From Japan Pokemon Eeveelutions Haul

Almost a couple of months ago now, I decided to write about From Japan on my blog with a review of the proxy service, as well as showing you guys my haul from my second order. You can read all about that here.

I’m here again with yet another haul! This time it’s from my first order I made with From Japan in April, as well as my third order I made in June.

I know you guys loved when I spoke about From Japan before, so I knew when my first and third orders arrived I wanted to share what goodies I bought with you all!

I really hope you enjoy this post today, it’s such a hot weekend so grab a cold drink (or even better an ice cream!) and get in front of the fan as you read this post. 🙂

I mentioned on my From Japan review previously that I’d made my first order with them back in April and I was still waiting for my goodies to arrive! I’d decided to ship via surface mail, which is notorious for taking MONTHS. Alas, my order took almost 3 months to arrive, but better late than never and it was definitely worth it!

First things first, if you’re happy to wait ages for your goods to arrive, surface mail with tracking is fab… But I definitely prefer airmail! Your goods come within a week and they always usually have tracking too.

Anyhoo, the first item I want to talk about on my haul post is the Pokemon TCG playmat from the Eevee Sweet Choices collection. It’s so cute and it’s actually from me ordering this that I decided to get my own desk in our front room/office.

The packaging it came in was great and it even arrived in its original packaging! The playmat is in perfect condition and has now found it’s place on my desk, which I adore so much! It only arrived on Thursday but in the short time I’ve owned it, it looks great on my desk and I’m so glad I finally made the jump at not only ordering it, but using From Japan to get it.

As far as I’m aware this playmat was a Pokemon Center USA exclusive, so I can only imagine the person who owned it in Japan before me must have imported it. It’s been a longgggg way! 😛

Shortly after my second order arrived, I started to order items for my third order. I’ve been after the Eeveelutions Pokemon Dolls from 2017 for quite some time now. I bought Flareon back when they released, then Espeon and Umbreon a year or so later and finally Vapreon shortly after that through a Facebook group.

I was still missing most of the Eeveelutions and had been keeping my eyes peeled on Facebook groups, eBay and stores similar. When I was in Japan in January 2020 I looked in stores too, the only Eeveelution Pokemon Doll we came across was the Vaporeon one, which I already owned.

I’d already starting searching for the remaining Eeveelutions I was after on From Japan, with some showing loads of results, others showing very few and one not at all! It was definitely a challenge and I wanted to share with you some of the struggles I faced this time. FYI none of these struggles are any fault of From Japan!

To try and find the Pokemon Dolls I was after, I searched for just that both in English and Japanese. As I mentioned on the previous post about From Japan, you can use Google Translate to help you with getting the rough translation. This result showed not only plushies, but figures too. This took some time when trying to just locate certain Eeveelutions, but it made for something chilled to do whilst watching something on TV.

Whenever I found the Eeveelutions I was after, I would add to my watch list/favourites and order when the time was right! Sadly, some orders were cancelled and fell through. This could either be due to someone ordering the item(s) before me, or just because of proxy seller issues.

The Eeveelutions I needed to complete my collection were, Eevee, Jolteon, Glaceon, Leafeon and Sylveon.

Eevee was the easiest and cheapest out of the five to get hold of! Before shipping I only paid 800 yen for this, which in pounds is £5.36. Complete bargain!

Jolteon was the hardest to get hold of. I’d actually found someone selling the American version (tag was different) for £45! I was close to buying it, just because I was beginning to see no light at the end of the tunnel, but glad I didn’t. I was refusing to ship all of the Pokemon Dolls I’d bought to me until I’d found this one. You get 45 days to ship your goods to you, something I was starting to get closer and closer to. Alas one day I was randomly having a search around From Japan for this Pokemon Doll and low and behold… I found it! I didn’t hesitate to order and worried a few days after that it may get cancelled for reasons. Thankfully this didn’t happen and as soon as it arrived at the From Japan warehouse, I shipped my goods to me! This Pokemon Doll only cost me 2,200 yen, which in pounds is £14.72.

Glaceon wasn’t straight forward and if anything was kind of stressful. The person who had listed the cheap Eevee Pokemon Doll also listed a Glaceon for roughly the same price. However, the order got cancelled as someone else had snagged the bargain ice Pokemon quicker than I had. I quickly ordered a back up I had in my watch list/favourites, which was painful considering how much more it was. I paid 2,700 yen which in pounds is £18.15. It was worth it though!

Leafeon was one of the easiest I ordered alongside with Eevee as it never got cancelled and it seemed to be a popular Eeveelution Pokemon Doll for sale too, making it really easy to find. It’s such a cute Pokemon Doll, it’s one my friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) owns so whenever I see it, I always think of her. I paid 2,600 yen which in pounds is £17.40.

Sylveon was fairly easy to get hold of, but it was also the most expensive! It appears whilst people love Sylveon, they also don’t seem to love it as much considering how many of them were listed on From Japan. The prices seemed to rise every time a new listing was made for it too, which is crazy! I paid 3,851 which is pounds is £25.77, quite the price jump from the previous Eeveelution Pokemon Dolls, but totally worth it!

These arrived a week after I paid for airmail shipping and they arrived in a bubble wrap style package. I expected a box to be honest with you, but due to them being plushies it worked out fine! Some of the plushies (as you’ll see from the photos above) had tags, which I didn’t expect from some of them!

As always, I’m really happy with all the goodies I bought from From Japan and they’ve all arrived in perfect condition.

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A post shared by Nat – Kawaii Nerd Blogger (@theremightbecoffeeblog)

I posted a reel on my Instagram page all about buying these and it has done SO WELL, which has really made me smile. I’ll pop it above so you can see it. 😉

A lot of people have already asked when I’ll be making a fourth order with From Japan… But I don’t know the answer to that question yet. I’m trying to be good with money since I bought my car. I am planning to use From Japan more in the future to buy my Pokemon goodies (old and new) as well as more! In the future, would you guys like to see a post of my From Japan wish list? 🙂

What do you guys think of the goodies I ordered and had arrive From Japan? What’s your favourite? Who is your favourite Eeveelution too? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

I know the UK is not only a very warm place right now, but a bit scary too with restrictions being lifted from tomorrow. So, until next time please take care all and feel free to drop me a DM on Twitter/Instagram if you ever need someone to talk to. ❤

From Japan Haul and Review

Hello guys! It’s been a few weeks now since I last posted something and I do apologise for this. Life sort of got in the way last week, hence no post.

BUT I’M BACK and I’m excited to share a new “store” with you today. I know a few people have asked me to share and talk about this website/store and alongside show you guys what goodies I bought too!

From Japan was introduced to me from my friend Emily (meimi132) a while ago now and it’s been a blessing in disguise but also a bit of a curse for my wallet. 😛

From Japan is an auction and shopping proxy service, as the name suggest, for Japanese goods. It’s really easy to create an account and even easier to search for items, which I’ll go through in more detail.

I’ve used From Japan mostly for buying Pokemon Center goodies, but I do have some Pompompurin, Persona 5 and Nendoroid related goodies saved in my favourites/wish list too!

Not only did I want to show off what goodies I’ve had arrive from my second order (first is still on route!) but I wanted to share my experiences of using the website too a I’ve had a few people ask me.

I haven’t been asked to write this post about From Japan. I wanted to share this amazing Japanese proxy service as I know I talk about Japan and kawaii goodies a lot on my blog. So, some of you may benefit from finding out about From Japan if you never had before, and if you HAVE heard about From Japan but don’t know anyone who has… Hello! Here I am! 😀

Image taken from Pokemon Center website

My first order is still on route and I regretfully went with surface mail, which can take between one to three months to arrive! It’s already been a month and still no sign so… Pray for me. 😛 Aside from the wait on shipping, this order was straight forward to do so I’m just annoyed at myself looking back at picking surface mail considering how long it’s taking. This is for the Pokemon TCG playmat from the Eevee Sweet Choices collection. It’s so cute and it’s actually from me ordering this that I decided to get my own desk in our front room/office. I don’t regret it, but I just want it to arrive now. 😛

My second order arrived on Monday and I was so damn happy with everything and how it was packaged! I went for airmail after Emily’s advise and it arrived a week after me paying for shipping, which wasn’t cheap… I’ll get into that little more.

First things first – searching for items on From Japan is really simple! What I tend to do is search for the item in both English, as well as Japanese. This is where something like Google translate can come in handy.

For example – on my third order I was searching for some of the Pokemon dolls. In Japanese this translates roughly to “Pokemon ningyō” or “ポケモン人形”. I always end up searching for the latter as it tends to find more results.

I more than often always search with Japanese now, but I do tend to have a look with English just to be safe! It was from searching “Eevee Sweet Choices” that I found the playmat I ordered, so it’s always worth using both if you’re after a certain item, especially if it’s rarer.

Something else to note is the stores that you could be potentially buying your goods from. There are three in total that I’ve purchased from so far – Yahoo! Japan Auctions, Rakuten and Surugaya. They’re all great places to buy from and I’ve not faced any issues… However, I’ve found with Yahoo! Japan Auctions and Surugaya that I’ve had a “hefty” (well, in my eyes!) charge for the privilege of someone either bidding on the items or wrapping items up in store to send to From Japan. Sometimes these charges are fair and it’s just one of them things. You do get fair warning prior of these charges, but as I bought so much stuff these charges added up. Please bear this in mind… I was semi gutted at the time but now my items have arrived, I’m not bothered.

When searching for items the search bar will usually cover for all of the shops that are purchasable through the service. If you were only looking to shop through Yahoo! Japan Auctions then you need to make sure to select this store and then search.

Some of the Yahoo! Japan Auctions are buy now, which is really good if you’re anxious about missing out on an item! I find items in the auctions are stupidly cheap and probably the best option to go mostly, but again it depends on what you’re buying, how many and if you’re happy with the charges that come after.

From experience, Rakuten is my favourite! I find their charges aren’t high and that’s always a bonus to me if I’m after a bargain.

When you’re happy with an item you’ve found you want, add it to your cart and then process with the payment. Make sure to read anything that comes up in red, as these could be charges you may be asked to pay and more. Some listings state that they won’t sell to overseas, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this too as you could be wasting time trying to buy an item.

You’ll be asked to pay “charge 1” – which is simple. Then once this is done, your item will be purchased by From Japan and then the seller will send to From Japan’s warehouse. You can keep a box of goodies for up to 45 days and fill this with as many goodies as you want! I did this with my second order to make the shipping worth it.

When you’re ready for your goodies to be sent to you, you can make you “charge 2” payment. This is where you pay any charges, as well as shipping. You’ll be able to pick and choose which items you’d like to have shipped too and such like that.

Be wary too by the way that some items you may guy may end getting cancelled for various reasons. I’ve had this happen a few times now and it’s a little heart-breaking, but I always have back up items in my wish list if I can in case this happens.

Then you wait for your items to arrive! I didn’t receive any customs charges with my parcel that arrived, but that’s because I asked From Japan to make my parcel as a gift, which was really handy!

I honestly cannot wait to show you guys all of the goodies I bought. These have been some items I’ve been after since 2016, with some of these items being from back in 2013/2014!

First thing I want to quickly cover here is that the Japanese are very careful when it comes to items people buy and take a great amount of care and detail to make sure your items are packaged safely for their trip. There was LOTS of bubble wrap and nothing arrived damaged. Even the box has “fragile” stickers on it.

This is something me and Dane noticed when we were in Japan. It’s amazing, it’s just a shame people in the UK don’t do this too… 😛

The first items I want to talk about are Eeveelution capchara figures. YY Kawaii gifted me some to share on my blog and Instagram page almost a year ago (you can read the post about them here) and whilst I was happy with just the Vaporeon and Jolteon she sent me, a part of me still wanted to get a couple more. Recently my friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) had some extras, so I bought Flareon and Umbreon from here. I decided from there that I needed the rest and went on a bit of a hunt.

