Sooooo…. some might already know I recreated Neptune’s musical outfit from the latest musical.

I <3 this costume so so much! It’s sparkly and great and came out better than I ever imagined! More than 2 years of research definitely payed out well in the end.

However…me being, even though I finished the costume I could not help myself still doing research. Hunting down trims and other original details is fun and when you met some people online who are as passionate about this as you it’s even better!

Thanks to a friend from the US I discovered a Japanese store that stocked the original trim for the collar and discovered: they have a store in Shinjuku!

The mission was clear from there on *g*.

To keep things short: I spend a lot of money that day but: I am down to two trims which I did not track down till now! One of them my nemesis the trim on the skirt… but who knows maybe I am lucky.

We did not only go to Okadaya (fabric store in Shinjuku) but also to Nippori, which is a famous fabric district in Tokyo. Sadly I did not find the things I wanted there but strolling around was still fun. I discovered the Inner’s collar trim there.

Original Neptune fabric. As expensive as in Germany apparently

On our 1st trip we came across the free guide services a lot of Japanese (and recently Western cities as well) offer here. You basically can request a guide for a certain topic or area and if you are lucky your request gets picked up.

The service itself is free. You only pay the expenses of the guide like food, transportation and such. It’s a great deal and we like the different experiments you get with having someone local guide you around.

In our case this meant we spend the day with Akinori-san. He picked us up from the hotel and after a short search for our bikes (yes we rented bikes for the day), we were ready to explore the city. Let me tell you these bikes were the best idea ever! You get around so quickly! The bikes even have an electric engine, so even the little hills around Akasaka are no problem. Very easy, very nice and worth an experience!

Akinori-san took us to the Imperial palace, as well as the Toyko International forum (where we saw a lot of young woman wearing their Hakama), Ueno garden as well as Kyu Iwasaka house. A short, and spontaneous trip to Akihabara was also included when our guide found out there was a little Otaku with him ;).

The whole day Akinori-San (who had been to out hometown in Germany once!what are the chances?!) also took pictures of us and was kind enough to share them later.

So…. pls enjoy!

And Akinori-san 本当にありがとうございます！月曜日はとても楽しかったです！^-^