She's Big in Japan

onigiri, nyc

2009-04-24T21:23:00.004-05:00

I want to go to Cafe Zaiya, 18 E. 41st St. (btw. 5th & Madison), midtown in New York.

There's also one in the east village, at 69 Cooper Square.

It's a Japanese cafe and they have baked treats, bento boxes, and onigiri.

I want onigiri so bad!! They are high up there on my Things I Miss From Japan list.

old pictures from kyoto

2009-02-16T09:39:00.000-06:00

2008-12-11T06:09:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I'm leaving in 2 days! It's impossible to feel like I've seen enough of Japan, but I'm also really looking forward to being home.

Tuesday was my last class so afterwards we went to a Japanese Christmas party that Jae (to my right) invited us to. We were told to bring a present but we really didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be so much fun though! Me and Andrew were the only people there who didn't speak Japanese but we had funny struggling conversations in Japanglish. We also made a new American friend, Brittany, she's so cool, wish we'd met her sooner. She's even from right outside Philly! As for the secret santa, Andrew got bath soaps and I got candy and a bag of salt, haha. The presents we brought were equally lame though.

The Japanese played some wacky games that completely went over my head. They seemed to involve some sort of public embarrassment, like singing or picking a random girl to exchange numbers with. It was really cool to see a genuine Japanese get together with one of the smallest collection of foreigners of any event I've been to in my time here. By the time we left a Japanese guy was face down on the floor, ahem, being sick, and it was barely midnight. They party hard.

Since then I've mostly been shopping for gifts and souvenirs. I should start to pack up I guess. Oh, and these photos are from last weekend, very glam (shot by Gallermic @ Trump house).

Kyoto, Nara, Osaka trip

2008-12-05T02:49:00.000-06:00

Took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto on Thursday at 7:10am, almost missed it.. got to kyoto around 9. so early!

a shrine

took a train to this small town that has a park with wild monkies

view from train to arishiyama

cute town arishayama, outside of kyoto

we found the monkey park entrance!

first monkey spotted!

monkey keeper riding motor bike around the sharp turns on the path with really steep walls, made me nervous

pretty autumn foliage

monkey paradise at the top, with an incredible view of Kyoto

the cabin in which you can feed the monkeys

baby!

"feed us peanuts and apples"

"plz!"

fishes and pickin fleas off each other

then we slid back down the giant hill

next we took a train to Nara, famed for its park with friendly deer

the sun was already down when we got there

a pagoda

deers! it took us forever to find them, i think most of them had gone to sleep. next we rode the train to Osaka, and got dinner at a takoyaki place

octopus balls, an osaka classic

and japanese pancake, osaka traditional meal

doesn't really look like much but it was yummy. then we were tired so we tried to catch a bullet train back to tokyo but they were done for the night so we took an overnight bus back, it was like a 6 hour ride but i slept most of it.

the end of my 24 hour travels around japan!

2008-12-03T06:44:00.000-06:00

I see a lot of Japanese with eye patches. Is it because they got in fights or because they got the eyelid surgery to give them 'western' eyes? Or is it just a cool part of his outfit? (Don't think I'll ever know.)
Photo by Rei Shito, the photog for FRUiTS.

2008-12-01T03:13:00.000-06:00

patrick & kim @ trump house

sleepy heads

Also, plz take this survey, it's about fashion and stuff and it's not too long, for my aunt who is making galoshes.

giant crab attempts tokyo takeover

2008-11-24T05:09:00.000-06:00

"it smells like seafood" "it's cause of that crab" "it's about to scuttle down that building"

me and my new friend Tomo- he is just like carl, for those of you in the know, he has the same voice and accent and he said he grew up in germany (or something)

no school thursday

2008-11-18T09:36:00.000-06:00

we walked all the way from the imperial palace to tokyo tower!

the bridge to the palace grounds

fountains

scenic sunset

a temple along the way, the staircase was so tall and steep but we made it up there

it was dark but the water was so clear i could see the fishies in the pond up in the shrine

after more walking, we reached tokyo tower!

winter wonderland set up under the tower, lots of japanese families taking advantage of the photo op

riding trains around tokyo

2008-11-12T05:45:00.000-06:00

from takadanobaba to shinjuku

monday

2008-11-10T05:32:00.000-06:00

we went back to asakusa today, lots of lanterns

a big sandal or something

fake food for restaurant displays- i really wants some but its pretty steep

dog in a basket

from dinner the other night with Liz and Jamie:

eatin octopuses

i got a seafood pizza

comme des garcons for H&M (japan)

