Hyper Japan

On July, 26th my friend Regina and I headed to Earls Court (west London) to Hyper Japan – a sort of indoor Japanese festival. I must admit I expected quite more attractions than what was actually there. It was nice and cool in general though – don’t get me wrong! I simply thought this would be slightly more grandiose.

Anyway, I had fun going to this very Japanese event and I really enjoyed taking photos of some of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

For the most part, Hyper Japan was composed of diverse ‘workshops’ such as fashion shows, manga drawing workshops, Anime film screening and authentic Japanese food. Speaking of, Regina made me try a Bubble Tea, which I must say I am quite sceptical about – it’s not the tea (I LOVE TEA!) but the slimy bubbles at the bottom of the plastic cup you then suck up through the straw and that stick to your teeth afterwards… Naw, I didn’t really like that but it’s always good to try! Apart from that, everything looked quite tasty. And concerning Japanese food, I discovered a lovely Japanese restaurant, located on the South Bank, and called Wagamama. My friends and I had dinner there on my third-to-last Saturday in London, after our long and windy river & city walk – and if there was only one thing I could recommend to you, that would be the noodles – They have AMAZING noodles!!!

Anyway, back to Hyper Japan and to another thing that nicely surprised me, and which was cosplay. Cosplay is a word formed by the words ‘costume’ and ‘play’ and basically draws inspiration from anime, manga and video games characters. When we arrived in Earl’s Court, it nearly was a Japanese fashion show going on! Most people were all dressed up in their favourite manga characters and – unlike us – seemed more than used to that kind of Japanese special events.

But above everything appeared like a bolt from the blue an amazing artist I’ve briefly told you about on the diverse social media. Her name is Destiny Blue, and I completely fell in love with her art. Her drawings, mostly manga-inspired (which explains her presence at Hyper Japan ^^), are so beautifully meaningful.

I bought two of them (please, see the photos below)…

The first one is entitled ‘She’s Br[OK]en’ and is about how we fake being happy and smiley when we actually are broken inside. Furthermore and according to the artist’s profile on Deviantart, this drawing was inspired by a girl she met on the Tube and who was hiding her tears behind a YOLO tee-shirt. This also makes you think of how much of an importance we grant to what we wear, as a way of saying, expressing, showing & sharing what we feel and are dying to release. It is said that (or maybe I say that) when you buy a piece of art, it’s because it somehow speaks to you and touches your heart & soul in its deepest abysses. This thing is true for the first drawing I bought, but it might be even truer for the second one, entitled ‘Imprint’.

This second work of art is all about how some people leave marks on us, and how these marks live within us forever and make us who we are today. This drawing made me think of all the people who left their imprints on me – family, teachers, friends, lovers & even strangers – but it actually made me think of one person in particular. One person who left his handprint on my back shoulder slightly more than a year ago – a handprint that’s now etched on my skin. So… this is why these two drawings are the ones I chose to buy – because I could relate. The meaning their author gave to them is quite similar, though a little different too… But this is because you see in a piece of art what your heart wants to see.