Abilletage Halloween Party at Trump Room

Remember my post about the gorgeous corset store and tea salon Abilletage? Well, I also attended the Abilletage Halloween Party – and what an event it was!

The event was held in Shibuya’s very decadent Trump Room – ooh la la! The ceilings there are decked out in multiple chandeliers – adorning the place like fine jewellery.

Trump Room Shibuya

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Next Tokyo visit, next week!

I take off for Tokyo next Friday…and am getting excited!

It has been 11 months since I was last there, unlike when I used to go 2 to 3 times a year. Last November I spent 9 or 10 days there and here’s a little recap of the highlights.

Shopping!

I bought this now favourite jacket of mine, a teal feather jacket from gal brand Sly – seen here with Issey Miyake Pleats Please lurex top and multi cross necklace from Black Peace Now.  I’ll be wearing another Pleats Please top I bought in an upcoming outfit post, but in bright aqua.

Sly Japan, Issey Miyake, pleats please

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Blog’s 2nd anniversary & next Tokyo trip.

Well, I somehow  missed my blog’s 2 year anniversary recently – as in, last month, on October 7th!

Life has rather been getting in the way, and admittedly at times I’ve been questioning what direction to take or whether to continue. Looking at my very first post, “The Tokyo Obsession“, the subject shows me that while some things change, others don’t.

As in, I’m still obsessed with Tokyo, and am flying back there in 1 week. In my low-key way I’ve been keeping up with a few things there and have things to attend, such as the opening of new Alternative Club “Ground Heaven”.

All of the artists sound interesting (including DJ Raveman from Aural Vampire), but it is Steampunk band Strange Artifact that has really caught my eye. I don’t know of any other Japanese steampunk bands, and it is refreshing to see a band doing something other than the usual visual kei! I’ll let you know how they are when I’ve seen them live.

Strange Artifact recently featured on the Steampunk compilation Pergasia Music, The Lost Journals Volume 1, alongside known talent such as Abney Park and Vernian Process.  This was released on October 13, so it’s hot off the press, so to speak! And be heartened, dear budget-conscious readers, for it is FREE!  Download at your earliest convenience.

Another of Artism’s projects, the Alamode Markets, was recently held on October 15

Alamode Markets are a great place to nab one-offs from emerging designers in the gothic and lolita fashion field. See more from this post, which I wrote a few years ago when I visitedthe markets for the first time.

You can read about the recent day here in the goth loli blog, and more events from the organiser D’s Valentine can be found at Artism.

The other very exciting night I’m attending is Tokyo Dark Castle!! It’s one of my fave clubs, and the line-up this time is SUPERB!!! Check out the promo video here: Tokyo Dark Castle November 19

Tokyo Dark Castle Tokyo Dark Castle vs Rituals

There’s Kozi!! (ex-Malice Mizer), the Candy Spooky Theater, Velvet Eden, and of course Auto-Mod and Dj Chihiro. What a night!

But wait!! Whilst finding the poster for that one, I saw that the very week before there’s the Tokyo Dark Castle vs Rituals night!  The Rituals part of the night means that not only will Kenzo’s band Gabriels Stiletto be playing, but his fashion line Rituals will be there for the buying, as well as Pure One Corset Works. Hmm…better take some extra cash then!

I’ll be hitting the Shinjuku Marz both Saturdays and having a super bumper time basically.  OK, so rescheduling my trip meant I missed Japan Fashion Week, but to have these fab clubbing nights whilst I’m there makes me very happy 🙂

As long as there are cool things like this going on, I’ll be reporting on them. So, though I may not be as prolific as I used to be blog-writing wise, the Fashionate Traveller hasn’t hung up her travelling boots just yet, and will be around for a while to come 🙂

Gothic Military outfit of the day; Takuya Angel; Kabukicho parties; leopard lenses

I had a packed Wednesday the week before last: first I met Hana of Finding Tokyo in Harajuku (post and pics of purikura coming up), then I visited Ryo at the Sexpot Revenge store (post and pics coming up), then I bought some gorgeous coats at Closet Child (post and pics…you get the message), visited Takuya Angel at his newly redesigned store, and then later met up with Takuya at a gig/party in Kabukicho.

To backtrack a little…the Takuya Angel store is now about half the size it was. You can enter it directly from the side stairs (and through a short corridor, knocking on the door to check it’s open), or through the rockabilly store in front. I didn’t take photos when I went as it really is quite small and there were 5 or 6 people in there, one of whom was trying on clothes and getting the others’ opinions.

Takuya said he was DJing at a friend’s party/gig in Kabukicho…just around the corner from my hotel, as it happened! He said he was playing til 10pm and we should go for drinks after. Cool!

I went home and chilled a bit, then threw on my Gallery Serpentine corset, my years-old Lip Service Jacket in the fabulous Napoleonic military style (one of my all time faves), along with some gothy make-up and my piercing blue leopard print contact lenses.

