getting it, it’s amazing quality and is really sturdy and great! I’m super pleased with it, and for £35 it was well worth the money. My boyfriend also bought me some green tea matcha Kit Kat’s, which were only 80p each! By far the cheapest ones in the whole of Hyper Japan.

We moved over to the other areas of Hyper Japan and probably spent most of our time there looking around all the various stalls and stands.

This is the Tofu Cute Candy Festival and something we visited twice because we loved it so much! For just £6 we got all these treats to eat and try, so we got two of these. There were various things we got from Pocky, Kit Kat’s, chocolate, sweets, and as you can see on this picture, a green tea matcha mochi, where was delicious. It was a great way to sample things before buying them in the shop next door. The shop was so busy too, it was probably one of the busiest stalls of the day.

As the Saturday Hyper Japan day is split into two separate events people are told they need to leave for half an hour whilst the event is swapped around so before we headed off we ordered a picture to be drawn of us together, as well as picked up a picture of me that someone had drawn in the Fringe Market.

We also decided to grab some food from the Eat Japan section. We bought some tuna onigiri, and to the Japanese onigiri is like a sandwich to us, which I LOVED! They were two for £6, which wasn’t cheap for but for how filling it was, it was really nice. I think we’re going to try and make these ourselves in the future.

Then we headed back to the hotel as we were pretty shattered and wanted to drop off some of the stuff we had bought, as things were beginning to be quiet heavy. The queue for the cable cart was long! But luckily we were alright and soon got into a cart with some people. I felt a lot more relaxed the second time we rode it and I would love to go on it again in the future.

And whilst I was going to continue talking about Hyper Japan, I’m going to stop for today and call this part one out of two. This post is just turning out to be way too long to fit into one post without it not beginning to be boring.

So tomorrow I shall talk about the second half of Hyper Japan in part two!

What do you think of my first Hyper Japan experience so far? Did you go to Hyper Japan? Let me know in the comments.

Until tomorrow, take care all.

So I’m Back From London…

And it was amazing! I don’t think I have had such a busy weekend in all my life, and if I have I can’t even recall it.

We’ve been back home nearly two days now and I’m still feeling sluggish and tired. London is such a huge place, bigger than I expected it to be and not to mention very busy too.

We had so much to do everyday and night that we never ran out of things, so much so we didn’t get to do half the things we had written down and planned, which sucks but that can be for another trip to London in the future.

So I’m basically going to explain to you what we did! There will probably be mostly iPhone pictures used for this post as I only took my camera out with me one day and that was the last day we were in London.

We set off pretty early in the morning and it was a nice trip down… The only thing I hated about that day mind was my hay fever. I suffered really badly that day and I was trying so hard not to let it get to me. I Bristol last year my hay fever was awful and I let it get me down on our first day there.

The hotel we stayed in was lovely and in a perfect location. Not only that, the staff were amazing! We arrived two hours before check in and the receptionist sorted it out so we could check in early. After having our packed lunch and sorted everything out in the room we headed out to the center of London to go shopping. We weren’t planning on doing much as we didn’t go to shop. We were meant to go to the Natural History Museum that day but if we weren’t getting distracted, we were getting lost.

Let me just talk about The London Underground. Oh my God. I hate trains and how fast they go, it can make me anxious and only recently due to traveling back and forth from Coventry to see my boyfriend and Cheltenham for university I’ve started to feel a little less anxious. The first time I got on one of the trains I felt so anxious. But I felt a little better after that. Our experience with The Underground was a pretty good one! We didn’t get lost, found our way around each line with ease, and even got on trains in good time. No delays and half the time the train we needed was there, or was just turning up as we reached the platform.

I won’t lie, I wish we had an Underground in Birmingham… But our trains are pretty decent anyway. Also the DLR was pretty awesome! Although it didn’t feel like a train to be honest… OH and speaking of trains, The Underground train was TINY! I don’t know how tall people deal with it to be honest. It was also baking in there due to the heat outside.