2008-11-08T21:49:00.000-06:00

So Saturday was the opening of the harajuku H+M which was also the world debut of the comme des garcons collabo. i meant to get up by nine but well, you know me. luckily when i rolled in at 3pm they still had stuff.

they had a red carpet for the line into the store and you had to wait somwhere around the block to even get in this line that was guarded by police.

i couldnt understand the japanese instructions so i just jumped in line when no one was looking!

almost there! i waited about 20 minutes to get in which wasn't bad, considering people waited 2 hours to get into the ginza H+M

the comme des garcons stuff

the highly priced dress that is probably the most expensive item ever sold at an H+M (not my style)

polka-dot central

the line for the dressing room, eep

i got one of these bags

loadin up

H&M is more expensive in japan than america. i only bought c.d.g. stuff but it still feels a little silly to buy H+M when i can buy it easy in philly. it's gonna sell out though, so its a one time thing (i convince myself, i have consumer guilt)

tokyo is getting to me...

2008-11-07T11:33:00.000-06:00

halloween pix

2008-11-06T05:41:00.000-06:00

from our syrup pals

We went to Yokohama this past weekend

2008-11-05T08:30:00.000-06:00

yokohama has the biggest chinatown in japan

can you see me vv

chestnuts were sold on every street and they gave out lots of samples

i bought a cute mouse shaped fried dough thing from a vendor, so greasy and yummy

cute pups are everywhere'justy nasty' brand, not sure what that's trying to rip off

restaurant display

andrew got a veggie platter thing and i got mixed veggies with seafood and sauce

long hairs

i also got shark fin dumplings, just to try. they could have been any kind of meat for all i know, but they were pretty good

ferris wheel at cosmo world, an amusement park in central yokohama, there is a roller coaster wrapped around it and a log flume under it

we went to ride it but the line was sooo long. here's andrew under the ferris wheel

we did purikura, japanese photobooth

detail:

tonight i went to dinner with my friend Liz Fox! she went to high school with me for a year and goes to NYU and she's currently doing a semester in Beijing, China. her program gives her two weeks off to travel, i wish the temple program did that. anyway, she's visiting tokyo with her friend Jamie for the next couple days and it's nice to see her and hear about china. it's real interesting but also makes you grateful to live in a developed country!

lately

2008-11-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

midnight snack: tofu with green tea soy milk and mochi treat

vegan dinner thing, halloween cookie

my favorite snack of dried soy beans, now in bath salts. smell like a bean!

cell phone charmers

shimokitazawa

cute store display, little boxes with different jewelry and trinkets

cat on a (hot, tin) roof, takadanobaba

Happy halloween everybody! I was a native american princess, what were you?

2008-10-24T06:02:00.000-05:00

this is a pretty boring, shaky video i shot on my digital camera while walking around Shinjuku in the middle of the day, but there are kittens at the end.

weekend cuteness

2008-10-19T07:25:00.000-05:00

cute scale

fish cookie filled with sweet bean paste

chocolate cat candy, came with a lil comic and sticker

harajuku used clothing store, ~$40.95, 2008

look familiar?

alex, america, 2006ish

we got dinner with our japanese friend Rie at an asian restaurant

i got shrimp toast

eating dessert!

me and Rie and a fried banana

we all talked about stereotypes and apparently a popular stereotype of Americans is that we eat popcorn in a big bowl when we watch movies at home. so true right?

we woke up early saturday to go to a vegetarian festival in Yoyogi park(the park in harajuku)

now what do you think is cuter..

a flock of dachshunds, or

a giant toddler hugging bunny

they are wearing yankee outfits!(?)

Rie told us that dachshunds are Japan's number one most favorite dog

but that bunny!

so anyways..

we waited in line forevvver and the vendor ran out of falafel before we got to the front

so we went to pure cafe

picnic anyone?

tokyo school night

2008-10-13T07:24:00.000-05:00

party people

spank! girls and joker, i caught them a second too early

of course if there's a stripper pole an old sleazy man has to jump on it

sleepy heads, the one on the left is our friend Tomo, he's 20 and goes to make-up school in the neighborhood we live in!

the weekend ended with a bang. andrew has most of the good pictures here. thank you tokyo.

Tonight...

2008-10-12T08:10:00.000-05:00

Oct 11, photos by Andy R.W.

