Here’s what some of our visitors had to say about the 2010 event:
“I’m a cosplayer, so I always to Japan‐events, but I think that HYPER JAPAN has been the best event ever. I think I’ve learned a great deal of Japan’s culture over the past three days. I can’t wait for next year”
“The selection of the shops was great; the way that there was a combination of traditional, like kimono and kanji, and modern, like anime and manga”
“There was lots to eat! I enjoyed the range of sweets! Maybe next year we can see some more delicious sweets from japan!! I really enjoyed the kera fashion show and meeting Misako Aoki!”
“The layout was well done and made to feel involving. The main stage had great events VERY well presented. The food was a great range and there was some superb Japanese companies on display. Great range and involvement.”
“We particularly liked the fact that there were the legitimate sellers there (eg. Good Smile Company, Square Enix, Baby The Stars Shine Bright etc); we have been to other conventions and events where there were stalls by third party sellers only selling fakes”
HYPER JAPAN 2010 Event Information
Find out what happened at HYPER JAPAN 2010 via the following links:
Are you an experienced blogger who’d like to share an article with us? Maybe you’ve never written anything for the web before, but you’d like to try. Whatever your level of experience, if there’s something “Hyper” about Japan that you’re passionate about, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for articles on everything from food and drink, anime, manga, cosplay, fashion, technology, theatre, art, design, travel…whatever it is that you love about contemporary Japan. Articles will be uploaded onto the site on Fridays and will remain as a main site feature for one week, before being archived.
To find out more about what to write and how to submit, take a look through the questions below. If you have any other questions, please contact
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with Write for Us in the subject title.
What should I write?
You can write about anything related to Japan or Japanese culture that you are interested in. Take a look through the HYPER JAPAN website and Facebook page and you should get an idea of the kind of audience we’re catering for. We’re happy to accept content on traditional Japanese culture, too, but do try and link it to something relevant and topical, like a performance or exhibition. At the moment, we’re not accepting fiction writing or recipes.
We want to hear your voices, so it’s fine for the article to be written from a personal perspective, but remember that you’re talking to a large audience of people who don’t know you, so it does need to be a little less personal than, say, an entry written for your own blog.
Make sure that your submissions are original writing, not writing that has been copied, plagiarised or translated verbatim from other sites or sources. Please don’t swear and don’t include inappropriate content, by which we mean stuff that’s illegal, pornographic, or just a bit too naughty for the kind of general audience (including families and kids) that we’re catering for.
How long should it be?
Submissions should be no longer than 1000 words.
What format should I submit in?
If possible, please submit articles as Word document. Text should be double line spaced, in 12pt Calibri. Please include your name and email address in the header at the top of each page. If you would like us to credit the article to your pen name, just let us know that and any other details in the body of your submission email.
Do I need to provide you with images?
If you have original photography that you would like to accompany the article, please submit it along with the article, clearly stating the credit you require for the photograph. Please do not submit photographs and images downloaded without permission from other sites. If you are not able to provide us with images, we will source something appropriate for the article.
How will I be credited?
We would like to also include profiles of all contributors with each article. We will need 50 words of profile text and an image, as well as up to three links, which can be for your Facebook, Twitter, blog, and so on. If you don’t want to be credited in this way, that’s fine too. Just tell us your pen name and we will credit the article to that. It’s up to you.
We can also arrange for a banner to your website to be included on the HYPER JAPAN homepage. Send us your banner attached as a jpeg, png or gif file, 100px x 40px, your alt text, and if you have space for a HYPER JAPAN banner, let us know your specs.
What are submission deadlines?
We will accept submissions from readers at any time. Reader-submitted articles will be uploaded every Friday. If you have an article that is linked to an event, launch or similar, and is therefore schedule-specific, please make that clear in your email to
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and we will try to upload in good time for the event or launch.
Will everything be published?