That was something else we were blessed with, gorgeous weather. The only day the weather was crap was the day we were due to leave and we had prepared ourselves for it with my huge umbrella and less summer clothing.

So onto what we did on the Friday! The first place we went to was the Lush store on Oxford Street and boy, was it big! Three floors and plenty of yummy things around to sniff and test out. I don’t want to talk too much about that here as I want to write a separate post for that. I spent quite a bit of money in there, but it was so worth it. I already can’t wait to go back to the store, or at least hear from Lush that they’re releasing the limited edition products into  more stores very soon.

As we walked around by Oxford Street we ended up getting onto Regent Street, we don’t even know how and we saw so many awesome stores, including Hamley’s. We only have a look on a couple of floors as we intended on going back but alas, we never did. I saw a cute plushie German Shephard I was going to buy my boyfriend… But due to how much it cost I left it. BUT that being said, the plushies and toys in the store were gorgeous and well worth the money.

We went for bubble tea before this and I can’t remember for the life of me what the stall was called… It wasn’t the best matcha bubble tea I’ve had in my life but it wasn’t terrible either.

Stumbling upon Trafalgar Square we ended up watching an awesome street performer from Australia for about half an hour. His performance was amazing and we made sure to give him some money before we left. It’s a shame that we didn’t catch his name as I would have mentioned it here otherwise.

Not long after this we headed towards where we were planning to go and watch The Book of Mormon and I got so excited by how many posters and decorations were around for it on the building. I was literally “star struck” even though there weren’t any stars around…

Before we headed back we ended up walking to Westminster and I felt so touristy and stuff when I saw The London Eye and Big Ben. I took so many pictures on my boyfriends phone and on the Sunday we went back to get loads of pictures. That moment I really did feel like a tourist. I had zero fucks to give!

We went back to the hotel and got freshened up and dressed into our evening wear for the musical.  Once again I don’t want to talk about this too much here, as I wish to talk about that in a separate post.BUT it was amazing! I’ve not been a huge fan of musicals for years and I can imagine due to how many cheesy ones are around lately… And hyped ones too. This isn’t one I had heard about until my boyfriend and his friends discussed it around the end of 2014 as they had been to watch it. But this has definitely converted me again to watch more musicals as it was just mind-blowing. Very different and as it’s written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, it’s just made me realise how much I love those guys.

We were wanting to have dinner beforehand, but had no time so ate afterwards. We went to a really nice Japanese restaurant called Shoryu which we had spotted in the daytime and wanted to visit. I won’t lie, I was a little sad that they didn’t have any sushi on offer as it was purely for ramen… But the ramen we both had was delicious! I had curry and it was super yummy, with one of the nicest boiled eggs I have ever had. I would recommend it if you want some good ramen at an equally good price.

We didn’t get back to the hotel until late and went straight to sleep, as we had an early start the next day…

On Saturday, we spent pretty much most of the day at Hyper Japan and it was just as good as I imagined it was and more. We wanted to be awake at 7am to get ready, have some breakfast, and head over to the O2 where it was being held. This didn’t go to plan… We woke up at 8am, was ready for around 9am and went to eat. Our breakfast was perfect and not long after we were on our way to the O2.

We ended up getting on one of the cable cars over to the O2, which I was shitting myself about! I hadn’t been on one since I was in year 7 at school when we went to Alton Towers and then my anxiety was that bad. I was anxious for the majority of the trip over, however back it wasn’t so bad and I really enjoyed it. We were sad that we couldn’t go onto the cable cart again when we were going home from Hyper Japan, as it closed at 8pm. We wanted a late trip over as it was dark, alas we will have to wait until winter when it’s dark early to get a gorgeous light view.

Anyway, Hyper Japan! Once again I won’t go into too much detail as I want to write a post about this too. But it sure kept us busy for the day and it was so much fun. However, me and my boyfriend have read nothing but negativity about the event which were a little sad about… But of course I’ll talk about that in the other post.

