“The more I learn about this country, the more I think I should live somewhere else.”

—	Hunter S. Thompson

The impulse to travel is a deeply ingrained one. Whether we get it from the old hunter-gatherer instinct to follow the migrations of our food sources, or if it's more similar to modern-day escapism, the need to explore has become as quintessential to humanity as empathy is. And well it should be- there's nothing that broadens the horizons more than putting yourself somewhere you've never been, surrounded by a language you don't speak and smells and sounds you've never encountered before. It's marvelous, exhilarating, and terrifying, and if I ruled the world, I would put it at the top of everyone's to-do list.

It seems, lately, like I've been seeing a lot of similar statements. However, a lot of the time, they're different in one key aspect: many of them say something along the lines of "Travel is my biggest priority and you're wasting your life if it isn't yours too." Here's the thing: as much as I'd like to tell everyone that their money is only worthwhile if they're doing something to expand their horizons, I don't know them. I don't know their lives, their jobs, their family situations, or anything else about them- who am I to say what they should or shouldn't be spending their money on? I've been incredibly privileged my entire life: my parents retired younger than most, have always put a huge emphasis on the importance of exploration, and, though money was never plentiful, were able to save up to take us away on nice vacations that I took for granted for far too long. I'm also very thankful that, as an adult, I've never been out of work, have always had enough money to feed myself and pay my bills, and was able to save up money and take time off for work with relative ease. I don't have kids to leave at home, a job that would fire me if I tried to take time off, or trouble making ends meet as it is. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, if you can travel, you're lucky. Privilege 'n stuff.

However, I do think that exposing oneself to new cultures is something that's important enough that everyone should make a point to do, whether that means flying thirty hours away (Hello, Australia!) or one of these much simpler and cost-effective ideas:

• Find yourself a nice day trip or two! Visit a neighboring state/province and go to a museum or sit in a cafe. This is one of my favorite things to do- I've always loved picking an exit at random when I'm driving off the highway and just discovering what there is to do there, but you could do this by train, bus, taxi, or whatever else it available to you.
• Find a really, really excellent restaurant of an obscure cuisine you've never eaten. I went to a tasty Afghan restaurant in the city a year or two ago, but other cuisines to check out could be Ethiopian, Nepalese, Swedish, or Basque. Just remember that it's likely that you're getting a watered-down version of whatever you're eating, especially here in America- it may or may not actually be legit!
• Go to the library check out a book of fairy tales from a country you've never heard of. While you're there, try picking up a travel guide and maybe a history book or two. Turn yourself into an expert!
• Google and find the arts and crafts of a specific region you're interested in. Usually you can find some easy, inexpensive ideas meant for kids that can be fun and enlightening for creative types of any age.
• Research upcoming holidays. It's often thought of as disrespectful or inconsiderate to try and celebrate a holiday that isn't your own culture's, so be respectful, but learning about a country's important days and the mythology behind them is a great way to learn more about a society's values.

Readers: do you often find yourself suffering from wanderlust? How do you cope? And while you're at it, tell me the one place you want to go first and foremost, above all others!

PS- Sorry I've been so dead lately! Getting into the swing of the semester is always hard, but I have a handful of articles already started that I'd like to get to in the next few weeks, and then an important announcement! See you soon~

So despite my best efforts, I didn't end up getting photos of what I wore every day. I did warn Stefan that he'd be the official photographer in exchange for my Japanese prowess, but even still, I felt bad stopping him every few hours and being like "WAIT TAKE ANOTHER OVER HERE!" I did manage to document most of the days, though!

Here they are in order. I have a few towards the end where I'm not certain which day they're from, but for the most part I did pretty well!







Day 1: NOT scaring the rural folk in Hakone with lolita clothing:
Dress: H&M
Shrug: F21

Explored scenic Hakone-Yumoto. It was really important to me that Stefan see both urban Tokyo and a more suburban area, since so few people get to do so. Because our trip was extended by two days, we were able to spend one taking in the breathtaking natural beauty of central Tohoku.

Day Two: In Transit from Hakone to Tokyo All offbrand- Target and JC Penney, I think.

purely practical outfit for navigating shinkansen, subway, and the trek through Ikebukuro. Luckily it was waaaaay easier to get from Hakone to Ikebukuro than from Narita airport to Hakone. I think the trip took us a total of three or four hours. Not too bad, but still exhausting, so we just took a look around Ikebukuro after settling in.