We will consider all submissions carefully, and try to include contributions from as many people as possible. Your submission won’t necessarily be uploaded straight away, but if your article has been selected for upload we will let you know. If we like what you’ve written but aren’t sure it’s quite right for the site, we will get in touch with some ideas about how to make it a little bit more “HYPER”.
Will I get paid?
No. We are not currently offering payment for articles submitted.
I have an item for news, but not an article. Can I send it to you?
Yes. We are happy to accept items for news, too. Send us your news or press releases to
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with NEWS as the subject. If you are a commercial organisation, then you can get in touch about advertising via
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I have a question that isn’t answered here.
Drop us a line at
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and ask us!
Editorial Policy
We reserve the right to edit the content of all submissions. Editorial changes made by HYPER JAPAN are final. Having said that, we want to hear your voices, so we promise to keep it to a minimum!
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LOVES CHANGE AT HYPER JAPAN LONDON 2010
HYPER STYLE A GO GO was sponsored by LOVES CHANGE, a leading hair piece and wig company from Japan. Before our HYPER models hit the stage, the audience was treated to a LOVES CHANGE hair makeover by Mami Honda, a funky and fabulous hair and makeup artist over from Japan especially for the event. Our willing model was Tania Tanzil, UK-based Lolita and all-round super cutie! Take a look at our photos to watch her be transformed and get some HYPER hair inspiration!
Mami is a professional hair and makeup artist working in fashion magazines, shows, and advertising. She is a genius at creating fabulously fashionable looks, including Shibuya girls, Harajuku style and Gothic Lolita. Mami flew in from Japan especially for HYPER JAPAN London 2010, to create some modern and vibrant looks that are perfect for funky young female fashion.
About LOVES CHANGE
LOVES CHANGE is a range of wigs and hair pieces which allow anyone to change their hairstyle easily. The pieces are professional designed and produced using high-quality materials. A wide variety of product, including clip-in pieces, ¾ wigs to increase hair volume, fringes and full wigs are available.
HYPER JAPAN London 2010 welcomed Misako Aoki, top model for KERA magazine, Naoki Matsumura, editor-in-chief at KERA, Mami Honda, leading hair and makeup artist, and Tania Tanzil, super cute UK-based Lolita fashionista to our HYPER STYLE A GO GO shows on Saturday 2nd October and Sunday 3rd October. We also had six gorgeous models, picked from hundreds of applicants, to show off six amazing Japanese brands. Thanks to Joannie, Sapphira, Amber, Megan, Laura and Rebecca! You can check out the photos below.
Clearspring, the UK’s leading brand of authentic and organic Japanese ingredients, demonstrated a healthy Japanese dish using their delicious organic products, which are available in health food stores and in many supermarkets across the UK, as well as online. Click here for a full range of stockists. The dish, Soba Sushi, is made with nutty and nutritious Buckwheat Soba noodles. Click here to find out more about soba noodles and the rest of the noodle range. Clearspring also ran a booth at the event, where they gave out delicious samples of a brand new product launching soon, Clearspring Organic Tofu.
Healthy Japanese Food
Japanese people are known for the world’s longest life expectancy, and this is often attributed to their extremely healthy diet. Japanese cookery uses a lot of vegetables and other low calorie ingredients. Rather than having one big plate of food, meals usually comprise many small dishes; diners can pick and choose from a variety of dishes, meaning that lots of different vitamins and minerals can be gained at a single sitting.
Clearspring Soba Sushi, made using nutty and nutritious Buckwheat Soba noodles, is a great example of a well-balanced, healthy and totally vegan meal that can be enjoyed quickly and simply in the home. You can check out more delicious Clearspring recipes on the Clearspring site. If you want to keep up to date with the latest Clearspring news, and recieve three delicious recipe ideas every month, then sign up to the Clearspring newsletter service here.
The Clearspring goal is to get organic food back on the dining table, so that you can enjoy the same quality of foods as your grandparents did. By developing the demand for organic foods and encouraging the cultivation of organic crops by farmers today, we can ensure that your grandchildren, too, can enjoy the great taste of good food.
