My cosplay world~

Hello dear readers!

As some of you might know, I also used to cosplay. I say "used to" because I actually stopped. It's just expensive, I can't sew and I dislike my face because it doesn't match with many characters. But still I have a small collections of photos I can show you! All information about where I got it will be added! Have fun!

My first cosplay was Megurine Luka in her Magnet outfit (Vocaloid)

Unfortunately I don't have many good photos. This was taken at Connichi 2011. The dress was bought at Tally Weijl and I added the white parts myself... without a sewing machine... that was exhausting. :D The wig and the headphones were bought from eBay.

I wore my first cosplay at Connichi 2011 and later again at the book fair in Leipzig 2013.

Here's my second cosplay. It's Gackt's outfit from Episode.0. The photo was taken in February 2012.

The kimono was made by a local seamstress, because I can't sew. The shoes were bough in Chinatown, San Francisco. The wig was from ebay and so was the plastic sword (which came in a huge box btw... xD)

I liked this cosplay a lot, but I found out that my face didn't match Gackt's awesomeness. xD I don't have any better pictures of that cosplay. Sadly. 

I wore that one at DeDeCo 2012, book fair in Leipzig 2012 and Connichi 2012.

In June 2012 I tried a female Maya (LM.C) cosplay. It's not a "real" cosplay, but I wanted to add it since I dyed my hair pink after the LM.C concert in Muich in May 2012. :D I loved the color but my mom didn't like it.

I'm really proud of this cosplay. It's Gakupo from Vocaloid from the Synchronicity song. It's taken at a furniture store in February 2013.

The costume was sewn by my talented friend Katsuya. She made the Hakama, the coat and the jabot. Gakupo is my favorite Vocaloid and I loved this outfit ever since. So I was super happy to finally wear it tho it was uncomfortable since the coat was long enough to clean the ground when I didn't carry it, haha. :D

I wore my beloved Gakupo cosplay at DeDeCo 2013, book fair in Leipzig 2013 and Connichi 2013.

In April 2013 I got this cosplay. Yuu Kanda from D.Gray-man.

It's actually the most comfortable cosplay (along with Luka). Especially because I didn't need to smile when someone took a photo of me, haha. Really, I can't smile without looking like a lama that's about to die. Jokes aside, I ordered the uniform from cosplayfu.com and was quite happy with the quality. The only bad thing was that the sleeves were quite short. That's why I wore a black long blouse underneath it. 

I wore it at the book fair in Leipzig 2013 and Connichi 2013

My last cosplay was Armin Arlert from Shingeki no Kyojin. The photo was taken in March 2014 by my lovely friend Kumiko who also sewed the jacket for our whole cosplay group. They're made of fake leather. 

This cosplay was a mess. I really like the character and the series and I was happy to cosplay him, but.... I'm tiny and skinny, which means the belts didn't really fit. I always had to adjust the straps because they weren't in their right place anymore after walking a bit. I wore this cosplay at the book fair in Leipzig in 2014 as well as at Connichi 2014. 

Now we're already at the end of my cosplay timeline! I didn't include and closet cosplays of Gakupo, haha. :D They're boring. 

But I will wear a new cosplay next year! Which one? I won't tell you. You're gonna see it at DeDeCo in Dresden 2016! Be prepared!

Thanks for reading!

Yours,

Kanon ♥

Buying from Yahoo Auctions Japan with Buyee

Hey everyone!

A while ago I purchased my first dress from Yahoo Auctions. As many of you know, it's not possible to buy from there when you're not living in Japan. I used the shopping service Buyee which is operated by Tenso to win the auction.

So, how does it work?

After opening an account you connect your paypal with your account, so buyee can get the money right after you won the bid. 

Afterwards it's pretty easy, so there's not a wall of text to explain how it works. 

You're looking for your item and you're bidding on it on your own in real time. You can also snipe bid an item, which means you decide on the highest price you want to pay for it and afterwards you just wait. If there's no one who wants to pay more, you'll win it... if someone else has more money than you, you will lose. It's a good way to bid if you're not able to be online at the time the auction ends.

But of course you can also sit in front of your computer and bid every time someone outbids you. That's what I did. :D At first I tried to get a Melty Chocolate set for about 130€, but within the last three seconds someone outbid me... :(

Then I decided to get the Powder Rose JSK in pink. No one else bid on it, so it was easy for me. :D 

Right after I won the auction, I automatically transferred the money to buyee. 

Afterwards I had to wait until the dress arrived at buyee's warehouse. It took almost a week to get there.