2008-10-12T01:39:00.001-05:00

exhibition at Candy, i'm working on my coldstare, not quite there yet

Ayumi and syrup friends

party palace

Vanity

2008-10-11T07:28:00.000-05:00

The party last night played awesome music so it was a blast!

Spank! girls are these girls who dress cute, like a pink girly madonna with giant bows and tutus and reeboks(i'm kicking myself for leaving mine at home), and they had a fashion show.

Tavuchi (in the bunny suit) who runs the Spank! stores DJed and she played a mashup of Bootyliscious(which i had been joking about all day and was so psyched on, isnt that funny), some Gravy Train!!, Helen Love, MGMT, Nirvana, and more bangers. We danced too much. the Spank! girls are all so tiny, they must be like 4'1"

these two Japanese girls did a show too, they are Trippple Nippples. I liked them, they are a bit AA but great hair/hat things and catchy beats

evening in Asakusa

2008-10-10T06:14:00.000-05:00

Shopping-> trinkets, souvenires, etc. I bought a pink clear umbrella cause it started to sprinkle

Special crackers from the region

puppies

Kitties

Pagota, IDK

SomeFamousShrine Shrine

Giant Lanters

this is me eating a peach&froyo crepe in Harajuku, andrew has shakey hands, whats with that, hmm???

it was monday too

2008-10-06T07:24:00.001-05:00

today was not the greatest day. it was raining. i woke up 5 minutes after the time i should leave by, rushed to get ready, lost my subway pass between my dorm and the subway station, retraced my steps but didn't find it, was really late to japanese class and missed the quiz, and then someone took my umbrella.

i spent a while in bed being grumpy but eventually i had to leave my room. i ended up finding a cute cell phone charm on the ground, so i guess that's karma's trade for my 3 months worth of pre paid subway rides. thanks tokyo.

peachling baby(found) and gold kewpie baby

oh and I got my hair done in the style of Scarlette Johansson and last weekend we went on a class trip to the moon, did you hear about Japan's new space program? it's pretty advanced

Ginza, Tokyo/France 1778

2008-10-04T12:31:00.000-05:00

inspired by Sophia Coppola's film, Marie Antoinette, we went out in search of Laduree, a French cafe in Tokyo's upscale district of Ginza. it is the only Laduree in Japan, and it is the same company that made the macrones for Miss Coppola's film.

in Ginza

the salon is located in a very posh department store, Mitsukoshi

the cafe is modeled after Marie Antoinette's private home, the Petit Trianon

my very expensive sandwich, solid gold toothpicks

chocolate dessert

tea table

streets of Ginza.

We also went in the new Ginza H+M, the only H+M in the country until the Harajuku one opens next month. Nothing to write home about.

partie people TKYO2k8

2008-10-02T06:23:00.001-05:00

QTs in Nippon

2008-10-01T08:25:00.000-05:00

the stairwell in Don Quixote.

Photo credits to Lauren

p.s. check out this old japanese man at the grocery store with my exact same Benatton bag. small world, right?

Last Night

2008-09-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

We went to a place called Trump Room for a party as described for "exquisite and arrogant dandicals." The theme was Le Boudoir de Danaé, whatever that means.

the walls are covered in different sized mirrors and the ceiling is dripping with chandeliers.

andrew got interviewed for european Zoo Magazine, as well as his picture taken a lot

the DJ/host wore a carpet thing on his head, his name is Gallermic, here he is with a friend

these two girls were very friendly, they gave me cards for their shop Syrup. I can't figure out where it is but the website is really cute and they have lots of funny girly hats and pillows and things.

Everyone is so friendly, they all have business cards and kept handing them out I thought that was cute. The night definitely surpassed my expectations of social life, for a foreigner, in Tokyo.

Sally Scott

2008-09-28T05:11:00.000-05:00

Sally Scott is a Japanese brand designed by Akira Minagawa. The name Sally Scott comes from the imaginary girl that the clothes are designed around. Though she is obvs not of asian descent, the style is very Japanese in its mix of dainty patters and layering and a sort of 60's french influence. I love the use of bikes and tea time daintiness.

