Japan trip Spring 2015 part 2a - March 21, Day 1: Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 Yui Kanno event

I was really unsure how I wanted to organize the posts for this trip. Last time, I did one post per general topic (general/Liz Lisa shopping/other shopping/food & site-seeing) and kind of just did a photo dump without a lot of explanation lol. This time, I think I'm going to try and organize it chronologically which can help be a little more location specific and will help me remember where we did certain things due to when we did them lol, and then add a few separate topic specific posts at the end. Hopefully, this won't drag on forever but I think I want to make a few of the posts shorter so I can just publish them sooner. We'll see how this ends up haha, I'm kind of just winging it.

This trip was somewhat spontaneously planned in November 2014. My brother's gf's family decided they wanted to go to Japan during spring break and invited us (my family) to join them. The airline tickets weren't outrageously expensive, so we just decided to go.
I got on a plane in Hawaii on March 19 and left at 05:30pm. I arrived in Japan on March 20 at around 10:30pm. S and I took the Keikyu Line from Haneda Airport to Shinagawa station, checked into the hotel, and basically just went to sleep lol. (My parents and the other family had flown in the day before so S and I were flew and arrived on our own.)

The next day (March 21), my plans included the Yui Kanno event at Shibuya 109!

I had browsed the Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 crooz blog for details and knew that if I wanted to take a Polaroid  with Yui Kanno, I needed to purchase at least 8640yen worth of Liz Lisa product (and if I wanted a photo frame and signature, that amount needed to include at least one of her collab items).

OOTD - Liz Lisa sleeveless lace top, Liz Lisa wagon skirt, Liz Lisa rose quilted bag, Liz Lisa lace-up back pumps, OTK socks and Charlotte Russe pom pom cropped knit

I knew that I would be waking up early (jet lag wtf), so my plan was to just wake up at whatever time and head over to Shibuya.

I left around 07:35am from my hotel room and got to Shibuya 109 at around 8:05am. A line had obviously been formed from much earlier, and it was pretty clear that it was for the Yui Kanno event because of all the girls dressed in Liz Lisa!

At around 8:30am, men who I interpreted to be Shibuya 109 security rearranged us a bit so that we were looping in the circular elevator area rather than down the side of the building along the street. Also probably worth noting that I'm writing this (and all Japan travel posts) from the perspective of someone who speaks/understands only a little Japanese. I took about 2 years' worth of Japanese classes in college so that helps me understand a lot of simple phrases, etc and definitely helps me get by, but a lot of shop staff and other people in service-related positions often phrase things really politely, and I have a lot of trouble comprehending it. But anyway, the security guys used a lot of hand motions, and I basically just followed whoever was in front of/around me, so the language barrier didn't affect me too much there.
I think there were around 25 people in front of me at max. There were less than that many people behind me at around 9:30am wtf so I probably could have arrived a lot later.

After the security guys finally finished rearranging us, this was my view. I was exactly the first person after the "turn" which faced me essentially onto the street, away from the entrance to 109.

Everyone behind me was facing the same way, so it would have been weird if I tried to face away from the street. At the same time, it felt weird to stare out into the street too...Also, most people who were waiting were entertaining themselves on their cell phones, and I was nervous that my phone and/or the pocket wifi would die (it was only the morning and I'd need it for the rest of the day as well), so I used mine for a bit, but after awhile my hands were wayyyy too cold anyway. It was my first day in Japan, I was still adjusting to being in anything below 70F (it was around 48-55F), and I only had a knit on because my first purchase was meant to be a faux leather Liz Lisa jacket (which I still needed to buy obviously but the mall wasn't open). I was stupidly dressed I guess, but it was only because I was so close to the "outside". I think if I was waiting closer to the entrance, I wouldn't be as "exposed" to the wind/weather etc because the building would be more protective wtf.

Minami and another Liz Lisa 109 shop staff came out at around 9:30am to show us examples of some of the Yui Kanno collab items - 2 dresses, cardigan, shoes and rose barrettes. I couldn't understand most of what they were talking about and explaining, so I got a little nervous in case it was important, but I felt like I still had a reasonable grasp on what the blog entry said, so I wasn't super worried.