This is what sort of… Fuelled me to make a second order with From Japan. I had searched the UK for the remaining Eeveelutions I needed and although I found most of them, they weren’t cheap. I found someone selling a set of five (including Pikachu) for the price of one here.

I found Espeon on a single listing for a great price and Eevee, Leafeon, Glaceon and Sylveon on one listing and ordered them! When they arrived they were all brand new in their cellophane wrap and ready to be put together. I really enjoyed myself after work putting them all together and popping them in the office cabinet with mine and Dane’s Nendoroid figures. Sylveon however sits on my work desk for now. It’s such a precious figure that I just had to! May I just add, this Sylveon capchara goes for a LOT of money, so I was glad to snag it for such a bargain price.

The Pikachu that I had in the set I bought is now sitting on Dane’s desk. I thought about selling/giving it, but after looking at it, I thought it would be cute to give him something to have on his desk too. 🙂

The second items I decided to look for and pick up are some plates from the 2018 Pokemon Collection ichiban kuji. I’d wanted these at the time of their release but they were hard to find, especially for a good price so I had to sort of… Grin and bear the fact it didn’t look like I was going to get them. I loved the designs on each plate in all honesty, especially Jolteon and Sylveon.

Whilst I was in Japan last year I found three of the plates! Vaporeon, Espeon and Leafeon. I snatched them up so fast and popped them in my basket. I searched for the rest during the remainder of the trip but I had zero luck, I was gutted. I went to eBay when I came back to the UK but was sad to see people selling the plates for a lot of money… I kept them on my watch list.

Thankfully with a lot of hunting I found the remaining Eeveelutions I was after on From Japan and got them ordered! Umbreon and Glaceon appeared to be the rarer ones of the plates I was after. I’d only seen one Umbreon on the website, which I bought and a couple of Glaceon’s. The prices ranged for these, but personally they were still really good in my eyes, especially when I’d seen how much they were going for on eBay, both in the UK and US.

The plates I picked up were Eevee, Jolteon, Flareon, Umbreon, Glaceon and Sylveon. I finally had my hands not only on all of the Eeveelution plates, but Jolteon and Sylveon – the two designs I really wanted! I don’t think these are

The designs on these plates are all café desserts and cakes themed and I love them! They also have three colour variants of pink, blue and white. I already have the three plates I bought from Japan on display in a living room cabinet on little stands, which I plan to do for the rest of the plates too. I’m not 100% sure where they’re going yet however… Dane suggested above my new desk, which may be an option for sure!

Finally we have the items I was SUPER happy about snagging as I’ve been after them for years. From writing this post, I didn’t actually realise how old and technically speaking, rare these items are.

Back when I first bought the house with Dane five years ago is when I really started shopping with YY Kawaii for my cute goodies and it was through her I purchased a Flareon and Vaporeon figure. I loved them both so much and wanted more, sadly she didn’t have anymore and wasn’t able to get hold of any. I didn’t realise at the time it may have been due to how old they were.

The kyun-chara figures came out between 2013 and 2014 for the Eeveelutions, whereas I thought they may have been from around 2015-2016. I’ve been on the hunt for the remaining Eeveelutions for years, but never been able to find them and when I have they’re SHOCKING prices. Now I semi get why.

I found them on From Japan for great prices, not cheap, but great nonetheless for what they are.

These figures have big heads and little bodies and the quality of them is amazing! I snagged Eevee and Jolteon separately and Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon and Glaceon. At the time Sylveon didn’t exist – hence why it isn’t part of the collection.

I was shocked to discover that ALL of these figures were brand new in their boxes, still in their plastic wrap and ready to be taken out, heads stuck to bodies and arranged. I haven’t yet opened the plastic wrap as I’m not 100% where I want to put them… Again I’m thinking above my desk next to the plates, but not sure at the moment.

I’ve literally snagged these items that I wanted because I just wanted to. I saw them and had the money to treat myself, so why not?!

So, that was everything I received from my second order From Japan! I have started to order some goodies to make into a third order… Of course they’re Eeveelution related. 😛

I remember back in 2017 the Pokemon Center decided to remake their Pokemon Dolls and I’m glad they did, because they’re cuter now than the ones from years previous. I bought Flareon at the time as it was the cutest design, Espeon and Umbreon whilst YY Kawaii was in Japan and then Vaporeon second hand from a Facebook group. Now I’ve ordered Eevee, Leafeon, Glaceon and Sylveon. I’m yet to find Jolteon at all, or for a good price.

Once I have them all, they’re going to be rearranged in my plushie cabinet in our bedroom! I’m so excited to just finally get them all. I wish I’d ordered them all back in the day… But I was still quite new to collecting Pokemon plushies then and was a bit anxious and probably skint. 😛

So, what do you guys think of From Japan? Do you think you’ll give it a go for ordering some Japanese goodies you’re after? Whether they be Pokemon related or something else?

I highly recommend them and can honestly see myself going back over and over again whenever I’m after harder to find items. The prices are amazing, the shipping is great if you go with air mail and to be honest, it’s a nice little way of window shopping when you’re bored. 😛

Let me know if you’ll be checking out From Japan in the future, as well as who your favourite Eeveelution is and why!

Until next time guys, take care and have an amazing weekend!

Black Milk Clothing x Pokemon 2.0

Back in February Black Milk Clothing announced that they would be bringing out a second Pokemon collection and I was SO excited for this! I counted down the days and watching their Instagram page like a hawk to find out what designs were coming out, as well as WHEN the collection would drop… Which dropped at the start of March!

I made sure to get my order in there and then for the goodies I wanted and I didn’t miss out on anything I wanted. However, I do regret not ordering a couple of items in particular that I’ll be sharing with you all in today’s post.

Considering I’d shown you all the first Pokemon collection from Black Milk Clothing and the Animal Crossing collection, I thought it would be nice to show you the pieces I snagged from the second Pokemon collection! I only grabbed two pieces, but they’re both so pretty and I’m really excited to rock them this summer. 🙂

Just a heads up, both of the pieces I picked up are limited, which means they’re limited edition and may not be available anymore to buy, OR might have certain sizes left in stock. I will address this when I talk about each item.

Another thing to bear in mind/address is that I always pick up a size L in my Black Milk Clothing pieces as they’re the fit I like. They’re not tight and they have a little bit of give with them, which is perfect for me. 🙂

For Pokemon 2.0 I personally didn’t feel that this collection was as strong as the first collection, but this being said there were aspects of 2.0 that really stood out and certain things the first collection could have done with. Examples of this being the evil tee dresses. There were SO MANY that came out of 2.0 and they were all gorgeous! I picked one up myself, but I could have easily picked up two. Alongside this three blazers came out with gorgeous print inside. I really loved these, but I’d have never worn them.

Some of the pieces were very hit and miss however and quite frankly I was incredibly disappointed by the fire starters print Black Milk Clothing had created and put out there. It looks like something anyone could photoshop and work on themselves at home. The fire starters are my favourite starter Pokemon so I was really excited to see what Black Milk Clothing would bring out. I wasn’t the only person to complain about this issue. Thankfully there was another design they revealed that I fell in love with!

• Fire Type Floral Cuffed Shorts (link)

I recently bought my first pair of cuffed shorts from Black Milk Clothing (Isabelle Gingham Cuffed Shorts) and they’re so bloody comfortable! I’m looking forward to wearing them with tights underneath and a cute t-shirt or sweater. I fell in love with the floral fire starters design as it has that 60’s/70’s feel to it that I really do love! Plus I’ve started to bring more pink colours into my wardrobe, which these shorts are perfect for. The fire starters are dotted all over the design, with my two favourites Cyndaquil and Fennekin featuring in perfect places on my pair of shorts! I honestly can’t wait to wear these during the warmer months, especially as lockdown begins to lift again.

• Psychic Type Longline Evil Tee Dress (link)

This is by far my favourite piece that came out of the Pokemon 2.0 collection and I couldn’t wait to snag it for myself! I bought my first evil tee dress when the Halloween collection came out in 2020 when I picked up the Ghosties Longline Evil Tee Dress and since then I really wanted to grab another one, so this Psychic Type version of the dress was good timing. It’s a gorgeous dark purple colour with lighter purple and blue swirls all over, as well as psychic Pokemon including – Mew, Mewtwo, Espeon, Slowpoke, Starmie, Indeedee, Ralts, Woobat, Meowstic, Espurr, Galarian Ponyta and Galarian Rapidash. It’s just gorgeous and would definitely be a conversation starter when out and about. I don’t know when I’ll wear this next, but I’m planning to rock it soon whenever me and Dane or friends go out and about.

Those are the only two pieces I picked up from the Pokemon 2.0 collection. I mentioned earlier regretting not picking up a few pieces, one of them being the Eeveelution Camo Cargo Pants and the piece mentioned below…

Image taken from Black Milk Clothing

If there is one piece I regret not buying it’s the Snorlax Snoozing Snuggle Suit. I’d bought the Pokemon Dreams Snuggle Suit not long before the second Pokemon collection was announced and I have fallen in love with it. I wear if often, including after work and on days off. I didn’t quite realise how much I was going to fall in love with Black Milk Clothing’s snuggle suits and due to that I regret not buying the Snorlax variant too. I have reached out to ask Black Milk Clothing if this will ever come back in stock and they said maybe at the end of the year. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled on eBay and Depop in the future for this to show up. Honestly I need it in my life! What I love the most is the colour of it. This is my favourite colour and whilst I’m not the biggest Snorlax fan, he is a sleepy boy and I can relate to that on a big level. 😛

So, there we have it guys! Honestly I’m so glad that Pokemon has reawakened my love of Black Milk Clothing. I’ve really started to show off my love of dressing quirky and different during the past year and it’s something I’m excited to continue doing in the future, especially with lockdown and restrictions easing!

If you’d like to check out any of the previous posts I’ve written about Black Milk Clothing collections I’ve bought, I’ll pop them below:

Black Milk Clothing x Pokemon

Black Milk Clothing x Animal Crossing

What do you think of the pieces I picked up, as well as the other designs from the Pokemon 2.0 collection? Did you buy anything from this collection? Are you planning to pick up any Black Milk Clothing pieces for yourself soon/in the future? Make sure to let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have an amazing weekend!

Black Milk Clothing x Pokemon

Guys I have been SO excited to write this blog post! I wasn’t planning to until later on this month, but I can’t wait any longer. It needs to go up as soon as possible! 😀

I discovered Black Milk Clothing back in 2011 through a forum I used to be on. It was only in 2014 when I got my first piece, my mermaid leggings from eBay. Since then I’ve always bought my pieces second hand/new via eBay and Depop. I’ve never been caught out by fake Black Milk, thankfully! So, although I own Black Milk Clothing pieces, this is the first time I actually bought direct from them. I’ll share that experience later on in the post. For now, I want to talk about the Pokemon Collection!

Back in June Black Milk Clothing released their Pokemon collection and it was one I was SUPER excited for. I was worried there wouldn’t be any pieces I wanted to get, but it turns out there were at least a handful of pieces I really like the look of, one in particular, the Butterfree Romance Dress.

I knew I wanted this dress and decided if I was going to pick up one item from the collection, it was going to be this piece. The collection launch was slowly looming and I got myself ready to put the dress into my basket and pay. When it came to pressing “confirm payment” I kind of… Freaked out. It was coming to a lot of money, I was preparing for my bathroom to be worked on and… I hesitated. By the time I had some mini regrets, the dress had sold out… Followed shortly by the rest of the collection. I was gutted but at the same time I felt better for not picking the dress up, due to money.

Weeks flew by and I kept thinking about the dress. Every time I ventured to Instagram, Black Milk Clothing was showing off people wearing THAT dress and even one of my Instagram friends had bought the dress. I WAS GUTTED! I tweeted Black Milk Clothing pleading with them (not seriously… but seriously! :P) to bring the dress back.

