Hyper Japan 2017 Review

Hello Everybody!
Hyper Japan 2017 has already been and gone, I can't quite believe it! This trip to Hyper Japan was my third trip and I thought I would share some thoughts for anybody deciding whether or not to go for Christmas or for the July Convention in the many years to come!

THE LOCATION:
Tobacco Dock is beautiful but it definitely doesn't feel like a convention centre. It's pokey, slightly awkward and often confusing. It felt like there was a lack of toilets for the sheer volume of people. The queues were large. It was also incredibly hot and slightly dark. It could have done with a lot more light in some of the more hidden rooms. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy the convention being here, I just found it difficult to find my way around. Everything was in little rooms and often I felt like that I might be going the wrong way. The staff that actually worked for the convention centre didn't feel particularly helpful and if I did lose my way a bit, they'd just shoo me away and point to a map as I tried to find my way around. Most of the time though, it just felt wrong and it wasn't actually wrong.

Sorry for such negative notes there. I'm just trying to give the full experience. Tobacco Dock itself is full of character, is easy to find from either Shadwell or Wapping station (and about equidistant from each) and once you do manage to find your way around is a lot of fun!




THE STALLS:
As somebody that goes to Hyper Japan almost solely for all the kawaii fashion stuff, I was truly in my element. The stalls were absolutely amazing for this. There was so much beautiful art, cute clothes and genuinely amazing stuff to look at. It was like a dreamworld for someone like me! No matter what your J-Fashion style is you will find something for yourself at Hyper Japan. You will find too much, you will not be able to afford everything you want to buy!

As always, TofuCute, Cakes With Faces, Artbox and Dreamy Bows really did make the convention this year. They had amazing displays, cute photo areas, an absolutely incredible amount of stock and really made the place pop!

There were apparently less anime stalls than usual, I can't comment as it's never been something I've really looked at too much but my sister was far more interested in them. To me, it felt like a lot of the anime stalls were overpriced tat. A lot of rip-off posters that had been reprinted and slightly unfortunate looking pokemon plushes! Personally I wouldn't spend my money on it but I can see the appeal to an 11 year old anime fan! There were also some bargains so it's not all a rip-off. My sister also loves the idea that she has super cool anime bags and posters that her friends will find hard to find so that's cool too! I honestly don't think it's a complete waste of money as long as you go into it knowing that you might not be buying the genuine stuff!

HOW BUSY WAS IT?
I went for Friday and Sunday so I can't comment for Saturday (notoriously the busiest day) but Friday was the quietest. Friday was still busy but it felt manageable, nowhere got to crowded, I managed to see everything I wanted to see and didn't feel too claustrophobic.
Fast forward to Sunday and it was packed, it felt like almost double the people. Trying to get into the TofuCute, Artbox and Dreamy Bows stalls was almost impossible, my sister had to wait outside while I got her Ramune as she was too anxious to even attempt to enter. Honestly it was not an enjoyable experience on the Sunday with the levels of people. Queues for food and toilets made it feel like it wasn't worth eating or drinking. (not something I say lightly!)


THE FOOD:If you could bring yourself to try and wait in a disorganised queue, the food was a really interesting and varied selection of Japanese goodies. It was expensive, which goes without saying at all conventions and I don't think it's fair to give the food a bad wrap on this alone. I wish I could have tried it all but the thing that caught me and my sister's eyes the most was the bubble wrap waffles. Honestly, those things were heaven. Sent from above. It was a bubble wrap waffle, some ice cream, cream, chocolate, melted nutella and oreos. A dream come true when you're crashing from a lack of sugar in a hot convention haul. I couldn't recommend these enough. They are seven pounds a pop which is on the expensive side but truly worth every penny!

The other food I didn't get to try but it sure smelled good!

THE PERFORMANCES:
Honestly, this is a part of Hyper Japan I often miss and forget about, which is a shame really because it's probably mostly what I pay for! I made sure to see a few this year, I really wanted to see the fashion show but I only managed to watch it on YouTube as my sister was not interested. I watched a few performances, Shin was a favourite, completely crazy J-Rock, not my usual style at all but I really enjoyed his crazy bouncing around the stage and screaming!

MY VLOG OF THE CONVENTION:

Mostly a vlog of the 'kawaii stalls' and amazing artists I met!

OVERALL:

Would I go again? Yes, I love Hyper Japan and will continue to go and support the convention and the amazing artists. 

