Paris and SHINee Encounter

Hey, sorry i haven't written for ages. I've had no time! Working and cherry abuku, time has flown this year >_<
But i couldn't not blog about my trip! So much happened, so it's gonna be a long one! It won't get boring, i promise!

It started a few weeks ago when SMTown Paris was announced... I really couldn't believe my favourite artists were coming to Europe! Although Paris is quite far to go for a concert, i wanted to go to France or some kinda holiday in Europe this year anyway. I woke up at about 8 on the day of ticket sales and was refreshing the webpage until 9am lol It was worth it in the end, my tickets were booked and confirmed by 9:02am... i was one of the lucky ones, the tickets sold out in 15 mins and there was a lot of unhappy fans (although a 2nd date was announced so i hope everyone who didn't get tickets that day got them in the end!)

About a week later i was booking our flights. The plan was that we'd arrive on thursday, get a good night sleep for the concert on friday and then leave on sunday after some shopping and sight seeing. I booked the flights at about 3am and got the cheapest ones i could find... But when i woke up the next day and checked my tickets i realised i'd made a stupid mistake and booked them so that we arrive on wednesday instead! It would have costed £90 to ammend our tickets and we could get another night in a cheap hotel for that so we just kept them how they were and thank god we did! I dunno if it was fate or just luck but it turns out that TVXQ, SHINee and F(x) were arriving at the same airport, on the same day, at the same time as us! Here are a few pics from the airport...

Lauren and her suitcase getting ready to leave Bristol!

Passports and Boarding passes, travelling is really exciting! But i didn't get a stamp which makes me sad 3:

Boarding! It's so windy >_< 

Masses of fans waiting for TVXQ, SHINee and f(x)! 

I attempted a fan cam but it was so fail. To be honest, it got quite rough at the airport, i got carried away but i managed to catch Yunho, Max and Key quite well on my camera. You also see Jonghyuns grey hat bobbing after HoMin, he's so short and cute >_< I just feel sorry for the artists, they got ambushed by a crazy mob of fan girls and press... i heard that they were a bit scared by it :(

 The next day we decided to go shopping and do some sight seeing. We went to the Louvre Museum, it's a cool triangle architecture that holds the mona lisa and other paintings ^^

The Louvre Museum ^^

By the mini window things (cus the actual museum is underneath)

We wandered around for a while, taking pictures and not really doing a whole lot else. We were about to leave and head back to the station when Harri started squeeling "SHI-----SH----SHI--SHINEE!!!!" I had no idea why she was randomly saying SHINee, i thought she was just getting excited about the concert or something but I looked up and i couldn't believe my eyes.... SHINee were right there! No lie, just casually strolling and sight seeing... like we were! Obviously the first thing we did was run up to them and greet them, however the manager walked inbetween us and wouldn't let us go near them :( We called their names for a bit (we weren't really over the top, it was more like a call to grab their attention rather than screaming fan girls) and waved at them, but they didn't really respond :( I think after the incident at the airport, they were on their guard and because the manager was there, he wouldn't let them make any interaction with us. Jonghyun and Taemin kept looking at us, i felt like they wanted to greet their fans... but when i caught Key's eye and waved at him, he just turned away.. It made me really sad cus Key is my bias... but i knew he was a diva so i should have expected him to act a bit diva.....haha. Onew and Minho were too busy talking to Amber from f(x) and didn't really take any notice of us. We followed them for about 5-10 minutes and gave up because we didn't wanna be a nuisance while they had a day off . But there was only 3 of us and noone else knew who they were so i dunno why they couldn't have let us come over... 

There was a woman and her baby walking our route and Jonghyun and Minho went up to her and took a photo with the kid, it was really cute! It was nice to see them be good appa's in real life XD Although we were in complete shock and our SHINee encounter didn't go the way i would have hoped, i feel so lucky to have been so close to them and i hope if i see them again, they'll remember us and remember that we're not those crazy ambushing fans who will stalk them to the end of the earth, we only wanted to talk to them and get a picture with them >_< 

Now what you're waiting... for cus i'm guessing you didn't believe a word of that XD Some proof pics!