Day 2: Ochanomizu and Akihabara, Take One. First day in lolita! Cutsew: I Do DeclareCardigan: H&MSkirt: Lolita NouveauSocks: MetaHeadband: Cocoa MousseNecklace: Amaranth Opulent

Casual lolita for Ochanomizu (the music/instrument district where we purchased Stefan's guitar) and Akihabara (ended up being our most-frequented district, strangely!) I was kind of upset when this photo was taken because I realized I'd left almost all of my makeup except lipgloss and mascara at the hotel in Hakone D:



Day 3: Harajuku! ...in a typhoon.Dress: BABY, the Stars Shine BrightPurse: Mother GardenSocks: Betsey JohnsonShoes: BodylineHair nest: Amaranth Opulent

Met up with a wonderful expat for soggy, typhoon-laden shopping. The ridiculous weather didn't stop me from going about my business, though (Stefan was shocked at how many people were still out and about- bad weather in America means pretty much everything stops) - I still dropped a couple hundred in Closet Child and Wonder Rocket almost entirely. I have no regretssss ♥
   Day 4: Mori-inspired-gyaru or gyaru-inspire-mori or some shit like that,Dress: MoMo by Wonder RocketCardigan: Emily Temple CuteSocks: Tutu*annaShoes: Target?Headband: Cocoa MousseNecklace: Amaranth Opulent

Went to the Tokyo Tower in this one, as well as Zojo-ji, which is one of my favorite temples. It's famous for allowing people to take pictures like this:

which is just cool. (ohai, Stefan!) We also had a nice chat with some businessmen who were helping us find the nearest train station, in which they asked why we had decided to come to Japan now and why we weren't scared of radiation poisoning. Ohhh, Japan.


Aaaaaaand from there it gets a bit hazy. That's the last of the regimented "this definitely happened on this day" photos.I thiiiink the next day we met up with some more expats to shop around Ikebukuro's Sunshine City shopping center (which was awesooome!). Excuse the silly shoes! We were a little early, so we went to relax in the sun on the hotel's terrace, and as shoes are not permitted inside the hotel, we were required to wear outdoor shoes.

  Dress: BABY, the Stars Shine Bright

Bolero: BodylinePurse: Angelic Pretty (Late birthday present from Stefan!)Socks: Secret Shop June 1st was spent revisiting the places we wanted to explore more fully- Sunshine City Mall (holy beans, I could've probably spent two full days there), Harajuku, and Akihabara. Unfortunately I didn't get a full outfit shot, but here are a few bits to piece together, haha:

 Not gonna lie, with was mostly to show off my crepe. Chicken curry crepe ftw!

Dress: Alice and the PiratesBlazer: BABY, the Stars Shine BrightPurse: Angelic Pretty
And then, shopping in Shinjuku! We met up with another American who was also on vacation for an hour or two and went to Marui. Then Stefan and I had lunch at Italian Tomato (which was surprisingly good!) and donuts at Mister Donut for dessert.

And Stefan, the ever-charming and ever-manly:

So there you have it! There's only one Japan post left, and that'll be a Q&A answering questions anyone has. Please leave questions in the comments below this entry or e-mail me by clicking the button in the sidebar to ask your questions about traveling in Japan!

Woo, sorry for that little unannounced hiatus! I was getting my shit back together here at home after returning from my trip and being a panelist at International Lolita Day in NYC (welcome, to anyone who's started following me from there!) This monstrously huge article is the uber-overview of my trip to Japan, a detailed write-up of everything I felt was worth talking about (things I wish I had known before I left or that I think will be helpful to anyone planning their own trip). I'll start with the itinerary, what we did and when, before going on to general information and impressions. The next post will be all of my outfit shots from my trip, and then the final post will be a follow-up Q&A based on questions or comments I receive on the first two posts- so if you have anything to say, say it here!

(note: Any discussion of money in this post will use yen as its currency. In order to keep from confusing ourselves during the trip, Stefan and I referred to our money in yen, instead of converting everything in our minds, so that's how I've continued to think of it. Plus, that way this information is more accessible to people besides Americans! An easy way to mentally convert yen to USD is to move the decimal point over, or remove the last two digits; this isn't exact anymore, and I wouldn't plan your trip around it, but for the intents and purposes of reading this article it'll help anyone who's confused. Alternatively, use a converter, such as www.xe.com.)

Itinerary:

Day One was spent in transit. We landed in Tokyo at 2 PM, and didn't reach our hotel in Hakone until about 9 PM due to navigating the public transportation system, fighting with our luggage, and getting some technical details about our return flight sorted out. We promptly fell asleep as soon as we were in the room, which is awesome, because it meant we had almost completely conquered jet lag and gotten ourselves into a healthier sleep schedule than we have even here.

Day Two was spent around Hakone. Hakone is an absolutely lovely area, full of natural beauty that I don't think I've ever seen rivaled anywhere else in the world. It's a smaller city, much more rural than Tokyo, which I chose kind of arbitrarily based on what I read about it at Japan Guide (a really indispensable resource, in my opinion.) We walked around the area our hotel was in (Hakone-Yumoto), which had a beautiful river and a quaint downtown area.