When we got home from the event we had a lovely bath with one of the bath oils I bought my boyfriend and we had a snuggle together and then went to bed. We were shattered and were making sure we had a lie in.

Which we did as we woke up at 9am the next day. We both grabbed a shower and got everything ready to head home. The hotel was lovely enough to let us leave our car in their car park which we went up to London for the day. But before we headed into the centre, we decided to go to Shoreditch to check out the Cereal Killer Cafe for breakfast. It was somewhere I had discovered online and we knew we had to go! Once again, I will be writing a review about this place. I just wish so badly that we had something like this in Birmingham as it was amazing. I regret not having the cereal my boyfriend had. But mine was yummy and I can buy it (for a hefty price!) if I really want it… More about that though in the post.

We headed back to London so that we could go to the Natural History Museum and get some Japanese lunch from the Japan Centre. We also intended to do a little more shopping but we never got around to doing that purely because the weather went from okay to worse in a matter of minutes! We luckily had my umbrella but it was busy and the weather was crap. Plus we were exhausted after two days of constantly being on our feet. So we headed back to the hotel and we were soon on our way home.

I won’t lie, I wasn’t sad about leaving London… Not like I was about Bristol anyway. I was crying on my way back from Bristol as that was a city I really do love and want to go back as soon as I can. London was just too big and busy and there’s just enough time in a day to do everything you want to do. You do need to live in London, nearby London, or at least stay there a week to get everything done.

I would like to go back for Hyper Japan’s Christmas Market in November but due to how expensive London has been, this may not happen…

So, would I recommend London? Hell yeah! If you wanna go see a musical make a weekend out of it for sure. If you wanna go shopping, definitely go as there’s so many shops and most of them don’t shut until something crazy like 10pm! The only thing I had a problem with in London was food… I didn’t feel like there was anything special, but me and my boyfriend experienced this in Bristol too… But that might just be us.

Japanese related, I loved London. There was the Japan Centre, as well as some Japanese shops we visited nearby that we loved.

I will be making a separate post of places I still want to go into in London, but that may not be for a while.

I apologise for how long this post was, but I just wanted to share with my readers how much fun we had and all the things that we did. I just cannot wait to talk more about the things we mainly went to London to do. This is the order they’re going to go in:

Lush Oxford Street and a Haul.

The Book of Mormon and a Haul.

Hyper Japan and a Haul.

Cereal Killer Cafe.

London Haul.

As well as a couple of more. When these posts are written I will link them back to this post.

I cannot wait to share these experiences with my readers. The rest of July is going to be London heavy, which I apologise about.

I hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did. Until next time, take care all.

Things I Plan to do in London

Image taken from weheartit.com

London is literally three sleeps away and I’m a mixture of excited and nervous for many reasons.

Excited because I’ve only been to London once, and that was just to go and protest about the student fees going up… So nothing special. I’ve wanted to go to London since I was a teenager and alas, I never got to go. So now I’m finally getting the chance! I just hope it’s worth the wait.

I’m nervous due to my anxiety. London isn’t exactly pictured as a gorgeous, peaceful place, and due to that I’m worried about all sorts. Getting pick pocketed is my main one and this is something I just can’t stop worrying about. I’m sure I’ll be fine though when I’m there.

However, for the three days we’re there me and my boyfriend have a lot planned and I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll get it all done whilst we’re there! I thought I would make a post to tell you all where we’re going, eating, drinking, etc. Of course when I’m back I’ll be trying to review places we visited whilst there.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Hyper Japan.

This is our main reason for going to London. We wanted to go in 2013 and 2014 but due to money and late planning we never got to attend either. This year we made sure to plan, plan, plan and we’re so excited to finally be going to Hyper Japan. Leading up to it we have been watching YouTube videos of what to expect, how big it’ll be, shops, etc. This is the place we’re probably going to spend most of our money and as we’re there all day on Saturday we’re going to be shattered afterwards.