You can click on the pics to make them bigger!

Onew is in the white top and orange/yellow hoody, Amber is behind him, Key's wearing the cap, Taemin has his red hair, Jonghyun with the grey hat and Minho has a blue top and grey trousers in the pics below... (just in case people can't tell who is who >_<)

I love Key's trainers... I want them!

 I can't believe we were walking along side them... this pic makes it look like the managers weren't even there.... if only they weren't :( The guy in the stripy top and navy blue-ish/black cardigan was a member of staff..

Jonghyun was pulling faces at the kid i told you about earlier xD

They took pictures by a statue, i checked the SMTown facebook page but they didn't upload it? :S

I look so horrible but this is as close as i could get to a picture with SHINee lol They're walking on the other side of the pond thing (this is when we started walking a different way to them) I hope they saw my heart! Haha

It's late now so i'll write about SMTown another time, until then, see ya! x

Chinese new year London & Ueno

It was the beginning of Chinese New Year Last week and to celebrate, me and my friends went to Chinatown in London yesterday! There was a big Chinese New Year celebration festival thing all day :D This year is year of the Rabbit!

All of Chinatown was decorated with paper lanterns, they looked really pretty! :D

People were throwing beanbag things into the tree, they have notes attached to them wishing good health in the New Year and stuff like that :D (you can see a few blue ones flying across the top of the tree haha)

I threw mine and it's hanging in the tree now! I hope i have good health this year ^^

Random guys wise old Chinese men outfits, you could see the caucasian guys through the mouths of the costume ~_~ lol

There was dragon dances! I wish i saw it more but i went to meet my friends and missed most of them >_< The masks are amazing!

We did purikura in Chinatown market! The purikura machine there is really funny xD Happy new year or Gong xi fa cai! 

Isn't this just the most random purikura you've ever seen? Lmao!

When we were in Japan we went to Ueno! It's famous for it's market and huge park! (there's even a zoo at the park) The scenery there is really nice, we took a lot of pictures :D

We bought these japanese omelette things at the market, they were the best!

Here's the market ^^ It was really busy, most of the market is food but if you go in the side street's they have clothes and accessories and stuff there too! I bought a present for my grandad there ^^

We tried to win a mameshiba plush but i didn't have the right technique yet, i wish i went back there now! I really want one still >_<

In Ueno park there's lots of monuments and statues and stuff, it's a great place to take pictures or even just to walk around. The atmosphere is really relaxed and it's a nice contrast to the busy hustle and bustle in the cities of Tokyo.

We went to a temple of course!

There is vending machines everywhere in Japan, they sell drinks (cold OR hot!!) and snacks, they're so convenient. You don't have to queue in a shop and it's just great for on the go, you don't have to wait for a hot drink to be made, it just pops out in a hot can! (although it kinda burns your hands if you hold it, i wore mittens tho) We laughed when we saw this vending machine in 'disguise' near the temple.

There's a big lake thing in Ueno and we were walking around for ages thinking we couldn't find it! In the end we realised it's this! The plants growing up out of the water hides the fact there's a lake there at all! 

:D

Our purikura from Ueno!

See ya!

[Rain Fan Account] There was 2 kinds of Rain in London that day! Haha

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life! I got to meet Jung Ji Hoon, more often known as RAIN (bi - korean for rain :P)

Anyway, it was about 1am on monday morning and I was just browsing through my newsfeed on facebook when i saw a status by Beatz Magazine saying "LONDON... get ready to make it RAINISM!!" I immediately  knew they were talking about Rain. I've been a huge fan ever since i've liked K-pop and korean drama's! He was especially cute in Full House (i cried so many times during that series haha)
I looked frantically through anything i could find on google, a lot of posts were saying it was cancelled but i rang the MCM store the next day (well.. it was the same day really but i slept between those times) and they confirmed that it was still happening! 
I booked my coach tickets immediately and made him a gift that evening cus i wanted him to have a little souvenir from London. Also i feel happy knowing he now owns something me and my sister made for him :D

