Photo by Needol @ Flickr

Ball Jointed dolls (wiki) are a type of dolls that, as the name says, have ball joints. They are made of polyurethane resin. They’re also known as ABJD (Asian Ball Jinted dolls) because they are made in asian countries (Japan, Corea and China).

The first company that comercialized a BJD was the japanese VOLKS inc. This company is one of the most important brands of garage kits, mecha, figure and dolls in Japan. They called it Super Dollfie and, nowadays, it’s a name used by many to call all BJD (despite not being correct).

It was in 2003 when the first Korean brands started selling their own BJD, such as Custom House and Luts, and since then the number of brands increased fastly and also the number of fans.

Nowadays there’s a wide range of doll sizes. The main ones are:

• 60 cms (a bit more or less). There are bigger dolls which size is 70cms and more.
• 40 cms (more or less). They are called mini. In VOLKS they were called mini Super Dollfie.
• 30cms (and less). It’s the tiniest size available in the market.

The prices are around $100 to more than $1000. It’s an expensive hobby, not only for the doll, but also fr the clothes and accesories that you can buy for your doll. BJD are very customizable. From simply changing the wigs, make-up or eyes to fully customizing the aspect of the nose, mouth or eyes with a sandpaper. With this you can create your own doll, even if the face mold is the same as others, your doll can be unique.

When I came into this world of BJD in middle 2002, in Spain there were only a few people interested and a very small forum. I spent a long time researching and in 2003, when the corean bran Custom house appeared, I bought a Choa. I love that mold with a passion, it’s really lovely, but the body really dissapointed me when I compared it with the newest (at that time) Volks bodies.

Right now I own a total of 3 dolls of 3 different brands (Custom House. VOLKS and Luts). I love them and i’d love to have a lot more but I dont think I will buy any again. It’s too expensive and there are other things I want to do with my money.

Some brands:

• Volks (Japan)
• Custom House (Korea)
• Luts (Korea)
• FairyLand (Korea)
• Dream of Doll (Korea)
• Angel Region (Korea)
• Doll-zone (China)

One of the things that I like the most from Japan is “nail art”. They really make lovely stuff in the nails.

Nail art is a trend in Japan, especially among young women. It’s not only a “gyaru” or gal thing but you don’t really see an OL (office lady) in a black suit wearing them. For this kind of manicure they normally use rinestones, gems and a special gel to make the 3D flowers. There’s infinite variety of designs. You can find designs from the most OTT and unwearable nails with long tips to the more simple designs that can be adapted to short nails as well. Not all have to make women unable to use their hands. This is an example of nail art for shorter nails.

Like any other thing in Japan, there are many different magazins spcialized in nail art. The most important ones are Nail Venus and Nail up, but there are many many others.

If you like nail art and you’re not in Japan, nowadays there are many beauty salons that offer it. You can also find a lot of premade nail tips or the tools to make it yourself in Ebay and Rakuten for example.

Ito-Yokado in Akabane, Tokyo.

Ito-Yokado (イトーヨーカドー) is one of the supermarket branches in Japan and belongs to Seven & I Holdings Co.

Unlike in Spain or the UK, in Japan qe can’t find supermarkets everywhere. What we do find are “convenience stores” or combini or some cheap shops like shop99, Daiso (but they don’t sell food) or the famous Donki (Don Quixote). The supermarkets in the center are normally more expensive.

Many times you might have heard that if you want to save money while living in Japan you should buy in supermarkets, especially when it’s close to the closing hour because it’s when the cut down the prices for the perishable products (like sushi) to even 70%. The problem is that if you happen to live anywhere inside or near Yamanote line, you will probably not find a supermarket anywhere near you. Most of the supermarkets in Japan (at least in Tokyo) are close to the residential areas.

So, if you want to enjoy these bargains, find some product you might not find in shop99 stores or just simply go to a real supermarket, you have two options: find a place to live closer to a supermarket (and probably far from your workplace or academy) or find the closest one and find out if it’s worth the train ride.

I recommend though, that if you’re living (and newbie) in Japan with a tight budget you should give it a try at least once to compare the prices with the stores closer to you. However I can’ deny it’s a big headache to have to take a train for probably a 20 minute ride to go to a supermarket…

Although there aren’t big trips to talk about, I’ve traveled a bit. Also, Jessica (Imanatsu) told me long ago to make this meme so here it is!

Photo by rhoadeecha @ Flickr.

Normally your trip starts from…

Gando Airport in Gran Canaria.

Are you a member of any frequent flyer programmes? Which?

I’m a member of Spanair frequent flyer programme. I registered just becuase, since I don’t fly too much anyway.