Minami took a picture of all of us who had waited before Shibuya 109 opened, and it was posted on the official blog. I'm standing up in the "back row", second from the absolute left in white. The girls in my part of the line (after it turned) were supposed to be kneeling but the girl next to me and I decided it would be okay if we stood since we weren't blocking anyone and were so far away anyway lol. The people standing and farthest from the camera were all the girls in front of me in line. The kneeling girls are all those who came after me.

At 9:45am, we were led into the building. We were instructed to go up the escalator to the third floor and from there, we would be lining up on the stairs. (I semi-understood when they were explaining it, but again, language barrier wasn't much of a problem because all you had to do was follow the person in front of you.) Then we waited in this line until the store opened at 10:00am and then we moved a little as the first few people reached the register (I think? I couldn't actually see lol.)

It wasn't too long before I reached the actual store (from the stairs), and I could see that the line basically just went to the register. So essentially I was in line to check out even though I didn't have anything with me. I saw a few girls browsing in the store, but I wasn't sure about that and didn't think I should get out of line.

This is where things started to get a little "unknown" to me as someone who couldn't understand the instructions lol. A sales girl was going down the line and handing out shopping bags and taking reservation slips. It was my first day of my trip so obviously I hadn't reserved anything last weekend and was kind of confused because I thought I would be able to shop around myself. (Wrong.) The shop staff asked me something in Japanese that I totally couldn't understand and I mentioned "English" and then shop staff Ikumin was brought over to help me. (I follow her on IG @akaikumin and know she just came back from Australia so I was hoping the language barrier wouldn't be too hard.) I figured out that they were asking me what I wanted to buy so that I didn't have to get out of line. I knew what I wanted, but only one of those items were from the Yui Kanno collab and didn't realize I could ask her for anything in the store and also I was trying to speak in broken Japanese (mistake), so there was a lot of confusion on both sides, but eventually I managed to get the Yui Kanno collab rose barrette and essentially told Ikumin that I would get the other items I wanted. I saw the faux leather jacket on the path to the register, so I was confident I could grab it myself but was nervous about grabbing a few other things without actually leaving the line. The girl behind me in line had been there since about 8:15am, so we were pretty "familiar" with each other, but I had never talked to her once, and she seemed pretty content in keeping to herself on her phone, so I didn't want to try and talk to her in my barely elementary level Japanese. But when I was like 1 person away from the register, I somehow managed to ask her if I could go and grab something and come back and she seemed okay with that, so I took 10 steps out of line to pick an OP I knew I wanted and then came back and thanked her quickly. My plan was to purchase enough to get the jewelry box novelty though, so I knew also needed to also grab a small accessory somehow. I spotted a few close to the register, and when someone came to lead me to check out, I also grabbed something off a shelf to add to my order. Whew. I checked out and was given two tickets - one for the photo taking time and another that said I would be getting the signature and photo frame as well.

I was done with my purchase at about 10:45am. The photo taking session I picked was 12:00pm - 01:00pm.

Meanwhile, S's mission for the morning was to go to the Shibuya Sansui (fishing store) to purchase the rods he and his brother had ordered through email. They had to be packaged and sent to Osaka and arrive before we left in a week, so it was essential to get this done as soon as possible.

He met up with me at around 11:00am at Shibuya 109, and we walked over there together. It's about 9 minutes away if you don't get lost lol. (We got a little lost in that we went the wrong way a few times, but not like hopelessly lost wtf.)

I wanted to get back to Shibuya 109 at around 11:50am (ten minutes before the photo event) so I left S at Sansui at around 11:30am and made my way back in case I got lost again lol wtf.

I was a little early, so I went to the bathroom for a quick hair check, and then went back to the store. There were a few other girls waiting around but no concrete line created until around 11:50am when we started forming a line down the stairs.

Omfg I did so much waiting this day lol wtf.
I was about 10th in line for the photo taking. Even though my ticket said 13, I guess that doesn't matter for the order in which you get to take the picture. The first 5 or so girls/groups of girls took a really long time. The line didn't move in such a long time that I was worried I was actually in line for the 02:00pm session or something wtf. And there were still like 35+ people behind me, mind you. I finally got into the "secondary waiting area" which is inside the store at around 12:25pm. Minami tried to talk to me when I was finally next to go, but I didn't understand part of it, so I just told her (in Japanese) that I was from Hawaii because I didn't know what else to say lol. When it was my turn, she also told Chiharu that I was from Hawaii who told Yui Kanno I was from Hawaii lol. The next part went really fast. I think I handed over my shopping bags to Chiharu so I could "meet" Yui Kanno and take the picture. I was told where to stand and Yui Kanno kind of talked to me about Hawaii a little I think and then we posed and took the picture. One of the assistants (?) stuck the polaroid onto the photo board and Yui Kanno asked me what my name was so she could sign the photo while it was processing, took both of my hands to thank me, and then I was out! (I think.)

