Japan Expo & Japanese Quarter Paris

For the 2^nd time I visited the Japan Expo in Paris. It was held from 2^nd to 4^th July at the Parc des Expositions. My friend Kirschu and I met in Paris and visited the Expo on Friday (entrance fee on Friday was 15€).

It was the same location like in 2013 but it was still amazing how huge the place is! Because we arrived at 12 o'clock we had not to wait in line for the entrance (it opened at 10 o'clock), that was good. At first we visited the culturelle stage called Sakura (every stage or room had its own Japanese name^^). They was a show how a Japanese marriage is going on. The bride was very beautiful X3

the monk and the bridal pair

bride changes kimono

Then we got us something for lunch. We chose for a package of two onigiris^^
The seller was impressed that we came from Germany XD  

onigiri with furikake & Nori

Afterwards we fullfilled our masterplan: making purikuras! *lol *

Last time I hadn't found the purikura machines^^; but there were two of them and I was surprised that we hadn't to wait to get in because one of them was free. Lucky! A man started the machine after we paid him cash (10,-€ per round). We could choose a language and took German, that was pretty funny. The machine took 8 photos but you could choose only 4 for printing >.< the backgrounds were really funny XD but unfortunately the machine didn't make any whole body shots U.U

Then it was time for decorating. It was quite different from the machines I have used so far... totally glittering, colourful and so on. Not many stamps or letters, no names or something like that. But we tried our best. Finally we got our sheet but were a bit disappointed about the quality of the pictures. But we can say we tried it out and we have now even purikuras from Paris XD

waiting to start decoration

"Selber dekorieren" XD - decorating yourself - start!

So we had time to check out the many stands of the Expo. There was really so much stuff X.x

We walked a lot but I even bought something after a bit of persuading from Kirschu. They was a booth selling kitchen ware (it was from London *lol*) and I couldn't resist and finally bought a huge and a small rice bowl for making donburis X3 and more low-slung bowl with a corresponding lid.

my new panda rice bowls X3

Besides Japanese traditional and culturell stuffl like kitchenware, food, sports and clothing there was also many booth for manga, anime (French and Japanese) and merchandise but also video games and stuff and of course a fashion and cosplay area.

setting from Dragonball: Shenlong & Genmas palace

me & Luffy X3

crowds in the hall

At 15:30 h we visited the concert of the J-Rock band 'One Not'e'. The guys were pretty good but not so special that I would buy a CD of them. The bassist who is also the singer was quite cute X3

One Not'e on Stage

Following this was a concert of Taiko Rock. I found the combination very interesting because I love Taiko and because Kirschu hadn't anything to say against it, we stayed in the concert hall. Yasuharu Takanashi and Yaiba were in stage and the concert was great! They played different Anime songs (many of Naruto^^; and we didn't know any from the tracklist but who cares) in their own composition. It was just music and no singing but the atmosphere was great and the guys were in good mood^^
This concert was much better than One Not'e I must say (Kirschu thinks so, too) and especially the Taiko drummer was amazing *o*

band on stage

the Taiko drummer X3

Afterwards it was almost closing time but we because we were quite exhausted we had no problems with leaving the Expo now.

I was happy and really like such an event^^

But we ended the day with a French dinner in a restaurant around the corner from our hotel XD

French restaurant^^

So we had a nice day and looked forward to visit the Japanese quarter the next day^^

~*~

We left our hotel quite early because we wanted to take breakfast in the Japanese backery in Paris. I loved it the last time because it is bigger and has a huger variety of buns as the Düsseldorf backeries. At first I some problems in finding it again but I was successful and we enjoyed a great Japanese breakfast X3

Of course I was hilarious about all the Matcha stuff! I chose a Matcha cake called 'Kabuki', Matcha Tiramisu and a Matcha Cookie along with a cold Matcha Latte with Azuki & cream. I love it *_*

my Matcha breakfast X3

Japanese backery 'Aki'

We took our time before finally walking along Rue St. Anne – the Japanese street in Paris like Immermannstraße in Düsseldorf – where are many Japanese restaurants and shops are located and also a supermarket. You can eat everything there but the street is obviously dominated by ramen restaurants XD

There is also a Harajuku fashion shop and we even saw two lolitas walking down the street.

We also stopped by the two book-off stores on the Rue St. Augustin. One is for French books, the other one for Japanese books, CDs, DVDs etc. Kirschu bought a DVD box for 1€ while I couldn't resist and bought the Golden Bomber live DVD from 2010 X3 they had also the live DVD from 2009 and 2011 but they still cost 30€ each^^;

We also visited the Japanese bookstore on Rue des Pyramides. We got jealous because in France you really get many mangas >.< many of them aren't translated into German and somethings not even in English!

After walking this lot again, we chose a small Izakaya for lunch. It was called Izakaya Taisho ken. For linch they offered different udon, donburis, curry and gyouza. Kirschu took the korokke-kare and I took Gyudon. We both were very happy about our choice X3

my gyudon

inside the restaurant

Then we had back to our hotel for fetching our luggage but it was still early for our trains so we had a last coffee break with macarrons together^.^

Then our French-Japanese weekend was over. Our feet are acking but we are happy and nice days in Paris. I think I will visit the Japan Expo again^^