Day Three to Ten we were in Tokyo. We took the bullet train up to Tokyo then the subway to Ikebukuro to get to our ryokan, which was a really great place to stay. My brother had recommended it because all of the staff spoke English really well, as well as Japanese and often other languages too. The room was, as I had expected, tiny, but it was also cheap and served our purpose; all we had to do was sleep and keep stuff there.

In Tokyo, we went to Ochanomizu, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro (obvi, we were living there!), Akihabara, and, of course, Harajuku, with a few really short sojourns elsewhere (Nippori and Shibuya, I think). Surprisingly, the district that we went to most often was Akihabara, also called Electric Town, once the hub of Japanese geekery and "otaku" culture and now a slightly watered-down tourist attraction, but still pretty awesome. We also spent a lot of time in Ochanomizu, which is apparently considered the guitar mecca of the world, where I translated the purchase of Stefan's new ESP Horizon III guitar and totally leveled up my Japanese language skill set (funniest thing ever! I'll have to tell you guys about it sometime- the employees totally thought we were just stupid tourists until Stefan broke out the fat stack of bills he'd be paying for the guitar with). Our next-most-frequented was Harajuku. I think we went twice: once to scope it out, see what was in which shops, and again to pick up items my friends requested as souvenirs.

Details:

Money: Good lord did I spend too much. I didn't go much over the budget I set for myself, but I ended up having an extra $400 saved up of spending money, and I charged about $100 extra onto my credit card. About $150 or so of that were requests from friends, which I am now collecting back, so some of it went to that, too. As far as food costs, I'd say my original estimate was about accurate. Some days we went out for a nicer lunch or dinner, but we still rarely went over the estimates of 1000 yen for lunch and 1500 yen for dinner. Breakfast we could have done cheaply, but we usually spent a bit more than our allowance of 500 yen (our most expensive breakfast was 800 yen or so each because we went to a cafe). Our favorite spots for food were noodle or curry shops (be warned, ladies- you'll probably be the only women eating here) and convenience stores, at both of which we could easily get a full meal for under 1000 yen. In fact, let me just tell you about the amazingness of Japanese 7-11. The back wall of all the konbini (short for "convenience store") we went to were lined with refrigerated cases of freshly-made meals- everything from sushi and riceballs to beef curry and salads. An illustration:

My lunch our first day: cold soba noodles and green apple juice, about 400-500 yen:

 

 Shopping: My favorite place to shop was, of course, Harajuku. It's not exactly the mecca it used to be when Gwen Stefani brought it into Western eyes, since many alternative fashion brands have branched out (take the Marui Young building in Shinjuku, the biggest alternative-fashion-only mall I saw there), but it's still just so much fun to clomp up and down Takeshita-Douri, if for no other reason than to be a huge tourist. You can also trek up to Meiji Jingu, which is a beautiful shrine nearby. As far as Harajuku's must-sees: For lolitas, I'd say you absolutely have to go to La Foret and Closet Child. I did a panel on lolita in Japan the day after I got home, and I really should have retitled it "An Ode to Closet Child" for all the waxing poetic I did. I bought a velvet BABY dress, a navy plaid BABY blazer, and a light blue Angelic Pretty summer cutsew for a total of 16,000 yen, which I could have easily paid for the dress alone- and am pretty sure I almost did a few months ago. On my first excursion to Harajuku (the only one in which I bought things for myself), I spent around 30,000 yen and bought this:

Red velvet BABY OP (Closet Child)
Blue plaid BABY blazer (Closet Child)
Brown Bodyline bolero (BL)
Red Bodyline perfume bottles skirt (BL ~ ended up selling this to a friend because it's a bit snug)
White and blue bow socks (BL)
Three pairs of socks from tutu*anna
Lavender Sugar Pansy socks (Angelic Pretty Laforet)
Brown Angelic Pretty pochette (AP Laforet ~ Birthday present from Stefan)
Blue Angelic Pretty summer cutsew (Closet Child)
Brown floral maxi dress (Momo by Wonder Rocket)

 Another ridiculously fun place to shop was Yodobashi Kamera in Akihabara. Akihabara is kind of the electronics and geekery district, and Yodobashi is a mall that takes everything that genre encompasses and crams them into one huge, eight-floor mall. We made the mistake of visiting on a Saturday (completely by accident- our internal clocks were still suffering jetlag, so we thought it was Friday) - absolutely DO NOT do this! It was awful. There were so many people that we couldn't do any actual shopping and basically just spent the whole time fighting off anxiety attacks, haha. The lines were long, there were lots of people and loud kids running around, and it was just not a pleasant experience. Stefan went back a few days later and said it was much better. It was also in Akihabara that we visited Don Quixote, which I think is like a duty free chain store that just sells all sorts of random stuff- everything from international foods to make-up to otaku/geeky things. It reminded me of a Christmas Tree Shop on cocaine, for anyone familiar with that company. However, it was the only place in Japan where I found prescription-free circle lenses, and their Dolly Wink lashes were cheaper than at Yodobashi, along with an impressive spread of Japanese makeup brands like Kate. They have multiple locations around Tokyo, too, not just in Akihabara. 

