Tea at Ippuku Meet

I’m not sure what the situation is like where you live, but we’re finally seeing some spring. Not that anything is certain in April, however, it’s amazing to have some warmer weather that doesn’t require wearing fifteen layers just to survive. Even if I were to freeze, I’m going to wear everything that I wanted to through those winter months and force spring to stay here!

| Bodyline L249 JSK | Angelic Pretty Sealing Border OTKs | Cutie Creator
headbow | Sosic Shop shoes | New Look blouse | Madillustration brooches |
Bubblegum Emporium necklace | GlassesLit glasses | handmade bracelets |

It's not warm enough for the off-shoulder look, but damn it,
I will summon spring weather and warmth in any way I can!

This meant going for an off-shoulder look at the meetup last weekend. Well, it actually started with me wanting to wear this JSK – since it’s a lot shorter than I would’ve liked, it doesn’t get the wear it deserves. Having said that, this is my favourite coordinate with it that I’ve done so far. It plays off the Sweet-Classic vibe really well and allowed me to wear all my macaron accessories. At the last minute I decided to put on pink tights underneath my OTKs, which meant that while they slid down more, there wasn’t as much of a contrast above the sock line, which helped with the length a little. It will be difficult, given that this JSK is discontinued, but I think I’ll try to get a hold of another one and get it altered to be longer in the bodice? I think that’s what I need.

For the meet itself we went to York to check out a new(ish) Japanese café called Ippuku. When it first opened, all of Facebook was sharing the latte art on the matcha lattes and generally it looked like a place with Instagram-perfect food. Naturally, as Lolitas, we had to try for ourselves. Although it rained a bit when I was leaving the house, I literally didn’t need my umbrella for all of the rest of the day – which was annoying in that I still had to carry the damn thing with me, but I’m happy to not be getting rained on for once.

Ippuku is right in the city centre, opposite McDonald’s, although since it’s small be sure to look out for it as otherwise you may miss it. But it’s absolutely worth the visit! Or, to put it in other words, from now on, whenever I start craving Japanese food, I won’t go to Little Tokyo in Leeds, I’ll go to Ippuku in York. Yes, it’s further, but the food is so much nicer and substantially cheaper, plus the service was much nicer. While I went for a few side dishes: veggie gyoza, bowl of rice and an aubergine and sesame dish, everyone else who had full on meals was just as happy, and all of our portions were sizeable enough to fill us up. The café also has a selection of thing to sell, from food from their kitchen on the go to things like condiments and Japanese plates and bowls. Definitely a must place to visit for anyone into Japanese food in any way.

Look at them gyoza! They were scrumptious!

More gingery than sesame-y, but still nice.

After we ate and recuperated a bit (that genuinely was a lot of food) we ventured out for a wander. Said wander took us to Imaginarium, a fantastic shop with various bits and bobs, mostly homeware, all of which are incredibly aesthetic in either a mystical or slightly creepy kind of way. It’s also fairly reasonably priced, from what I witnessed, with an assortment ranging from really small things like stationary and greeting cards to home décor. It’s seriously cool and while I didn’t try to take any photos myself, others who did didn’t seem to be bothered by the staff in any way, so they must be used to people coming in for extra aesthetic photography – though as always it’s best to ask.

We then continued to the York Museum Gardens for more photos actually of ourselves. The meet’s organiser brought her fancy camera so we could get some nice shots. And while we obviously attracted a fair bit of attention from the public, the good thing about York is that no-one was rude or trying to take sneaky photos. When people interacted with us, they were politely curious – although some fantastic answers to the classic “what’s the occasion” questions were dished out, my favourite of which was that we were celebrating a friend’s divorce!

These kinds of photos seem to be trending now, so have our most opposite
meet attendees doing one.

Some flowers are already here, others are only just
coming out.

It actually wasn't too cold to be out with my shoulders out after all. Though it
wasn't comfortable for long.

This is where the meet officially ended, although a handful of us stayed on for a bit. We ended up at the tent where you could hold owls for a small charge, then in Lush (where I’m proud to say I did not buy anything for once, I’ve enough Lush stuff accumulated already that’ll take me a while to use up) and then finally back to the train station to catch our respective trains.

It was a very fun meet. It just goes to show that the company you’re in matters more than what you do at the meet since I’ve had just as much fun just eating, talking, shopping and taking photos as I did at some of the themed activity meets (like crafting) or ‘touristy’ meets involving visits to local landmarks or galleries. Although I guess that’s mostly a lesson for me to learn since I’m the one constantly trying to get something different to happen and it’s only in my head that we need more than just food and space to chat and photograph ourselves.

How’s the seasonal weather change where you are? Are you enjoying it? What’s the main piece it took you several attempts to get a coord you were really happy with? Any favourite meetup activities or are you happy with anything as long as the right people are there?