For the whole catalogue go here

more food pix, other stuff

2008-09-25T07:03:00.000-05:00

this is a bento box from the grocery. mini salads and stuff

we went to get phones, at this big discount everything store called Don Quixote. the store is very representative of what people expect tokyo to be, it's overwhelming with different music blasting from every section, nothing seems in any particular order, and the space is condensed and narrow, hard to walk around through the crowds of people. look in the background its an inflatable floating lady

this is what i ate for lunch that day. one of the weirdest things i've ever ingested definately, it was pasta with calamari in octopus ink sauce. it was BLACK as you can tell. it dyed my lips black, kinda embarrassing

this is a dish from a vegan place, kom am phu or something like that, it was like sea weed or maybe mushrooms with rice and thing bread thing i dont even know but so tasty

desert! tofu chocolate tart, yums

andrew liked his dessert too (so blurry!)

its called vegan healing cafe, its in shibuya down a little street near Tokyu Hands. there's lots of record stores there, its neat and stuff

tips (fake nails)

posin at Pure Cafe, in Aoyoma, in an Aveada spa building

Baby Doll a puppy mill store, much sadness

giant puppy bull dog!!!!!!!!!

this is a giant tv screen playing security camera of the main square in Takadanobaba. the figure in the middle with an arm out is me!

rainy dayss!!! we had a typhoon, thats like a hurricane, it was rainy and I didn't go outside that day

just Food

2008-09-23T03:25:00.000-05:00

carrot lentil soup from Eat More Greens

stir fried tofu with vegetables- this was actually andrew's but we didn't know what to expect and they bring dishes out whenever they are ready, not at the same time, so it's confusing

"steaked" tofu with miso paste at a place called Crayonhouse

there's a vegan cafe in an Aveada spa in Aoyoma. sure this just looks like a sandwich(it is) but the bread was good (rare in Tokyo), eggplant and hummus (also rare) and so yummy. with sweet potato and carrot mash and a salad with peanut dressing.

dessert: carrot cake and bread pudding, with soy whip. ooishi.

apple strudel-ish thing and french toast-ish thing with ice cream in a cute cafe in La Foret in Harajuku

cup cake from bakery near dorm. unknown flavor. (not an egg yolk on top, thank goodness)

giant fruit pie cafe, i didn't eat here, but we did figure out that they serve them by the slice. looks so good.

mos burger is a fast food chain but it has these veggie burgers, the buns are just rice patties and the burger part is loose vegetables and sea weed its mad yums.

vagan falafel with tahini and brown rice from the cutest restaurant in Shibuya.

soy whip and apple crumble desserts

bibimbop with miso soup and neon green melon soda. this is from a place in Kamakura. they never cook the eggs thoroughly here

kabob venders

candy vender, i think its just colored rock candy

sugar coated grapes. these were very good. the crab apple version was underwhelming.

coffee beat! little coffee bean shaped coffee flavored chocolates.

hope i made you hungry!

Chocolate Covered Mango Ice Cream 'Pino'

2008-09-19T11:08:00.000-05:00

they are like Dibs, if you have heard of those. it comes with a tiny poker to pick them up i guess.

they are messy

Kamakura

2008-09-17T11:12:00.000-05:00

we had school off on monday for a traditional Japanese holiday celebrating the elderly so we went on a trip to Kamakura. it's a beach town/tourist trap with lots of shrines, temples, and gift shops. it took a little over and hour to get there by train.

they were having a festival of sorts, perhaps for the elderly people holiday, but i'm not really sure. small crowd watching.

an outfit, funny hat

parade up to shrine

cute pajama outfit, big hurry

masks for sale

old men playing with friendly duck

posin' (that girl is our new BFF lauren)

horse parade, i thought it was funny the guy was texting on his cell the whole time. tradition meets modern, ya know?

more festival outfits

japanese take pictures too!

we rode a bus somewhere. there weren't any more seats so andrew being the gentleman he is, made me sit on the floor. just kidding, it was fine.

japanese family portrait

great buddha, this dude's famous. his temple washed away hundreds of years ago but he didn't so he's real old.

obligatory tourist shot, i look stupid (my hair was weird that day)

fruit basket offerings

you could go inside him

we went inside him. it was dark and full of people.

then we went to another shrine nearby

they had a cave you could walk into

inside it was candle lit and there were tones of little buddhas with peoples prayers on them and stuff. they were cute, i liked the cave

then we walked up this steep hill side thing, it went real high

a nice view of the beach, cloudy day

the end. we were too tired to go to the beach after that. it was neat to see some of Japan outside of Tokyo.

