Waaaaahh, I feel like such a bad person for not blogging in so long!! I've just been so busy recently, because I'm moving to London Bridge in less than two weeks! I'm so excited, gaah! At the moment, I live next to Peckham, and if you live in London, you know that Peckham is the worst area to live in/around, ever. It's just.. No. ANYWAY, I'm so happy to FINALLY be moving to a super nice area, and London Bridge is notorious for being a great place with plenty of wonderful shops, markets and attractions.
I have quite a few blog posts lined up because I haven't blogged in such a long time, so I thought I'd start of with the last in my series of posts from when I was in San Francisco, this one documenting the anual J-pop Summit Festival that takes place in SF's Japantown.
I've got to say, I actually didn't really like the J-pop Summit this year, it was a bit of a let down. There were a couple of good acts, but for me, personally, the swarms of weeaboos who flooded the festival completely ruined it for me. I mean, I don't know WHAT the festival organisers were thinking when they let weeaboos GO ON STAGE, and do a so-called 'stage performance' of silly, poorly-written songs about Sonic the Hedgehog and boringly popular anime like Naruto and Bleach. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? If I wanted to watch greasy, badly-dressed, ridiculously and obnoxiously loud high school kids screech about on stage in ebay-bought cosplay, I would've run to the nearest anime convention, or joined the nearest manga club.
I cannot even begin to reiterate how awful those 'performances' were onstage. It was what I would describe as something only the heart (and ears) of those kids' parents could love. It was so terrible in fact, that the majority of the audience seated in front of the stage left almost immediately, leaving only the performer's fellow weeaboo peers to shout and scream broken-Japanese-that-really-isn't-Japanese at them in encouragement.
I don't want to turn this post into a rant about how much I think weeaboos ruin Japanese culture for the rest of us J-culture lovers, so I shall swiftly move onto the (few) good things about the J-pop Summit.
When my sister and I arrived at Peace Plaza (where the main-stage was), there was a really cute Liz Lisa event going on, where girls, who were dressed in gyaru-esque Liz Liza clothes, were being awarded prizes based on how they had coordinated their outfits. The judges of the competition were two shop staff from one of the Liz Lisa shops in Japan. They were both so cute! The prizes handed out to the winners were huge goodie-bags filled with various Liz Lisa branded clothes and gifts, which was pretty cool. I was glad that I didn't miss seeing the competition.
Before retreating into the popular Kinokuniya bookstore, as far as possible from all the weeaboos, I managed to watch an an female Japanese jazz-inspired band play. I've gotta say, they were pretty awesome. Not only did they have the attitude, but the three girls played and sang really well, their songs were catchy, but interesting, and I found the melodies quite sad, but also very exciting. Overall, their performance was amazing, and I think my little sister was particularly interested in them, because she want's to study music at university, so she loves to hear good music.
So, even if I was pretty disappointed with this year's festival, it had it's perks, and if you haven't been before, it's worth going, at least, to see the bands playing, browse the Kinokuniya bookstore and explore the Japanese brands available in the New People's building (I think at the moment, they currently have Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, H. Naoto and a Liz Lisa pop-up store there).
My next post will definitely have to be a new buys post, because I've bought so many clothes these past few months, and haven't really written about any of them yet!
AND, most importantly, London Fashion Week will start at the end of next week, so look forward to seeing pictures from the shows and events I'll be going to!