I knew the next part was taking photos with this floral heart thing so I went to do that next (it was immediately outside of the photo taking area which was sheltered), and I accidentally cut in front of the girl who had been in line in front of me! I thought the girl who had just finished with the floral heart was the only person in front of me/I was just next, and I had to apologize a lot to the other girl waiting, and it was very embarrassing. She insisted I go first anyway >,<. Ikumin was taking the photos for us. I handed her my phone and posed a bit, but I was already so flustered with the not speaking Japanese well earlier thing + accidentally cutting that I was totally uncomfortable lol wtf. Ikumin also asked if she could take a photo to post on the blog and I said okay. She made sure I was okay with both of the photos she took on each phone, and even had to redo one because my eyes were closed FML. At that point, I just wanted to get out of there lol. S had finished at the fishing store and was waiting for me anyway.

Photo posted on the Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 store crooz blog!

My shopping bag with my purchases on the left and the polaroid with Yui Kanno + signature + phone frame on the right. The photos taken were not the best of me wtf. Such a waste. Idk why but I was so uncomfortable and also LOOK uncomfortable and made such weird smiles wtf! I also meant to bring these lilikoi fruit bars (from Hawaii) to give to either the shop staff or Yui Kanno to help explain that I was from Hawaii (and therefore sorry my Japanese is so crappy), but in my haste in getting ready in the morning had forgotten them! Aiyo. FML.

Here's what I bought from Liz Lisa. (Picture taken way after the day purchased.) 

Riders faux leather jacket in beige, logo floral OP in pink, Yui Kanno collab rose barrette in pink, rose and bow hair clips in pink + Yui Kanno collab print jewelry box novelty in pink

I think I want to do a blog post with all the Liz Lisa items in it/coordinates after I finish blogging about each day's activities, so they'll all be in one place. (I hope that ends up being a good decision lol.) Also because I haven't even had a chance to take photos of a lot of the items, and I don't want to delay blog posts I could easily publish otherwise because of that, so hope you don't mind the wait!

Okay so that all happened from about 8:00am to 12:30pm. Was it worth it to go so early? Tbh I don't think so considering at around 9:15am, the line of girls behind me wasn't that long and I probably still could have gotten a slot for 12:00pm (versus 2:00pm). Even at 9:45am, it didn't seem like there were very many girls. I'm not sure how the line looked past 10:00am though. I had previously read about others' experiences with Liz Lisa events saying that girls would be lining up at 5:00am for some of these, but I definitely didn't want to go that early, especially on the first day of my trip in what I consider very cold weather. When I left for the morning, I was thinking even at 8:00am, I might not get a spot in the first 50 but that was totally wrong wtf. I'm not sorry I went though even though the pictures of me were so fugly. If I could do it over again knowing what I know now, I would. And would probably go, at earliest, around 09:00am and just try my luck with that later time.

For lunch, S and I walked around Shibuya intending to go back towards Sansui and just ended up in this soba place on the first floor of some building, I think. He led us in the wrong direction to the store anyway (which I mentioned but he ignored wtf).

I like to eat ramen, but actually have never eaten soba before (and I don't particularly care for udon), but it was pretty good. I just wanted to get something simple and hot. We had seen a picture of chicken karaage in the window for this restaurant, but apparently that either wasn't available for lunch or just not available wtf. But it was okay anyway.