Lodging: In Hakone, we had a beautiful, spacious tatami room. It had a table in the middle which we pushed off to the side at night so we could roll out our futons, which we then folded up and stored in the closet every morning. This is a very traditional Japanese-style room that is available in many hotels and is often cheaper than the Western-style rooms. This room cost (I think) 9000yen per person per night; that price included both breakfast and dinner but excluded internet (WiFi doesn't seem to be super common in Japan). Here's our room in Hakone...

(yeah, also, that's the Japanese definition of a "spacious" hotel room, haha!)

The dinner was "teishoku" style: they set out for us a multiple-course meal of traditional Japanese food (mostly different preparations of seafood and meat with soup, rice, salad, and stewed vegetables, served with iced oolong tea). The first night we got there, like I said above, it was around 9 PM. We had landed in Narita at 2 PM and had been traveling through Japan for seven hours (due almost entirely to our own stupidity and the pressing need to run around like headless chickens), and this was after the 15 hour flight which was after the 5 hour flight. We had been in transit for well over 24 hours, and so when we got to the hotel we weren't interested in doing anything but sleeping. When they asked if we were ready for our meal, I made it look like we were really hungry and said "Yes, please!" only to recoil in horror when I saw that they had laid out four tables of food for us. Get ready, this is the most disgusting you will ever see me look:

And this was after putting a dent in it. It was also then that I realized that... I don't really like traditional Japanese cuisine very much! This was an awful time to realize this, when I was forcing myself to eat as much of it as possible in fear of insulting our hosts, and it's possible that I barely fought off a total breakdown from stress XD;

Hakone-Yumoto Hotel Asuka

Anyway. The point is to contrast this hotel room with the room in Tokyo, which was:

So small I couldn't even get a picture of the entire thing! As you can see, it was big enough for our suitcases and our futons, and that's basically it. Mainland Japan is a pretty cramped place anyway, where people rarely even have backyards, but in Tokyo space is a premium and as a rule you will get much, much less than you'd pay the same amount for in other places (even within Japan; when I went in high school, my hotel room in Kyoto was about the size of a standard American hotel room). We didn't have a closet in Tokyo, and the one in Hakone was tiny and more of a coat-closet than anything else.

However, the ryokan catered to foreigners, so there were plenty of people for us to chat with in the lounge as well as a staff that spoke perfect English to assist us. It was inexpensive (around 6500 yen for two people per night), and they had a kitchen for us to use as well as a pretty big flat screen to watch TV on (there was also free wifi in the lounge; there were technicians there our last few days wiring the rest of the hotel, too, so they may have expanded that by now). We met a wonderful couple from Adelaide, Australia, who said that if I'd like to take a weekend there when I study abroad in Melbourne to shoot them an e-mail. So sweet!

Kimi Ryokan Ikebukuro

Speaking of speaking English, how did we do with the language barrier? I noted that almost all of the signs in Tokyo were in English as well as Japanese (and Korean and Chinese, in a few places!), so it is totally possible to get around without speaking a word of Japanese. That being said, I cannot recommend it less. If you can, you should take a few practical Japanese classes and learn the writing system, at least hiragana, katakana, and a few simple kanji; at least enough to read some signs and ask for directions, because the information on the signs is not always translated perfectly. However, all of this is only if you are staying within Tokyo or maybe another large city, and even then only in the touristy areas of the city. The further you get to the coutryside, the fewer signs there are in English, so be wary of that when you're planning your trip.

This paragraph is probably time-sensitive for the next few months, but I feel like a few words devoted to the tragedy in Sendai are needed. Our trip at the end of May was completely uncompromised by the effects of March's tsunami and earthquake. I can't speak for anywhere besides Hakone and Tokyo, but there was no damage, no food shortages, not even that much inconvenience that we faced. The only things I noticed were: due to power shortages, the city wasn't as bright as usual, in that there were fewer street lights and neon signs lit up; for the same reason, many escalators were down; and there were fewer other tourists (or at least, there were fewer non-Asian people around. I know that sounds kind of racist, but there are very few white or black people in normal times, and that number was only a tiny fraction of what it usually is). In that same vein, I noticed something really surprising: I actually got less attention walking around in lolita than I did walking around in normal clothes. The only thing I can think of it that they assumed a white person wearing Japanese fashion is more likely to be a permanent resident, and they really had no idea why anyone would come to Japan right now for tourism (the latter half of which I was actually told, basically point-blank, by a businessman I was chatting with).

