The Tokyo Obsession

I have a confession to make. I know I’m not the only one to fall in love with Japan. But when I first visited last year, it was on a whim.

When I discovered I could escape from work for a week, somehow Tokyo came to mind, as many friends had been and raved about it. The Gothic and Lolita book had also intrigued me, with the fantastic creative fashions of the people within (some of whom I later met and hung out with).

If I’m honest with myself, it was for the fashion that I went. Is that shallow? I even booked my hotel in Shinjuku according to which was closest to Marui One, the department store with the top floors dedicated to all things dark and gothic.

I bought a heap of Kera magazines and Goth Lolita Bibles to prepare – well, you’ve got to be on top of these trends, don’t you?

I WASN’T prepared for the way the city grabbed my by the throat and shook the bejeesus outta me, making me feel alive and reckless and gasping and…in love. I walked down the main road of Shinjuku, my head swivelling around like a 5 year old’s, trying to take in the hundreds of neon signs and just whooping with joy (on the inside, you understand). And when I hit the shops! And the punk bars! And the goth clubs!! And tasted the FOOD!!! Well, more on these in later posts.

Back at my hotel, I marvelled as I padded in stockinged feet a few mere steps from my room to the vending machine for a nice cold Asahi. Yep, this is the life. I could get used to this. So used to it did I get, that I went back in March this year. And will now return in 2 weeks.

Yep, I will certainly be doing more shopping. But it is so much more than that for me now. So forgive me if, in the next 2 weeks, I obsess in these pages, just a little.