Blog thiefs and couch surfers

Getting woken up by a sheer orchestra of church bells. First i need to recollect myself. Dreams of Tokyo subways, mingle with thoughts of English Full Afternoon Teas. Wait. Where am i this morning? Church bells. Right, this must be Germany.
Let me introduce again, my name is Cat. Since summer i am mostly couch surfing, between europe and asia. The thing that keeps me grounded, while everything else is floating, is my youtube channel Canudoitcosplaygirl. Wait. Well, it has changed to Canudoitcat now, since the youtube google+ merge this month. I've spent the last 2 mornings editing the -probably longest- video i've ever made. It will be a christmas give away for my lovely subbies. I call my subscribers subbies but i actually have another name for them, that you might not know. Shall i tell you?
Since my channel is  challenge channel, i call them "challengers". But also because my mix of random videos every Sunday might often be a surprise, i think watching and staying tuned to my channel makes you a challenger as well. I love my challengers. I've never known the internet had such a potential to bring together people of such particular interests. And even though i always end up editing too long, starting from 5 hours of editing a day or more, for a video of 5 minutes,i think it's one of the most rewarding hobbies i have.
The only thing bothering me is my new housemate Google plus. Google plus insists on knowing everything about me and in the end always seems to want to have things go her way. It's quite tiring at times. She still makes it difficult to reply to some of my challengers, so for now i hope via this blog and via Facebook i will be able to stay in touch with all of them. I am not looking forward to seeing the state of the room once i return from my couch surfing trip in Munich but i can see she already helped herself to my blog posts when i wasn't  watching. It's not easy living with Google plus but i hope that we, my rubies and i, will all still be able to connect the way we used to, before the switchover. Once i go back to where Google plus  girl is i will need to have some serious words.
Anyways, please look forward to an extra long video on Sunday! It will be a Japan haul, a little sketch, a give away and hopefully make you smile.
Once we get to Monday there should be normal blog posts again about Japanese culture, fashion and cafes!
See you Sunday! Please stay in touch.
Thanks for reading!
Love
X
Cat

Mister Doughnut - Hello Kitty Halloween

Mister Doughnut is a coffeehouse chain from Japan.
Well, actually that's wrong.
It USED to be a chain from America, but now the headquarters of it are in Japan, while most of the American stores transformed into Dunkin' Doughnuts.

I've been to Mister Doughnuts a couple of times, their "Pon de Ring" is my favourite, but since they are a chain, they lack the cozy tea house charm that some individual places have.

I know it's waaay past Halloween, but I wanted to show you the cute Halloween special they did during the time:
The Halloween Hello Kitty Doughnuts!

Mmmmh Kitty!

They came in two flavours, strawberry and pumkin and were shaped like Hello Kitty pumpkins. The both tasted quite delicious, even though I felt they were a little too cross on the inside.


They had an offer that combines one doughnut with a drink, so that way you can save a little bit on the coins when you are going for tea in Tokyo.

Mister Doughnut used to give away plushies, bento boxes and other goodies to loyal customers, however just this autumn the system has changed and all the customer cards expire now. We can only hope that they will do great price off deals in the future instead. I will miss the Pon the Lion plushy though.

If you are lucky, they often do 100yen days, when selected doughnuts are only 100yen. If you see the offer, I'd definitely recommend you to go inside and try some out!

★★★★★QUICK REVIEW: Mister Doughnut★★★★★
PLUS:
★It's cheaper than other chains like Starbucks etc.
★It usually has a more playful atmosphere, with their character Pon de Lion displayed around the store.
★It's super affordable on campaign days
★The only place you can Eat "Pon de Ring", it's worth it!
MINUS:
★Depending on the store, the inside can look a little like a posh cafeteria.
★Some drinks are pricy, compared to what they offer
SUMMARY
Mister Doughnut is a nice place to stop if you are desperate for a doughnut and some tea. It lacks the 'family feel' of more intimate and smaller coffee places, and there isn't much room for customization from the staff either. I wouldn't go there on a Loli meet, or to have a nice time out, but it's nice for a snack, a tea, while waiting for someone or when you need a quick study break outside.