But what about lolitas in Japan? I didn't have many run-ins with Japanese lolitas; the ones I did speak to were very polite, but not terribly friendly. It wasn't like in America, where I feel like our interest in this strange, obscure fashion lends itself to a nature comradery and makes us more likely to want to be friendly with other lolitas than we probably would be with normal people (in public, at least). This could also just be a difference between Japanese people in general compared with American people in general, as in Japan friendships are seen as a much more serious relationship than I was raised to think of them as (I'd love to hear how non-American Western lolitas feel about this, especially those with experience with Japanese lolitas!) As far as Western lolitas in Japan, I used the lolitasinjapan livejournal community and arranged a meeting with three different girls, all of whom were incredibly sweet and not at all internet stalkers, so I really recommend it for anyone who wants to get together with shopping buddies. It was really awesome having someone to show Stefan and I around the areas I was unfamiliar with.

I guess I can't really think of anything else to say... I feel like there's so much more I should be talking about, but I just can't think of it! So, thank you all for waiting while I took my much-needed break, and again, please let me know in the comments section what you'd like to hear more about and I'll do my best to answer all of your questions!

(part of the Lolita on Location series)

Yep, that's right- in case I haven't been obsessing loudly enough and you've somehow missed it...

I'm going to Tokyo!!

Finally! After almost four years, I'll be making my triumphant return to the Land of the Rising Sun for my fourth visit the most fabulous city in the world. Seriously, no matter how much I love-love-love New York City, nothing can ever compare to Tokyo. I've been having weird, almost homesick bouts of nostalgia ever since I returned in 2007, and I've always intended to go back as soon as my money situation was stable enough to save up for it. About a year ago, my boyfriend and I were sitting discussing travel, and we made vague plans to go to Japan at some point in the future; a few weeks later, we decided that it was official, and that we would seriously start saving up and planning for the trip. After money issues on my side caused us to push our trip back three times (sorry, love!), we finally bought our tickets in September for my spring break 2011- so much better than Cancun!

Obviously, all of the tips I'm offering here are currently heresay; this will be my first time going to Japan on my own, without the guidance of a school group and chaperones. The high school I attended hosted a magnet school called the Center for Global Studies, which taught the language, literature, history, and culture of China, Japan, and... I guess you could say the Middle East/Arabia? Anyway, not only did we host foreign exchange students for two weeks, but we had our own two-week exchange program to whichever of the three programs you were studying- Beijing for Chinese, Morocco for Arabic, and of course, Kyoto/Tokyo for Japanese. It was an amazing experience that was made possible by absolutely fabulous people, and I am honored to have been given the opportunity.

But the nostalgia never stops. It's the little things that trigger it. Sometimes when the spring breeze trickles past me, it carries on it some kind of perfume- the same perfume it carried down Takeshita-Doori; or looking up at the innards of a black umbrella in a certain light reminds me of the year it rained every day we were in Kyoto. I can't fight it, and last year I decided to stop trying, stop whining, and start planning and saving. Here's the main problem, though: I had no idea what to save! My hand was held so much in high school that I really didn't know how much to expect a trip to cost. So here I am; a year of planning, saving, researching, and budgeting, and I've decided to write the guide I wanted to see. This is the preliminary stage: all of my plans, ideas, and thought patterns behind my trip, and since I'm officially leaving two weeks from today, I figured this was as good a time as any. I'll follow up afterward with how it actually turned out, but for now, here are my tips on the first, most important stage of your trip to Japan, or anywhere: planning.

Some websites will tell you that it costs no less than $6,000 to go to Tokyo. Such a fallacy! While Japan can be one of the most expensive countries in the world to visit, Tokyo is just like any other city- it has lots of price ranges. My school trips never cost over $2,500, but that wasn't enough to put me totally at ease because I knew that they got group rates on flights and hotel, which would be my biggest money-drain. That being said, having experience in Tokyo helped me a lot- I know I can eat decently for $30 or less per day, for example, and I know that there are plenty of traditional Japanese inns (ryokan) that are basically a bit better than hostels and can cost as little as $30 per night. A little travel-savvy can get you a long way, and let me tell you, I milked mine for everything it had!

