Last week me and a friend went to a Japanese flea market in Stockholm, arranged by kimmiko.se, where both compaies and private individuals sold old and new items. Japan-loppisen, as its called in Swedish, was at Aggregate in Sundbyberg, where there are a lot of cultural activities for young people.
The queue to get into the flea market was very long, and even though we arrived only 30 minutes after the opening, we had to wait almost two hours to get in. People queing were mainly teenagers (and some parents), and a lot of them had dressed up wearing amazing lolita dresses, wigs and make-up. Some guys had also dressed up in ellaborate costumes.
At the last bit of the queue was a dance group called R-10 performing K-Pop dance routines on stage (video at the end of this post) and opposite were a couple of tables with pretty lolita clothes for sale. Special guest of honour was model and designer Victoria Eriksson, known for appearing on Top Model Sweden and Project Runway Sweden. She was there selling her clothes.
Finally we got it, and we could find clothes, mobile phone cases, bags, accessories, manga and anime merchandise, soft toys and many other things. There was a mixture of handmade, second hand and new goods. The tables were very popular and sometimes it was difficult to to see what was for sale at the tables, because it was so crowded.
The youths shopping there seemed very happy, as we saw a lot of them leave the flea market with bags full of stuff.
The Japan-loppisen takes place a couple of times every year, and next time they have an event will be on 15 June, 2013.
Here is a video of R-10 performing at the event.
For more information about upcoming Japanese flea markets in Stockholm, check out their Facebook pages.
Japan-loppis sommar 2013: https://www.facebook.com/events/232099593596257/
Official Japan-loppisen Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Loppisen/181852625204076