Here's the present we made, it's a puppy cus apparently his nickname is puppy or something, he's definitely cute like a puppy xD

Anyway, next day we arrived in london at about 1pm and made it to Knightsbridge by about 1:20, he was supposed to be arriving at 2pm but there was a lot of people there waiting for him already ^^

I assumed that he was already inside the shop and we were waiting to be let in... It got to about 2:20 and still no sign of being let in or of him... We were starting to get worried that we wouldn't see him!! 

Of course, Rain was arriving fashionably late and a creamy white limo pulled up outside the shop! He stepped out and the fangirls (including myself) went crazy! Everyone was screaming haha I thought that he'd have loadsa body guards and they'd guide him straight into the shop but nope! He walked straight into the crowd and shook everyone's hands! It was soooooooooo cute! Even though he's a korean superstar who's massively famous, he's so repectful and down to earth! He knows how to treat his fans well ^^ 

Rain getting out of the Limo! His outfit was so cool and the sunglasses even tho it was raining... he definitely gave a superstar aura ^^

This is the moment before he shook my hand, i was jumping up and down >_< I was so excited haha!

Anyway, i thought that was it for my Rain encounter and i was perfectly happy with that. I already knew that we weren't allowed to meet him unless we bought a £400 designer bag (he was only supposed to sign that particular bag) howeverrrrrrr! Rain said he wanted to meet as many UK fans as possible and so they changed the rule that if you bought anything in the shop, you could meet him! 

I bought an ipod cover (even tho i don't have an ipod lol) cus it was the cheapest thing in there (not telling the price tho cus it was expensive and my mum reads my blog so i'm not gonna say, haha Hi mum!)

Here's Harri waiting the in queue to the basement, where they were hiding Rain :P

We got down there and me and Harri ran over to Rain all excited! He said "Thank you for coming today" and his english accent is really good and soooo cute! We replied, "No way! Thank YOU for coming to England!!" and gave him the present, then he said "Wow thank you, give me a hug!" I can't believe Rain asked ME for a hug!!!! Shouldn't it be the other way around? Haha I think hugging Rain was the best moment of my life :D

We also got a picture taken with him but we have to wait for the photographer to send it to us, i'll post it when i get it ^^

Here's me and my signed ipod cover, i'll treasure it forever! I think it's the first designer item i've ever bought but for everything i experienced that day, it was worth every penny.

I found this awesome pic of Rain looking directly at the camera, it was taken by another fan but harri's in the background and it's just hilarious :P 

I can't believe the first k-idol i ever met was Rain, one of the biggest and best ones! Hopefully it's the start of more idols coming over to England, we'll see <3

I won't write about Japan today cus i'm tired (just got home from work) Good night everyone! Loveeeeeee <3

Late Xmas and Namco Namja Town ♥

Even though it's nearing the end of January, I was really busy working/seeing family over christmas so i didn't have time to see my friends (sucks right?)
So my bestie Lauren came over so we could give eachother presents!

Such cute wrapping!!! (Lauren is a perfectionist)

What's inside??

Tada! Lauren made these! How amazing are they?! Mine is the turquoise one and the little frog has my name on it <3 (I stole the pic off Lauren too cus her camera is better than mine xD) I love it so much! Thank you Lauren!! (cherry abuku misses you)

After that we made a little trip to Tesco for snacks.... we pigged out while watching SHINee's hello baby

We ate too much and i felt sick after xD It's not easter for ages but they always sell easter eggs early, and easter chocolate is my favourite! <3

In Japan....

 After travelling all the way to Osaka we decided to stay in our local area, Ikebukuro!! It's not a well heard of place outside of Japan but it's actually one of my favourite places. There's so many shops and arcades, and then there's Sunshine city shopping centre! Full of shops and stalls (bargains and designer too) then at the top there is a cat themed inside amusement centre thing. 