We’ll probably eat loads of food too, although a little birdy told me that if you wait until an hour or two before Hyper Japan is due to finish, you can get all the food dirt cheap, which me and my boyfriend intend to try and do!As you can see from the dates this is running from Friday until Sunday. We’ll be there Saturday though as it is the only day to be running the event all day. This is something I will definitely be writing about when I’m back from London, and I hope to get loads of pictures too.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• West End – A Book of Mormon.

So we’re off to see a musical and one my boyfriend has wanted to watch for months. He’s been on and on at me about it for ages and at first I wasn’t keen on the idea as I’m not a fan of musicals. I put this down to the yearly musical we had to perform at school. Maybe down to Disney too… I don’t know. BUT when he showed me a trailer for this and informed me it was by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the guys behind South Park I was all for it! I love South Park and I especially love what Stone and Parker do. They’re hilarious guys.

This will be nice for us to go and watch together after a romantic dinner. Afterwards we may go for drinks, but nothing too heavy as Hyper Japan is the day after. If my boyfriend ends up loving the musical (which I’m sure he will!) then come the next pay-day I’ll be buying him the musical on CD or on iTunes so he can play it in his car whilst he’s working.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Museums – Natural History Museum and Science Museum.

We love going to things like this and there’s nothing better than geeking out and acting like a kid in a place it’s deemed acceptable. We’ll probably spend one morning/afternoon in one on Friday and then do the same again on Sunday. I’m more excited about the Science Museum rather than the Natural History Museum as I love anything you like this and will just have loads of fun in there. I’d probably want to go there on Sunday to round-up our last day in London with plenty of fun and geekyness. We shall see though how it all plans out.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Food and Drink.

We plan on trying to stick to our diets and eat well and be good, but at the same time we do want to have the odd treat here and there. I am rather excited about discovering some amazing places to eat and drink in London. We did just that with one place in Bristol and I hope to find something that will be similar to it. We haven’t really researched anywhere as London is so huge, so we’ll probably just look when we get there and see how we get on.

We also want to go and have some drinks Saturday night after Hyper Japan in a cocktail bar, possibly themed. This is something else we really need to look into and is something I will probably do the night before we head down to London. There are many food and drink bloggers out there so I’m sure I will find somewhere for us to go in no time!

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Shopping.

One thing we really want to do whilst in London is go shopping. Not anywhere that we can go to in Birmingham or Coventry, but shops that are only accessible to in London. One of these shops being the Lush Oxford Street store. I love Lush and really do want to have a good look in the huge store for what I could pick up. There will be a wish list post for this on my blog tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for that! As well as that we want to visit the Forbidden Planet there too as it’s meant to be huge and one of the best ones to visit, although I’ve heard otherwise from some people too. I would love to visit Camden for shopping as I was always told I would love it. We shall see though. Shopping wise I probably won’t be looking around many places as we have everything here that we need anyway.

So that’s our plan for London! I’m still rather excited for it and before I know it it’ll be time to go. I’m going to try my best to plan posts to be up on my blog whilst I’m in London, but if I don’t do this however I do apologise in advance.

Have you been to London before? Or do you live in London? If you have any places you would recommend then please do let me know!

Until next time, take care all.

July/Hyper Japan Wish List 2015

Due to London taking up most of my money this month, I don’t have much of a wish list this month either. This will mostly be stuff I’ll be trying to buy whilst I’m in London at Hyper Japan, as well as from places around London that me and my boyfriend hope to be going to when we get a chance.

I’ve already made a separate wish list for Lush, which will be live on my blog Wednesday.

• Pokemon Center Pokemon Time Eievui Vaporeon Plush Keychain.

