J culture, J pop and cosplay at Hyper Japan

A couple of Cosplay characters at Hyper Japan Christmas 2012.

j pop, j culture and teenagers at Hyper Japan

In just two days I’m taking teengirl to Hyper Japan in London and she’s excited she can barely sit still!

Hyper Japan is the biggest J culture event in Europe and for teengirl, who is so into Japan that’s she’s learning to speak Japanese at after school classes, it is the most exciting event of the year.

Teengirl wanted to do the whole cosplay thing (cosplay is quite basically fancy dress but they dress up as characters from j-culture, j-pop, anime and manga), so I ordered her a full on Vocaloid costume from Lightinthebox.com in October.  It was perfect for her it even included the turquoise wig.  But by last weekend her outfit still hadn’t turned up and when I contacted Lightinthebox.com they said there’d been a delay and it wouldn’t be shipped until 21st November – from China!!  So there’s no way it would be here in time for the 24th.  So I had to cancel it.

cosplay, j pop, j culture and kawaii cute at Hyper Japan, London 2012. The perfect place for a Japanese obsessed teenager.

But as teengirl’s such a pragmatic soul she happily accepted that and reasoned that the £80+ I’d saved could be spent on her at Hyper Japan!  Yes, eighty quid!

The costume and wig and postage was £55 but when it arrives from China the UPS delivery man needs at least half  that again in import taxes!!

Not something that Lightinthebox highlight on their site.  I’m sure they have it on there somewhere but it’s not ‘out there’ for all to see, if you know what I mean?

I only know this because a few days before I ordered her Vocaloid cosplay costume I ordered a couple of wigs – one bright red long wig for me and a turquoise curly wig for teengirl.   Together with shipping they cost £34 but the UPS man demanded £17 import tax before he would hand them over!

So, teengirl’s opted to wear a lovely gothic lolita style dress she already owns together with some stripey tights, studded boots and her turquoise wig.  She may add a black top hat, but she’s gonna wait and see how it looks.

And while we’re there she’ll shop for cosplay costumes, accessories and presents from Santa.  The presents from Santa (which I’ll be buying, of course and wrapping for her) will probably be lots of kawaii things.  Kawaii is Japanese for cute, so think Hello Kitty, panda’s, little dolls in kimono’s that sort of thing and you’ll be on the right track.

Me?  I’m just going as me but with a bright red long wig.

Lolita fashion kawaii cute at Hyper Japan Christmas 2012 in London.

The doll with the blue hair is a Vocaloid doll and she’s wearing the same outfit Teengirl should have been wearing for cosplay at Hyper Japan