Black Milk Clothing heard mine and many others pleads and prayers for the Pokemon collection to return and guess what? They announced a restock in July, over a month after the original release of the collection. I knew I was going to get that Butterfree dress this time and more! I wasn’t exactly rich in July after the bathroom being worked on, but I was so gutted about not getting the Butterfree dress, that I knew I wanted it.

I settled on three pieces I wanted to pick up, including the Butterfree dress and I managed to snag them all! 😀 Before I show them all off though I just want to share how I went about buying from a popular collection, as well as from Black Milk Clothing for the first time.

As I mentioned before, due to hesitation alone I missed out on buying the Butterfree dress from the original launch. Items do not get saved or kept in your basket, so you need to act fast, which I made sure to do when buying from he restock.

Something Black Milk Clothing do is to pop all collection items up in the store for you to view and add to your wish list ready for when they release. You select your size, and click on the “add to wish list” heart, simple!

The Pokemon collection launched on Tuesday at 7am Australian time (as that’s where the company is based), which is Monday 10pm here in the UK. I wanted to pick up three items from the collection, so I had three tabs open of my wish list ready. I kept it open for about an hour, but at 9.45pm I kept refreshing all three tabs. The collection for me launched at 9.58pm, so as soon as items started to become available to buy, I clicked buy on each tab until all three items, in my chosen size were in my basket.

I proceeded through the payment sections and confirmed my order, which went through without any issues! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shaking before, during and after ordering my pieces… Which sounds pathetic but I was so anxious that I wouldn’t get ANY of the pieces, let alone all three.

I was so anxious to be honest that the order wouldn’t go through, or it would be cancelled, so I waited for my email to say it was confirmed, which came through pretty quickly. I also waited to hear about my goods being sent… Which was a couple of weeks later after ordering.

I’d already ordered some goodies from Australia, which had taken a month to arrive from me, but I also knew of friends who had bought from the first release of the collection and had waited a month for their goods to arrive. I was happy to wait and just under a month after ordering, my goodies arrived!

The tracking was really good! I was able to keep up with where my parcel was and more. It did give an estimated arrival, but my goods arrived almost a week later than what was suggested. Again I didn’t mind, as long as my goods arrived to me. 🙂

I know a lot of people who were stung by customs and I also know a lot of people who weren’t. I was the latter, thankfully! I know someone who bought three pieces like me and wasn’t charged customs. I also know someone who bought one piece and was charged customs. Finally I heard of someone online who bought four or five pieces and was charged £40 in customs! FUCK!

I don’t know why I wasn’t charged customs. I don’t know if it’s due to Royal Mail delivering my parcel or what. I was very lucky and I’m grateful I wasn’t stung. I can only hope for the same in the future whenever I want to order pieces from Black Milk Clothing.

I didn’t take any photos, but the pieces I ordered arrived in perfect condition! Two of the pieces were made in China and came in clear plastic bags, whilst one of the pieces that was made in Australia arrived in a special bag you can throw away in your compost bin and it’ll decompose. I love this idea! More brands need to do this. It’s a shame that only the pieces made in Australia get these bags.

Finally the time has come to share with you the pieces I picked up… But if you were aware of the collection and all the pieces that released with it, you may have realised by now just which pieces I picked up… Seeing as I posted a photo of them all together at the start of this post! xD

I just want to add here by the way that all the pieces I bought are sold out and as far as I’m aware, they aren’t making a return. There are some pieces under the Pokemon collection that WILL return (which you can see here), so make sure to sign up for restock alerts if you’re interested. 🙂

• Butterfree Romance Dress (link)

As mentioned time and time again this is the dress I fell in love with from the Pokemon collection and I KNEW I had to have it! It’s a gorgeous light pink colour with Butterfree’s all over it. I went for a size L and I have no regrets! I could have probably gotten away with an M but I like the extra give. It’s really comfortable and roomy and I love clothing like that. Tighter/snug fit clothing often make me anxious and self conscious of my figure and always have, even when I was really skinny.

The romance dress style is one I’m new to but one I really love as it’s really flattering to my shape with it’s skater style skirt and the v-neck front. V-necks are usually something I pick up as I’ve always worried it doesn’t suit… Especially considering I’ve always had a big chest, but if anything this v-neck really suits that and I’m so pleased! I was wary that the v-neck may be too low and actually show off a bit more than I wanted to. This isn’t exactly the case, however due to the dress size giving a little, I think I may need to invest in a new bra to wear with this, or wear one of my other bras as you can see my current go to a little… This is something that is easily sort able!

The fabric itself is sheer, especially on the sleeves, but it’s not too sheer that you can see completely through the pink material and Butterfree design. The sleeves are also puffed, but the wrists are cuffed which I really like!

The style of the dress really does remind me of something from the 60’s/70’s and although it seems more like a spring/summer dress, I already know I’ll be wearing this all year through! I plan to wear it for evenings out with Dane and friends, as well as at work for any special events that are going on.

I’d wear this dress with black tights, a fake leather jacket and either some flats or boots.

• Gastly Evolution Handkerchief Dress (link)

This dress is one I really loved from the start but wasn’t sure if I was going to pick it up or not when making my order. Purely because it sold out so quick in the first release, that I didn’t think I’d even get hold of it when making my order. Alas, I did and it’s a dress I’m glad I ordered. It’s a dress that is out of my comfort zone, purely for the fact it’ll be hard to cover my arms unless I wear a t-shirt underneath, or a constantly cardigan over the top. It’s a gorgeous grape purple colour with Gastly, Haunter and Gengar printed all over it in a flocked fabric. It’s a mid thigh length, which is perfect for me but it’s just something different with the handkerchief style.

I’ve seen some girls over on Instagram style this piece up and they look AMAZING! I’ve seen some wearing a black mesh t-shirt under and some with a thick chain belt around the waist. I’m loving the latter, but I haven’t yet found a belt I want to get for it. Shoes wise, I don’t have a bloody clue what I’m going to wear with it yet! Probably end up being my Dr Martens boots to give it a rock/punk look.

Someone over on Instagram said how perfect this dress is for Halloween and she couldn’t be anymore accurate! Although I’m glad I ordered this dress, at the same time I need to get the right bra to wear with it, as well as how and when I want to. I think this is a dress I’ll wear for evenings out with friends, meals for work events and more. I have worn it around the house without one and whilst I can manage to get away with it in my own company, I’d never 100% feel comfortable doing that outside of the house.

If there is one issue I have had with this dress it’s the fact you have to hand wash it in cold water… But this isn’t the problem. The problem was the amount of purple dye that came out of the dress when I washed it. The bath looked like I was draining away a purple bath bomb! Plus it was just a pain in the bloody arse to try and wring out the dress. I thought I’d done it enough and hung it on my clothes horse. An hour later I went down to check on it, only to discover a MASSIVE pool of water underneath it! Thankfully the floor was fine, I mopped up the water and put the dress outside to dry on the line. It didn’t take long to dry, but due to all the faff it’s put me off wearing it and washing it a little… I’ll wear it and wash it, but it’ll be a dress I need to wash when it’s a good day outside so I can dry it!

I already know how I want to dress this up! I’ve bought a chain belt to wear around the wait, black tights, my Dr Martens boots and a fake leather jacket.

• Eevee Evolution Black Scoop Skater Dress (link)

The last dress I picked up from the collection is one that I’ve worn the most out of all three and it’s because it’s a Black Milk Clothing dress style I own a lot of. I love Eeveelutions and they’re some of my favourite Pokemon, but what encouraged me to pick up this dress was Attack On Mew purchased it and it looked adorable on her! PLUS this dress has pockets! I’ve never owned one of the skater dresses with pockets and it has literally changed my life! 😀

I ordered it in a size L and with Black Milk Clothing I fit either an M or L. Their sizing has definitely changed over the years and if anything their pieces feel like there is more room to them now than before… At least with the skater dresses anyway, which makes me really happy!

I’ve worn this dress with a long sleeved black mesh t-shirt underneath, black tights and my lilac Vans for a relaxed look. This dress is so comfortable and makes me feel confident, I honestly can’t wait to wear it more! I wish I could wear it at work as I think I’d feel super confident wearing it. Instead it’s going to be a casual dress to wear over the weekend, as well as for events and such. I’m already excited to wear it for Hyper Japan and Comic Con in the future.

So, those are all the pieces I picked up from the Pokemon collection! I could have easily picked up more looking back and there are a few limited pieces that I kinda regret not picking up, including – Mew Sheer Midaxi Dress and Ghost-Type HW Toasties. I definitely regret not grabbing the toasties leggings as I think they would have come in handy over the colder winter months. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled on eBay and Depop for either of these in the future.

There are also some permanent pieces that I’m definitely looking to pick up in the future, including – Bulbasaur Apron Dress, Eevee Evolution Floral V Dress and Eevee Evolution Floral Cuffed Pants. I could say I regret not picking up any of these pieces, but as they’re permanent items they’ll be back in stock in the future. I’m already planning on picking up the apron dress as well as the cuffed pants in the future!

I have always been a Black Milk Clothing fan, but for the past year and a half I’ve really forgotten just how much I LOVE the brand! I haven’t worn my pieces as much since joining the company I currently work at, but COVID and the Pokemon collection has reminded me how much I love Black Milk Clothing and why. 🙂

Since picking up these goodies from the Pokemon collection I’ve already purchased another piece from the Welcome to Halloweenia collection. I can’t wait to show it you in the future… 😛

Overall I am really happy with the pieces I picked up from the Pokemon collection and although I may have wished to pick up another item or two, I got the main three pieces I wanted and that is kinda enough for me… For now. 😛

What do you guys think of Black Milk Clothing? Do you own any pieces by them? Are there any pieces you like the look of? Would you guys like me to eventually show off all the pieces I own? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, stay safe, take care and have a lovely weekend!

Japan Trip – Pokemon Cafe

Pokemon Day was just over two weeks ago now (27th February) and as I’ve been back from Japan for a month now… Sad times…

As my first post about my trip to Japan was about the Pokemon Center’s in Tokyo and what I bought, I thought my second post should continue talking about Pokemon! Of course, I can’t not talk about the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo and my experience there, as well as a haul of what both me and Dane bought from there.

Just a warning this post is going to be a long one… Purely because I want to try and go through as much as I can, including how to book as this is something we had a mini struggle with, as well as anything else that comes to mind in regards to the Pokemon Cafe.

Let’s not chatter anymore, let’s get on with the post!

I knew that if I was going to Japan, I was going to the Pokemon Cafe! There are currently only two in Japan, the newest one in Osaka and the one in Tokyo, which we went to. The Pokemon Cafe’s have only been open a couple of years so it’s still quite a new thing and VERY popular!

First of all, if you want to go to the Pokemon Cafe be ready for a few things:

1. It can be expensive… But this can depend. If you want to try as much as you can on the menu AND buy merchandise as well, this can add up. For both of us it came to 14,600.00 yen (just over £100) but that was for food, drinks AND merchandise and we bought a lot to be honest (as you’ll see in this post).
2. You NEED to book in advance. If you don’t, you probably won’t get in. I’ll be talking about this in this post. Booking isn’t hard but it’s something you’ll have to think about first out of everything.
3. If you aren’t keen on mascots “bothering” you then I don’t know if the Pokemon Cafe will be for you. There’s a performance for quite some time with Chef Pikachu and if you have anxiety, or just don’t like this sort of thing… Then Pokemon Cafe might be one to miss… Or at least just go for a quick drink to experience it. 🙂

I didn’t have any issues and if anything, the Pokemon Cafe was one of my favourite things that me and Dane did during our trip to Japan! It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. I kind of wish we went again but at the same time, the one visit made it much more memorable.

The second thing I want to talk about is how you need to go about booking your place at the Pokemon Cafe.

Booking isn’t hard, but it can be tricky. First of all get onto the right website! You don’t need to go through any third parties in order to book the Pokemon Cafe, you can do this directly through them.