Then I could decide on a shipping method. I used the cheapest one, which was almost 20€. Before the check out I could decide what's written on the delivery note. Unfortunately I could only decide on "cloths" and not on a specific type of cloths which caused me trouble later.

After everything was done and the shipping was automatically payed again, I waited for the package. It didn't talk more than a week to get here.

But it ended up at my local customs office which is in the middle of no where. Literally! I had my dad to pick it up... 

But he had to go there twice, because my paypal receipt wasn't enough. Because there was written "cloths" on the delivery note, they needed a prove that I really ordered a dress. Because "cloths" could also mean "skirt" or "scarf"... So I had to print a screenshot of the auction to show them that I really ordered that dress and that I payed for the dress. After that I got my dress. On Monday after the con I wanted to wear it. Great! Not...

Here's the package I got:

The seller put the dress into a cute Hello Kitty bag! Aww~

And here's the dress:

 It was in great condition without any flaws and I can't wait to wear it!

I will show you worn pictures later! So please be patient!

Summery of my experience:

Communication: 

I didn't have any questions, but they also notified me when something about my order changed and they also replied to my email when I had problems with the customs office.  
♥♥♥♥♥

Shipping:

Normal shipping rates, fast shipping

♥♥♥♥♥

Packaging:

The items were safe in the package, but there was a problem with the customs declaration (the "cloths" issue)

♥♥♥♥♡ 

Condition of the item:
Everything was as expected and nothing got damaged

♥♥♥♥♥ 

Service Fee:

10% of the item's price or at least 500 Yen when the item is cheaper than 5000 Yen. Additionally there's a 200 Yen payment fee.

♥♥♥♥♥

Overall experience:
I would definitly shop with them again!
 ♥♥♥♥♥

I hope you liked my review! Hope to see you again!

Yours,

Kanon ♥

Basetao Review ~ My taobao agent!

Hello everyone!

Last month I decided to do my very first taobao order, because my friend Himezawa got a beautiful headdress with roses from taobao and I felt like it's the perfect headdress for my Powder Rose JSK. So I googled about different shopping services. Actually, I wanted to use Yoybuy first because it seemed quite easy. But then I saw that I could only pay with credit card. I had a credit card, so this wasn't a problem, but it's a prepaid one, so I had to recharge it before. When I was on their facebook page, I saw someone commenting that Basetao is more reliable, since the post was from a person who never got their package from Yoybuy. So I found Basetao and saw, that they accepted paypal as well. I couldn't find any review yet, that's why I thought I could give it a try. And paypal has a great customer service, so I thought it's worth it.

1. Charging your account

To charge your account, you select the amount of Dollars you want to charge your account, copy the shown link in your browser, and pay. Afterwards you transaction has a number, which you need. You choose the amount you payed again and then you copy the transaction number into the bottom line and voilá your account is recharged!
Actually I was stupid and thought they'd recharged my account after I payed because I didn't read well, haha. xD

2. Selecting things

You copy the links of the items you want to buy into the field of the website and everything shows up in your shopping card. It's very easy to use. You can also add notes to the single items.

3. Ordering

After you got everything you want, you can submit to order. The status of the items change once they arrive at basetao's warehouse. They also send you photos of the items, so you can look at them and add a note if something is wrong. 

I ordered my items at 20th August. It was the bell shaped petti from classical puppets and the floral headdress.

Petti can be found here (25,00 €)

headdress can be found here (7,00 €) 

Both items arrived at the warehouse around the 26th August. The headdress arrived earlier, because the petti wasn't in stock (but got restocked two days later xD)

4. Submitting to ship

I submitted to ship both items together the day after the petti arrived at the warehouse. I payed about 18€ of shipping costs, which was pretty cheap. I've chosen "China Post Small Air Mail". 

My package got shipped at 1st September and I also got a tracking number. Unfortunately it got rarely update, that's why my package arrived before the tracking even said that it's in Germany. :D

I got my package at 21st September and didn't have to pay and custom fees, which I was very happy about. :D 

5. The package and the items

This was the package I got:

The items were packed like this. Because the petti was so fluffy, they put the headdress into it, so it won't break.

The petti:

The headdress:

6. Quality

I know, my shopping service cannot change the quality of the items, but I still want to talk about it.

I was expecting the petti to be a bit poofier, because I heard a lot of people saying they were super awesome and stuff. It's bell shaped, yes, but it isn't a "OTT poof" but a regular poof. I haven't worn it outside with a dress yet, I just tried it on with a dress. Let's see how long the poof will stay when I'm at a meet-up.