I recently showed you guys a haul of some purchases from Japan, this is part of that collection and something I regret not asking for! But I’ll be keeping my eye out for it when I go to Hyper Japan for sure! It’s a cute little Vaporeon plushie keychain which is just pulling on my heartstrings… Not good, not good at all! There is of course a full collection of these in all the Eeveelutions but this one is my favourite for sure.

• Nana Manga Volumes 10-15.

I LOVE this manga and even though I’ve been reading it for a couple of years now, I’m still up to volume 9. Why? Because this manga is proving hard to find! My boyfriend was amazing and bought me 8 and 9 for Christmas, but they didn’t last me long whilst we were on holiday. I want to try and finish this manga this year so I can focus on reading another (Attack on Titan maybe?) and whilst I could be naughty and read it online for free, I love this manga enough that I want to own it. I love the anime and the manga continues on for longer than the anime does. I’m hoping I can pick these five volumes up from Hyper Japan, or maybe even a Japanese or geeky book shop in London.

• My Neighbour Totoro Backpack.

I don’t exactly NEED a new backpack, but I would like one. I love my current one, but I fancy something new and something that will work with both my fashion needs and practical needs. I saw a gorgeous Totoro backpack when I went to Comic Con in November, but it wasn’t this one. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for a gorgeous new Totoro bag, whether it’s a backpack, or a shoulder bag. You can’t go wrong with Totoro!

• Kit Kat in Green Tea Matcha.

I LOVE matcha Kit Kat’s! I could eat them all day but I also hate them. They cost so much money to buy, but oh so worth it! I plan on investing in these and buying as many as humanly possible. You can pick them up for decent prices on eBay, Amazon, and other websites online, but if I can pick some up from Hyper Japan, then I’m good with this. If you’ve never tried any of the random yet amazing flavours that Kit Kat’s that Japan have to offer, then you really are losing out! Websites like Sushi Noms and Tofu Cute sell these at decent prices.

• Pokemon Center Pikazard Plushie.

Who can say no to this cutie? I’ve wanted the Pikazard plushie since it came out and although it isn’t a must, if Sushi Noms is selling it (like I think they might be!) then I may have to look into it. I’m sure there will be hundreds of fakes of these flying around Hyper Japan, but I’ll only buy from sellers I KNOW go to Japan to buy legits. These are incredibly cute though. Who could resist?

• Pocky in flavours Peach, Banana, and Matcha.

I LOVE Pocky. Like Kit Kat’s really, the Japanese do these treats well and what’s best is they’re not too many calories. So I don’t have to feel too guilty whilst I snack on them. Once again, I love matcha flavouring so I can hardly resist the matcha Pocky. I bought loads of Pocky when I attended Comic Con and I loved them all. The only problem with Pocky sellers is they often rack the prices up, whilst Asian supermarkets sell these dirt cheap! I may stock up on these if I can get them for reasonable prices, like the Kit Kat’s. I mostly want banana and matcha flavours. Nom, nom, nom!

• Nendoroid – Sword Art Online Kirito.

This isn’t just a rare Nendoroid, but it’s also very bloody expensive due to it! This is something I have been after for quite some time now, not for myself, but for my boyfriend. He loves his Nendoroid’s like myself, if not more and most of his collection have been bought by myself as presents. I’ve bought him a majority of the Attack on Titan series with only two left to get (Colossal Titan and Cleaning Levi) which I am also on the hunt for at Hyper Japan. However, if I can find a real version of Kirito, then I’ll probably buy it, or give him some money towards this as I know how much he’s after it. He’s a gorgeous little character and who wouldn’t want him in their collection, eh?

So that’s my wish list for July and for Hyper Japan!

Are you attending Hyper Japan this summer? If so, let me know!

Until next time all, take care and have a great weekend.

Wish List Wednesday – London

Of course I’m due to go to London in a months time and I know that is going to fly by! Like Bristol, I’ll be popping to the shops a week before I’m due to go to pick up some bits and pieces I can used whilst I’m away. This is what this wish list is for! I may also mention in a separate wish list post which items I’ll be trying to pick up whilst I’m in London. *cough* LUSH *cough*

Some of these things I would like to pick up anyway and London is sort of an excuse for this, at the same time it’s also things I would like to have for London.

