Kamijo 20th Anniversary Concert in NYC aka how I spent my International Lolita Day Part 1 ~ Adventures in the City

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great International Lolita Day, I know I did! In truth, this had to be one of the best days in recent memory for so many reasons.

I know it’s been a long while since I have written about my favorite Jrock band Versailles since they went on hiatus back in 2012. The truth is, I was feeling a lot of very deep feelings of sadness and disappointment during that time that I did not want to write about them anymore. Between drama going on within the street team in the last few months and me having to make probably the most difficult decision of my life to decide whether or not I would go to Japan completely alone for their final concert (only those extremely close to me know the answer) it was just a bunch of stress and sadness that made me feel bad because this band that had once brought me so much joy and given me to many beautiful memories was beginning to be a cause of pain for me.

Naturally when their vocalist Kamijo went solo and the other members formed another band called Jupiter, I followed both projects loyally but I had decided after joining with VKH not to get involved any longer with fan groups and I suspected I would never see any of them live at all. So you can imagine my excitement and joy when in January it was announced that Kamijo would be doing a world tour this year to celebrate his 20 years in the music business THAT WOULD INCLUDE THE US!!

A lot like Versailles, no?

It was like a miracle, I had already decided in my mind that I would never see any of the members of Versailles perform after 2012 but now I would be seeing Kamijo in NYC and in addition to that, Masashi, the bassist for Versailles after Jasmine You passed away, would be joining the world tour as Kamijo’s support bassist AND they would be playing Versailles songs in addition to music from Kamijo’s other projects like Lareine and New Sodmy (I LOVED Lareine!)!!

It was a recipe for probably one of the best lives I’ve ever been to! And since it landed on International Lolita Day, I decided what better way to spend ILD Summer 2015 than to make a day trip of going to NYC, doing loli things during the day and ending it with the concert! And so that, along with Amanda, decided to do!

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No front outfit shot as of yet, but here is what I decided to wear. EGL with blue roses in honor of Lareine!

JSK and Headdress ~ Moi Meme Moitie

Blouse Brooch and Bag ~ Taobao

Shoes ~ Bodyline

Parasol ~ Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Selfie in the bus station before heading up to NYC!

It’s amazing I was not at all tired or sleepy the entire day as I was way too excited to sleep the night before and was too afraid to sleep on the bus out of fear of ruining my makeup. I was as giddy as a clown all the ride up there, not even the grey skies or early morning rain could dampen my mood! I made it into the city around noon and met up with my uncle who is a photographer and lives in the city. He helped me and Amanda navigate the city that day and took many pictures of us as well. Sadly Kitty fell sick last minute and could not join us. Her presence was very sorely missed and probably one of the only bad things about the day.

Waiting for Amanda to arrive. Photo credit goes to my Uncle Eddie who took this picture of me in the SoHo subway station. 

Amanda was set to arrive around 2 so while waiting I decided I wanted to go to Laudree in South Village. The name Laudree should be easily familiar with any lolita or enthusiast for macarons. It’s a beautiful French restaurant and tea room specializing in fancy French pastries but is best known for their wonderful macarons! As a self proclaimed macaron addict, I had to visit this place!

Oh, it was heavenly! Almost magical! And the lady who packed my macarons did so in such a fancy way in a beautifully crafted box that I will probably never throw away.

Sooooooo lovely!!!

I almost didn’t want to leave; I surely want to go back to Laduree next time I’m in the city. After leaving we went to pick up Amanda, she looked so lovely in her summer hime lolita coord, dressed in blue with pink roses in her hair. Together we made an interesting contrast, I in black in blue with my black BABY parasol and her in pastels and a white parasol.

We are so lovely! Photo credit again goes to my uncle. 

In any case, after meeting with her, we went straight to Tokyo Rebel/BTSSB NYC for some jfashion shopping! On our way there we saw a group of beautiful lolitas crossing the street with parasols. They looked so lovely! I think they had just left the boutique because when we went in, we were the only ones there for a while. It was nice though, I remember when I went to the store on opening day it was very crowded and there was no time to look around. This time we actually had time to browse and I showed Amanda a few nice BABY dresses I thought would suit her. In the end she got something from LISTEN FLAVOR and I got some OTKs from AATP and a few other small things. Sadly no pictures were allowed in the store but I was very happy to visit there again and even happier to be able to show Amanda the store too.

Me outside the store with my purchases in tow.

Our next destination was going to be dim sum in Chinatown but by this time it was nearly 4pm and line up for the concert was going to start at 5. So we left the boutique and made our way to the Highline Ballroom for what would be an incredible night!

In my next post, I’ll write about  the concert and my experience meeting Kamijo! So stay tuned! :-D

Yours Jasmine