Derpy me! I was ill on that day, don't judge meeee!

I will be away from my computer for the next couple of days.
Let's see how I will manage to upload in that time.

Challenge START!

Love
x
Cat

Moekawa Cafe モエカワカフェ ♥ : Cute Girls and Snacks

 On a day of shopping in Harajuku all you wish for is more money and a place to rest your sore feet.
 Now my friend Annabelle and I were looking for such a place to rest and have some food and found Dream Station, which is located at the end of Takeshita Doori.
Inside are several places from the famous Crepe shops to Kebab stalls, and the newly opened MOEKAWA ♥ CAFE.

Moe + Kawai = Moekawa!

On that theme, the waitresses from Moekawa Cafe were dressed up in cute, maid-inspired outfits, even though they are not strictly speaking a maid cafe. The staff was very cute, apparently some of them are idols, and they were really friendly. They even let us take a picture with them.

Moekawa Cafe specialises in little snacks and drinks.

As said, they are not a Maid cafe, so they won't put a "moe moe kyun" spell on your food or dance and sing, but the food definitely shows the cute touch that you'd expect from the name: tiny eggs with mouth and faces on them, heart shaped carrots, potato stars and a ketchup heart are some of the decorations used. My egg yakisoba was layered in a cup to give it a cute yet colourful pattern. I also got an Acerola drink for free as special opening offer.

The staff is extremely friendly and open, they don't expect money for taking pictures and allowed me to share it online - that's a rare luxury in Japan! I was really happy about that and asked if I can take a video next time I visit them and I got a positive response. Lucky!

The Moekawa Cafe has already been to Paris before, and functions as a flexible entertainment cafe, meaning they are at Dream Station for a limited time.

☆REVIEW of MOEKAWA CAFE　モエカワカフェ　原宿☆

☆☆PLUS☆

☆The staff is cute, friendly and moe = Moekawa!

☆You're allowed to take pictures

☆The food is decorated with love and moekawa power.

☆The prices are reasonable (my yakisoba was 400yen) and the portions are perfect.

★★MINUS★★

★No moemoe performance shows, but apparently they might be using the JOL stage for　performances, according to their web page.

★The location is inside Dream Station, so there are no specially designed places for Moekawa guests, as it is all within the food court of Dream Station

★Not really suitable for a fashion meet because of the surroundings, but definitely nice for a break from shopping

☆☆☆☆OVERALL☆☆☆☆

I LOVED Moekawa Cafe, especially because of the staff. They were so kind, cute, friendly and moe, how can you not like them?! No matter how difficult a customer I was, they really took in my requests (especially when I went there filming another day) and remained sweet and charming. Perfect service! I find Moekawa Cafe is the nice alternative to Maid cafes. You still have the cute girls and decorated foods, but you don't have table charges, photo charges and high prices. It's like a maid cafe accessable for girls, in a nice and girly atmosphere, with the staff being like the nice "oneesama" (older sister) type that really cares.

☆ATTENTION!☆ The Moekawa cafe is running from October 2013 till the 31st of January 2014! If you want to get a chance to go to see them you have to hurry!

 Perfect time out for your Harajuku Shopping trip!

 I will definitely, definitely go there again if I get the chance. I hope they continue doing the cafe in other places in Tokyo, or extend their time in Harajuku.

If you are curious, the link to their webpage is HERE ★

There's a cute little short clip on youtube, watch it HERE

Thanks for checking out my blog!

MOEKAWA Moemoe!☆

Love

x

Cat

Patisserie Swallowtail Annex

Four Harajuku Fashion loving girls went to Cafe / Patisserie Swallowtail on Sunday.
I had the pleasure to see Gizzy (a German fashion photographer) and Cake (A Chilean Blogger) again and also got to meet Harriet (a British Lolita) for the first time.

