April in Pictures

Oriental adventures in Japan. Sakura-flavoured sweets. Being dressed up like a doll in traditional kimonos. Visiting traditional ryokans in the countryside. Mt Fuji and babbling streams. An explosion of blush sakura blossoms. A trip to Tokyo Disneyland to induce child-like squeals and day-long smiles as I revisited all my favourite childhood rides and pretended I was running away with Peter Pan. Returning to England’s April Showers. An Easter weekend filled with speckled eggs, rabbits and chocolate for breakfast. A spring wedding, croquet and sleepovers at sprawling country mansions. A house filled with the smell of white narcissi. Sunday walks around Cambridge colleges. Pastel flowers and manicures. Hunter wellingtons and daffodils. Shiny new editions of favourite old books. Rare breaks from April showers spent barefoot in my favourite secret garden beneath blue skies. Pink pattisserie. Whimsical new treasures to add to my jewellery drawer. Pashley rides and straw boater hats. Rainy afternoons spent tucked inside teeny tiny cafes or bookshops. Adventures around areas of London previously undiscovered by me. Plum jam donuts and vintage china at Lily Vanilli. Sundays at Columbia Road Flower Market. Coming home with vintage treasures, old fashion sweets and great armfulls of lipstick pink roses, blush hydrangeas and delightful English bluebells.

I hope you all had a glorious April?

Love, Miss B xx

Postcard from Tokyo, pt. 2

Another peek at a few of the the wonderful (and quirky) things I love about Japan from my recent trip to Tokyo: the sea of neon lights in Shinjuku and Shibuya (that never dim) juxtaposed with the tranquil, residential backstreets; sitting cross-legged on the floor to a keiseki (traditional Japanese feast) at a ryokan in peaceful Hakone against the looming backdrop of Mt Fuji and babbling streams; the face it is perfectly acceptable to be wearing a business suit with a tangle of Rilakkuma bear charms hanging from a bag (in an entirely non-ironic way); slurping noodles shoulder-to-shoulder with businessmen in Ebisu; cat cafes (the strangest/coolest invention for stressed out city-dwellers); the romance of an entire city turning pink beneath the canopy of the sakura blossom’s first blush. Love, Miss B xx

Postcard from Tokyo

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind week in Tokyo and still have the sounds of giddy schoolgirls calling ‘kawaii!!’ at every turn and the glorious sight of the first sakura blossoms racing around in my head in a happy, exotic fusion of memories.

It is a remarkable country, full of strange and wonderful dichotomies I relish each time I visit; of proud, ancient traditions and of others so modern it at times feels like an alternate, futuristic reality. From the peaceful stillness of the Shinto shrines to the sensory overload of Shinjuku after dark; from the sounds of the shuffling of wooden shoes shoes down tiny, neat backstreets to the blaring beats of the latest J-Pop band at the Shibuya crossing; a flash of crimson as girls in traditional Kimonos scurry past a sea of men in identical black suits; from the sight of the first cherry blossoms sprouting in the parks and mountains to the glimpse of a perfect bonsai in the window of a home; from sumo wrestlers to the unashamed embracing of all things saccharine and cute.

This really is a city of wonderful quirks so very unique to Tokyo, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Love, Miss B xx