Okay… I decided whilst writing this post that I wasn’t going to type and explain to you all how to book the Pokemon Cafe… Instead I am going to link you all to the video that me and Dane watched when we were booking our reservation.

This video from AforAlyce may be from almost 2 years ago BUT IT IS STILL RELEVANT! We used this when booking ours and it was the best guide out there in all honesty.

Some issues we faced however (which wasn’t AforAlyce’s fault) are below:

• Although Google Translate is handy, it seemed to confuse the website… Especially on the calendar, so make sure to be wary because of this. It also caused some issues in regards to trying to click certain things.
• The maximum of people you can now book is 8! 😀
• At one point you will need to fill in your contact details, you put your name in English AND Hiragana. You can Google your name in Hiragana but we found this a little tricky… Just try your best though!
• Finally the reservations at the Pokemon Cafe GO QUICK as they are released a month in advance. So, make sure to book your reservation(s) when 9am hits in Japan (UK time 12am) or at least as soon as you can! We booked ours as soon as we could in the morning… Think it was about 6am!
• MAKE SURE TO ORDER THE EXCLUSIVE GOODIES IF YOU WANT THEM! YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY THESE IN THE CAFE!!!!!

Thanks to the help of a friend (Hi Connor!) he suggested the best seat for us, which is the shared counter table and we were sat right in front of Pikachu, YAY! I was so thankful for Connor’s help with this, honestly this was the best seat in the Pokemon Cafe. 🙂 Just a little plug for Connor, but he runs his own blog all about Japan! 😀 Make sure to go and check it out here!

You sit and wait to be taken to your table at the entrance of the Pokemon Cafe and once your time slot comes up, you are shown to the table/seats you booked! You walk through what feels like a heaven of a cafe… Well, at least if you’re a Pokemon fan! There are displays everywhere, including the plates, cups, bowls and cutlery you use and can buy from the cafe, plushies (some you can buy) and a MASSIVE Snorlax!

There are other displays too, which I knew of before going to the Pokemon Cafe myself, but I didn’t actually go and take a look at them until I was leaving the cafe. This was just due to how quiet the cafe was at this stage… PLUS I wanted to be sat down and start enjoying the cafe!

You’re sat down and you get an iPad to order your menu items from, including drinks. There was so much to choose from! You also have a themed place mat out in front of you, which you flip over to reveal which Pokemon you got!

If you ordered any merchandise whilst booking your place at the Pokemon Center this/these item will be in a brown Pokemon Cafe bag where you’re sitting. I loved this and inside you will find your goodies and even some brown bags for if these are gifts for people back home! I loved this so much and most of all, in the UK you would probably fret and worry if anything was missing due to theft… Not in Japan! I’ll show you what we picked up at the end of the post… 😛

So, when you are ready to order your drinks and food just tap on the iPad, select your desired language and you’re ready to go!

I’ll be honest, it was hard to choose what I wanted for a few reasons – First being price and second being that I didn’t want to not choose something and regret it later. I’m glad I splurged out and got everything that I wanted!

Drinks I went a bit crazy, but it was mostly because I really wanted to try them and I wanted the glass/mug they came in too. I went for the Pokemon Latte iced with glass and the Gengar’s Okay Hikari Smoothie with glass.

Dane just went for the Pokemon Latte Hot with mug. He wasn’t as greedy as me in regards to drinks. 😛

The drinks were one of my favourite things from the Pokemon Cafe menu, with my favourite being the Gengar grape smoothie and of course I needed to take the glass home with me. This drink was a really thick slushie (not smoothie) in the classic grape flavour that Japan loves! If you love Grape Fanta, you will adore this and if anything, it’s better! Dane regretted not getting himself one. For a small glass this lasted ages too, it was the last thing we finished before resting our bellies and paying.

The lattes (both hot and cold) were really good! You get to choose from Pokemon No.001 to No.251. I went for Eevee on my iced latte and Dane went for Growlithe on his hot latte. The mug you get your hot latte in is much different from what you get to take home with you if you decided to buy the mug. The mug you get in the Pokemon Cafe is in the shape of a Pokeball, which was really cool! I’ll be showing you guys at the end of the post the mug we got. The glass I got with my cold latte is the same as the one I got to take home. This is honestly one of my favourite things I purchased during our trip to Japan! I love using it for my favourite cold drinks, it just puts a smile on my face at how cute the glass is.

When you order drinks you also get the chance to win some coasters too, one for each drink you order. So, we got the chance to win three! We won two Grookey coasters and (name). The duplicate Grookey sits in my plushie shelf, whereas the other two we won will be stuck in our Japan trip 2020 scrapbook. FYI – You will always win a coaster. 😉

When it came down to the food choices, we had LOADS of choice, as well as some limited edition dishes. I was only going to go for one dish, but decided to go for two after discussing it with Dane. I don’t regret this at all… Even when I was so stuffed I couldn’t move!

Food wise I went for the Kabigon’s Manpuku nap lunch plate for my main and the Messon’s berry berry fruit sandwich for my dessert.

Dane went for the Eevee well plate with Eevee plate as his main and the Jigglypuff’s Musical Cheesecake for dessert.

I’m honestly so pleased with the main I ordered, which was the Snorlax nap lunch plate. Inside the Snorlax bowl (in his belly) you get rice with veg and prawns, I didn’t eat the prawns but the rice was AMAZING! It was flavoured really nicely and I enjoyed every bite. On the side you had a salad, some star shaped hash browns, pieces of pork (which were so soft and succulent!) and finally a sauce to dip your meat, hash browns, pour over your salad etc. The whole of the Snorlax nap lunch plate was perfect and honestly I couldn’t have been happier with my choice! I really struggled with what I wanted to pick for my main but I’m glad I chose this in the end.

Dane went for the Eevee plate and got to take a plate home, which we’ve now popped up on our fireplace! The plate was adorable in the sense of it was definitely kawaii and a little bit too good to eat… The first thing I noticed was the rice in the shape of Eevee’s head with edible rice paper for the ears and details of the face. I don’t think Dane minded eating Eevee’s face though… 😛 You also get a salad, some spaghetti/noodles, hash browns, chicken, some sauce and something else that he can’t quite remember.

Whilst we were eating out food Chef Pikachu came around to greet us, which was adorable! This little show must have lasted about an hour max, but that’s with Chef Pikachu moving around the whole of the Pokemon Cafe. Basically, you get a little show from Chef Pikachu where he thanks you for coming to the cafe and you thank him for the food! The show was adorable and I filmed loads of it on my phone, which I’m sadly not going to share on my blog (this is more for personal).

Eventually when Pikachu had thanked us he moved to the next area of the Pokemon Cafe, which meant we could continue to eat our food. I’m not going to lie, it would have been hard (and kind of rude!) to carry on eating our food during the show. The show was at a perfect time though and we definitely had the best place in the cafe for it!

After we finished our mains we waited for our desserts to arrive, which didn’t take long to be honest with you! We were sat near the kitchen so we got our food and drinks pretty quick, which was great.

Originally the only dish I was going to order from the Pokemon Cafe was the Sobble dessert and whilst I loved the dessert I ordered, I’m still glad I ordered more! This is a limited edition dish which is actually finishing after this weekend, however, originally it was meant to end towards the end of January when we were due to come back home. They extended it, which is cool! This was such a lovely, light dessert and I enjoyed it so much! It’s a sponge sandwich type thing that is meant to be the shape of Sobble’s head, with cream and blueberries in the middle. Alongside this you had some more blueberries, a pot of blueberry cream and a little bottle of lemon juice. When your poured the lemon juice into the blueberry cream it turned it from a blue colour to purple! Very cool and I loved it so much, it definitely worked perfectly alongside the type of Pokemon Sobble is.

I have to say I love blueberries but due to how full I was from the main I just couldn’t handle it all, so Dane had to help me finish. I really struggled and that is not a bad thing! For how much you pay to sit and eat these amazing dishes in the Pokemon Cafe, you really do get your moneys worth.

Dane’s dessert looked so cute and seemed perfect to have after a big meal, as it also looked light. The Jigglypuff shape of the cheesecake was kawaii and he couldn’t have chosen anything better! This is sadly now discontinued, so I’m glad Dane picked it up before it was gone forever! It’s a berry cheesecake so had a pink tint for Jigglypuff, some biscuits in the shape of musical notes and some cream and berries. As I said, perfect and light after a big meal!

After we had finished eating and had relaxed our full bellies a little, it was time to head to the till and pay. However, before doing that we made sure to take advantage of the photo opportunities around the Pokemon Cafe and have a nose at the merchandise on offer.

There’s a bench you can sit on in the Pokemon Cafe with huge plushies of both Chef and Waitress Pikachu. This is a great place for all the photo opportunities, which we made sure to take advantage of!

We also took some photos around the Pokemon Cafe at all the displays we viewed briefly as we walked through to our table and there were some pretty cool ones in there such as LEGO version of the Snorlax and Mew that is outside of the Pokemon Cafe AND Pokemon Center Tokyo DX (which you can read about here) and various prints from artists, which are also signed. It’s very cool!

 

 

Finally we decided to have a nosey at the merchandises we contemplated picking up. The only I ended up picking up for myself was the Pokemon Cafe red takeaway mug. I’ve wanted it for years, so I knew I wanted to pick it up from the cafe.

When we went to pay we were given the goods we had bought when we ordered our drinks and dishes from the menu, these includes the two glasses (Gengar and iced latte), a Pikachu mug (hot latte) and the Eevee plate from Dane’s main.

I had to add here I was a tad gutted about the mug I received… As Eevee is one of my favourite Pokemon, that’s the one I wanted. However, the staff wouldn’t give me one and said it wasn’t available, so I can only assume it was sold out, which is a shame! There will always be chances to get hold of it from sellers though. 🙂

The service was incredible at the Pokemon Cafe! The staff were all so bubbly and friendly to talk to and the majority of them spoke English too, even when you were trying to/were speaking Japanese, which was really nice.

Finally I want to show you guys all the goodies we came away with from the Pokemon Cafe, because I know you all love that sort of thing! 😛

First of all I’ll show the goodies we got when we made our reservations. Again, these are exclusive and can only be purchased when reserving your place at the Pokemon Cafe!

Pokémon Cafe Mascot Chef Pikachu – This little plush keychain plus is adorable and it really is a special item for me and Dane. Of course it is Chef Pikachu, the same one (well obvs not EXACTLY the same) that comes around in the cafe and greets you all. This is a mascot plush, so one you would typically keep on your bag and such, but instead we have popped this little guy in our plushie cabinet/case in our bedroom.

Pokémon Mascot Cafe Eevee – Honestly I love this Eevee so much! As many of you MUST know by now, I love Eevee, so when I first saw this little waitress/waiter Eevee I knew we had to order one! I wish this plush was in a bigger size in all honesty. It has the little red cap that the staff wear in the Pokemon Cafe. Like Chef Pikachu, this one is also in our plushie cabinet/case.

Pokémon Cafe Clear File 3 Piece Set (Reservation Bonus 2) – We knew we wanted to get some files for our trip in Japan, as a lot of places we ventured to (aka cafes) have the place mats that you fold/roll up and take home, so we wanted some files that we could do that with. We never actually used these, or any of the other files that we bought for this purpose. Even so these files will be handy for D&D BUT, I have started to wonder if you could frame these and hang them up like prints! These would especially look great around the house and in the kitchen. I have to add, the first file is by far my favourite! The mascots from the Pokemon Cafe are adorable. 🙂

Now onto the items we bought when ordering our food, as well as after when we were paying for our meal/goods. I also want to mention how aside from the Eevee plate, everything we bought below was packaged in sturdy Pokemon Cafe boxes, so we didn’t have to worry too much about bringing everything back… Although I did wrap the glasses and mug up in newspaper just to be sure. 🙂

Gengar Glass – I knew I needed this glass, it just looks really cool! BUT I didn’t quite know what to expect when I saw it out of the box and without the grape smoothie in! It’s a tinted purple glass, with the Gengar face we all know and lo… Are frightened of. 😛 It also has the Pokemon Center logo at the bottom of the glass too. I haven’t used this glass since we got home and if anything we have decided to keep it safe in our cabinet, alongside some of the other goodies we picked up in Japan, including the Pikachu mug we picked up in the Pokemon Cafe too.