Do I think it's worth the money? Mostly yes, priority entry was too expensive and hardly anybody except my sister used it (but it did mean we cut all of the queue inside - you still had to wait outside like everybody else though!)
I do think the Friday and Sunday tickets were fairly priced. Just make sure you see everything and get your moneys worth. I won't be buying a weekend ticket again. At £45 this was too expensive as I missed a lot of stuff due to not being able to attend on the Saturday. 

What would I improve?

A lot of stuff. I'd probably change the venue back to The Olympia if I could (haha, obviously I don't have that level of power!), there needs to be more lighting definitely and more toilets. The food stalls could also have done with a better queueing system, the lines were so long and honestly it was hit and miss as to what you were lining up for! The First Aid room also felt pretty hidden and needed better signage from a safety point of view. 

Do I have any tips?  

Take cash! It makes your life and everybody else's lives so much easier!
If you are taking children or anybody that might need a little bit of extra help, you definitely need to arrange a meeting place in case they get lost. It would be far too easy to get lost in tobacco dock! (I am a grown woman and I got lost, many times!) - I'd recommend the fountain as a good place to have as a meeting point.

Watch performances. This is one of the things that makes Hyper Japan so interesting and full of culture. These are things that you can't buy on the internet later so definitely make the most of them!
Have fun! Dress cute and how ever you want! I was absolutely showered with compliments both days I attended for my outfits and it made me feel amazing!

I hope I have given you a realistic and informative review of Hyper Japan!
Zono xxx

Dealing With Social Anxiety at Conventions

It’s the summer (in my part of the world!) and it’s definitely well and truly convention season! I love conventions and I’m so glad I’ve got into going to them, I’ve met so many cool people with similar interests to me that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

... But it hasn’t always been that way. In 2014, I admired conventions, I desperately wanted to go but there was this massive barrier. I had crazy social anxiety. When I thought about going to Comic Con or Hyper Japan, I felt sick. ‘What if I didn’t fit in?’, ‘What if I people think I’m dressed stupid?’ 

Obviously, anybody who’s been to conventions will know that it was a silly way to think and that conventions are most often filled with lovely people who love seeing all sorts of people dressed in all sorts of ways! But in 2014 I didn’t know that and I was definitely too scared to find out! 

Just know, if you have anxiety and you want to go to a convention, it’ll probably be really, really hard but I believe in you! You will be able to have an awesome time! 

Load video

So I made this video which is all about my anxiety at conventions and how it’s taken time (2-3 years!) but I’ve slowly managed to go from somebody not even able to go to conventions to somebody who managed to go all by myself! Which for some of you might probably seem completely impossible!

So for those who don’t want to watch the video, here are some of the main tips:

1) Give yourself a Goal. Something you’ll be proud of if you managed to achieve, for example I set my goal in 2015 as being able to tell an artist I liked their work. That’s it. I managed to do it and it left me beaming with happiness (and hopefully them too!) - Just make sure you don’t set yourself to high a goal, especially if your anxiety is really bad, going from not even being able to step foot in a convention to being in a fashion show is probably unattainable and will leave you feeling sad if you try!

2) Don’t be afraid to recollect. Cons are notoriously busy and for a lot of people just being around that many people for a long length of time is going to make you feel on edge. So definitely don’t be afraid to take a break, go outside and come back in when you are feeling more refreshed.

3) Have a back-up plan. My Social anxiety CBT therapist said this wasn’t always a good thing if you are trying to recover but if you are suffering very badly from social anxiety I do believe it can possibly help you. (Also remember I’m not a therapist though lol) Make sure you know what you’d do if you couldn’t cope and you had to leave to convention early. Maybe you know there’s a starbucks or a park near the convention that you could go to. Make sure your friends/ parents/ who you are going with are aware this is where you’d want to go.

Final Note...

Conventions are such a happy place and it’s a shame Social Anxiety prevented me from going for SO long. I’m sure there must be others out there. Just know that everytime I’ve been to a con I’ve left feeling so glowing and happy, whether I’ve managed to talk to a lot of people or not. I don’t think social anxiety will have a massively negative impact on your experience. A lot of the convention community will understand shyness and you will not feel pushed or pressured to talk to anyone if you don’t want to!!

I hope you have an amazing time at conventions in the future! They are honestly some of the highlights of my year! 

Don’t forget to pick up a giant alpaca toy lol!