•  John Frieda Beach Blonde Cool Dip Purifying Shampoo and Sea Waves Sea Salt Spray.

When John Frieda brought this collection back out a month or so ago, I had such a nostalgic moment. I remember when I was a kid when all the “cool” girls in the playground used the spray in their hair. It was the “it” product and was something I lusted after for years. However my mom would never buy it for me and she wouldn’t let me buy it with my own pocket money either. I won’t lie when I admit that I contemplated stealing it once just so I could have it, and she wouldn’t find out about me buying it either. But I knew better and left it… Don’t steal kids! Anyway… Now I’m old enough I can buy it for myself and from what I remember this spray isn’t as harsh on hair as many of the sea salt sprays on the market are. I’ve already tried one and although it made my hair look and feel gorgeous, it was a bit too much for my liking. I remember trying this as a kid once or twice when the “cool” girls let me try it out. I mostly remember how gorgeous it smelt, like coconuts. Nom! I want that again so I’m going to pick this up in time for summer, and London. Also in the range is the shampoo, which sounds so nice! I don’t really need any shampoo as I already have my eye on one I want to pick up (check my wish list for June here) but I’d like one to take with me to London for both me and my boyfriend to use. I would end up sending it over to his house so that I could use it there whenever I wash my hair, as the current shampoo I use there is pretty lame and makes my hair go really flat… It used to work wonders before! I’ll have to contemplate this mind, as I do really have my eyes set on the Neal & Wolf shampoo.

• Evian Facial Spray.

I’m going to be a little honest here when I say, if I buy water whilst I’m out and about, I won’t buy anything else other than Evian (if I have that choice of course) because it’s the best one you can buy! I’ve used their facial spray in the past when it first came out and it’s gorgeous! It’s also expensive… But if you look in the right places you can pick up a bargain. As me and my boyfriend will be at Hyper Japan all day the second day of our stay in London, we’re going to be HOT! So I thought it might be a good idea to pick up a cooling spray. I know there are loads out there, but searching online the only one I’m seeming to find (I’m probably not searching hard enough!) is this one. I doubt this will be the one I pick up due to the price, but if I wanted a splurge, I would.

• Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lip Liner.

I’ve been eying this up for a while now as I LOVE wearing lipstick. However, I don’t like only have three lip liners (red, pinky nude, and raspberry pink) that won’t suit the needs of all my lipsticks. This is where this lip liner will be great for this. It’s a clear one, so it can be applied under any colour lipstick and it’ll still do the same job as any other. Plus I imagine from the moisture in the name that it helps keep your lips nice and hydrated throughout the day. This is what I need for London, as whilst I’ll be walking around all day and kept busy, I don’t really want to worry that my lipstick isn’t perfect. I’ve tried this out in Boots before and it does look like a great product, and for less than £4.00 you can’t complain either!

• Reeses Pajamas from Primark.

I recently spotted these gorgeous pajamas on Primark’s Instagram and since I have fallen in love! I haven’t been near a Primark to pick them up yet, but I’ll hopefully be able to the weekend when I’m near one. I don’t own a pair of short pajamas that I really like so these would be great for the warm summer months. They’ll also be ideal for London because of it. They’re only £10, which you can’t say is a bad price. They also sell underwear and boxers too, so I may just have to pick some of those up for myself and my boyfriend. 😛

• Aussie Shower Gel in Fresh Mate.

If there is one thing I love about the Aussie hair care range, it’s the smell. Oh my Gosh, heaven in a bottle. When I was on holiday for the first couple of days I used an Aussie shampoo and not only did it leave my hair feeling and looking great, it smelt great too. So when Aussie announced they would bring out a shower gel range, I was pretty excited. This is the one that smells just like the shampoo I used whilst I was away. Need it in my life! Not only do I want this to take away with us to use during our time in London, but I want it to use anyway. I’ve wanted to try it for ages, but I refuse to buy it until it is on offer! I want to try all the different versions, although I can see me liking this one the most.

