#dama does nihon

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Photos from Tokyo Doll Show 58 (5/1/20)!

I couldn’t possibly take photos of all the stalls - it was spread over three floors of a convention centre and each hall was BIG. This is only a small fraction of the stalls. I asked for permission from each stall for these photos (and/or took cues from signs as to whether photos were okay).

60+ more photos under the cut as well as information and links for the single artist doll makers:

The 7th floor housed Azone, Jenny (I think - I wasn’t very interested in that section) and tables set up for hobbyists to display their dolls and mingle. The hobbyists displaying in that particular section were almost entirely mostly men with Dollfie Dreams. There were maybe one or two women, or one or two non-vinyl dolls. 

Below are Azone’s displays. They also had several big piles of discounted clothes for various sizes and a pile of blank 1/6 obitsu heads. People were a little fierce in digging through the clothes... 

Here is just a little of the owner display area.

The 6th and 7th floors held the booths of the people selling their goods. A lot of amazing, quality handmade clothes, accessories, eyes, wigs, you name it, in many different styles and aesthetics. Parabox was here showing off their new big vinyl doll (the photo with the doll wrapped in plastic), as well as Alchemic Labo, and Quarantotto with Angel Philia dolls. 

Above is a gorgeous chubby 1/4 size doll from Dollybird called Kumako. As you can see she has animal feet or human feet.  They looked amazing and I loved them. 

There were also a handful of single artist dollmakers with some really unique dolls <3 I wished I could have bought at least several of them but budget didn’t permit... I at least was able to chat with the artists in Japanese and take their cards. 

Universal Poonyan (website):

Monster Factory Mayuko. (Instagram is @monsterfactorymayuko) These were all so cute I couldn’t even decide on what one I’d buy if I’d had the money, let alone which colour! 

Nayuta Nakamura, a bisque doll artist who was incredibly lovely and her work was stunning. Twitter and Instagram is @nayuta_nakamura 

H Yoshino's cat dolls (Instagram is @aiji0531)

Nanohana Doll (website). Full dolls and heads for Obitsu 11, made of polymer clay.

Factory 53 (website). I asked the maker if the robots were 3D printed because the material looked like it had the sort of texture that comes with that, but he told me they were made with papercraft first and then cast in resin that way! :O 

The remaining photos are of various booths who had lovely dolls on display that I particularly liked. There was no way I could have taken photos of everything, it took me something like 2.5  hours to just walk down every aisle of the very crowded venue. 

Finally, my tiny haul of loot! A bunch of pamphlets, flyers and a skirt and stockings for Kikipop from the discounted Azone piles :D 

The end of Tokyo Doll Show 58! Hope you scrolled this far and enjoyed the pics! 

I’m going to iDoll West in Osaka next weekend and hoping I can get photos up sooner this time :O 

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Some of the coolest things so far in my travels! I was daydreaming about finding a doujinshi by @gachipiso and I did ヽ(；▽；)ノ It’s so beautiful, and funny too! I didn’t see one from @supobi san, but I’ll keep looking and dreaming... :<

Also went to the Evangelion store in Shinjuku, Animate in Ikebukuro who had a Hardy Daytona and Buster Sword + FF7 Remake cutouts, and this beautiful kitsune dress in Shinjuku. 

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Tea ceremony at Urasenke Estate, Kyoto

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Photo I took in Kyoto today 🌈 〽️

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私は東京にいます！ここに一週間ぐらい止まって、京都の立命館大学で 一月間勉強します。 一番すてきなことは二つのドールショーに行くことができます。1月5日の東京ドールショーと1月19日のiDoll Westです。驚くほど幸運です。オーストラリア人としてこんな大きいショーに行くことがありませんでした。次の話はちょっと長いし、疲れているし、英語だけで書きます。^^

I’m in Tokyo! I’m here for about a week before studying at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto for a month.  The most incredible thing is that I’m going to be able to attend TWO ball jointed doll shows while I’m here in Japan. Tokyo Doll Show is on 5 January, and iDoll West in Osaka is on 19 January. What incredible luck! As an Aussie I’ve never been to any kind of convention like that - they’re gonna be massive! 

Yesterday I had to find my way from Narita Airport to Ekoda Station (on the other side of Tokyo) with no maps, train information or internet. It took about six hours from landing in Narita to drop my suitcase at a delivery counter, pick up my SIM card (which it turns out takes a long time to activate), and manage to catch trains and finally a taxi to my hotel. It was one of the worst days of my life, barring pet deaths x_X Not to mention that apparently right now is the peak time for drunken end of year parties called "bounenkai" (忘年会, literally "forget the year meetings"). Ikebukuro station was full of drunks, police arresting someone who'd hit someone else with a bruised face, and station attendants who'd immediately turn and walk in the opposite direction when they saw a foreigner approaching them.

So yeah it was a really bad experience that I don't want to think about but I'm happy about a few things: (1) I managed to not make a spectacle of being a crying gaijin at Ikebukuro station. (2) I can speak in full sentences in Japanese and people can understand me easily, and vice versa (usually, but I'm sure people are speaking simply for me as well). (3) The taxi driver who took me from Ikebukuro to Ekoda at 12am was such a nice garrulous old man and I love him for being so kind. (4) There were several other really kind people along the way, who kind of make up for the less kind ones.

Today was a self care day. I napped a lot, and went out twice - once to grab lunch at the conbini next door, and again after another nap to go to a supermarket. Pics are the balcony that opens off the hallway at this hotel, my cute outfit for today, green tea, grilled soy sauce onigiri and katsu curry, the bounty from the supermarket consisting of 2x lemon and grape flavoured alcohol, kitsune soba and mystery ramen, milk, strawberry chocolate, something random for dinner, another onigiri, and tea. Unfortunately I've just found out the tea tastes like shit omg... it literally tastes and smells like chemicals, this is an outrage 😖

Later tonight I'm gonna hop in the super deep Japanese style bath for a while to get rid of the aches of carrying heavy luggage, and then figure out what adventures and quests I want to go on tomorrow.

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Fox Village, Shiroishi-zao, Japan (via Damasquerade)

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Mandarake Shibuya doll section

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Azone flagship store in Akihabara, display photos part 1