This is part three of my continuing adventures as a Japanese Lolita. If you need to catch up, part one is here, and part two is here.

After picking out a dress with the famous (and deathly cute) Misako Aoki, it was off to a salon in Harajuku. The salon is called Maison de Julietta and they actually just started offering Lolita makeover packages, so if you’re interested in getting your own Lolita makeover in Tokyo, it’s possible!

How could we be Lolitas without tea and cookies?

Because this is Japan, every single person in the room (including me) is taking photos of the cookies and tea.

 Ughhhhhh, why is Misako Aoki so adorable?

They cut my hair into straight bangs (which every hairdresser in Japan so far has done), and curled my hair. Keiko’s face is the best part of this photo, even though there’s not that much to be shocked about. Apparently straight bangs and curly hair makes a difference, but I think I look pretty much the same. I also learned that the little pieces of longer hair that hang on either side of your bangs (you can see them better on Misako) are called hime (princess) pieces. Of course they are.

Lolita hair complete!

Just what I love: being poked at in the face while someone takes photos.

They slapped some blush and fake eyelashes on me and now I’m a Lolita.

LOLITAS FOREVER.

Misako took this photo of me with my iPhone. My inner five-year-old is pleased.

Misako shows off how this Lolita thing is done.

I am but a poor imitation.

With the Maison de Julietta stylist. What are we looking at? Someone probably threw candy at us or something.

 This is the most Japanese that I will ever be, I thought to myself as we wandered the streets of Harajuku.

You might  think that walking around Harajuku would have been the most embarrassing part of the day, but it totally wasn’t. It is completely NOT WEIRD to dress like this and no one even gave us a second glance. I felt more normal than I do as a tourist.

Posing with our cake after lunch, because that’s what Lolitas do. Lunch was at some restaurant in Harajuku that is apparently popular with the Lolita crowd. Over lunch, I found that Misako is a nurse in her non-Lolita life!

After lunch, we headed to one of the greatest stores in Tokyo — Kiddyland! Kiddyland is packed solid with five floors of toys. The fourth floor (my favourite) is devoted entirely to Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma. Part of my prize included ¥100,000 (just over $1000 CAD) to spend on Harajuku shopping. YES, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS TO SPEND SOLELY ON CUTE THINGS.

Another store we went to was Spinns. It’s not Lolita fashion, but they have a lot of fun, cheap stuff. I was kind of in shock or something while I was shopping. The $1000 to spend was a surprise — I didn’t know that it was part of the prize beforehand. I ended up with a bunch of skirts, including one with a pancake print, and this one with unicorns on it! UNICORNS.

We also went to Milk and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, which are both full of Lolita goodness. At Milk, I picked out the same heart-shaped bag that Misako is carrying (but in black, because I can only go so far with this Lolita thing in real life).

Covert photos by Mike of the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright store.

It was about now that they told him he couldn’t take photos.

This is one of the assistants posing with all my bags of stuff.

Shopping makes you hungry and if you’ve ever been to Harajuku, you’ll know that crepes are the primary food source of Lolitas.

Strawberry cheesecake crepe for me! My favourite kind, and I didn’t even pick it. Someone just handed it to me.

I do not know how to make my face into the appropriate expression for posing with a crepe.

Random Misako Aoki fans came by, dressed in their own awesome way.

This might be THE MOST AMAZING PHOTO EVER. It basically sums up Japan for me.

Onward to a store devoted to legwear. Tights galore!

Hello Kitty tights!

Heart tights! The store ended up giving us some free tights, I assume because Misako is famous and I was just there.

Yeah, not weird at all.

After shopping, we were ushered into a very cool Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. It was kind of crazy, because they’d booked the entire restaurant for us, so it was otherwise empty. But more about that in the next entry!

In the final part of this Lolita saga, I try to eat myriad Alice in Wonderland dishes with faces made out of sauce, get presents from Misako Aoki, and finish up my time in Tokyo before heading back to Osaka.

 

Finally, the second part to my Lolita saga. (The first part is here.) There’s actually a part three and a part four, so prepare yourself for a million photos of me in a fluffy dress.

So as I mentioned in the first entry, I won a photo contest sponsored by the Japan Tourism Agency and the prize was a Lolita makeover which included hanging out all day with Misako Aoki and a lot of shopping in Harajuku. Misako Aoki is Japan’s “Kawaii Ambassador,” (a real title!) a famous Lolita model, and probably the cutest person alive.

At first, I was like “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat, you want me to wear a Lolita dress and wander around Harajuku?! With a Japanese model? Are you insane?” but hey, you only live once. WHY NOT? It turned out to be really fun and I had an amazing time. It will probably go down as one of the weirdest experiences of my life, but that’s not exactly a bad thing.

The day started off with photographers setting up. MULTIPLE PHOTOGRAPHERS. I was mildly horrified (I don’t particularly like getting my photo taken) but again, how often does something crazy like this happen? So I decided to (mostly) just go with it.

Dress selection. Frilly dresses galore.

So many accessories! It’s hard being a Lolita.

Misako Aoki! I can’t even tell you how adorable she is in person. They asked me what colour dress I wanted, and I wanted to say black. But I wear black ALL THE TIME so I held my tongue and just let them pick out whatever dress they wanted. It was between pink and yellow. Misako suggested pink — apparently it goes with my skin. Annnnnnnnnnd I have a secret love of pink because I have the taste of a five-year-old but I try to hide it with black clothes and Marc Jacobs. (It usually works.)

Pink it is!

Trying on the dress and shoes. I was surprised that the dress fit, because I am not as tiny as a real Japanese girl and everything in Japan seems to come in only one size. So that was lucky. The shoes were a size “medium.” (I normally wear a US size 6 shoe.)

I’m 99.99% sure this the only time anyone famous will help me buckle my shoes.

I look super impressed here.

Angry eyebrows. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME? WHY DOES THIS DRESS HAVE SO MANY RIBBONS?

Well. Time to suck it up and embrace my inner five-year-old.

TA-DAHHHHHHHHH!

I could totally be a Lolita, guys.

Especially since being a Lolita comes with cute stuffed animals. This is the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (a Lolita clothing brand) mascot. Misako had one attached to her bag, so I got one for my (cherry-shaped!) bag. Her “skirt” doubles as a hair scrunchie.

The pattern on my dress. Also Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. ANIMALS AND STRAWBERRIES AND BOWS, WHAT.

Cute shoes! They were strangely comfortable. Some poor assistant had to carry my boots all day, just in case my feet hurt later and I needed to take these off. (I never did!) I wanted to buy a pair but then I came back to my senses.

Getting in a cab and heading to a salon in Harajuku for my LOLITA MAKEOVER. One of my favourite moments of the day happened in the cab. That little stuffed mascot rabbit thing I mentioned has a pocket on the back. A very small pocket that couldn’t even fit a credit card. Mike asked Misako what goes in the pocket and she replied “candy” in this voice like it was the most obvious thing in the world. (What else would a Lolita possibly need to carry around?)

What were we talking about? Candy.

Posing outside the salon. Sort of.

Waiting for my hair/makeup person. We had a private room so I could be saved from the snark of real Lolitas (I assume). LOLITA POWER MAKE UP! The people in the background include the photographers, Keiko, and someone from the Japan Tourism Agency.

That’s it for part two. In part three, someone puts fake eyelashes on me, I parade around Harajuku, eat crepes, and go shopping.

Click here for part three!