Here's my budget (in USD):

Plane ticket (purchased in September for a March vacation): $880

Ryokan: about $70 per night for a two-person room; total about $250 each for 6 nights

Food: Breakfast- $5, Lunch- $10, Dinner- $15; Total $30/day or about $210 each

Transportation: $100-$150

Emergency: $100
Entertainment: $100
TOTAL: ~$1640-$1690

Okay, so we're not going to be living the high life in Tokyo. While ryokan are often very sophisticated, classy establishments that can include meals and hot springs, there are also many that cater to budget-conscious travelers and poor students. The one we're staying at was a referral from my brother, who called it "a glorified hostel." However, it's in the middle of Ikebukuro, only a few blocks from a large train station, and we get our own 4.5-tatami-room (which is tiny for two people. Seriously, tiny. But it's Japan, so really, you take what you can get space-wise); we're going to bring a can of bed bug spray and cut our losses. And yes, you can feed yourself in Japan for $30 a day! We did it every year in high school, and going above that meant paying out of pocket with our precious spending money- so yeah, we stuck to that budget pretty devotedly! Here's what I'll probably be eating: breakfast will be an onigiri (riceball) or pastry from a convenience store or supermarket, lunch will be a crepe or bowl of ramen, and dinner will be something cheap-y and probably fast food-y. Healthy? No, not really. Tasty? Yes. Cheap? Double yes! We'll probably also try to find a nearby supermarket and try to pick up bread or produce to snack on inexpensively- we'll be there for six days, but we're probably not going to have a refrigerator in our room, so anything we get will have to be kept at room temperature.

Another oft-overlooking aspect of budgeting is an emergency fund. This is incredibly important, whether you're taking a weekend at the beach or a three-week vacation abroad- no matter how close to home you are, you just never know what could happen. What if you bust a tire, or lose your bus pass, or miss curfew and have to stay in a capsule hotel? Okay, maybe that last one is really just one of my personal paranoias about my trip, but honestly- you never know what could come up, and the last thing you want to do is chose between your safety and eating for the rest of the trip. If it's the second-to-last day and it seems like you won't be needing it, start slowly using up your foreign currency and treat yourself to a little bit fancier dinner or buy some extra souvenirs for friends (hello, 100-yen store!)

You'll also notice that I didn't portion in any spending money. As a lolita, this will sound like suicide, but hear me out. Since I haven't had a stable source of income these past six-or-so months, I haven't been able to accurately estimate what I'd be able to save by mid-March. In fact, I only just met my minimum far more recently than I'd been hoping, and since I didn't want to have to worry about meeting an exorbitant budget, I set my sights as low as I could to make sure I got the basics covered. Even though I've met my minimum, I'm still going to keep saving, and everything I add thereafter is going to be counted as spending money. I don't recommend this method for big shoppers! To be honest, if I were to go again (and I hope I do!!), I'd make myself a budget and then save all my money up before I even made any arrangements or bought the tickets. It would really save me the stress, and since I'm sure I'll be a big girl once again with an apartment and bills and rent when I make the trip again, saving it all up first would be the best thing for me to do.

My biggest concern is the flight. A few months after buying the tickets, I took a tumble on some icy pavement this past December and set off what my doctors are calling a case of "congenital spondylosis"- it has a fancy medical definition I'm sure, but all it means to me is that I can't sit for more than an hour (if that) without intense pain that goes all the way from my mid-back to my knees. I'm in physical therapy, but I'm very worried about having to be on a plane for fourteen hours straight; if I could have, I would've book a flight with a stopover or two, but it's too late for that. Adding to my worry is that I'll be flying an America-based airline instead of a Japanese one, something I told myself I'd never bother to experiment with. While I've had some perfectly comfy flights on a plethora of American airlines,  they really just cannot compare to ANA or any other Japanese ones I've used. Not only is there a small TV screen on the back of every eat, which you use a Wii-style controller to change the channel and sometimes play video games, but stewardesses come around every few hours with (if I remember correctly) iced tea, hot tea, and warm broth- and they wear the cutest uniforms! It was always so worth it. This time, though, I'll be flying Continental. We'll... see how that goes. I'll keep you posted.

Like I said above, I'll be doing another post of a follow-up to this budget: was the ryokan worth it? Can one live off onigiri and ramen alone? Until then, here's an older article I wrote about Traveling in Lolita: Packing. And if anyone has anything to add to this, please let me know in the comments! Anything from suggesting places in Tokyo for me to visit to telling your own stories of traveling in lolita is welcome!

(Part of the Lolitas on Location: San Francisco series)

The Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco

As I write this, I sit on a satin-covered settee before a fireplace. My feet crunch the Persian-style Victorian rug, and a porcelain cup of tea sits next to me on a marble coffee table, complete with gold filigree engraving. Above the fireplace, I contemplate an oil painting of the lady of the house entertaining a papal figure with her violinist, all of them coiffed and adorned in the style of the Sun King‘s court. In the other room is a wooden grand piano, crystal chandelier, and a young blond man who looks up every time I cast my eyes in his direction.