You will find that each Clearspring product has a distinct flavour and quality that comes from using the finest quality ingredients and respecting local food traditions. Clearspring always works directly with producers, building long-term partnerships of ethical trade that support sustainable organic farming and benefit local communities.
www.clearspring.co.uk/about_us
We've just finished the first day of the first ever HYPER JAPAN. Thanks to everyone who came and helped to make the day such a success. If you missed it, here's what was going on, in brief.
If cute is your thing, you missed a great talk show with high princess of cute, Misako Aoki, who, we now know, loves rabbits, The Beatles, and the challenges of balancing being a nurse with being a top model. Thanks also to Naoki Matsumura, Editorial Supervisor of KERA, and Tania Tanzil, UK Lolita representative, for their comments and input too. We were also delighted to see so many gorgeous girls and boys decked out in their finery to meet Misako.
Foodie fans were spoilt for choice with a brilliant range of delicious dishes perfect for warming up out of the rain and the cold. Cocoro Restaurant put on a feast of festival food, including takoyaki octopus balls and yakitori grilled chicken, whilst TK Trading, the UK's leading online store for Japanese food and drink, saw a rush for their character tie-in sweets and piping hot pot noodles, all at just a pound or less.
Sweet toothed visitors could enjoy traditional wagashi confectionary from Minamoto Kitchoan, including anko-filled dorayaki and peach jelly youkan. If you didn't want to splash out for a drink, there was plenty of House Curry to go round – the Japanese version of the Brick Lane favourite, but sweeter and milder than its more well-known counterpart. At HYPER JAPAN, House Foods were serving up a delicious chicken variety, but the curry roux itself is totally vegetarian friendly.
On the stage, Kristina Poslusna (20) won the KIKKOMAN Sushi Challenge, proving herself the fastest makizushi roller after some expert tips from top sushi chef Tomokazu Matsuya. Also on the stage, Eri and Richard from Clearspring demonstrated 100% vegan sushi with a real twist – using nutty and nutritious buckwheat noodles instead of rice. You can check out the recipe here. Clearspring were also giving out samples of their brilliant new organic tofu product.
Honami Matsumoto's tutored sake seminar, Discover Sake, saw 100 Londoners turned into bona fide beginner sake buffs. They walked off with a free book and bottle of sake to brush up their skills and spread the word to friends.
HYPER JAPAN London 2010 was also streamed live on the popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga, where comments written in real time by users are scrolled across the screen. More than 300,000 comments were written over the course of the broadcast, which was seen by more than 25,000 people!
That's day two of HYPER JAPAN London 2010 over and done with. Thanks to everyone who came, especially those of who dressed up in some truly impressive cosplay. Also to all the lovely Lolitas who almost out-prettied Misako Aoki. Whether you were in costume or not, thanks for coming! If you couldn't be there, here's what you missed.
The stage started with a Manga Drawing Seminar from Inko and Chie Kutsuwada, two London-based manga artists from the Umisen Yamasen collective. The artists then had a steady stream of people at their stand – it turns out all of London wants to know what they would look like as a manga character. Sunday's your last chance to find out your manga alter ego. You can also catch the seminar again, between 11 and 12 on the HYPER JAPAN stage.
Next up was something that a lot of would-be Harajuku honies had been waiting for – HYPER STYLE A GO GO, sponsored by Loves Change and featuring Misako Aoki, Naoki Matsumura, Editorial Supervisor of KERA magazine and Director of Index Communications (the publisher of KERA and the Gothic and Lolita Bible), and Mami Honda, a top hair and makeup artist from Japan. Mami worked with Tania Tanzil to showcase an amazing look for Lolita hair that's totally now. Mami's tip for autumn/winter 2010: "this season is all about big and soft".
Three models, picked from more than 160 entries, were chosen to model three of Japan's leading fashion brands. Megan James from Wales opened the show with a stunningly elegant black and blue outfit from Moi-Même-Moitié. She was followed by Laura Jones, who is half Japanese and half Welsh, and looked fabulously Gaga-esque with a hair-bow that topped of a beautifully styled outfit of head-to-toe Black Peace Now. Finally, Rebecca Atherton was cute-as-pie in Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. We'll be putting up more photos and details of the outfits online soon, so keep an eye out for website updates.