Afterwards, we went into a convenience store and a Bic Camera. We just needed to kill a little bit of time before our next planned activity.
...which I will write about in my next blog entry since this one ends kind of concisely with the event here!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Japan trip Spring 2015 posts
Part 1 - Pre-trip planning
Part 2a - March 21, Day 1: Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 Yui Kanno event
Part 2b - March 21, Day 1: Hawkeye Owl Cafe
Part 3 - March 22, Day 2: Kawatsura Strawberry Farm, Chiba, Shinjuku
Part 4 - March 23, Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market, Yokohama, Machida
Part 5 - March 24, Day 4: Omiya, Ikebukuro, Takadanobaba, Asakusa & luggage forwarding
Part 6 - March 25, Day 5: Shibuya, Shinkansen & Osaka
Part 7 - March 26, Day 6: Tennoji MIO, Nara Deer Park
Part 8 - March 27, Day 7: Kobe (steak), Namba/Shinsaibashi & Keiko
Part 9 - March 28, Day 8: Kyoto, Berri & home
Part 10 - Hotels and Pupuru pocket wifi review
Part 11 - Liz Lisa shopping items/coordinates
Part 12 - Liz Lisa x My Melody 6th collab OPs and hand towel 

Japan trip Summer 2014 posts
Japan trip Summer 2015 posts

Japan trip Spring 2015 part 1 - Pre-trip planning

I know there's a huge amount of people who like to be spontaneous and just travel with zero plans. I am not that kind of person. I really don't like the feeling that I missed something that I could have easily gone to if I had just known the information beforehand and had planned for it. I feel like planning is also good for budgeting. I tend to overbudget anyway (better to come home with money not spent than to have run out of money and be in huge debt after trip imo), but I just like to have a general idea of what a trip will cost for me since I don't have unlimited funds.
This is probably quite a boring post for many of you, but for people who like to plan like me and think they might want to have an itinerary similar to mine (emphasis Liz Lisa), then there may be a few tips or informational bits that you may find very helpful! (Hopefully.) Keep in mind that I'm not going to go into detail about activities since the focus of this post is simply planning for them. Future posts will explore the actual experiences.
Again, this is going to be one of those posts where this is just my opinion/my own way of planning for a trip to Japan. I acknowledge that there are many, many different ways to go about organizing a trip like this, and I don't claim for mine to be better than any other particular method, but this is what has been working for me, so I wanted to share it! 

Planning the flight (airlines, days, times, arrival, departure) -
This is obviously highly dependent on each individual person so I don't think it would be helpful for me to walk you through anything related to this, but I just had a few notes about it. Personally, (from Hawaii) my family likes to use Hawaiian Airlines to fly into Tokyo HND.

We regularly receive great service, and we also have Hawaiian Miles, so this is an obvious choice for us, but I know it's not really a worldwide option, and you will likely know what's best for you. The downside is that there's only one direct flight into Tokyo per day, and it arrives at around 10:30pm which means after we've gathered all our things, we still have to make it to the hotel, and hope that we arrived on time and can still catch the train rather than get a taxi.
Basically the key to taking away from your flight(s) is knowing what time you'll be arriving/leaving at what airport and using those as guides to help you plan for your first and last day in Japan.
If it's your first time in Japan or your first time flying into a particular airport, you may want to look up your access options. As an example, for Haneda, I look here.
My family's plan for transport is to use the train (versus airport limo, taxi, shuttle, walking). They've actually improved the website since my last trip and have now included pictures which makes catching the train even easier!  They even have a video!

All instructions pertaining to catching the train on the website are available in English (you may even want to print this if you're really unfamiliar), and there are also usually a few attendants on site available to help you with the ticket machines as well.

Picking a hotel -
This is also highly variable on individual priorities (convenience, cost, size, etc.), but just to share how my family usually picks...we have a price range we keep in mind, but our most important factor in picking a hotel is usually convenience and location relative to train stations. Our main mode of transportation in Japan are the trains and subways (versus renting a car or catching a taxi everywhere), so it's very important to us to pick a hotel that is near a train station. And not only that, but a train station in a easily accessed location. For example, in Tokyo, we usually like to look for hotels near stations on the JR Yamanote Line which is a loop line that hits a number of major stations in Tokyo that can also easily serve as connections to other lines.

