This week I had Tuesday off! So happy to get some payed hollidays. ;) Since I was free and had some money on my hands I went to Kokura station for some shopping/walking around. I had originally planned to buy a winter coat since it is getting colder in Japan now, but I didn't find any that was to my liking. I did find a pair of cute shoes thou. I have wanted similar shoes for a long time now and I think they will look ok in lolita too. ( ^ ^ ) I also went in Mandarake, a store that mostly sells cosplay, manga, anime and figures but also has a tiny second hand lolita section. There I found a cute, simple Innocent World dress which is now hanging in my closet. haha
It has been three weeks since I last wore lolita so I decided to dress up. ( ^ w ^ ) I tried to change my othervise 'always-kinda-same' Day dream carnival coord by wearing a different wig, but I can't say that I am 100% happy with how it turned out. The wig is too purple for the dress so it looks a bit odd...?
Next time I wear this dress I must think of a different coord XD
It's so easy to just wear the same items when they are from one set.
For me, the A-bomb dome is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Hiroshima and I would guess that everyone have heard about it. In case some of you haven't; the A-bomb dome is short for Atomic bomb dome and it is ruins of a building left from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima during World War 2. The A-bomb dome is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and is designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. Here is a link to wikipedia for more information. ( ^ ^ ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial
I went there on a really hot and sunny day so the ruins didn't look so sad and depressing... but later in the evening it was much more creeepy to walk there. Around the A-bomb dome were many information signs and some people were displaying books and diaries about World War 2. These books were in many different languages so everyone could easily read and get a better understanding on what happened in Hiroshima around the time of the atomic bombing.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial park is a pretty large area featuring many monuments, a freedom bell and a museum.
In front of the museum there is a fire burning (in the middle), but it is not visible in the dailight. The fire is there as a memory for all the victims of the bombing.
Inside the museum there were many exhibits from the time of the bombing. There were watches that stopped, clothing from people, other objects that had melted... All of the exhibits had small stories, for examlpe who had worn the clothing, were they were at the time of the bombing and what happened to the person later on. I searched for someone who had survived, but all of the people died either directly or some days later. ( T___T )
Here is a creepy picture showing how the skin melts and comes of... ( >< )
And here is a bycicle and helmet of a small child who was out playing when the bomb exploded.
One of the most interesting things in the museum was a collection of letters of protest that the mayor of Hiroshima has send to different countries. Every time a nutclear experiment has been executed the mayor of Hiroshima (different mayors from the wars end until now) has sent a letter of protest, reminding people of what happened in Hiroshima and that it should not happen again. I think there was over a hundred letters... So, if you are even in Hiroshima I really recommend you to visit the park and museum! Let's make love not war <3
Today was really nice weather and I needed to buy some groceries so I decided to take a walk to Aeon - my local shopping center. Since it's Saturday I decided to dress up. I don't have any picture of my first outfit, but it was pretty simple, a long a-bit see-thrugh dress and a corsett. I was a bit concerned that I would draw too much attention but I thought that I deserved to look good at least once a week. So I went out and 5 minutes laket when I walked past my local train station I got a stalker after me. ( >< ); He walked after me for about 10 minutes before I gave up the idea of going further. The route I take when I walk to Aeon is pretty far out in nowhere so I didn't want to risk walking there alone with this dude... I pretetded to talk to someone on the phone and then turned back and walked to the train station. The stalker dude followed and dissapeared somewhere along the way, reapearing 5 minutes later. He then walked with me for ten 10 more minutes and finally talked to me and asked me if I wanted to go somewhere with him, I said no of course and thankfully he understood and walked away. Phew! I went home to change clothes and I think he didn't follow me anymore. On the way home (5 minutes walk) I got hit by another random guy. LOL I got changed (still wearing my corsett because I really wanted to!) and went out again only to be hit on by a third man while waiting to cross the street. Man what a day. For me it seems hard to even go grocery shopping. HAHA
Here is a not-so-good photo of my second outfit. ( ^ ^ )
And today I actually bought something! YAY
Claires had a sale, so I bought thewe cute ribbons I have been looking at forever now. XD
Here comes the first part of the Hiroshima update! ( ^ ^ ) While in Hiroshima I went to a beautiful Japanese garden called Shukkeien. It is located just 10 minutes away from city center, but is really quiet and peacefull. Somehow I didn't take so many photos of the garden, I guess I was too busy walking around haha
In the middle of the garden is this big lake. So the walking path is layed out around the lake and in to a small forest. Too bad you can see the random tall building i the backgroud... but since the park is located in such an urban area it was hard to find a place where no buildings were visible.
There were many small puddles and streams around the lake and lots of crabs in different colors and sizes! I sneaked up on this one fast so he didn't have time to crawl away.
I also found a really big grashopper (I guess?) It was 10cm long! It was not even afraid of me and didn't hop away even thou I was really close.
In the lake there was also many koi fish. ( ^ w ^ )
Close to the garden the Hiroshima castle is located. It is pretty big, bigger than I had expected! I went there on a weekday so there were almost no people there.
The sad thing about almost all the castles in Japan is that almost all of them are reconstractions. Hiroshima castle got first destroyed in fire and then in World War 2. It is really nice that they rebuilt the castle, but it is a bit sad that noting is original.
Inside the castle there are some exhibitions about the castles history and you can go up to the top and look out over the city. I didn't take any pictures while up there thou. ( > < )
I haven't updated here in a whole month, sorry! My boyfriend was here in Japan and we kept busy pretty much all the time. We went to Fukuoka and Hiroshima, but also around Kitakyuushu where I live. I will edit the photos from Hiroshima and update them as soon as I get the time. ( ^ ^ )