The headdress has a great quality according to the price. Everything is well made, and I highly recommend this taobao shop for headdresses and headbows. I can't wait to wear it with my full coordinate!

7. Experience in general

Communication: 

They answered very fastly to my notes and also replied to my e-mails within two days. More over their English was great and since they have French and Dutch employees, one of them also spoke German. :D Great!        
♥♥♥♥♥

Shipping:

Normal shipping rates, fast shipping

♥♥♥♥♥

Packaging:

The items were safe in the package, and the customs declaration was correct 

♥♥♥♥♥

Condition of the item:
Everything was as expected and nothing got damaged

♥♥♥♥♥ 

Service Fee:

Only 5% (at least 5€) so it was fine!

♥♥♥♥♥

Overall experience:
I would definitly shop with them again!
 ♥♥♥♥♥

I will post photos wearing these items as soon as I can get a complete coord! So be patient!

Thanks for reading!

Do you guys have any prefered shopping service? Tell me in the comments!

If you order with Basetao too, let me know about your experience!

See you soon,

Kanon ♥

Connichi 2015 ~ meeting Reika and not enough sleep

Hey everyone!

How are you? (^w^)/

Last weekend, I went to Connichi in Kassel. It's Germany's biggest anime convention and welcomed over 26.000 visitors from Germany and Europe this year!

I already ordered my ticket in January when the pre-sale started, because it's always sold out within two weeks or less. :D

I got Friday off from uni, so I could start my journey with my friends at 18th September in the morning. We started at 8:30 am and arrived at our apartment short after 12 am. The apartment was a huge disappointment for me. We shared a room together (we were four people) and had to share the bathroom with the other two rooms, where 5 other guys were staying for the con. More over we didn't have a kitchen. Only a microwave and a fridge. I brought some groceries with me, so I can cook in the evening, but I ended up not having a kitchen! Next year, I'll stay somewhere else. 

After getting dresses we went to the con, where I met a lot of friends.

The best thing was, when my friend who was working with the world-famous cosplayer Reika shot me a message, that he was at an upper floor with her, so I can come and see her. 

She was super nice and we took a photo together. Her English was pretty good, so I could talk to her without any problems. :D That was great, haha. 

I also bought a lot on Friday because the place wasn't that crowded. Especially at the Bring & Buy area I found some nice stuff for really cheap. 

I also met two great photographers who took some photos of me. I can't wait to receive them!

This was my Friday selfie. :D You can find it on Instagram as well. 

And here are my two photos with Reika. ♥ Unfortunately the quality of my selfies isn't the best. ;w;

On Saturday I mostly talked to friends because the place was to crowded. I also attended a Lolita meet-up. I don't have any photos yet. The actually organizer of the meet-up didn't show up, that was why a friend and I were looking for a place to take photos and ended up guiding the people there, haha. :D

Afterwards I attended a panel in English about "Cosplay across cultures". Three cosplayers from Germany, Finland and South Korea talked about their experiences in foreign countries and the audience could ask some questions. It was really informative for me. 

Reika had also a workshop about sewing a kimono, but it was around the same time as the panel. :( 

I was wearing my Day Dream Carnival JSK on Saturday with my new Axes Femme blouse. I felt like a princess. ;w; <3

Yes, I attended the autograph session of Reika again, so I took some photos again. She remembered me and was happy to see me! I also told her that I gave two of the postcards I bought on Friday to two friends, who couldn't get an autograph of her at Dokomi. She was happy to hear that my friends were super excited about the present, haha. :D

On Sunday we had to leave. Unfortunately weekends are always too short! I wanted to see the performances for WCS (World Cosplay Summit) at 10:30 am so I was in a hurry. But I arrived there on time and could watch some awesome performences. 

Afterwards I went through the sales area but I didn't find any bargain. So I ended up not buying anything anymore. Only food. They had some awesome matcha crepes! I could die for them, haha. No, just kidding. 

Just in case you're wondering... yes, I attended Reikas autograph session again. This time with the two friends I mentioned above. I told her that my two friends came with me and she was happy about that. And she already laughed after she saw me, haha. 

Can you see how tired I was on Sunday? The guys who we shared the apartment with came home late at night and were soooo super noisy that I woke up. Why can't they just talk with a low voice?!

And here are my last photos with Reika. :D I guess I'll miss her. She's so friendly and cute. She really cares for her friends, because she signed everything we gave her and took as many photos with us as we wanted to take. I hope she'll come back soon!  