If you know there are certain attractions you want to visit (i.e. Ueno Zoo, Disney Sea, Shibuya 109, etc), think about where they are in relation to the hotel you are researching.
We've stayed at the Prince Shinagawa hotel in the N tower previously and were very happy with its location despite the small size. Shinagawa is a major station, on the loop line, and we can even catch the shinkansen from there directly to Osaka. Not only that, but the Prince Shinagawa is a short 2 minute walk from the station and easy to find, so after a long day, we don't need to trudge through a neighborhood for 10-15 minutes to finally get back and rest. Tbh, anything farther than a 5 minute walk from the station wasn't extremely appealing to us and anything we had to walk 15 minutes for was out lol.
For reviews on the hotels I stayed at during my July 2014 Japan trip, the Prince Shinagawa (N Tower) in Tokyo and the Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka in Osaka, see this post.
 
Planning your daily route/transportation -
I mentioned this in my previous trip's "Getting around" post so I'm not going to go into detail about what it is in this section, but my family likes to purchase the JR Rail Pass for transportation, particularly because it pays for itself with a few longer shinkansen rides. Read more about it here.

It is especially a good deal if you're going from Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto and back. On this spring's trip, my family is only going one way (from Tokyo to Osaka and not going back) but we still decided it was worth the convenience to get the JR Rail Pass since we will mainly be using the JR lines anyway and the difference between buying it and not buying it would be somewhat miniscule based on the price of it at the time. The reason this needs to be included in planning is because it needs to be purchased before you enter the country as these passes are for tourists/temporary visitors to Japan only. The site I like to buy from is here. [Note that you will be charged in Euro.] It is delivered to my house in the US in about 2 days.
If you're going to be catching the trains/subways and are unfamiliar with Japan's rail systems, it can be a little intimidating or confusing. It is definitely advisable to have a printed map of the train lines with you on hand to help you if you're not familiar with the layout of the stations, especially in relation to each other.
Google maps helps to an extent. I like to use it to give me a general idea of where a physical building is, but not to actually help me figure out the train route. For example, if I heard about this great restaurant in Saitama, I'll google to find the address and then put it in Google maps to see generally how far it is from the hotel, what its nearest station is and where it is in relation to that station. But I likely won't use the directions to route me. Instead, I simply note the station name and then hop over to Hyperdia.
It's not always easy to figure out which trains you should be catching to get to a certain location since many of the maps looks quite complicated to an unfamiliar viewer. Hyperdia makes it very simple. Start to type the name of the station you want to leave from and then which station you would like to go to, and it will search and tell you what your route options are, how long it will take, how much it will cost, etc.
You can also set the date and time if you know you want to be in Place B by XX:XX on MM/DD. It doesn't work too many months in advance, but it will still give you a very reasonable estimate if you wanted to start planning very early and then you can go back and double check the times, etc. later.
You can also set other search limitations (such as routes only using private railways or only routes using JR lines) and have it sort routes by time, price or transfers. This site has a lot of great options and features, and I highly recommend using it.
I think you can also use it from your phone, but sometimes you don't want to wait for wifi so I like to have this kind of information on hand and ready at a glance. You can obviously just easily write it down on paper, but I usually keep track like this -

with most of the trip just laid out on this spreadsheet with a number of the things we might do. I can't cover everything, but I like to get the "must-do" attractions and places on there. I printed out a few copies of this to distribute to the other people I'm traveling with which is good for people who are unfamiliar with the train system because it takes a lot of guesswork out of "which route is best/fastest/cheapest" because I likely already identified it.

Planning for Liz Lisa -
This sounds like a weird concept, but if you're like me and one of the big highlights of your trip is going to be visiting Liz Lisa store locations, I feel like it helps to be prepared, especially if you've never been to one before! And this is really the reason I'm writing this post. Whereas I'm sure there's a berth of knowledge about planning for hotels, transportation in Japan etc, I don't think many (travel) bloggers touch on specifically planning for shopping at Liz Lisa, so I wanted to share some of my tips.

Liz Lisa Hep Five in Osaka, July 2014

I usually like to include at least two Saturdays (if I can help it) in my trip. Why? Because Saturday is new release day! I will obviously still have the option to buy these items online later if need be, but if I'm already in Japan, I won't have to pay for shipping lol. Saturdays are also usually the days when sales will start or days that store events will occur (if any). If you're planning your trip more than a month or so in advance, you likely won't know for sure what (if any) events will occur during your time there due to their announcement schedule, but if you would like to even have the possibility to attend while you're there, including at least one or two Saturdays is your best bet imo.
During my July 2014 Japan trip, I specifically picked travel dates around Shibuya 109's 7 days bargain/summer sale. They don't announce the dates months and months in advance, but what you can do is research when the sales occurred in the past and find a pattern. This goes for the same for just individual smaller sales/events/releases for Liz Lisa.
For example, I know I want to visit the Shibuya 109 Liz Lisa location so I go to their blog here. [All Liz Lisa stores and their blogs and addresses can be found here.] Then, I scroll down below the entries to find the archive list (by month) and use the drop down bar to navigate to the month when I'm planning on visiting from the previous year such as March 2014 (for my March 2015 trip).

