Retro Chick Visits Hyper Japan

Last weekend, while I was in London, I also popped into Hyper Japan at Earls Court.

I was super excited about this, mostly looking forward to checking out the Kawaii fashion section, but also because I thought they’d be some good stuff to eat. Sad I know.

I was feeling super bright in the sunshine in my ice cream print blouse and a pencil skirt.

♥ Ice Cream Blouse & Pencil Skirt – Vintage from Charity Shops ♥
♥ Shoes – Mel by Melissa* ♥ Scarf – From a Goodie Bag ♥

Hyper Japan is an exhibition and celebration of Japanese culture. For an extra fee you can visit the Sushi and Sake Awards on site and try samples, but the standard entry gets you plenty of stalls and shows. There’s a fashion section, food court, illustrators and martial arts. It took me a good 4 hours to see it all, and there’s still lots I missed out on, like I *really* wanted to get a kawaii make over and an illustration done, but you had to book in advance and go back later. So I’m afraid we all missed out on seeing what I look like as a Manga illustration. Oh well.

The fashion section was my first target. There was plenty of traditional Japanese fashion. The chance to try on a traditional Kimono and pose for photos, as well as the opportunity to buy gorgeous kimono, or for those with a smaller budget, the accessories that went with them.

I confess, however, that I was kinda keen on visiting the Kawaii fashion section most. It’s an insane style, all pinks, and frills, and cartoon characters, and whilst I couldn’t imagine going the whole way, it’s really fun to steal little bits of.

I really wanted some lashes but I got overwhelmed with choice. I also wanted a wig, but my sensible head said “when are you going to wear it?” and I didn’t splash out in the end. Of course, I now wish I had bought one. Sigh.

There were also some really interesting looking beauty products, the stalls were all quite busy, so I didn’t ask anyone what they did, and I can’t read Japanese, but these cute handmade make up brushes caught my eye!

With fashion out of the way, I wanted food, and lots of it, and here I have to confess that Hyper Japan was a huge disappointment.

I queued for 15 minutes for a tray of warm Sushi, half of which I couldn’t eat as I put it in my mouth and it was FULL of bones. I wasn’t really willing to queue for another 15 minutes or longer for the other food stalls, all of which had huge queues. Before I left I decided to buy a pearl tea. I queued for a few minutes and was then given a ticket to return to the end of another long queue to actually pick up my tea. We were then told the tea had run out and it would take 15 minutes to brew another, I wandered off for a bit, and came back to find the same long queue and the tea still not quite ready. As I had to leave to get my train I had to get a refund and left without any tea, which was a disappointment.  So sadly I can’t tell you about the amazing things to eat at Hyper Japan.

We did get some nice sweet rice snacks which we ate on the train home, they came in a variety of flavours and looked so cute! So at least there was one gustatory win!

I did do a spot of shopping though, coming home with some fun goodies, though the cute owl print chop sticks which were allegedly dishwasher safe broke the first time I put them in the dishwasher, so in future I will be hand washing chopsticks!

My favourite buy so far? The cat ears, definitely.

If you fancy checking out Hyper Japan then it’s back at Olympia in November for a Christmas market, a great chance to get some pressies! Visit the Hyper Japan website for more details.