Misako spent the rest of the day in and around the KERA and Baby, The Stars Shine Bright pop-up stores, where fans could pick up the latest editions of KERA and the Gothic and Lolita Bible, as well as a massive range of dresses, bags, socks, accessories and more. Loves Change also hosted a booth, where you could pick up top quality hair pieces for just £10 each.
From 3pm, the stage was packed again for The Milky Holmes Show. The four seiyu voice actresses performed their theme song, Ameagari no Mirai, then sat down for a chat about the Milky Holmes brand. We'll be editing together highlights of the show for any of you who missed it – keep an eye on the web or join our newsletter mailing list or Facebook to keep in touch.
After all that excitement, there was plenty of food at the Eat-Japan Food Court to fill you up. SO Restaurant, voted London's Favourite Japanese Restaurant by Japanese Restaurants in 2009, served up a selection of delicious sushi, made with nori seaweed flavoured with habanero chilli and wasabi – a HYPER JAPAN exclusive. Tsuru was satisfying the crowds with their signature dish – 8-hour slow-cooked curry served with hot and crispy katsu. JAPANIKA was here too, dishing out stylish sushi created by a former Nobu chef, including vegetarian options that sold out by three.
The ATARI-YA/S.K.Y. shop had heaving shelves of colourful snacks, ingredients and drinks, including anime/character goods imported exclusively for HYPER JAPAN and Oyakata Ramen in multiple flavours. Japan Catering was selling delicious o-bento, made fresh on the day.
Today also saw the first ever winners of the HYPER JAPAN UK Cosplay Award announced! 16 teams took part in this high-level competition, but only one team could triumph – congratulations go out to Team Foxtrot, or Nocturnal Blossom and Monkey, for their amazingly intricate outfits as Earl Ciel Phantomhive and Lady Elizabeth Middleford from Black Butler. We'll be putting more details and photos of all the cosplayers, including all the brilliant CosParade entrants and winners too, on the web as soon as we can!
Whilst the judges were hard at working deciding who would be winning the trip to Tokyo courtesy of Finnair and Park Hotel Tokyo, visitors were treated to another round of the KIKKOMAN Sushi Challenge. This time, it was Alex Cambell who beat the rest to receive a giant inflatable Kikkoman bottle.
Other highlights today included the Panasonic stand, where you could get a close-up look at their new 50 inch model, released earlier this week. The 42 inch model, released just over a week ago, automatically transforms images into 3D, allowing you to experience the intensity of 3D viewing in your own home, be it movies, TV or games.
Finally, a massive thanks to SOA, MAI, KONEKO and NIIJI who led the crowd in the Para Para Dance Workshop to end the evening with a bang. And thanks to everyone who got up on stage and joined in! The last day of HYPER JAPAN London 2010 is tomorrow – we hope to see you there!
Mami is a professional hair and makeup artist working in fashion magazines, shows, and advertising. She is a genius at creating fabulously fashionable looks, including Shibuya girls, Harajuku style and Gothic Lolita. Mami flew in from Japan especially for HYPER JAPAN London 2010, to create some modern and vibrant looks that are perfect for funky young female fashion. 
LOVES CHANGE is a range of wigs and hair pieces which allow anyone to change their hairstyle easily. The pieces are professional designed and produced using high-quality materials. A wide variety of product, including clip-in pieces, ¾ wigs to increase hair volume, fringes and full wigs are available. 
Japanese people are known for the world’s longest life expectancy, and this is often attributed to their extremely healthy diet. Japanese cookery uses a lot of vegetables and other low calorie ingredients. Rather than having one big plate of food, meals usually comprise many small dishes; diners can pick and choose from a variety of dishes, meaning that lots of different vitamins and minerals can be gained at a single sitting. 