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Hyper Japan 2014 Report

Date: 2014 August 07 15:04

Posted by Lucy

So Japanese Culture event Hyper Japan was the 25th -27th July 2014 this year, a few of us went & this is a run down of the goings on at this awesome event!

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I have been to Hyper Japan before & always enjoyed it, but this year was super special because it was the first time I would be working there, all weekend! My job was to do social media across all areas of the event from the anime & manga, to the traditional Japanese culture; I was given a schedule & attended much more on the stages than I had ever done before. I had to take photos, to talk to people attending & exhibitors & upload onto twitter, Facebook & instagram to give those in attendance & not a real flavour of all that Hyper Japan has to offer. I had an amazing (but tiring) weekend, met loads of awesome people. I know it feels like a while ago now but I'm just going to put up a few of my personal highlights & what I would recommend checking out!

So one of the highlights for me was Siro-A they are awesome & put on a great show. They are known as 'Japan's answer to the blue man group' & having not seen the blue man group I can't say much on that other than they were awesome, their timing & use of projection & lights is flawless, well worth a watch, and if you don't get to see them on the main stage they perform a mini show from their booth so make sure to check them out!

In addition this year I spent quite a lot of time by the Fringe stage & got to see a whole load of the smaller acts & musicians which was really good. Two that stuck out for me where Kero Kero Bonito a three piece band which were kind of like synth dance pop meets feminist lyrics, meets J pop I guess, really good, great energy, I would like to see them again in more of a gig setting. I also enjoyed Mayuco who was a great singer accompanied by a beautiful guitar player, they were also great. I'd would like to see the fringe stage schedule more prominently advertised next time, as it would have been easy to miss this stuff.

Then there was the Kawaii area & stage, always a personal favourite & I spent a lot of money here (two wigs! Wwhhyyy?!) Anyway prominently featured here was the Moshi Moshi Nippon Project, this is designed to bring Japanese pop culture overseas promoting anything from music to fashion. The fashion shows were great featuring a mix of high profile Japanese names such as Yun Chi, Anna Yano & the Tanioku twins & hosted by the awesome & charismatic Neeko, but also featuring local London models too which was cool. One of the highlights was seeing DJ Nishimura Hiyoko-chan dressed in a school girl uniform mime along to Oasis' Wonderwall (only at Hyper Japan!), I sure Liam would have loved it...

The Shopping as always is great & I got quite a lot this year, mainly art as that particularly caught my eye. Me & my boyfriend bought two pieces from Yasunobu Shidami. One which is of a beautiful geisha in a dark fuchsia kimono & wisteria in her hair, that was for me, & the other was a black & white one of a Samurai for him, both are stunning (particularly mine!) He also bought an Akira print from Canime, which now I am super jealous of & might have to steal, I've always loved that red bike. In addition to my wigs I bought a tonne of kawaii accessories & got to meet the beautiful Alexa Poletti & Pixie Late, I bought some of their adorable lacy cat ears, which i now have to find an excuse to wear, oh well! Next time I hope to get a load of tableware from Doki Japanese tableware, but it was too heavy to carry round as I was working & also I need more time to think about what I want, sometimes when there's too much choice it can be a bit daunting!

Then there was the food, I didn't get many photos of the food as I kind of ate it before I got the chance but in summary the queues are long but it is worth the wait, I ate octopus balls, The Nice Ice shaved ice was awesome as usual (I had mango) some sushi, lots of tempura prawns, friend chicken on a stick, THREE green tea lattes, but the best thing I think I ate all weekend was the Matcha Ice cream, that was so good & I wish I could have that every day!

The Cosplay was great as always & you don't necessarily have to attend the Cosparade either there are people dressed up everywhere! Everyone was super nice so long as you ask, I was lucky enough to have an 'official PR' laminate which helped, but nearly everyone was more than willing to pose for a photo. My favourite was the gentlemen dressed up as Hayao Miyazaki but the Studio Ghibli Cosplay is always my favourite, on the Sunday he actually wore his hand made Totoro which was unsurprisingly very popular for photos.

All in all it was a great weekend & I am so happy that although it was the end of my contract, Hyper Japan have decided to keep me on so I will be attending & doing live updates at the events for many to come (I hope!) So I will see you in November for the Christmas Market! I can't wait!

Source: Otaku News

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