Zono xxx

The Day I Realised I Had Social Anxiety

Hello Everyone, 

This is a long post I wanted to share about the day I finally realised I had social anxiety. As somebody who has always had depression and somebody who grew up 'shy', I never even thought that my problems were caused by social anxiety. The problem with mental health problems is most people who suffer don't just suffer with one, mental health problems cause further mental health problems and then usually physical problems too! The lines are so blurred and so many mental illnesses coincide and live together it's almost impossible to tear them apart. Maybe you're finding them impossible to tell apart too. So here's a little glimpse into my life in 2014, the year I finally realised I had social anxiety. 

Always Being Zoe The Shy Girl... 

Social Anxiety has been a big part of my life for the past 10 years. However, until 2014, I didn’t even realise that my problem had a name. Growing up as the shy child felt natural to me, I blamed every problem that I had on the fact that I was ‘shy’. I honestly thought that my severe fear of social situations and making phone calls would disappear as I slowly made my way into adulthood. Unfortunately though, my problems only got worse.

In 2014, I was a bright-eyed 19 year old about to wander into university halls for the first time. I knew my reserved nature and shyness would leave me struggling to make friends and do things but I thought by ‘throwing myself into it’ that I would naturally learn to cope with these situations. On my first week, every situation at university made my stomach sink ridiculous amounts. Finding somewhere to sit in the lecture hall, not even that social of a situation, left me feeling full of dread, what if I sat where someone else wanted to sit, what if I was in the way, what if the people there didn’t want me sitting near them. The thoughts were racing and constant. I wanted to disappear, I couldn't concentrate in my lectures because all my thoughts were about potential social interactions and making a fool of myself. 

University Fears or Primary School Problems?

Waiting around in corridors, the fear of being late to lectures, not being able to make friends, the fear of sitting in the wrong place at lunch. These things are more fears you’d associate with primary school than university. I just didn’t think anything of it though, it was the way I’d always been through school, why would university be any different?

I didn’t make friends. I really tried and the people around me really tried to be my friend too - I just felt so uncomfortable, a lovely girl tried to introduce me to her friends, cook me tea and all sorts of kind stuff that I felt didn’t deserve, I also felt like their ‘friendship group’ was already well-established and I couldn’t feel comfortable being around them. I wanted to, I desperately wanted to and looking back I know they would have been happy to have me as their friend! 

So I spent days and nights on my own. My 20th birthday, I sat in my room reading a magazine and crying about how lonely I was and how helpless I felt to do anything about it. I scrolled through Facebook, watching people go out, meet new friends, travel the world and meet people. Why hadn’t I grown out of being shy yet? Am I doomed to always be this way?

Realising I had a Problem

Even through all this, I didn’t really realise anything was wrong enough to have something be done about it. The time I realised something was seriously wrong was when we got our first University work placements, we had to call up the placement to say we were going to be coming. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t call them. Phone calls had always been my biggest fear and I’ve always been able to get out of making them, my mum has a similar voice to me, so she’s pretended to be me more times than I can count. I paced my room for a day trying to make the call. I felt sick, I cried, I considered running away and quitting university altogether, for the sake of a phone call. 

In the end, I got my mum to do it. I called her up to tell her to call up for me, ironic. She made the call. Panic over.

My First Nursing Placement

On the morning of my first day, I woke up at 6am, brushed my hair, put on my uniform, looked like a golden bundle of joy despite feeling so sad and alone. I took cute pictures of myself in my uniform for my first day of being a student nurse out in the world. I was so excited. I left way over an hour earlier than I needed to for my placement, mostly due to the fear of being late or any negative social interaction.

As I got to the station though, I couldn’t find where I was going and my Social Anxiety prevented me from asking anybody for help. I ended up on a train to central London, as I’d managed to google on my phone a way I could get to the placement from there. I started to cry and cry but luckily I’d left so early that I’d be able to make it on time even though I’d taken this massive detour to London Bridge. 

Fast forward to London Bridge, finding myself a seat on an empty train out of London. Finally starting to relax as I was going to make it. It was running 10 minutes late but that didn’t matter, I'd left so early that I even had time to allow for that, as long as I ran up the hill. However the train didn’t stop at my stop due to a last minute change and I ended up at the last stop in rural Kent. I really needed to call the placement to let them know I was going to be late, yet, I couldn’t. Again I couldn’t. This was so important and I couldn’t do it. I got my Mum to call again after ringing her over and over again even though she was at work and I felt like a failure as I arrived two hours late for my first day as a student nurse. I felt horrific. Truly awful, my life felt like it had hit a low point. The pictures of me a few hours earlier as a beaming student nurse with her anatomy colouring book never saw the light of social media. I was too ashamed. 