The main stairway in the lobby - an elevator is also available

It’s hard to believe I’m still in the twenty-first century, but my fellow parlor attendant is chatting on the cell phone to our family back home, and the young man is wearing jeans and a hoodie. I’m in the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco, a period hotel on Sutter Street. Down the street from Japantown and only a few blocks from Fillmore Street with its shopping &Victorian rowhouses, the Queen Anne is in Pacific Heights, a prime location for tourists with a flair for shopping and dining, as well as an appreciation of historical architecture.
The Queen Anne herself is four floors, with both an intricate cherry staircase and a gold-and-burgundy elevator, and contains 48 guestrooms total. It opened as “Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls” around the 1890’s, making it one of the oldest structures in Pacific Heights, and was restored in the 1980’s as the Queen Anne Hotel after passing hands a few times during the century between. The lobby/parlor is a grand space with burgundy walls & window hangings and mahogany wainscoting, crystal chandeliers and two ornate fireplaces. Afternoon tea with cookies &sherry is served every day from 4 - 6 PM, and a complementary breakfast is served in the ballroom every morning, 7 - 9 (though I should note, it‘s not really impressive - bagels, toast, fruit, cereal, juices). The entire hotel is an antiquer’s dream, as almost all the furniture is from the building’s time of origin or around there, and every landing and room has it treasures. The hotel staff is very friendly and eager to help, and are full of suggestions and local knowledge, and there is town car service every morning at 7:45, 8:45, and 9:45, to anywhere in the city.

A small portion of the lobby

This hotel is not trapped in the past, however. Breakfast is accompanied by a toaster oven for your bagels and microwave for your oatmeal. Each room is equipped with modern televisions and mini-fridges, and the bathroom is almost disappointingly 21st-centrury - personally, I was half-hoping for a pull-chain on the toilet. The hotel is also equipped with high-speed wifi - theoretically. More on that later.
The guest room itself is beautiful - high ceilings, a beautiful color pallet, and huge, comfortable beds. The closet is very large, and the bathroom isn’t really tiny, either, and it has a bathtub, something many modern hotels have nixed. I almost wish the bathroom was more old-fashioned - lovely marble, but the tiles on the floor also cover the walls and surround the bathtub, which is also sadly modern - in a perfect world, the tub would be a brass-and-porcelain claw-footed monster, though I don’t doubt that in some of the fancier suites this would be a possibility. It’s comfortable, though, and not unattractive, so clearly my standards are just unrealistic. There is also a small sitting area with two armchairs, a nice wooden table, and a lamp.
While there is little else I can say badly about this hotel, as with anything, there are some discomforts. The shower in our hotel was broken when we checked in, to the point of being unusable - however, this was fixed when it was brought to the front desk’s attention, and after we left for the day so we didn’t need to put up with the noise from the plumber. The biggest concern for me, however, is the internet - I don’t have it. For some reason I am entirely unable to connect on either of my laptops, and on those rare times I can, there’s no signal. However, if this problem affects you on your stay, there is a desktop in the lobby available to guests. Another slight annoyance is, due to the age of the hotel, a great lack of outlets, meaning I can’t charge my cell phone, camera battery, and laptop at the same time. I’m sure I'll survive somehow. Also, they don’t have a pool or air conditioning, though in San Francisco, where it doesn’t often get much over 80, neither of these are necessities, in my opinion - however, they do have fireplaces lit all night to stave off the chill of evening.

The parlor fireplace, in front of which I sit writing!

Lolita-specific: The closet is large &deep, perfect for petticoats & even your largest dresses. They come equipped with sturdy wooden hangers that won’t stretch or damage your clothes, however, they have no pants hangers, so if you have any delicate skirts you don’t want to drape over the bar on said hangers, you should probably bring your own. The internet is provided, through wifi (theoretically) and the lobby computer. There is also a nice vanity/dresser next to the door, so if you’re sharing your room with another lolita you can coif yourselves at the same time without squishing into the same mirror. There are many places for photos, as most of the floors have lovely benches, settees, and armchairs scattered around, as well as some lovely art.
In conclusion, I would give it about 3.5/5 stars, which kills me, as this hotel is a Taurean art-and-beauty Nirvana, and my inner bull is going into overdrive at the multitude of rich colors &fabrics. However, the inconveniences must be taken into account. While they aren’t bothering me much, they are exactly that - inconvenient, and they may bother someone else more than I, so they deserve to be taken into account during a review. Even still, I’m having a great stay, and I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone spending any amount of time in San Francisco - especially a lolita.

