After a 17 hour flight, including a 6 hour stop-over in Singapore, I arrived in Japan on Thursday morning. I often read Misako Aoki's blog and she mentioned that she would be attending the opening of a new Leur Getter shop in Kyoto on the 26th. I met Misako at the Kera shop in Osaka last year in June so I was really excited at the possibility of meeting her again. Here's a picture from Misako's blog from the meet at Kera Osaka in May last year. It truly was great to be able to meet her and have a chat.
I admit I spent a good deal of time getting ready so I was late leaving the house and didn't get a snap of my outfit before leaving. There was also the problem of the mirror in the hallway being cluttered with luggage. (Most embarrassing behaviour.)
I wore a very similar outfit to this one below with the only change being the brown Innocent World head band that I wore with the cream beret.
Luckily, I managed to catch the right train and arrived in Kyoto at 10:30am. The opening was scheduled for 12 so I decided to check out the place where Leur Getter was and then look for a place to get lunch before heading to the actual opening. I exited the station and headed to Teramachi street. If you're familiar with Kyoto you may know the Teramachi street shopping area and maybe even the Metamorphose shop there. The Leur Getter store is about a minute walk on Teramachi street opposite the shopping mall exit closest to Metamorphose.
After finding the store's location, I returned to the Teramachi Mall and decided to take lunch at the Lipton cafe right at the exit onto Shijo street. The Lipton cafe is a quaint chain cafe around Japan. The main draw card is voluminous Western-style sweets and special drinks, however there is also a lunch menu, both of which can be ordered in a "set" which is a food plus a simple drink for a special price. I chose the daily lasagne with meat and eggplant and an ice coffee. When the drink arrived I realised I had missed a great opportunity of drinking a Lipton tea at the Lipton cafe and to be honest the coffee was not to my taste. The lasagne, however, was amazing. A thick topping of tasty white sauce topped with cheese with two layers of pasta with rich beef mince and eggplant. It was very hot so it took me a while to eat the whole thing but I enjoyed. Every. Single. Mouthful.
By the time I had finished it was around 11:30am so I fixed my beret and lipgloss and headed down Teramachi street to wait for the opening. When I arrived the shop was already open and the little shop was full to bursting with keen Lolitas. Out the front was the creative director of Leur Getter, and Misako Aoki.
The creative director is a wonderful older lady who was also the head designer of Emily Temple Cute but has moved on to heading this brand. I was very lucky to meet her once before when she came to look after a boutique in Kyoto for the weekend. She remembered me too! She is very easy to talk to and spoke about how happy she was to open the store and encouraged me to enter the shop and try something on as it would "surely suit me".
I also spoke to Misako Aoki, who looked gorgeous in a full Leur Getter outfit. This picture is from her Line Blog.
She asked me about my trip and where I was going. I mentioned that I was interested in going to Tokushima. She laughed as she professed that despite being Japanese she'd never been to Tokushima. I asked her if she was going to do anymore events but she answered that she was unsure if she would be doing anything in the Hyogo/Kyoto area while I would be in Japan.
Misako wasn't taking pictures at the opening event but if I had bought something over ¥20 800 I could have gone to a flower viewing party with Misako later in the day. Being the first week in Japan, I decided against buying something so expensive so quickly. I took my leave at this point so that more Lolitas could browse the store. I took a few pictures of the shop front and said goodbye to the newly opened Leur Getter shop.
Teramachi is very close to OPA Kawaramachi, where Baby the Stars Shine Bright is. When I lived in Japan in 2014/2015 Angelic Pretty hadn't opened. I believe that my visiting Baby in Kyoto greatly affected my own style. It was so wonderful to meet up with the staff, Bambi and Leo. Leo helped me to try on the new releases Snow Dot JSK in sax, Marie Antoinette JSK and skirt. She is amazing at tying waist ties, there's a video of her doing it on the net floating around somewhere. I was quick to cast my eye over the blouses and after a serious conversation with Leo about which would sell out first I decided to get the blouse. Surprise! I had forgot my passport. Without it, I could not get it tax-free so I put down ¥1 000 to hold it for a week.
So, my next adventure is decided! I'm still unsure what I will do next week but I do know it will involve the acquisition of a beautiful chiffon blouse from the new Easter series. I hope you will join me then!
) so I would like to add a few more items to my suitcase. Specifically, two more jsks: the Dear Bunny JSK, which I promised to twin with a friend with and my Kumya Kuma Sweet Chocolate JSK, which I just really want to wear in Japan; I would also like to add a pair of plain coloured woolen tights to keep my legs warm during the cooler spring months.