We had to buy passes to get in (we got the cheapest ones haha)

Everything is cat themed, even the curry xD

They had a Gyoza Stadium. Gyoza is a Japanese dumpling filled with meat and seasoning (i think it's copied from chinese dumplings) They are sooooo good! We got a lot haha xD

They also have an Icecream city where you can get looooooooads of different icecreams and flavours! (Quite expensive tho) I got a macha (green tea powder) flavour icecream!

Harri got strawberry (i wanted that one but i let harri have it to be a good big sister hahaha)

おいしかった！アイスクリーム大好き

They have an arcade so we played Taiko Drum Master >_< 

There was a horror section and you could play a game were you have to find something.. but we didn't understand cus it was all in Japanese and also we got the cheapest ticket so we would have had to pay haha

The gift shop was so cute, everything had cats on it. I'd go again, because even if you see it all, you wanna eat the food again xDD I'm gonna write about Ueno next time! I wonder how long it will take me to write about my whole trip???? 

BS8 Rarara and Osaka/Shinsaibashi days ♥

Hey everyone!
Today i went to the shop in Bristol where we sell our cherry abuku jewellery and stuff. Our friend who owns the shop is moving and so we had to collect our stuff :( I'm gonna miss her a lot! I took a picture of our little section in her shop, it was the last time i could take a pic.. I'm sad >_< We'll put the stuff on the website soon.

Cool right? It looks a bit sparse cus we sold quite a lot :)

Our little pencil cases, wow it's been a while since we made those haha maybe 2 years?

Anyway, next Japan story ^^ We went to Osaka again to meet Nonchan! I'm not sure what day it was now but we had so much longer to hang out so we did lots of cool things!! We got the shinkansen again cus it didn't cost anything with our rail passes and it's the quickest way to get there unless you get a plane which takes about an hour. In the train station you can buy a bento box (meaning lunchbox) and the presentation is just so cute ^^ They taste great too! Great for buying lunch in a rush before your train comes then happily eating a substantial meal on your travels ^^

This is katsu with rice, pickles and sauce

Bento box and orange fanta on the train, looks good right?

We went to Hep5 again! There was a big display of mannequins and this is a pic of Harri and Nonchan pretending to be one of them :P I say Non is the winner cus her clothes match and her posture is good! Harri looks random lol

We went on the ferris wheel this time! Here's us with our tickets :D

Harri and Non on the ferris wheel! They look so cute :D <3

You get a great view of all over Osaka, it's so high up right??!

Next Nonchan took us to a cute dessert shop! They had really over the top pancake sets with loadsa stuff on them. Non got forest fruits with Icecream!

Harri got Bannoffi(sp?) pancake set :) 

I got a cake thing to be different haha It was kinda small but it was really nice so that's all that matters. Could have eaten 3 of them tho xDD

Here's a christmas display outside hep5, it looks so pretty! Better than the xmas decorations in the UK haha

Next we went to Shinsaibashi which is a town in Osaka, really great shopping destination! Lots of clothes shops and stuff, great for bargains too :D Here is a pic inside the Hello Kitty shop! Everything is Hello Kitty!

Here's a pic of Shinsaibashi, all the buildings are lit up! It's a really bright town :) (great photo opportunity) 

You can see how busy it is there, sometimes it's hard to move! Haha

Here's a pic of me and Nonchan in front of the famous Glico Running Man! Glico is a Japanese confectionary company (they made Pocky (or Mikado as it's called in Europe)) and this ad is a bit of a landmark in Osaka!

Of course we did Purikura that day! This is one of my favourite pictures from Japan :D The Purikura machine was new and had cool features that takes a full body pic and then puts other pics by it like a little collage :D We had a really fun day and we saw lots of really cool things!! Thank you Nonchan! (I miss her so much <3)

I posted a lot of pics in this post xD But there was so many good photo's from that day, i had to post a lot haha. I'll write about when we went to Namco Namja town next. Til then! See ya!