Pokemon Cafe Glass – This is one of the few kitchen related items I grabbed from the Pokemon Cafe that I ACTUALLY use. 😛 I love my Pokemon Cafe glass and although I do get so anxious when I use it, I love it so much and it really does make me smile to use. It’s such a gorgeous design and I can’t really describe what the glass is like over than it shouts the Pokemon Cafe at you! On one side you have the Pokemon Cafe logo and a few various images of Chef Pikachu and Waitress Pikachu doing things in the cafe. 🙂 It’s perfect and just reminds me of the cafe whenever I look at it and use it.

Pikachu Mug – This was one of the things that Dane got and you could either choose between the Eevee or Pikachu mug. As I mentioned earlier, we wanted the Eevee mug but wasn’t available for us, so the Pikachu one came home with us and you know what? I actually really love the Pikachu mug! It’s so cute and well made to be honest with you. The handle is Pikachu’s tail, whilst the mug itself has a cute image of the happy Pikachu we have all grown up with over the years. It also has the Pokemon Center logo on the other side of the mug. It’s a lovely bright yellow colour which will really stand out in the cupboard where you keep your mugs!

Eevee Plate – This is the plate Dane got with his meal, of course he got a brand new plate, not the one he ate off of. 😛 This is a sturdy plastic plate in the shape of Eevee’s head and of course has an image of Eevee’s face on the plate too! It’s incredibly cute and I really love it! We weren’t 100% sure what we were going to do with it when we got home and we toyed with many ideas, eventually we decided to display it on our fireplace with one of my Eeveelutions prints and some figures. I love it so much and it really does brighten up our fireplace a litte.

Pokémon Cafe Red Logo Mug – Ever since the Pokemon Cafe opened in 2018 I have been eyeing up this red travel mug… I’ve nearly bought it from sellers on a couple of occasions but left it because I kept saying to myself, “Nat, you’ll be going yourself soon enough to get one yourself.” Two years later and I went and got! I’m so glad I picked this up as the quality is amazing! The lid feels really secure when you pop it on the top and not only can you drink hot drinks from this, but there’s space for a straw in the top too for cold drinks! I use this all the time for work if I fancy a coffee on my way, as well as if I want to grab a coffee as I’m heading to my desk for the day. I always get lovely compliments on it too. The pattern on the mug is similar to the one on the Pokemon Cafe glass I bought, with the Pokemon Cafe logo and some words.

So, would I recommend going to the Pokemon Cafe? Excuse my language but FUCK YES! If you are going to Japan and happen to be in Tokyo or Osaka (or both places for that matter!) then I would highly recommend to book yourself a reservation to the Pokemon Cafe before you go! Of course if you aren’t a fan of Pokemon, this may not be for you but honestly if you are, or at least were as a kid this will definitely bring back some nostalgia for you.

It was up there as one of my favourite places to go, as well as eat at whilst we were in Japan and I already know as and when I venture to Japan again, I’ll definitely book a reservation for the Pokemon Cafe for a second time. It was worth every penny and I was so happy during my time there.

What do you guys think of the Pokemon Cafe? Would you love to go? Go over to the website and tell me what you would order from the menu! Have you been to the Pokemon Cafe before? Let me know in the comments with which one you visited and what you had to eat.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far! 🙂

Japan Haul #1 – Pokemon Center

Guys it is officially the first post of my Japan trip and I am so excited to share it with you today!

I decided to kick start this post with two things I love, hauls and Pokemon. YES I will be sharing with you guys not only the goods I picked up from the Pokemon Center, but a quick glimpse of the Pokemon Center’s I ventured to as well as some random Pokemon bits and pieces too.

As a lot of you know, I am a massive fan of Pokemon and have been since the young age of 9 (I lose track of how old I was but I think I was roughly this age?). I’ve never looked back and it’s still a massive love of mine 21 years later.

Of course when I went to Japan I HAD to go to the Pokemon Center… More than one to be fair. 😛 I ventured to the Tokyo DX, Tokyo Station and Shibuya (Parco). Me and Dane did try to go to Mega Tokyo in Sunshine City, but this was closed. They’re currently refurbishing it for renewal, which will reopen in Spring this year! Sad that we missed out on that store… They did have the Pokemon Go Lab, which is a Pokemon Center… But full of Pokemon Go merch! We walked past and had a glace,but we weren’t bothered about going in to be honest with you… We don’t play Pokemon Go as much as we used to… Although we may get back into it for some fitness.

Years ago I discovered the Pokemon Center existed in Japan back in around 2011 when I finished university. I had loads of time on my hands and found out LOADS about it! I wanted to go, be there and experience it myself. I’d search for YouTube videos, just so I could see what it was like and imagine I was there. I never thought I’d get to go to the Pokemon Center myself, so being able to go with Dane was something magical for me and I was so excited.

The first one we went to was the Tokyo Station one, which is tiny! I was fascinated by all the plushies they had in there and wanted to buy so many. They also had a limited coin machine you could get a printed brass/copper coin from too for just 200 yen. I didn’t get one on my first trip. I went back and picked one up.

Just an FYI with this post, I won’t be including prices, as most stuff I honestly don’t remember… I just remember buying lots of stuff I wanted and paying a lot of money… 😛
I bought a few plushies from the Tokyo Station Pokemon Center including a Cyndaquil plushie and a Poke Doll Mew plushie. Surprising, Cyndaquil is one of my favourite Pokemon and out of all the games, it’s also my favourite starter to choose from too.
Later that day we ventured over to the Tokyo DX Pokemon Center, as we had the Pokemon Cafe booked (which I will be talking about on another post soon!) for the evening and Tokyo DX is right next door!

Just entering the building that takes you up to the Pokemon Centre and Cafe is amazing. There are four pictures that line the sides of the room which are COVERED in loads of different Pokemon and a lift in the middle. You have to take the left up to the 5th floor in order to get to both the Pokemon Center and Cafe. The doors open behind you when you reach the 5th floor and you’re met with a massive Snorlax, Mew and Pikachu statue in front of you with the Pokemon Cafe on the left and the Pokemon Center on the right of it. I was in awe and felt like a little kid. I was FINALLY at a Pokemon Center and I knew then that I was going to enjoy this moment the best I could. I took as much in as possible.

We had plenty of time to look around the Pokemon Center before our slot at the Pokemon Cafe was due, so we made sure to spend as much time shopping, taking photos and admiring the store as we could.

When you enter the Tokyo DX store they have a history wall to showcase and celebrate all of the Pokemon games that have come out, so from Red, Blue and Yellow back in 1996 to where we are now with Sword and Shield! It was amazing.

As well as that, outside where the area is for the statue (which separates the Pokemon Cafe and Center) there are little silhouettes of all Pokemon to date that cover the wall around the area. This was pretty cool to have a look at and we made sure to glance over as many of the silhouettes as we could! They have so much space leftover too to add anymore Pokemon, which is really cool. They clearly thought the idea through before doing it, which is amazing!

One thing I took advantage of at the Pokemon Center is the birthday discount you can get. If you visited the Pokemon Center (apart from the Tokyo Station, the other two I mentioned above did this!) on the month of your birthday you could get a birthday card, a crown AND 5% off that day in the Pokemon Center, amazing eh?! I made sure to take advantage of this. I just needed to show my passport as proof and I was okay. You get to write down what name you would like in your card (I did this twice I did one with Nat and the other with Natalee) and they get a crown for you too. On the back of the birthday card is the discount, which you MUST use that day (and I assume only in that store too?), which I made sure to do!

I don’t think I grabbed the discount when I visited the Tokyo DX store for a second time, which I was a tad annoyed about as I bought more than I intended to… OOPS!

I’ll talk about each store for now and of course, mention what I bought from there too.

First of all I’ll share what I picked up from the Tokyo Station store.

Mew Poke Doll Plush – I LOVE the Poke Doll plushies from the Pokemon Center and as I already own four of the Eeveelution Poke Dolls already, I know I wanted to get this Mew to add to my collection. Mew is one of my favourite Pokemon’s and when I saw and looked at this cute little Mew, I knew I had to pick it up. It’s eyes are huge, so kawaii!

Cyndaquil Poke Plush – Cyndaquil is actually my favourite starter Pokemon and has been since I first played Pokemon Silver in 2001. I knew that during our Japan trip I would pick up a Cyndaquil plushie at some point. I ended up getting two in the end (the second one was from a second hand store, so won’t be included on this post) which I wasn’t shocked by. At first I picked up one of the Pokemon Fit plushies but when I saw a bigger plush for just 100 yen more, I decided to pick this one up. It’s flame back is so damn fluffy and bushy! I couldn’t have asked for a better Cyndaquil plushie to be honest with you.

Dratini Plush Keychain – This was something I had been eyeing up loads during the whole holiday, as I had seen it through YY Kawaii when the campaign it came from first came out. I put off buying it until the last couple of days we were there. I wanted it, so I decided to pick it up! It’s a cute little Dratini plush keychain that has found its home on my Kanken backpack. If the weathers rubbish (which, let’s face it, has been awful lately!) I’ll take it off and pop it into my backpack until the weather improves. In Japan a lot of people (both men and women of all ages!) had plush mascot keychains on their bags, which I loved seeing! I’ve hardly seen it since getting back to the UK and it makes me sad. I like to think someone will see my backpack and my Dratini will make them smile. 🙂

As I mentioned previously in the post, I ventured to the Pokemon Center in Shibuya, but to be honest with you I only bought one thing (which is why I’m showing this Pokemon Center next)! The Pokemon Center itself was incredibly impressive with the Mewtwo in the glass tank, as well as some of the exclusive Shibuya goods. However, as we had previously ventured to the Tokyo DX Pokemon Center, this was incredibly underwhelming… Size wise anyway and the sort of items on offer.

Eevee Roll Cookie Tin – I had looked for this cookie tin in the Tokyo DX store, but all of the Eevee ones had gone, with only the Pikachu ones left. I like Pikachu… But not as much as Eevee! These have been opened by me and Dane and eaten some of the yummy treats! The roll cookies come in chocolate and honey flavours and they’re gorgeous! You didn’t get the chocolate ones in the Pikachu tin. I don’t know what I’ll be doing with the tin after all the goodies are eaten. 😛

So, I have saved the best until last… In terms of Pokemon Center’s… I found that Tokyo DX was my favourite out of the three I went to as it was the biggest and hence had more variety! It also had loads of artwork to take photos with. OH and the Pokemon Cafe was next door. 😛 I visited this Pokemon Center twice, as I just felt the need to go again to spend my monies. 😛

I’ve been so excited to share with you guys all the goodies I bought and what better item to start off with, than with an adorable plushie! 😛

Mew Sekiguchi Plush – I have wanted this plushie for about 4 years, so when I saw it in the Pokemon Center I knew I had to grab it! It wasn’t cheap, but I knew I was expecting to spend a lot of money in the Pokemon Center anyway so… Yeah. 😛 I think this was 2,900 yen, which in pounds works out around £20. This is so fuzzy and squishy which is amazing! It’s definitely something that stands out in my plushie case (it’s a book case full of plushies :P) which I love. I honestly regret not picking up the Eevee, Umbreon and Espeon Sekiguchi plushies too. 😦

Pokeball Random Mini Plush (Eevee) – This was a spontaneous item I picked up from the Pokemon Center and it was purely because me and Dane thought it would be fun to have a go and see which Pokemon we get! We could have gotten two different Pikachu’s, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Vulpix, Gengar, Snorlax, Mew, or Eevee, which is the Pokemon we got! It’s adorable and I couldn’t have asked for a better Pokemon to have inside the Pokeball. 🙂 The Pokeball clips into itself so it’s easy enough to open and close. I hate it open on my plushie case with the Eevee inside.

