Big In Japan

I'm back on the auld sod after 10 days in the land of the rising sun, people. Land of the many makeups too, so it is. Every Centra-type convenience store stocks ranges of cheap and cheerful makeup, a lot of it Shiseido made, and the department store beauty halls are a thing of joy and wonder.

I managed to restrain myself to some extent though, and as Japan isn't actually anywhere near as expensive as you might imagine, I got some good bargains - two Shu Uemura shadows and a bottle of cleansing oil for about €40, for example - a total score. Products with sparkle and glitz abound and the aforementioned convenience stores (a lot of which also have a Muji section) netted me pots of glitter and glitter gel liners for about six quid each. Yay!

Tokyo easily beats New York in the high end shopping stakes, and while it's not so good for us 'larger' westerners clothing size wise, we did go a bit mad in Uni Qlo, a high street shop not dissimilar to a Japanese H&M, but less fashion led. Accessories and bags were my big scores, in Harajuku (the Tokyo district Gewn Stefani gets lots of her style references from), I nearly fell down and lost my life, so much nice stuff was there to buy. I ended up with a modest 3 bags, and about 40,000 other bits and bobs. The only problem now is where to put this stuff..

All this shopping came at a high price though - at check in yesterday we were informed that our bags were 11kg overweight, and as the charge per kilo was going to be about €42, this was not good. Frantic rejuggling ensued, a new carry on bag was purchased, and we got home frazzled, but excess charge free.