A trip to Hyper Japan

So a few weeks ago I went to Hyper Japan at Earls Court in London. It was an event celebrating all things Japanese and it was a lot of fun!

I went dressed as Princess Zelda form Skyward Sword (you can read about that costume here) which was actually a pretty good choice as Nintendo had a big presence there. They had lots of games to try although queues were quite long as there wasn't really any other game presence there. I did get to have a go on the 3DS version of Smash Brothers where I played as Kirby and won my bout (haha).

I also met Pikachu! But he was quite a bit bigger than I imagined...

They also had examples of the new Amiibo s which are sort of like a Nintendo version of Skylanders or Disney Infinity. The figures were beautiful to look at, really detailed and well thought out I can't wait to get one! Sadly the picture doesn't really do their wonder justice.

There was also a lot of Tomodatchi Life around to play on, but since I have that game I gave it a miss. My husband had a lot of fun wanting to buy everything at the Official Nintendo shop but he exercised great restraint... unlike me :S

The official Nintendo store was not the only presence they had, there were plushies, cosplay props and novelty t-shirts galore!

The shopping was pretty great in general, there were lots of imported goods, and while things weren't exactly cheap, they weren't exactly expensive either.

So many bonsai...

Yet more Nintendo...

Oh how I want this Rilakkuma bike, I never thought I would want a brown bike.

There was also quite a lot of Sailor Moon around. I loved this laser cut jewellery by Glitter Bomb so much so I bought a heart transformation brooch necklace inspired by Sailor Moon S.

There were also some really awesome Sailor Moon bows and collars for costumes sold by The Naked Lace Company:

I wouldn't say I went completely crazy shopping wise, but I did get a few things I was lucky enough to win 3 pairs of false eyelashes at the Dolluxe stall.

But my most favourite item by far were my Les Kyoties cat ears from the Lady Gadget stall. They were so adorable and the pink matched my costume so perfectly how could I not wear them home?!

There are so many different colours available, I'l thinking I want these to b my cat Princess Peach/Zelda ears and I will get some others to go with more general outfits. You can see all the colours here and like Ladt Gadget's facebook page here (although its in French).

I also spotted that Retro Chick posted some cat ears on her blog too.

I read on Retro Chick's blog that she had a lot of trouble getting something to eat and I can completely agree that there either wasn't enough food outlets to cater for the number of people or they simply weren't efficient enough.

My husband and I were very lucky that we brought our own breakfast sandwiches so that of set out meal times compared to the rest of the people at the convention. We got some really yummy shaved ice around the time most people were getting their lunch, then we got some takoyaki while there was an after lunch lull at about 3pm. We still had to wait about 15 minutes but that wasn't too bad.

It was worth the wait... yummy!!!

There were also a few random exhibition pieces, for example the outfit from Kyary Pamyu meme-tastic video Pon Pon Pon:

And some really cute tiny robots that could do amazing things like dance and climb:

And then there was the cosplay. There was no where near as much cosplay as I have seen at some other events but what there was was pretty good! Hyper Japan held the heats for the European Cosplay Gathering and had some previous winners as guest judges.

Cersei Lannister

Satine:

And eventual winers of the team and individual competition:

Last but not least there were several drawing areas proving that manga is just as popular as ever...

Images ranged from the simple and super cute:

To the absolutely beautiful:

There will be a Hyper Japan Christmas Market in November with I'm sure just as many goodies as their summer event (check here for details).

Have I tempted you to try a bit of Japanese culture?