Eeveelution Puzzle – Me and Dane love doing puzzles together so when we spotted this Eeveelution one, we knew that we had to pick it up! It’s not a massive one, but it’s one we will make up and hang up in the house somewhere. 🙂

Mofu Mofu Eevee Mirror – I didn’t really need a new pocket mirror for my backpack, but I fell in love with the Mofu Mofu Eevee collection and whatever I found with the Mofu Mofu design on, I wanted. I started using this mirror when I got back to the UK and sadly, my first outing with this and using it, my perfume bottle leaked and it’s ruined some of the pattern on the front. 😦 This being said, it’s still kawaii!

Mofu Mofu Eevee Bento Lunch Pouch – I wanted so much more from the Mofu Mofu collection, especially the lunch related goods. I knew I couldn’t buy them all however, so I just picked up the lunch pouch, which I’ve been using for work to take my lunch in… Obviously. 😛 It’s so damn cute, it makes me happy to take my lunch to work in.

Eevee Cookie Tin – If there was one thing that the Pokemon Center has loads of, it was cookie tins! If anything, I regret not buying more. 😛 I picked up this Eevee cookie tin, as I’ve seen it around for years and knew I wanted to pick it up. The cookies inside are chocolate, with white chocolate in the middle. This is really nice, but to be honest they do leave a funny aftertaste in your mouth.

Camera Strap – July last year I treated myself to a new camera, a mirrorless one at that both for my holiday to Japan, as well as in general. As much as I love my digital SLR, it can be quite a chunk to carry around. Anyhoo, the camera strap that came with my new Sony camera is horrible and would cut into my neck… Not good! I noticed this Pokemon camera strap for sale and decided to get it! It has some of the more popular Pokemon on the strap itself, as well as a handy lens cap holder too! This was great to have whilst we were travelling around Japan and just wanted to keep taking photos, without the worry of losing the lens cap. I love this strap so much, its one of my favourite purchases during the holiday

Just an FYI – I bought a LOT of stationary related stuff from the Pokemon Center! I’ve been using it a lot for my Dungeons & Dragons sessions, as we as writing down notes here and there for my blog. 🙂 I love stationary and have always wanted stationary from the Pokemon Center, so it was just something I knew I was going to buy a lot of. 😛

Mofu Mofu Eevee Notebook – I have too many notebooks… I needed this one though. It’s adorable! I don’t quite know what I’m going to use it for as of yet… Maybe blog related stuff whilst I’m out and about? Dungeons & Dragons in the future? I don’t know… 😛 I just needed it! The designs on the front are adorable, with all the Eevee’s doing different things such as sleeping on books, holding quills in their mouths and sitting in teacups. Cute! There’s designs in the book too, with the Eevee holding the quill in it’s mouth again.

Mofu Mofu Clear File – I bought quite a few clear files whilst I was in Japan, but this is my favourite one by far! I actually bought this to keep my files in for Dungeons & Dragons, but as of yet I haven’t had the chance to use it. The image on the front of the two Eevee’s is so adorable, I’d frame it to be honest! 😛

Mofu Mofu Eevee Pen Case – I didn’t need a pen case… But due to how much stationary I bought whilst I was on my holiday, I kind of had to! That and the pencil case I use currently for all my stationary items is from when I was studying my GCSE’s at school… Which was 15 years ago now! That pencil case is great, but I wanted something smaller and more refreshing! This one is a perfect signs for everything I bought on the trip, and I really enjoy taking it out with me. It’s so cute to bring out of my bag when I want something to write with. The image of the Eevee’s cuddling together on he one side is so kawaii!

Mofu Mofu Eevee Mechanical Pencil and Pen – The blue design is the pen, the red is the pencil. There were four designs/colours in total including the blue and red ones I own, as well as a brown (pencil) and green (pen I think). I didn’t really want anymore mechanical pencils as I have a pink one I really love (well… loved until I bought my new ones in Japan :P) to use so I didn’t need another mechanical pencil. I picked up the pen, which is black ink and was happy. When I went back to the Pokemon Center, I ended up picking the pencil up too and I don’t regret it! The pencil writes really well and I much prefer it to my pink mechanical pencil to be honest with you! The designs on them both are gorgeous with the fluffy, happy Eevee designs all over.

Mofu Mofu Eevee Washi Tape – I decided whilst I was in Japan that I would become a washi tape collector… Purely because I’m working on a scrapbook soon about our trip to Japan and wanted to use cute patterned washi tape to make the scrapbook look pretty inside. Of course I couldn’t not pick up the mofu mofu design, which is just loads of cute Eevee’s running along the tape. I haven’t opened this yet and don’t plan to until it comes to me using it.

Pikachu Mechanical Pencil Lead – Due to now owning a total of four mechanical pencils, it’s always good to make sure to have plenty of pencil lead for these! I couldn’t get a mofu mofu Eevee design (they didn’t make one…) so instead I picked up a cute Pikachu design instead, which is kind of similar to the mofu mofu design. This came with quite a lot of 0.5 size led inside already, but as I owned some already from my first mechanical pencil, I decided to add them into this holder. I’ll never run out of led now!

Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Dragonite and Mew B-Side Label Stickers – Finally we have some stickers from the Pokemon Center. I’d heard about the B-Side label stickers from YY Kawaii and had always wanted to buy some… But never did. However, when I was in the Pokemon Center, I went overboard! I bought three when I went for the first time and then another three when I went the second time! There were cheap at 350 yen (£2.43) but the more you picked up, the more the price wound up! I picked up the Eevee, Dragonite and Mew stickers as these are my three favourite Pokemon. So, when I visited the Pokemon Center again, I knew I had to pick up the rest of the original Eeveelutions from Gen 1 as they were at the till I was being served at. I have zero regrets, I just don’t know where to stick them now. 😛

Overall, that is my haul from the Pokemon Center’s in Tokyo! I did buy more Pokemon goodies which were official from other stores, secondhand, or from kuji’s both me and Dane played on. I’ll be talking about those in another post in the future.

What did you guys think of the Pokemon Center’s I ventured to? As well as the goodies I picked up? What would you pick up from the Pokemon Center if you had the chance to go? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far, I’m poorly at the moment… Which sucks. 😦

 

Pokemon Center London – My Experience & Haul

This is a post I am writing literally 3 hours after I have arrived back home from our short trip to London… I am tired, unsure of what to do with myself right now and kinda poor. 😛 If you haven’t gathered from the title, I went to the Pokemon Center in London with Dane and we bought some stuff… A lot of stuff as a matter of fact.

I wanted to talk about my experience of the Pokemon Center in London here on my blog, because not only have I been excited for this pop up store to come to the UK (as mentioned in my October wish list here as well as on my October Newsletter) but I am also a MASSIVE Pokemon fan and have been since 1999 when the first generation games  came out in the UK.

So when I heard that we would be getting a Pokemon Center here in the UK, I knew I had to go… However there has been some ups and downs with this since it opened on the 18th October, which is over a week ago now. It shuts on the 15th November, when the new Sword and Shield games come out.

I went yesterday on the 28th October and I’m going to tell you all about it, including the good, the bad and the annoying. I’ll also be showing you what both me and my boyfriend Dane bought too… Because I just HAVE to show you all the awesome goodies we bought!

As you know as my reader(s) I’m from Birmingham and the Pokemon Center is in London. That’s either a 2 hour train or car journey to London for me. We did at first book a hotel and plan to leave early on the Monday to go and start queuing for the Pokemon Center at 5am… This plan didn’t wash with both me and my boyfriend though. We felt it was a waste of a hotel payment when we weren’t even sleeping in the room we’d paid for for long. So we cancelled our hotel, got our money back and decided to drive down early on the Monday morning.

We toyed with the idea of going stupidly early and semi stupidly early in the morning. Eventually we opted to arrive in London for 5am to begin queuing. We both woke up at 2am to get ready and at 3am we left to make our way down to London. It was a lovely quiet drive and we spoke about all sorts on the way down, including what we planned to buy, whether or not we would go upstairs to play the demo of Pokemon Sword and Shield as well as other things.

Before we knew it we arrived! We parked in the Westfield shopping centre and made our way through the quiet and empty shopping centre to join the queue. As we got closer to the queue people were bring brought inside by the security, which was good! It wasn’t exactly warm outside! Not long after we joined the end of the queue we were also led indoors into the warm, which I was grateful for! We joined the queue and sat down to make ourselves comfortable, we were due a lonnnnng wait!

Food and drink wise we made sure to take plenty with us to keep us going for the wait. We took Red Bull and Lucozade, some sweets and we even cooked some pizzas for us to have for lunch… Which we ate half of for breakfast and the rest for dinner in the evening! It was so odd, but that pizza was so yummy yesterday morning. 😛 Some of the restaurants and cafes open at 8am, but I did see some people leave the queue and later came back with McDonald’s breakfast.

We were waiting by Love Coffee, which I toyed with going to for coffee when it opened at 8am. We didn’t bother in the end however, as I was feeling really dehydrated and caffeine wasn’t something I was all that arsed about… Which is a shock for me!

Toilets were close by to where we were queuing all of the day and there was also some drinks vending machines too and were contactless payments, which was handy! I never carry cash. 😦 Security were amazing and if you don’t happen to be queuing as close to a toilet as we were, they’ll allow you to go and do your business and rejoin the queue when you return. Just make sure there is someone around to hold your space, or at least someone nearby who will remember you!

Entertainment… This is something you will definitely need to think about, especially depending if you’re on your own. No matter what time you join the queue, you will need to take some form of entertainment with you so that you don’t die of boredom! We didn’t take our Nintendo Switch in the end as I know Dane was worried about us being outside with it… What a shame we didn’t take it though as we were inside straight after we started queuing. I saw a lot of people playing their Switches together, as well as alone. We only took our phones for entertainment, which didn’t bother me too much, but I could tell that Dane was really bored!

If you don’t take a handheld games console with you, at least take a book and a battery pack for your phone! My phone didn’t go down to 10% until after we had left the Pokemon Center, which was good! But I know Dane’s ran low not long before we headed into the Pokemon Center.

Whether you’re going alone or not, both me and Dane regretted not taking earphones/headphones with us to tone out people talking and to kill some time as well… I made sure to connect to the free WiFi in Westfield as I didn’t want to eat into my data. I just regret it so much… It would have killed a lot of time as I could have binged YouTube videos and listening to podcasts.

I can’t think of anything else here in regards to what to plan for with waiting times… If you have any questions, just ask!

Something that annoyed me at this point of queuing was the amount of people who were taking up LOADS of space, when others (including us) were confined to hardly any space. If me and Dane both sat down next to each other we were practically on top of one another! A couple next to us had more than enough room to move over and give us more space, but the guy next to them wouldn’t move over. Behind that guy there were two guys and a girl who took up so much space. So much so, the guys were both lying down with their heads next to each other. It really pissed me off and they weren’t the only people don’t this. Security should have really nipped this in the bud, but didn’t, which pissed me off. I’ve posted the photo to show you guys what it was like. I’ve blanked out their faces but if you’re reading this who did this, shame on you.

Another thing that annoyed me was hearing people gossiping about stuff to do with the Pokemon Center that just wasn’t accurate or true. I could hear them telling people who hadn’t yet been (I have a feeling the person in question had been maybe once or twice) and what they were saying felt very scaremongering to me. I won’t mention what was being said as I don’t want to openly out someone, but it was frustrating me. I didn’t want to hear it, but I couldn’t help it. It was at this point I regretted not having some earphones/headphones on me… I don’t mean to sound nasty but I just want to be honest. I understand people sharing experiences or things they have read from the official Pokemon Center Twitter page, but to gossip about facts that are not true, is downright annoying…

A lot of people have mentioned online of how they have made friends with people in the queue, but sadly we just didn’t do this… We were tired, bored and hardly spoke to one another. Plus the people around us just didn’t seem that sociable.