Then, I look through the entries for the length of my stay in Japan + about one or two weeks before and one or two weeks after to see what kind of items they're promoting, if there are any sales, if there is an event that occurred during that period last year or the year before, etc. If it's a yearly/annual event or regular sale, if you go back one more year in the archive to the same month (ex. March 2013), you will likely also see similar posts about the event/sale. For some long-running blogs, you may even be able to go back to 2012. Another great resource for archive checking is the Liz Lisa official blog for general stuff. Its archive by month or day can be found on the left sidebar below the topic tags.
If you want to give yourself the best chance of attending a specific event that happens annually, the topic tags in the sidebar on the official blog (as mentioned just before) are a good place to look. For example, if I want to plan the dates of my trip around the Liz Lisa x My Melody collab spring release, I want to make an educated guess on what dates it will occur based on when it occurred in the past. It is, of course, a risk to plan this way because if you're planning more than a few months out, there likely isn't even an official announcement that they will for sure be having the event, much less when, but if you want to give yourself the best chances, imo this is the best way to do it. Go to the LIZLISA×My Melody★ tag in the sidebar to view all entries related to that topic. It'll take some time and some scrolling, but essentially you want to find a post that tells you what dates the items were released in the past and even potentially what the event dates were like (although those are more variable year to year I think). 

For spring 2014 and spring 2015, the vol. 1 release of LLxMM collab items was the last Saturday of March (3/29/2014 and 3/28/2015). The Yui Kanno collab in spring 2014 and 2015 also happened to fall on the Saturday prior. I can't guarantee that the spring 2016 LLxMM collab will even necessarily occur, but I feel if you had to make an assumption, I would guess that the spring 2016 LLxMM collab vol. 1 release would also be the last Saturday in March in 2016, and if the Yui Kanno spring collab were to also come to fruition, it would release the Saturday before that.  
Obviously, please don't take what I'm saying here as law and plan your trip around my word alone. Please do make an educated decision based on what makes the most sense to you. I am only providing a few tips based on what I would do for myself, but please note that I not have any official knowledge about event dates or occurrences and should not be held responsible if the events do not happen as I have estimated.
Sometimes I do this research after I pick my travel dates and book my flight (since something else is mandating my travel dates that's more important) and sometimes I will use sales and events to plan my travel dates. So really, this research can be done at any time, but it may just be helpful to know that if you shift your trip a couple days forward or back, you may have access to a few more things if this is going to be a highlight of your trip.
Of course, in the preceding several weeks before your trip, it's advisable to continue to check the blogs of the shops you are visiting to see if they have any special events or store specific promotions going on (anniversaries, renewals, limited items, small sales etc). You won't necessarily see all of that in detail on the official blog which can be more general. 
Another small tip is to add the blogs of the stores you are planning to visit to your bookmarks on your phone. Before you leave the hotel for the day, consider checking out the blog to see if they're running any time specific sales that you might want to plan your day around. This is especially true during the summer sales. For example, they might be having a regular 50% off sale, but if you're in the store and checking out from 14:00-14:30, you can get the items for 60% off!