The jacket you can see best in the photo to the left, but below shows the lenses better. I got them from Colourvue.  I’ve also recently started wearing orange blush, as seen on some gyaru models – I like that it’s slightly unnatural, but still gives a healthy glow. The blusher is a very intense orange one I picked up at Okadaya – brand is Nyx – and I’ll write more on this and the dazzling range of coloured glitter shadows they offer.  The pinky-purple lipstick is Airborne Unicorn from Lime Crime (also one my my all time faves!)

There was such a cosy feel in my hotel room at Hotel Vintage, and you get that in this photo, I think. (BTW, I recommend this as a great place to stay in Shinjuku. The rooms aren’t big, but they are spotless, there’s a non-smoking floor, 24 hr reception, in-room LAN internet access, and it’s in the heart of Love Hotels and Host Clubs, Kabukicho).

After a short time of waiting outside Wizard 7 – a host club – and watching one of the boys practicing his ballroom dancing moves, I plucked up the courage to ask if they knew where the party with the DJ was. Next building – ah.

The event had had a number of bands playing, and I saw quite a few pretty alternative looking boys packing up drum kits and taking out guitar cases to their vans. Maybe I should have got there for the gig itself. Never mind :/

The event was a birthday party for an art director who was turning 29 – “you are YOUNG!” I told him, to his smiles. After all, I’m more than a decade past that date, and my life’s pretty good, so I knew not to be scared of hitting 30. He’s on my left, below.

To my delight, Mee was also there. She’s a friend of Takuya Angel’s who always wears his clothing (and who you saw in my post on celebrating Hanabi with Takuya Angel, although she had pink hair then). She’s a walking advertisement, you might say. She’s a lovely girl, although she has little English and I little Japanese. Seeing that her red Takuya bear claws matched my hair, she threw them around me for this pic:

And then a group shot by the bar was in order:

So if you drop by to say hi to a friend, you never know where you’ll end up that night! I dragged myself away around 1ish, as I was meeting Valerie of Tokyo Arts factory the next day, and visiting a heap of stores in Shibuya. But it was another colourful and unplanned night, as often happens in the great city that is Tokyo 🙂

Christon Cafe, Shinjuku – a great place to eat; skull contact lenses

Though my visit to Tokyo was short this time around, I still managed to meet up with a few friends and check out some great places.

Christon Cafe in Shinjuku was the restaurant agreed upon by myself, and friends Jab and Suzanne (of whom you’ll have seen lots of photos if you follow the Decadance Bar and gothic scene in Tokyo).

Since Jab is renowned for always wearing his black sclera lenses, I decided to break out my skull lenses to match him. Cool, no? They have red eyes, and the little skelly smile underneath the pupil emulates the teary/watery  effect I’ve seen in some circle lenses. I wore my grey vintage faux fur coat and turband (a great fix if you can’t be bothered straightening your fringe).

I wasn’t sure about Christon Cafe when Jab first suggested it, as I’d been to the Shibuya one and found the portions to be small and the prices large.  But I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised!  

As Christon is the location for the Tokyo Decadance parties, I’ve been here many times before – but only to walk through. For those who haven’t been, it’s filled with medieval religious icons and statues, with great Byzantine style chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

There are also some old refectory type tables and comfy booths, off in the section with the black walls where we sat, which was also adorned with chandeliers and religious items:

 

I’d never really looked around, or noticed the lovely olde-worlde books/menus they have.  The ‘Epicurean Bible’ above was the menu, and I like the quote they used on the drinks menu from Isaiah 56:12

“Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure”

Now to decide on the food….I quite liked the Chef’s Recommendation – Cheese with the Bible Toast (sic)

Here’s the Prince of Darkness with the gorgeous table menu, shaped like cathedral windows:

A little appetiser was placed on the table while we deliberated….a kind of waffle cone filled with cream cheese, sultanas, flaked almonds and a rose petal.

There was a sinful gnocchi with mushroom and tomato in a cream sauce, and beef carpaccio

 

We also ordered a raw tuna and avocado salad, which came with a big crispy triangular structure on top…and an upside down cross on one side.

 

Then there were creamy croquettes on pumpkin mash, and a lamb dish which didn’t need the sweet chilli sauce on it. Jab mused that perhaps Japanese don’t like the strong taste of lamb, and sought to mask it. Who knows?

 

And here are the diners themselves, seated in our cosy booths:

After dinner we headed to the Golden Gai, where unfortunately, my fave punk bar “Hair of the Dogs” was closed due to Tohru being sick.  So, we went instead to the delightful “Bar Albatross” for a few bevvies. All in all, a lovely night in great surroundings with fabulous people.

My lenses were from Colorvue, and my lashes were from Okadaya, though I’m not sure if they were Diamond Lashes or DUP.