Eventually around 8.15am we were moved forward and stood up for the remainder of out wait before entering the Pokemon Center. Security will keep you as bunched up as possible and don’t like you sitting at this point as it can take up more room! This was fine, but I was shattered. We were standing for 3 hours before we entered the Pokemon Center. I appreciated the sit down in the coffee shop we ventured to after.

Obviously we weren’t here at 8.15am! This was us at 11.15am.

Security were amazing! They were friendly to talk to, any questions you wanted to ask they were happy with answering and they made sure that people weren’t pushing in!

There were a couple of incidents where people either thought the queue started where we were and needed to be redirected and a few times people blatantly tried to push in. One guy was “on his phone” and stood at the end of the queue. Security asked him to move and leave and he was pretending to be on his phone, he blatantly wasn’t! He eventually got moved, but he clearly knew what he was doing was wrong.

Another great example of the security was how someone wasn’t feeling very well in the queue and they seemed to be having a panic attack. I think they were dehydrated and hungry, plus anxious so they were taken out of the queue to be sat and calmed down by security. Not long after we entered the store, I saw them in there. It was good to see they had perked up and been able to enter the store after queuing!

Please excuse my fat, tired, anxious face! 😛

Eventually after six and a half hours later we entered the store! We were greeted by happy staff at the front of the store, which was lovely! The store is tiny… Smaller than I thought it was going to be! It was really busy too, which was a shame because it meant I couldn’t “enjoy” the aesthetic of it as much as I had planned to.

For all the time we waited outside of the Pokemon Center, we realistically only spent 30-45 minutes in there. Crazy, right?

Wait… What is that pink thing on the back?

Mmm let’s look closer at that pink thing…

Would you look at that! It’s a lonely Ditto. 😛 Honestly if it wasn’t for the fact both me and Dane had picked up our 5 items each, I would have grabbed this forever alone Ditto. 😛

Look… He’s still there. 😦 😛

You go into the store and on the right you have the tills and on the left you have a section the Detective Pikachu merchandise and the new Galar starters. Still on the left you also have a mixture of the Galar starters again and some London exclusive merchandise.

We made sure to grab a London Pikachu plushie each! We kept one and we also bought one for a YouTube friend Found on Film, which I sent off today for her. FYI she paid for the Pikachu as well as the postage costs and I didn’t charge any extra for doing this for her. Yes, I am annoyed at people buying and selling stuff on eBay, but I don’t mind when people help out others.

Then you can go through a tunnel style part of the store to go to the back of the shop. On the left there was loads of Nintendo Switch stock for sale, including the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles, games and accessories for the Switch and Switch Lite. Next to that was a section FULL of various plushies, especially the cute Eeeveelution plushies! I toyed with the idea of picking up a Vulpix plush, but left it. I can always pick one up when I go to Japan if I really want one.

All along the right hand side were Pokemon Trading Card related merchandise and London exclusive clothing merchandise. I knew I wanted both of the London exclusive hoodies (one has a zip and one has a pullover) and when I went over to both of the hoodies in their sections there weren’t many sizes left! I made sure to grab XL’s in both and shoved them in my basket! I’m definitely not an XL in unisex, but I wanted to make sure that both of these fit me as I’d heard things about the sizes come up small. Plus, if Dane wants to wear the zip hoodie, he can, as it fits him too! 😀

Dane also picked himself up one of the white Pikachu pocket t-shirts too, which he quickly grabbed a bigger size in due to the sizing issues. I’m glad he picked that t-shirt up for himself!

Sadly I did not get ANY photos of this part of the shop, apart from me standing in front of the photo at the back. This was just due to how manic this part of the shop was… The only images I got were of the Eeveelution plushies. 😦

Then for the rest of our time in the shop we made sure to relax a little (we grabbed the bits we really wanted first) and have a nose around the shop. We ventured back over to the London exclusive items and picked up a poster, some stickers and I found some of the London socks thrown on top of the Galar starter merchandise, which I gave to Dane. The socks had actually sold out so we were VERY lucky to have found these!

We finally went over to the Detective Pikachu merchandise to have a nose at what they had. As regular and older readers will know, back in May this year I bought the lifesize Detective Pikachu plushie from Pokemon Center Japan (which you can see and read about here) through YY Kawaii and I still to this day love it! They were selling this plushie at the Pokemon Center in London, but it had sold out by the time I got into the store. However, they did have the smaller versions. I picked one of them up and instantly fell in love with it. It looked so happy with it’s face and it really did make me smile. I put it into my basket and Dane even picked himself up a little key chain version too! Now we have a big happy Detective Pikachu plush family! 😛

That was it! We were happy with all our purchases and headed to the till.

In regards to stock levels, when the queue closes for the day and any other updates in regards to the Pokemon Center, their Twitter page PokemonPopUp is the best place to go for updates! I constantly watched it whilst I was in the queue after the store opened at 10am for updates of what had sold out as we queued. For example I did toy with the idea of picking up the fleece blanket they were selling, but this sold out before we went in… Which I was gutted about! This being said, I’ll live. 😛

We decided to go upstairs to have a go at the Pokemon Sword and Shield demo, as whilst we’ve pre-ordered both the games I fancied having a look upstairs, take some photos and of course give them demo a go on a Nintendo Switch Lite. I’ve actually ordered myself the limited edition one for Pokemon Sword and Shield which I’m excited about! So, I wanted to have a go on a Switch Lite to see what it was like.

One of my favourite parts of the Pokemon Center was actually the photo wall they had upstairs! You could pick up and hold one of the Pokemon that is going to be a part of the new generation and I decided to grab Grookey for my photo. This is the Pokemon I’m planning to choose right now for my starter! I have to be honest (and vain) and say how much I love the photos that Dane took of me here! I’m not as keen on the photo from downstairs in the Pokemon Center and same can be said for the one outside too. I don’t know why… I guess I look a mixture of tired, anxious and stressed due to the waiting and then how busy it was inside the Pokemon Center. Upstairs where the demos were taking place was lovely and chilled, which I enjoyed. 🙂

The demo was fun, for the 10 minutes it lasted for. You were playing through one of the gym puzzles before you go and play the gym leader. I never got to finish battling the gym leader, but Dane did. We both loved it and enjoyed playing it on the Switch Lite! I plan to talk about the Switch Lite on my blog when it arrives next week (maybe the week after) by the way. 🙂

Once you’ve started to go upstairs by the way, you will not be allowed to go back into the Pokemon Center… You’ll be told this as you’re about to go upstairs so make sure you’re happy with everything you’ve done before going to play the demo.

Then when we had finished the demo we headed downstairs for one more photo of the Pikachu in the window and headed to a coffee shop for a sit down, something to eat and drink and chilled with my favourite independent artists Chibi Shibby (check out her store here!).

Shibby kindly picked up the umbrella for me from the Pokemon Center when she visited the weekend it opened! Due to how busy it was I started to get anxious that I wouldn’t end up going. Not only that, but I also worried that when we did go, the umbrella (which at the time was the thing I wanted the most!) would be sold out too. It wasn’t when we went, but we couldn’t see it anywhere!

We sat and chilled with Shibby for a bit and before we know it, we were all ready to head off home. Two hours later we got home at 3.30pm. We were shattered for the rest of the evening, ate our leftover pizza from the morning and I even filmed a video of a live haul and feelings about the Pokemon Center on my Instagram page.

FINALLY I am going to show you the goodies I picked up, the prices and why I picked things up. You know, the usual stuff I say when I write a haul post. 😛

• London City Pikachu Umbrella – £29.00

This umbrella is really hefty and it feels like a “professional” one, if that makes sense? It’s an automatic spring umbrella too, so when you push the button on the handle the umbrella opens up. It’s a navy umbrella with a Pokemon Center London logo and Pikachu on, but it’s inside the umbrella where the magic happens! Inside it’s grey with all the different London Pikachu poses, as well as some UK related things a Pokemon inspired red postbox, a lamp post, green bushes, clouds and even an Eevee. I am beyond excited to use this umbrella, but also anxious as hell because if this breaks, I will cry! xD As I mentioned in the post, Chibi Shibby was kind enough to pick this up for me (of course I paid her for it).

• London City Pikachu Scene Poster – £10.00

This wasn’t something neither me nor Dane contemplated picking up but when I saw it on show in the store, I just knew I had to get it. It was shown to the public a week or so before the store opened, which I fell in love with! I know a lot of people thought it wasn’t anything special, but honestly I did really like it. Granted, they could have done more but in my mind if they had of done more it would have looked too much and then people would have complained about that. You know? So yeah, the print made me happy! This will eventually be put into a frame and put on the wall somewhere in our house! I would have taken this out of the tube to show you all, but I want to keep it in there until we decide to take it out and frame. Dane picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Socks – £12.00

As I mentioned this was something I saw on the starter plushies and I grabbed them quickly for Dane! I would have loved to pick these up myself, but I feel like I had picked up enough stuff and I knew Dane would really like and get some use out of these. More so than I would have, for sure. I’m glad we managed to grab these considering they had been sold out. 😛 These socks feel really quite thick and they’re also really long, which is awesome! I know for a fact Dane will wear these in the summer with shorts. 😛 Dane picked these up in the store.

• London Pikachu Hiding T-Shirt – £24.00

This was originally a t-shirt I wanted to pick up, but left it as I wasn’t all that arsed considering I wanted the hoodies more. I was really happy when I turned around and saw that Dane had picked this up! I had read loads of people saying to pick up a size larger in the clothing as it seemed to come up smaller, which Dane did for this t-shirt. It fits him perfectly, but one issue we both have with it, is that it’s rather see through… This isn’t a problem, Dane can always wear something underneath it. 🙂 This t-shirt is really cool and I’m glad he picked it up for that alone! The London Pikachu is hiding in a little pocket on the front. I love t-shirts with these pocket designs. 🙂 Dane picked this up in the store.

• Detective Pikachu Plush Key Chain – £12.00

This little key chain version of the Detective Pikachu plush is adorable! Dane plans to keep it in his card, which I think is such a cute idea! A part of me was tempted to do this myself, but I don’t think I will do currently with my car. This is so soft and very small! They had loads of these left for sale, which isn’t a surprise. This would be cute to keep on an ita bag or a backpack, as it has this little clip so you wouldn’t need to worry about it falling off. 🙂 Dane picked this up in the store.

• Detective Pikachu Plush – £20.00

I cannot tell you how bloody happy this plush has made me. As I am writing this post I am currently every now and then looking over at it, as it is peering out of the top of the bag with all the goodies in from the Pokemon Center. I cuddled with this a little last night as me and Dane chilled out in bed and I really enjoyed it. I sound like such a kid, but sometimes things like that really do make you feel like a kid again. I just love it’s little face. It just looks so perfect and happy! I definitely have the perfect plushie here out of the bunch… 😛 I have to add here, I loved Sooty as a kid and not going to lie, I still love watching it now for the nostalgia and this plush sort of reminds me of Sooty due to the yellow colour and it’s cute little face. I think that’s one of the reasons it has made me so happy haha! I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Poke Plush – £20.00

Of course I had to pick this plush up… I’d have been crazy if I hadn’t. These sold out not long after we left the Pokemon Center (including the demo section upstairs) and I’m glad we were able to grab one. These were in pretty good stock when we grabbed ours, but this was something I wanted to make sure we grabbed first! I do not have a clue where I’m going to keep this little guy, but at the moment I am contemplating my manga cupboard, if not my cabinet that is full of Pokemon Center plushies from Japan. I love this plush, he’s got so much detailing to him and he’s just perfect! He has a bowler hat on, a Psyduck style umbrella, a tie that is covered in Poke balls and all around is pudgy and cute! He was well worth the £20 I paid. 😛 I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Stickers (4 Stickers) – £6.50

This was a random purchase and was a toss up between these and the greetings cards. I feel like if I’d have bought the greetings cards, I would have never used them… However with the stickers I’m planning on making a little scrapbook for our Japan trip, so I would like to stick loads of cute stickers I am accumulating together right now onto a scrapbook cover… OR do the same with a notebook for myself! I’m also planning on sending one of these stickers to someone in a Christmas card. 🙂 I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Crest Hooded Sweatshirt – £65.00

This was something I REALLY wanted as I’d seen photos of it and it just looked really comfortable, different and it’s limited edition… Why wouldn’t I want it! I’m not a small girl and usually when I buy hoodies I pick them up in a L… A man’s L more often than not. I can rarely pick up clothing from the Pokemon Center’s in Japan due to the sizing, as Asian sizes are usually a lot smaller than ours are here in the UK. So getting genuine Pokemon Center clothes is rare for me (I say this but I do own one Flareon tee…) so I knew I wanted this. I grabbed an XL to make sure it was lovely and baggy and damn it is!