• Quickies Nail Varnish Remover Travel Pot.

I don’t know if I’ll pick this up, but it’s always a good idea to think about. When I went to Bristol I didn’t paint my nails, but when I got there I did, due to picking up some nail polishes. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be painting my nails this time, before I go but I have contemplating painting them again whilst I’m there. So something like this can come in handy for if I need to remove my nail polish quickly, or if I paint them and make any mess. At a £1, you’re not going to break the bank. If I pick any up, it’ll be a last-minute thing.

• My Neighbour Totoro Sweatshirt.

I’ve seen this in the past on eBay and contemplated buying it, but in the end I left it. However, I had my eye on it again… Whether I pick it up for London or not is another story. My boyfriend asked me what I would be wearing for Hyper Japan, and I honestly don’t know! I want to make a statement of course and look awesome whilst doing it, and this sweater could be something cool to rock up wearing. However, I need to save money and I have other items in my wardrobe I can throw on for the day. If I pick this up, again it’ll be very last-minute…

So that’s my wish list for London! I will of course be basing my July wish list around what I am hoping to pick up in London… I might even do a Lush Oxford wish list too… We shall see!

Do you have any suggestions of what I should take with me to London? Let me know in the comments!

I hope everyone is having a great week.

Take care and see you soon!

Guess Who’s Going to London?

Image taken from weheartit.com

 

Well, me of course! 😛 It’s officially booked and I’m super excited.

We’re going as a late and long anniversary weekend away, seeing as our anniversary is actually on Monday. We’re also going for a few other reasons too. Hyper Japan as well as The Book of Mormon. We’re both pretty excited for so much happening in the space of three days!

Image taken from weheartit.com

 

On Friday we’ll be getting there pretty early to go and explore London for the day. We plan on shopping (I really want to go to the Oxford Street Lush store!), visiting the Science Museum and Natural History Museum, which will be exciting. Then in the evening after some dinner together, that’s when we’ll be watching The Book of Mormon. It was a last minute decision to go and I won’t lie when I say it was really expensive too… It should be worth it though as all we’ve heard from friends and family is how good it is. I only recently found out it’s by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park. I loved that show growing up and would love to start watching it again soon.

Image taken from weheartit.com

 

On the Saturday, that’s when we have Hyper Japan. All day! We’re going to be saving most of our spending money for this as when we went to Comic Con we spent roughly £100 each, but this was mostly on each other for Christmas presents. We’ve bought out main anniversary presents for each other, but we both intend on buying some other bits and pieces for each other whilst we’re at Hyper Japan, as well as when we shop around London.

That evening we’ll go and get something to eat and then head back to the hotel, maybe for some drinks and we’ll be shattered. Depends how we feel at the time.

Sunday will be out final day and after check out at the hotel, we’re contemplating going around London to do things we didn’t have time to do the previous two days. Then we’ll head home and Monday have a nice relaxed day together at my house.

I am super excited (I’ve already said this. :P) about London! I’ve wanted to go ever since I could remember, but my dad for all his promises to take me, never has sadly. I understand why now I’m older. It’s bloody expensive!

Image taken from weheartit.com

 

Overall including hotel, Oyster cards (which I’m going to feel like a little kid using!), and our tickets for Hyper Japan has cost me just over £100. It would have been more with my ticket for The Book of Mormon but my boyfriend was lovely enough to buy me that.

I’m sure I will post again about this days away from the trip. But man, I just can’t wait for that weekend now. Roll on July!

Are you going to Hyper Japan? Let me know if you are! And have you seen The Book of Mormon? Let me know what you thought of it!

Until next time, take care all.