Have you ever flown for free with the frequent flyer programme Miles?

Nope, never.

Any bad experience with excess baggage?

A lot! The first time was when I flew with Easyjet to Bristol (and then to Edimburgh) long ago. After that, when I went with flyglobespan to Glasgow to spend my Erasmus exchange year. The last time was when I went to see my brother in Prague. Since I had to bring him stuff, between the two flights I had to take I paid 99€ for excess baggage.

Window or aisle seat?

I don’t mind too much but I preffer window.

Why?

I can’t sleep in planes, only maybe in the flights to Japan while watching a movie. I don’t like planes too much and somehow I feel less nervous if I’m in a window seat.

Favourite airline company?

I don’t have any and I don’t think I’ll ever will. I don’t like flying too much and all I want is to get out of the plane as soon as possible.

Which airline will you never use again?

Any Low Cost company actually. However I use them anyway, not only for the price but because sometimes it¡s the only way to go directly to some cities from my tiny island without having to stop in Madrid or Barcelona.

Next trip?

This Wednesday (2nd of December) to London.

Who do you want to take this meme?

Anyone

The first time I went to Japan in summer 2007 I really wanted to visit Akihabara. At that time I wasn’t so interested in manga and anime but I still wanted to see that famous district of Tokyo, that supposed Mecca of the “otaku”.

However, the experience wasn’t as I expected it at all. I guess I never really thought that Akihabara was basically aimed at men, but I was lying to myself obviously. Maybe because my interest in manga and anime wasn’t in the highest level, maybe simply because I’m a woman, but I felt quite out of place in that district. Most of the mangas I liked weren’t there (although there was a lot of stuff, you couldn’t find good doujinshi, for example), the big banners with manga girls without clothes weren’t my kind of thing, electronic stuff… well, I like it just fine. But many things that you can find there (if you aren’t really into those things) you can find them in other places of Tokyo too, where you might feel more comfortable.

I’ve always read about that 7-floors cosplay shop in forums and blogs. I just saw it from the outside, I didn’t dare to go inside. But the dresses I could see in the windows were more like the ones offered in “love hotels”. I’m not saying that there weren’t great outfits inside, not at all! Maybe there were! It’s only that the impression I got wasn’t really atractive if you were looking for a cosplay outfit.

The figures’ shops are something remarkable, but if you don’t collect them (like me), then it’s just something worth looking once but that’s it. For the people that like them it must be paradise though, because they had lots of things there. The Mandarake shop… well it was like most of the Mandarake shops, not more not less. And like in all of those shops you can find something in one that’s not in the other, especially in Shibuya where you can find a lot of 2nd hand stuff and I think it was one of the most complete ones with a lot of diferent genres of manga, including doujinshi. Akihabara’s Mandarake was more focused on shonen manga and if you like shonen that’s your place. If you like BL, it’s not. You won’t find almost anything in the shops. I think in the basement of one there was a BL section but that was about it. If you really want to find BL stuff you have to go to Ikebukuro or Shibuya and maybe people don’t know that.

One of the only things I liked from Akihabara were the “tax free” shops that had some good stuff for less money than other places, but if you aren’t there with a visitor/turist visa, you will have to pay taxes anyway. And also the BJD Volks shop, but there are many around Tokyo so I don’t really mind.

What I want to say is that there’s more for the “otaku” than Akihabara. It’s just one of the many places you can visit and you don’t have to center you Tokyo visit to it. It’s a “must see” but you have many other interesting places too. Broaden your minds!

PS: I say this without having been able to visit the new Mandarake in Akihabara. But you have to admit that the old one made you want to run away!

It’s been a while since I last posted xD You know, it’s really difficult for me to keep a blog or journal but well, here I am.

A week ago, Natsuki from Imanatsu told me that she had bought a nail polish from a website (a bran called elf). The nail polish (navy), was pretty cheap and if I joined the facebook, when they reached 20000 fans they would give free shipping to all orders for a day. So I joined and ordered when they got to 20000 fans (they do this every 1000 fans). Yesterday I got the things I ordered.

I used this color today. It’s called Gum Pink and I love it Those who know me know that I love pink XD

Under the cut, that I hope works on livejournal too I’ll include some pics of the other stuff. Sorry for the quality, I took them with my mobile phone just now and it’s late.

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So today I did some more crafts with hot glue. I hope you like them! I’m a bit tired to post something meaningful though, but well. Here you have acouple of pictures

I’ll make phone straps or keyrings with them I’ll put some silicone whipped cream over the ones that aren’t decorated yet