It’s a dark grey zip up hoodie, so this will be perfect if I’m popping out for a while and just want to throw something on quick. It’ll be perfect for work too whenever I have dress down days and in the summer when I want something light to wear on the way to and from work. On the back there is a gold photo of the London Pikachu, with the year 2019 and London. There is even Mew and Mewtwo on the back too, which I didn’t notice until just now! The hood also has all the London Pikachu designs in, which is amazing! Finally on the left side of the chest is a Pokeball logo. I cannot wait to rock this this week. It wasn’t cheap by the way, I know but this is limited and worth every fucking penny to me! As this is an XL Dane can wear it too. 🙂 I picked this up in the store.

• London Sweatshirt Black – £55.00

This is the final item on this list and it wasn’t a sweatshirt I wanted originally, but the more people I saw sharing it and talking about it, the more I wanted it. I’m so pleased I picked this up and especially glad that I grabbed an XL in this too, although I feel like an XXL would have been better. This fits perfectly with a long sleeved t-shirt underneath, but I would have wanted it a teeny bit baggier… There is so much detail on this sweatshirt and for that I love it!

This is a black pull over hoodie, but it’s being called a sweatshirt with some yellow detailing in places. On the front on the left hand side there is a London Pikachu in a sitting position, which is adorable! This design hasn’t been on much merchandise alone, so I’m glad they did it on this sweatshirt. Below the pocket on the right hand side there is the coordinates of the Pokemon Center in London! Which is amazing! This store will never be there again (unless the petition actually works and Nintendo keep it permanently!) and it makes me feel cool to wear something like this. It’s just an awesome idea and I love it. It’s the main thing I loved about the sweatshirt. Then on the back there is a yellow Poke ball stitched on the left shoulder, which I didn’t notice until I tried the sweatshirt on and Dane pointed it out to me. I honestly love this and can’t wait to rock it during the colder seasons and especially in Japan! I picked this up in the store.

I want to make a disclaimer here, I am in no way showing off how much I bought and how much I spent… I mean let’s face it, why would I show off how fucking skint I am now?! I saved up for the Pokemon Center as I planned to spend a lot of money and I have zero regrets. I am a massive Pokemon fan… No matter what and it’s not like it’s everyday that we get a Pokemon Center here in the UK!

I wanted to show prices so that if people were/are planning to go to the Pokemon Center themselves, at least they/you could see the prices for items. 🙂

That was everything I bought anyhoo and now it’s time to wrap up this VERY long post…

So, what did I think of the Pokemon Center London? I have so many feelings about it that I will list below:

• I loved the Pokemon Center London, even with all the queuing. I waited 6 and a half hours, people have waited a lot longer than I have so I cannot complain. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t love queuing but before I knew it, we were going in!
• I hated how busy it was inside. Some people were rushing around and grabbing what they wanted, whilst others were relaxed and taking their time. I was actually one of the people rushing to grab what they wanted, as I was worried I had travelled all that way to find all the stuff I wanted was out of stock. I didn’t want that worry!
• I HATED how much anxiety I had in the run up to going, as well as moments before entered the store and even when I was in there.
• BUT I loved the relief of when I got the goodies I wanted the most (two hoodies and London Pikachu).
• If anything the thing I have hated the most from the Pokemon Center London is how selfish people have been. I’m not going to go into detail on my post but this store opening has really brought out how people can be.

This being said, I loved it. The child deep down inside of me was really excited for the pop-up store and I’m so pleased that both me and Dane went and we had a lovely time. 🙂

Would I go again? No. Not at all. Honestly I don’t need to. I don’t even think I would go with a friend because I honestly can’t be arsed to queue again. 😛

If you are looking to head to the pop-up store yourself then I will pop all the information down below for you, as there is plenty to take in! 😛

The store is open from Friday 18th October until Friday 15th November 2019.

Opening times are – Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm and Sunday 12pm – 6pm.

You’ll find Pokemon Center London at Westfield London, located at Ariel Way, Shepherd’s Bush, London, W12 7GF in the United Kingdom. The store will be fully accessible for guests of all abilities, and an elevator will be available for travel between floors. Taken from Pokemon website

Pokemon Center London Twitter – Make sure to read this for all the updates! They update it daily including when the store opens, when queuing ends, which products have sold out for the day and even have FAQ’s on there too.

So, are any of my readers planning to make a trip to the Pokemon Center London before it closes, or have you been already? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, including how crazy I am! 😛

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

A Geeky Collective Haul

I can’t actually remember the last time I wrote a haul post on my blog… A part of me feels like it was May 2016 when I was brought back some stuff from Fuerteventura… *goes to do some research* Okay I tell a lie! The last haul I did was back in October 2016 when I did a haul of what goodies me and Dane picked up from Birmingham’s anime and gaming con (I’ll pop a link here if you want to read that!).

BUT the time has come for yet another haul and a collective one at that! I’ve got stuff in this haul that I’ve picked up for about a month and everything in it is geeky! 😛 I was originally just going to call it a Pokemon haul considering most of the stuff is Pokemon related. But meh I don’t wanna do thaaaaaat! 😛

• Loungefly x Pokemon Tattoo Flash Print Duffle Bag.

This is definitely one of my favourite buys of 2017 so far and it’s a bag I have wanted for quite some time now! Everyone I know knows how much I love Pokemon so to be able to own a grown up handbag makes me happy. That and I also love the products that Loungefly come out with. I own a couple of their items and they’re all amazing. I didn’t buy this brand new from the website however, I’d need to take out a loan. 😛 I got this second hand from an eBay seller in the UK and it’s in great condition for how much I paid for it. It’s pretty much my anniversary present from Dane. I bought my bag and he bought himself something for the computer. So an all around win win situation! 😛 FYI I will be doing a post about this bag properly VERY soon! I’m too excited not to show it off on my blog. 😛

• Nendoroid Gumi.

FYI I was too excited about displaying her to wait a week to take pictures for this post, so I do apologise for all sorts of pictures… 😛 This was another eBay purchase and one I am so damn happy with! I have wanted the Gumi Nendoroid for as long as I can remember, but the problem was being able to find her at a decent price! Due to her being a Vocaloid and her being made and released back in 2013 it makes her rare I suppose and she can be pricey to pick up. Someone had her up on eBay for bidding and I JUST won the bid! She’s second hand but I don’t care. She’s been very much looked after and loved so that doesn’t bother me too much! She’s going to go on display next to Deadpool in our Nendoroid cupboard.

• Pokemon Center Eevee Collection Poke Dolls Vaporeon and Sylveon Pin Badges.

This was a random purchase and one I am SO glad I made now! YY Kawaii was advertising that she had some of the Eevee pin badges for sale and at the time I thought this was the only bit of merch I was going to snag from this amazing collection. Honestly this is the second Eeveelution collection I have bought from now and it is just as good as the last one. ANYWAY! I couldn’t decide on one Eeveelution so I picked two of my favourites, Vaporeon and Sylveon. In my opinion Sylveon looks the cutest out of all 9 for the pin badges! I have contemplated popping these on my Pokemon bag… But we shall see! 😛 I’m not 100% sure if YY Kawaii has anymore of these left to sell, I ordered mine with her over a month ago now sadly. You can always drop her a message and I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to help! If anything I regret not buying all of the Eeveelutions to be honest… But we can still try. 😛

• Pokemon Center Eevee Collection Poke Dolls Flareon Plushie.

This is definitely something I am SO HAPPY TO HAVE! If there was one thing I really wanted from this collection it was a plushie as they’re all so cute. I knew I couldn’t have all of them and my only option was going to be to pick up one. I then had the hard choice of picking just one, JUST ONE! Do you know how hard that can be? Well I ended up picking Flareon as I found it was the cutest one out of the bunch. Then after settling on one I wanted it was time to find someone who was willing to sell it at a decent price. Again YY Kawaii came to my rescue and sold this little cutie to me at a great price! It’s so fluffy and now lives with the rest of my Eeveelution plushies in the living room, it makes  me so happy. A part of me doesn’t want to keep this in the cupboard with all the others, but on the fireplace next to my Vaporeon and Flareon picture and figures… I want it to be safe away from direct sunlight though… 😦

• Tamagotchi 4U.

This is something I’ve wanted for a while after watching a couple of YouTubers I follow talk about them. These are only made in Japan and therefore are only available from there. I got this from a seller in the UK so it’s secondhand. I think it’s only had one or two owners which isn’t a bad thing! It wasn’t exactly cheap for what it is but it cost me less to actually buy this than our up to date Tamagotchi here in the UK! It’s a colour screen and sadly is ALL in Japanese. With a bit of Googling I’ve managed to work out what stuff means on here. The only problem I’m having with it so far is trying to work out how to keep my Tamagotchi alive whilst I’m at work… But that’s what the babysitter is for. Yeah there’s a babysitter in the game. 😛 Sadly when it came to taking pictures of my Tamagotchi it was telling me how the batteries were dead. Fuck sake. 😛 SO I attached a picture I took the day after I got it. 🙂

• Primark Pokemon Pyjamas.

I wanted to get myself some new pyjamas due to the weather getting warmer and I thought why not get some Pokemon ones! I had to pick these up from eBay as 1. I don’t really get near a Primark store these days due to how busy I am and 2. They probably don’t stock these anymore. I didn’t pay much for them and let me tell you, they are hella comfortable! After getting the ones from eBay I ended up buying more when visiting an actual Primark store recently. I ended up buying a Pokemon pyjama top as well as some Pikachu shorts. The first set is from eBay and the second is from where I went into an actual Primark store instead of paying extra and being a busy/lazy bitch. 😛 I decided to go a size up when buying all of these and whilst I don’t consider myself to be a skinny moo, these are HUGE on me, especially the second set I bought. This isn’t a bad thing as it means that I’ll be comfortable, but i’m just saying it as it’s something to be wary of. I also picked up some Pikachu boyfriend boxers too but I don’t need to show them off.

So those are all the geeky goodies I picked up over the past month. I have bought a lot and thus spent a lot of money… *smacks hand* NAUGHTY NAT! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SAVING MONEY! No in all honesty though, a lot of this stuff to me felt like things that if I left them I probably wouldn’t get them again for a while, or at the price I paid. Examples of that being the Loungefly x Pokemon bag, the Tamagotchi (which I have discovered eat batteries like a motherfucker!), Gumi Nendoroid figure and possibly the Pokemon Center goodies too… So practically most of the shit on this haul. xD

For the rest of this month and well, until the holiday in September I’m going to be as good as I can with my cash! It’s now time to stop being daft and spending my money willy nilly and save it towards the holiday, as well as things for the house! Yesterday I bought some flowers for the garden, which is really exciting! I can’t wait for our house to be 100% done so that I can show off my favourite parts of it to you guys!

SO what items have you accumulated recently? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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