Now, some of you might instantly get an alarm sound saying "Swallowtail? Wait a moment ... isn't this a Butler cafe?" Yes indeed, Swallowtail is famous for its Butler cafe, but that one is based in Ikeburo. They also have several, less famous sub-braces that serve tea and cakes like the one in Marui Annex that we went to.
While the decoration is very classical, they broke it up with large pictures of anime characters and a HD screen, showing scenes from the "Tales of Symphonia" game series. They currently doing "Tales of Symphonia" special collaboration sweets in store.
To our surprise, pictures were forbidden, even if they were just of ourselves. The only thing we were allowed to photograph were the cakes :)

We were served by a maid in an old Victorian style frill dress that was ankle length. But since this wasn't a maid cafe, we didn't get the "welcome mistress" treatment.
My cake was called Catherine, so it literally had my name on it (Cat/Cathy = Catherine) and therefore HAD to belong to me :)

QUICK "PATISSERIE SWALLOWTAIL ANNEX" REVIEW

PLUS
- The interior looked like a cute delicatessen shop. The large counter at the entrance contained dozens of delicious looking cakes and sweets, which pretty much drew us in.
- If you have a soft spot for cute looking cakes, you are at the right place. Their cakes are quite reasonable and cute, and their menu changes with the seasons. If you follow the link, you can drool over them yourself (see if you can spot Cake Catherine!)
http://www.patisserie-swallowtail.jp/annex/sweets/index.php
- They have a good selection of teas, including Rose tea (Thanks to Harriet). Not as large as some places but still adequate for the Patisserie.
- Reasonable price of their drink set: If you pay an extra of 315yen you can select any drink from the menu, no matter how fancy, and add it to your cake.
- The Victorian Maid uniform of the staff was very cute to look at.

MINUS
- Taking no pictures is a minus for me. The location was not as fancy as the Butler cafe so it didn't really make sense that we were not allowed to take pictures of us sipping tea
- I am an Anime fan, but large pictures within a classical tea room - it just didn't work. With a different colour shade maybe, but it looked somewhat out of place. Either it's a posh place where you can't take pictures or it's a fun place with colourful posters and happy music - they tried to do both and it looked a bit unhappy. Maybe the pictures are more classical once the collaboration special is over though.
- There is no show or guest service.

SUMMARY

All in all it's a cute little cafe in a busy department store in the center of Tokyo.  They are right on the same floor with famous Lolita brand shops (currently opposite Putomayo) in Marui Annex.
So if you are out shopping brand, you can take a rest there in style.
Perfect as a little break on a Lolita shopping day!

If I made you curious, you can look more pictures and information on their official web page:
http://www.patisserie-swallowtail.jp/annex/

We had a good time there and then moved on to more frilly adventures, but you will hear more about that sooooon!

Love and Sparkles
x
Cat

Old city of Kawagoe

Spontaneous ideas are the best ideas sometimes!
We decided to go to the city of Kawagoe, which still has a remaining 'old' part of town. It's called "Ko-edo" the small Edo of Japan. You can still get a taste of how things were in the Edo times ... that is if you can ignore all the tourists that pour in on the weekends.

For today's style I mixed casual clothes and off-brand Lolita items to give me more freedom of movement, instead of going in Lolita. Perfect for browsing and not too OTT. Also, since I didn't wear a petticoat I avoided cleaning the shelves of the small shops with the frill of my behind. (Lolitas will know what I mean)

A famous landmark  is the "Toki no Kane" the "chime of time" which is a tower, that used to announce what time it was to the citizens. In Europe this was usually done by a church or the town crier.

Upon browsing the streets I met a friendly Cat mascot, and decided to buy some roasted Rice Triangles with fish at his shop.

We were super lucky, because there was also a spontaneous Light up Festival today. Several artists made large sculptures out of empty plastic bottles, filled them with water and added some fairy lights: Voila, art was done! It didn't look fantastic in the daylight, but amazing at night time!

BEFORE

AFTER

I am tempted to try this around Christmas, even though I am skeptical if water + electricity is such a good idea for amateurs like me. I might use a battery powered fairy light chain.

Most impressive was the "Projection mapping" that was shown that night. It's also called 'spatial augmented reality'. It's basically a video, projected onto a building, making it look like it moves etc. The show lasted for about 15 minutes, and it really looked like the house was moving, shifting and changing shape. Very impressive.

I've also been editing bits of the next video for tomorrow, I am quite excited which winner names for the Pokemon give away I will pull out of the hat!
Good night and love from Japan
x
Cathy