Leaving University due to Social Anxiety…

I didn’t want to be a student nurse anymore. I couldn’t do the most basic tasks. I knew I wasn’t ready and I felt like I’d never be good enough to look after patients or to be part of a team. Unfortunately, university life just carried on like this for me and I ended up leaving university altogether. My next placement was complicated to call up and I couldn’t explain it to my Mum properly and so by the time my placement arrived I wasn’t sure if they were ‘expecting’ me at the hospital, so I just didn't turn up. I left university altogether and moved back home. My social anxiety was now not just stopping me making phone calls, I couldn’t even go anywhere. 

Eventually it spiralled like this until by the end of that year, I spent all my time alone in my bedroom, I occasionally managed to go out with friends but only if they came to pick me up from my house first. Shopping was only possible in stores with self-service check outs. I wore a giant black hoodie every day for months. My whole life revolved around avoiding people. 

I went to the doctor to talk about the depression I thought I had and how I felt about stuff. I did have depression because I couldn’t go out and do anything, I thought my life was stuck on hold. It was only then she asked about anxiety, I said I didn’t have anxiety but as I explained all the stuff about anxiety she said it sounded like I possibly did. She gave me a number to self-refer to CBT. I froze. I then proceeded to tell her how phone calls were my absolute biggest fear and that I couldn’t go anywhere that I needed to call up first. I started to cry and panic, my chest felt like it was knotting up and I couldn’t hear the doctor over the sound of my heartbeat. That’s the day I realised that maybe I did have social anxiety. Not only did I ‘maybe' have social anxiety but I might have a really severe case. 

Luckily, that’s also the day it started to change for the better. The road was long, over a year from start to finish. To say it’s even finished now would be a lie. I’m getting there though, day by day.

Yellow Submarine - Lush Bath Bomb Demo

Hey Cuties!


This Bath bomb was so cute I almost couldn't bear to part with it in the tub, although I'm glad I did because it was a beautiful bathing experience! The orange, lemongrass and coriander really make this bath bomb smell summery and delicious, it makes me want to take a big jump in the ocean!
Zono xxx

What Happens at A LUSH Blogger Event?

Hey you! 😊
A few months back I got invited to my first Lush blogger event, which was super exciting because I definitely don't count myself as much of a blogger, YouTuber, instagrammer or whatever! It's not too hard to get invited to one of these events, as long as you have a blog/ instagram/ YouTube with a following of any amount that you post to frequently... I'm sure you'll be considered!

How to get invited to a Lush blogger event:
I can't actually tell you how to get invited, each Lush store probably has it's own criteria, unless you are Lush or Internet royalty though, you probably won't be lucky enough to be invited out of the blue! Make sure you keep up-to date with your local Lush stores social media page and eventually they'll post about a blogger event! All you have to do is email, say a bit about yourself and your blog! That's it! (I'd probably throw in about how you love Lush though!) - I can't say for every Lush but at the blogger event I attended you definitely didn't need thousands of followers to take part!

Who goes to Lush blogger events?
Again... I can only speak from experience but the variety of bloggers at the event I attended was massive! There were a lot of Mum blogs who all seemed to know each other, a 'Local Area' blogger who blogged all about stuff going on in the town and even some music bloggers! Obviously, there were lots of beauty bloggers, I actually felt really awkward as I didn't actually write a blog at that point... just my 'Lush' Instagram account and my 'ohnozozo' YouTube!

Are there freebies?
This definitely shouldn't be the reason you go to a blogger event but... yes! There was free cake! We also got to pick a product from the store to take home which was really nice!

My Experience:
The event I attended was actually in February/ March time and believe it or not it's now July... luckily I made a YouTube video of the event I attended! (See viddy above!) Honestly I feel like that would explain it better than I could now... just know overall it was a positive experience, I was made to feel very welcome and very at ease! As it was a blogger event it meant I didn't feel awkward whipping my camera out every five minutes to take pictures and videos, which was lovely! I am still very much an awkward blogger/ vlogger who often tries to hide the fact I'm filming!

I would 10/10 go again and would definitely recommend you to email and put yourself out there if a Lush event like this is in your area! It can be scary to put yourself out there (I know... I didn't put myself out there and my friend actually emailed for me!) but the reward is well and truly worth the risk! You could potentially meet some new blog buddies!!

Zono xxx