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^^

Japan Town Paris

Usually one visits China Town in different big cities but Paris has a Japan Town in the middle of the city^^ (near the Opera)

Which means: Japanese restaurants one after another (ramen, udon, sushi, okonomiyaki, everything you can think of), doesn't matter if big ones or little shops, there is really every kind of restaurant. But also some supermarkets and shops which sold Japanese goods. One bookstore was really cool (on the Rue des Pyramides), there you found everything: books, magazines, Japanese and French Manga & Artbooks and Stationary.

entrance

shelves full of mangas

They had even some new arrivals from xxxHolic and some Clamp series which haven't been published in Germany yet, but I didn't want to buy French Manga and the new xxxHolic book cost almost 100,- €... so no^^;

The magazines were also more expensive than in Germany, so I didn't buy the newest 'Oggi ' either.

The main street of the quarter was 'Rue St. Anne'. There you see an Asian supermarket at once.

But on this street are also most of the restaurants and other shops.

My personal highlight was a backery (patisserie) on the edge of the corner from where I took the pictures above. The variety of food was amazing, I was really overwhelmed, especially because of the many kinds of Matcha buns *o*

So I bought a lot there, hehe~ two Matcha buns filled with Anko, one Matcha-Melonpan, a Matcha cookie, a Matcha maccaron, bread with Matcha & Anko and a Gyouza Pan (which was for lunch XD).

my collection of Matcha stuff + Gyouza Pan *lol*

Everything was super delicious!!! Of course the main offer in the backery consisted of sweets but they had also other buns like the Gyouza bun and also Onigiri! The prizes were also quite good, some things were even a bit cheaper than in Duesseldorf.

A bit further down the street came the little shop called 'Cool Japan' which sold many traditional things like Yukatas, fans, porcelain and so on. There I bought a totally nice backpack! With 55,- € it was quite expensive but I couldn't resist especially because I wanted a backpack for some time now.

shop from the outside

my backpack (I added the mojo at home)

In the shop I also asked how to get to the purikura machine and the store 'Book-off' (very popular in Japan) because I couldn't find them. Unfortunately I didn't find the 'Marugen' where they have a purikura machine but my friend didn't want to make some with me (she hates being photografed) so it wasn't this bad.

But we found the Book-off store. They even had two of them: one for French books, CDs and DVDs and also a Japanese one. In the French store I bought the DVD Box of the Anime D.N.Angel for 2,- € (they had really many mangas and stuff there) and in the Japanese store I got another Clamp Artbook^__^

They also sold many magazines but the newer one were even more expansive than in the bookstore before and the Golden Bomber CD's (unexpectedly they had some) were also very expansive >.< (noone were under 25,- €). So nothing else to buy for me.

Japanese Book-off

my gets^^

With this we finished our tour through Japan Town and ended up at the Opera again from where we could take the Metro to other locations.

But another interesting place concerning Japan was near the Eiffel Tower. There is the 'Maison de la culture Japonais' located on the 'Place de Kyoto' XD

entrance de la maison

Many culturelle events and classes take place there, it must be quite interesting if you live in Paris. There was even a security check at the entrance^^'
I get some information material and we also entered the shop on ground floor. They sold many tableware and also bento boxes *.* Of course also books, stationary and so on. I couldn't help and got me two new bento boxes. They were so beautiful and cute! The big one with three layers only cost 32,- €, on the contrary the little kitty one cost me 25,- € ^^;

my new bento boxes^^

I was surprised how much of Japan you can experience in Paris but it was very cool. Together with the Expo I had quite a Japanese lifestyle there *lol*

Japan Expo Paris

Last week I went to Paris with a friend and we spend one day on the Japan Expo in the 'Paris Parc des Expositions'. We went there on Thursday – the emptiest day for visitors we expect - but already the train was so full...

The Parc des Expositions can only be reached with one train line and just from one direction (the other direction would be from the airport so almost nobody is coming or going from this direction). But the oragnization was very good. The staff divided the coming mass early into people with ticket and without. We hadn't bought a ticket beforehand but that was no problem. Many counters were opended, so we didn't have to wait that long.