So, it's finally here: Vacation! Whether you had to request time off weeks in advance from work, or happen to be on Spring Break (or both, as is usually my luck), finally, you have a few days to get away from the daily grind &relocate to smoother sailing. You've chosen your destination, you've selected your mode of transportation, you've taken care of lodgings. Now, all that's left is one of the most daunting for a lolita: Packing.
First off, some required reading. Seasoned lolitas may remember the post by livejournal user tsu_ on the egl community, the Lolita Travel Guide. For those who do not or need a refresher, there's the link. The article is very helpful &covers all stages of your trip, from planning to disembarking, so I'm going to address you all as an audience who already knows the points she makes. Now, I'm going to go have a cup of tea & some cookies while you read that.
Okay, all set? Good. Some of the things I'm going to say may now sound slightly repetitious, but don't worry - if it's covered in detail by the other article, I won't bother here. However, packing was mostly left out, except for a very short but informative paragraph, mostly on proper petticoat packing &a few suggestions on what types of pieces to pack.
The equation provided in the article is a wonderful starting point, however the only example given is for a week's stay, &doesn't cover accessories or other things - including non-lolita items to bring! So, let's talk about that. Say, for example, you only plan on wearing lolita for two days. Your easiest option is: one skirt, two cutsews (blouses are fine too, but much more likely to wrinkle, and we all know how those hotel irons are), however, if you want a bit more variety, I suggest: One skirt, one JSK, and one cutsew, with accessories that would go with either. This will give you two distinct looks while still not taking up too much room. The skirt could also be swapped out for a OP &the blouse dumped for a day for a totally different look - if you choose a dress instead, I'd go for one without a built-in petti, to save room.
Now, onto choosing those pieces. Obviously, you know your closet better than anyone, so you'll know best what colors or motifs to lean towards, depending on your tastes & collection. My suggestion is to go for plainer base pieces, the pieces that will be present in both outfits - plain, lace-topped white socks, white hairbow, white shoes, white blouse or cutsew - then chose an interest piece - pintuck-and-pearls jumperskirt, or coveted print skirt - to set off & add more interest to both outfits. Also, if you're unfamiliar with the climate you'll be traveling to, layering is your friend- always have a nice cardigan or bolero in your carry-on, just in case. An example:

Suitcase Loli by herlumpiness on Polyvore.com

See how the interest piece in these outfits are the skirt and the jumperskirt, respectively? The blouse gives it a more mature, classic look, while the bow & shoes enhance the inherent sweetness. The shoes are also lightweight flats, which would fit more easily into luggage than heels and would take up less of the weight requirement.

A few more random tips:

• If you have an organza pannier, now is the time to bring it. It won't get smooshed in your luggage like a regular tulle one will, and if you want to wear it on an airplane, it's easier to gather around yourself &can be piled under you and sat on if it's in the way of other passengers - really, though, it's best if you just pack it.
• Packing anything delicate? A mini-crown or a piece of jewelry you don't want crushed? Wrap it lightly in your organza pannier. I also use mine stuffed into purses to keep their shape.
• Organize your suitcase. Put all your socks in a quart-size ziplock bag, all your accessories in the inside pocket, etc. Also, if you've got quite a big of stuff, roll instead of fold.
• If you're flying, wear a pair of comfortable flats. Passing through airline security is not the time to worry about unbuckling your Tea Party shoes! Also, your feet swell at high altitudes, so you'll be more comfortable if you just slip them off during your flight &then squeeze back into them once you've landed.
• Bring at least one non-lolita outfit. Say you suddenly realize that an absolutely immaculate new nightclub opened up a block from your hotel, or you get asked out to fancy lolita-inappropriate dinner by a young heir. Trust me, if either of these things happen, or any other multitude of possibilities, you'll want a nice dress & heels. Or conversely, what if the people you're traveling with realize they want to take a bicycle tour of the historic district? Therefore you should also bring jeans &sneakers, because like I said, anything could happen.
• Take lots of snacks in your purse! Bring an empty water bottle &fill it at a water fountain after you pass through security. Try to stay away from candy & other sugary treats - bring a granola bar or some dried fruit. Not really related to packing, but good to know - caffeine dehydrates you and makes it harder for you to adjust to jet lag, as does sugar, so stay away from coffee &soda on board if you're getting off in a different time zone.
• If you're going somewhere loli-friendly - Japan, Paris, anywhere that has lolita stores - or even just anywhere with really good shopping, just bring a carry-on, and fold up a duffel bag or another medium-sized fabric suitcase to keep inside it. That way, if you buy a lot, you can just pack up the duffel and have it checked.
• In the same vein, most airlines let you bring two bags with you: a purse and a carry-on, which gets stowed in the overhead compartment. If you're going on a longer trip &don't want to check a bag, bring small backpack or larger purse than you would usually use as well as your carry-on, with your normal purse folded up inside the latter. That way, once you get checked into your hotel, you can just transfer things to your smaller, more convenient purse, but still have enough room for everything you need without paying for the checked bag.
• Getting an in-flight meal? Lucky you! However, in my experience, even if you don't have any dietary restrictions, opt for a restricted meal - vegetarian, kosher, etc. You will be served first & the food is usually healthier. Plus, who wants to eat airline meat anyway? Yuck!

Ladies &gentlemen, I write this article because I am about to embark on my first flight in almost two and a half years - gasp! My first time being on an airplane NOT headed for Tokyo in over six years! Instead, I'm headed for... Japantown, in San Francisco. Yeah, I'm still a loser.