Here is a photo of all the things I bought at Connichi. :D

The bag is from Bodyline and I got it for 5€ at the Bring & Buy area! *^*

I still have no idea where I'll put my posters at. ;w;

I arrived at home short after midnight. I tried to sleep in the car, because I had to get up at 5 am for uni... so in the end I had like 4 hours of sleep tonight. Thank god I could sleep in uni for half an hour in an empty room, haha. This was nice. xD 

I hope you liked the post and the photos! <3

Thanks for reading,

Kanon ♥

Pretty Japan Review ~ Shoppingservice & Shop

Hey everyone!

Today I'd like to write a Review on Pretty Japan!

Here we go!

I messaged the owner at 24th of July, while I was on holidays, about the blouse from Axes Femme and asked her about the details. She answered them quickly and correctly, so I told her that I want to buy the blouse. She sent me an invoice and I told her, that it may take some time (about a day) until I can pay, because the wifi at my hotel was bad at times. She understood my problem, so I was able to pay at 25th. 

At the 27th she told me that she sent the package. I've chosen shipping without tracking number, because I didn't want to pay that much and I was pretty fine with waiting for my item.

I got the package at 24th August, so one month later, because it got stuck in customs. I already thought that would happen and when I looked at the envelop, I saw that she didn't wrote what's inside on the envelop. This was the only negative thing of the shipping. If she had written the content on the outside, when package would have been at my place earlier. But it's okay. :D

The blouse was packed in a plastic bag, which was very positive because I couldn't cut into the blouse while opening the package. :D 

She also sent me a small gift, which were these gummy candies with a cute Sailor Moon print, but unfortunately I don't eat them, since they contain gelatin and I'm vegetarian. :( I'll give them to my friends at the weekend. Or does anyone else want them? :D

The blouse was in a great condition, no flaws anywhere. But I still have to get it tailored because the sleeves are as large as my legs (almost)... blame my skinny body. :D And it definitly maches with my JSK! It's a dusty rose with an elegant touch. I was totally looking for a blouse like that.

Overall rate:

Communication:          ♥♥♥♥♥

Shipping:                     ♥♥♥♥♡

Packaging:                   ♥♥♥♥♥

Condition of the item: ♥♥♥♥♥ 

Overall experience:      ♥♥♥♥♥

I would definitely recommend buying from Pretty Japan! Go and check their facebook I liked in the first sentence! 

Hope you liked the review! See you soon!

Yours, Kanon

Business trip to Fuerteventura 24th June - 29th June ♥

Hello!

As some of you know, I'm a student for business and tourism and I'm working at a travel agency. Some travel operators offer certain business trips for people like me where we're visiting hotels in another country. So I had the chance to go to Fuerteventura for free!

My trip started at 24th June. I left work at 4pm to start my over night train ride to Düsseldorf airport. I could hardly sleep at the train, but I arrived at the airport at 6 am in the morning, so I've looked for a bench to continue sleeping for four hours.

The group was super nice, and we got along very well. This was awesome because I'm really afraid of strangers I have to stay with almost a week. Our guide was super friendly too, so I enjoyed being with them.

During the trip we were staying at two hotels, Elba Sara Beach & Golf Resort in Playa Castillo and at SBH Taro Beach Resort in Costa Calma. I personally liked the first hotel better.
We were staying there on an all inclusive basis.
Our job was to visit other hotels, look at the rooms noting down information and testing the buffets, haha. The greatest part was eating at the different hotels. But I really liked to experience the culture of the people there. It was super interesting, especially for my job because how should I sell a hotel when I've never been there? That's why I want to go on such business trip again!

I'd like to show you some photos of the hotels and the places I've been. And if you're interested in going there, just contact me, haha. :D

The left two seats were mine on the over-night train ride from Dresden to Dortmund (I had to change in Dortmund)

This was the hotel we were staying at:

 The beach from Playa Castillo/Caleta de Fuste:

Here's en example for a buffet. The hotel was Barcelo Thalasso Spa. My favorite buffet ever! *o*

... and this wasn't even everything, haha. :D

The famous dunes of Corralejo

Some hotels:

Awesome view from the bus when we were going to our second hotel in the south of Fuerteventura:

 The beach at our second hotel:

We also visited a zoo, called Oasis Park!

And this is the most beautiful beach at the whole island! Jandía Playa! 

The last hotel we visited had a small lagoon! So nice!

I hope you liked the photos. It's difficult to decide which photos I should post. >< And in the end I feel like not taking enough photos, haha. :D 

See you soon, 

Kanon ♥