Finally we reached the entrance of Hall 6.

entrance to Hall 6

It was amazing. First we got ourselves a festival plan and program. In Hall 6 were mainly stands for games and goodies, so not really my thing but for my friend. So we parted there for the day. I went to Hall 5 where more culturelle stands were located but also (Manga & Anime) Goodies, Fashion and Sports. From there you could also to enter the different stages (Live stage, main stage, conference room).

First I went through the culturelle stands and viewed some shows on the Culturelle Stage (traditional Japanese Dance, Taiko & Life of Samurai). It was quite interesting though I only saw the demonstration part of the Taiko and Samurai Show because my French isn't that good so I couldn't understand the whole explanations U.U

the traditional dancers on the culturelle stage

the samurai

From one of the stands I also bought two modern Obis and a cord for decorating Obis. I really love them ^.^

the folded obis and the cord (better pics will follow)

There were also stands with original Japanese food and sweets, even stands with only different kinds of Green Tea and of course my beloved Matcha *_*

On the stands where they sold Donburi, Udon etc. so many people were standing in line >.< And the food was quite expensive (13,- € for a meal and f.e. 3,50 € for an Onigiri), but I chose a nice little shop on the opposite which sold some Matcha sweets but also pans. I bought a delicious Matcha Plunder and for lunch a Yakisoba Pan and I saved a Tamago Pan for later. It was really good ^o^

Yakisoba Pan

Matcha sweets^o^

Besides the culturelle area started the sports area where they prepared special areas for Kendo, Aikido and even traditional Arrow shooting. Aikido and other combat battling was also made that the visitors could try/learn some things for themselves. But I didn't try.

sports area

I also watched a part of the Cosplay Show on the Main Stage. It was really a large hall and a cool stage. They had installed threee monitors and used really cool light installations. I was impressed of the quite many CLAMP Cosplayers. But all the Cosplays looked really good, I was impressed! It was a good show^^

Cosplay Stage

Cosplayers (Card Captor Sakura Group) performing

But I was surprised about the pretty less cosplayers in the halls. I had expected more to be there. I guess it was just 50% of the visiteurs. There were also many people who were interested in Japanese culture & lifestyle or in games so that Cosplay really didn't take the main part like it does on German conventions.

people in the hall

I also took a walk through the Goodies' and the fashion stands. Especially the fashion showed many parts of young Japanese style, from cupcake things and Liz Liza Style over Gothic to traditional (looking) clothes.

entrance to the fashion area

You could also get enough Mangas, DVDs and other Merchandise from your favourite Animes and Manga and also K-Pop Bands. But that part was like on every other convention I know from Germany.

I had also time to watch some live shows on the Live Stage. I saw the drummer group Satsumasendai Odoridaiko, they were really really good though the members were all still so young. Their drums and dance were so impressive, I would have loved to hear more songs from them^^

live on stage

After them started another group: Neko Light Orchestra

Everyone painted their face black with white structure and wore blue wigs. It was some kind of Rockband which also used instruments like violin and cello and the singer had a very high voice (a bit of celtic mood), but it was beautiful and they were very funny.

After the concert I met up with my friend and we tried to leave the Parc des Expositions...

Like I said it was just one train in one direction and everybody was leaving around 7 pm when the Exhibition was closing...

Though trains arrived every 5-10 minutes, every train was so crowded and it was hard to get inside. Falling was no longer an option inside the train^^'

We were lucky that we had bought a train ticket beforehand because the lines at the counters and automats were also unbelievable long X.x

So I must say, it was really a cool Expo but we were afraid to visit it on the other days because if it gets more crowded, I don't know what to do... ^^'

So the Thursday was the perfect day for us (because I wasn't interested in the other live acts which were planned for the next days and the culturelle program would be repeated).

I was happy to have been there but I don't know if I visit the Japan Expo again because I know many culturell aspects know (also of course of my own visits to Japan) and if I'm not interested in the Live acts or Cosplay and I don't know if Paris is worth another visit next year...