Sorry if this post was a little dry, but expect actual trip posts in the next few weeks as I get my photos (and life) organized, lol!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Japan trip Spring 2015 posts
Part 1 - Pre-trip planning
Part 2a - March 21, Day 1: Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 Yui Kanno event
Part 2b - March 21, Day 1: Hawkeye Owl Cafe
Part 3 - March 22, Day 2: Kawatsura Strawberry Farm, Chiba, Shinjuku
Part 4 - March 23, Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market, Yokohama, Machida
Part 5 - March 24, Day 4: Omiya, Ikebukuro, Takadanobaba, Asakusa & luggage forwarding
Part 6 - March 25, Day 5: Shibuya, Shinkansen & Osaka
Part 7 - March 26, Day 6: Tennoji MIO, Nara Deer Park
Part 8 - March 27, Day 7: Kobe (steak), Namba/Shinsaibashi & Keiko
Part 9 - March 28, Day 8: Kyoto, Berri & home
Part 10 - Hotels and Pupuru pocket wifi review
Part 11 - Liz Lisa shopping items/coordinates
Part 12 - Liz Lisa x My Melody 6th collab OPs and hand towel 

Japan trip Summer 2014 posts
Japan trip Summer 2015 posts
Japan trip Autumn 2015 posts
Japan trip Spring 2016 posts

Salon Cherie pink/lavender mottled deco nails

I wanted to get my nails done, and there's no other nail salon that I'd rather go to than Salon Cherie for great deco work and design. I called to make an appointment and apparently I haven't visited in so long that I didn't even know my go-to nailist, Anri, has retired from the salon wtf. No matter because I had a great experience with Mariko last time, so I was still happy to request her again for this time.

 View from the Salon Cherie waiting area

I intended to just get gel done on my natural nail (length) but wtf two nails on my left hand broke about a week before my appointment and obviously they were not going to catch up with the rest of my nails in that time, so I had to get them sculpted. Which is not a big deal of course, but it's just an added expense :|
My nails before -

I always get really "stressed" to come up with a nail design. That probably sounds really silly but I'm going to be spending at least $100 for it, and it's something I will want to live with for at least a month if I want to get my money's worth, so I'm always nervous about picking something I won't be happy with or having regrets about not going grander or something like that.
I decided to go simple with the gel design (no hand-painted complicated stuff like last time) and used this photo as inspiration -

ahhh I'm so sorry but I can't find the source for this photo but I know it's from somewhere on Twitter...which obviously doesn't narrow it down.

I told Mariko I liked the look of the tips, but I wanted more pink and lavender. We decided to do a full glitter color for both ring fingers and the rest would have a semi-deep french of this mottled pink and lavender color. After she combined the two, I asked her to add a little white as well.
Then the fun part is the deco! I had a few pieces I knew I wanted to use, and then she worked around that.
Here is the result -

Sorry I don't have time right now to take DSLR photos in the daylight (wtf suddenly very busy) but hopefully these iPhone photos will do for now. I think by the time I have time to take good DSLR photos with natural light, they will be grown out a little bit at least. -__- As a result, this will be a pretty short blog post :|
[Ofc I will edit this later if/when I have time to take better photos but unfortunately I'm not sure when that will be wtf.]

I really love the subtle tip color. It's not just pink or lavender or white. It's a nice blurry pastel color which has a bit of "design" to it without being too showy. It almost reminds me of Rady? I think it will easily match with a lot of my Liz Lisa wardrobe. I love how the combination of colors allows for a lot of variation in color with the 3D parts which isn't TOO matchy.
Overall, I'm happy with my nails. I usually like a little more length to balance out the heaviness of the 3D parts, but that's really my fault because I cut my nails done like a centimeter or so in mid February, and they didn't grow back as fast as I wanted wtf. This is my first time getting sculpted extensions (without a plastic tip) for the nails that broke and Mariko did an excellent job shaping them and worked really quickly. I hope they are as durable as my other nails. I was expecting the appointment to last 3 hours, but I was out in 2.5, even with Mariko moving back and forth between me and another patron and switching with another nail tech who did the more mundane, simple tasks.
I wasn't really going to mention this, because I don't want to be disappointed with the nail set, but I'm pretty sure that the butterfly that was applied to my thumb nail is missing 2 pink rhinestones on the right wing. This kind of ruins it a little for me, but tbh it's not very obvious. I just wish I had noticed while in the salon and had asked her to just stick a few to add on. I know it's not that they fell off since I left the salon because the gaps are filled with gel lol. Anyway, small grievance about a small detail, but otherwise I'm pretty happy.

here's my ootd for getting my nails done :)

  Check out my post about my last pink/white nail set from Salon Cherie here if you're interested. It also includes all of my previous nail sets as well.

Salon Cherie
1888 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 277-3027
http://saloncherie.com/
Facebook
Yelp