What a night

2008-09-13T02:16:00.000-05:00

tonight we went to a place called La Fabrique in Shibuya. Jeppe from Junior Senior was guest DJing and we felt like dancing.

on our way. outfit previews.

sitting in the lounge area. winks..

we made a bunch of friends. everyone one there was really friendly (err, tipsy) and we made our first japanese friends. most of them spoke decent english. my favorites were Yuki who danced non-stop all night in heels while me and Andrew kept having to take breaks to sit down, Yoyo a girl who wrote on my hand with her eyeliner in Kanji "I cry all day every day," and Kenji a tiny photog for the club who took a picture of Andrew. There were also a lot of non-Japanese there, we talked to some designers from Netherlands who were shopping for inspiration but they left early. Also a dudebro who said he's a model invited Andrew to a party next month so thats cool.

dark pic of dancefloor

Andrew's dancing shoe broke.

Some new friends took the subway home with us. I was too shy to ask them for a picture so I snuck one. They were friends with Yuki and they followed Andrew around all night.

Walking home at 5am! Oh yeah, the party didn't end up starting until 11:30 and the subways close from 12-5am. So we danced alll night and caught the first train back. I slept all day.

Takoyaki- Fried Octopus Balls

2008-09-10T08:45:00.000-05:00

cookin

yum! fried dough balls stuffed with octopus, topped with mayo, green onions, fish flakes, and traditional sauce (the sign spelled it 'source')

the cute street we were shopping down. that blur was a hanging bottle that kept knockin Andrew in the head.

I Made Some Japanese Friends Today!

2008-09-09T08:03:00.000-05:00

it was nice out so I had my porch door open. they tried to sneak in my room!

here's my lunch:

and my new bento box

for dinner i cooked udon in miso soup with dumplings, only 99 cents for all these:

i love green tea flavored things

Google Maps: Street View comes to Tokyo!

2008-09-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

this is the front entrance of the Takandanobaba Weekly Mansion! you can drag the picture with your mouse to get a 360 degree view.

View Larger Map

this is SEIYU the closest grocery. i go there like twice a day.

View Larger Map

Takadanobaba's main square

View Larger Map

This is a mural of Astro Boy, he was born in Takadanobaba so they pay tribute. if you drag the picture to the right you can see the subway entrance i take to school.

View Larger Map

front entrance of school

View Larger Map

where we shopped last night, in Harajuku. andrew bought a leather members only jacket where there is a man walking down stairs under the We Go sign. this strip looks a lot different at night.

View Larger Map

more to come when i see things that qualify as landmarks.

technology amazes me, soon you will be able to look straight into my bedroom with GoogleMaps 3.6 beta!

2008-09-07T01:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday Andrew and I went to Shibuya. It is known as a big shopping district and it was true to its reputation. The area is brimming with large department stores, malls, and tall buildings with different stores on each level, going up 10 stories at least. We ventured Tokyo Hands, which sells virtually everything, from stationary to video games to lamps, furniture, and cookware. They also specialize in DIY type things.

play-dough cup cake kit (we were sad it wasn't edible)

this bike greeted us at the entrance of a mall. it is hello kitty and covered in swarovski crystals and around $7,000. i want.

so many levels! so many mirrors!

lunch in Loft, another big department everything store. we ate the dumplings before I took the pictures, that meat ball thing used to be inside the dumpling (it has to do with Andrew's vegetarian ways). The white stuff is a rice porridge thing, the red bowl is silken tofu with strawberry jelly= vegan yogurt. It was good, but we hadn't known what it was when ordering.

dessert at a different place, it was a cafe in a mall called Pastel. Green tea cake SO GOOD. (we ate the tip before photo)

Shibuya crosswalk, you can't even tell how many people there really are. It was packed. Next we went to Shinjuku to try to find Candy Shop again. It started raining.

we hid under a bridge for the rain to slow down.

the rain eventually weakened and we continued. we passes this hotel called NUTS: New Urban Time and Space. (oh yeah, and we might be in the gay district)

we saw this tranny hop out of a taxi and then just walk up and down the street, presumably looking for a john.

night life, a little old

ordering late night curry

my lunch today, udon with octopus tempura! i had thought it was a vegetable, but it was octopus stuffed with greens. so yummy!oh, and this is a bean paste dessert I bought a few days ago and it was so nasty. i didn't even finish it. i like the ones with rice on the outside but this had some weird bready stuff.

Food&Adventures

2008-09-05T10:28:00.000-05:00

Charlize Theron and Will Smith on popular Japanese cooking show

my new favorite dessert, it's called Every Burger. it's like oreos but mini hamburger cookies!! 85 Yen!

gotcha! eatin a tofu thang in our cafeteria

udon with tempura veggies and blueberry tea, assembled from the grocery

sesame bean paste desserts, yumz!

our nori ramen. it was soups delicious. nori is dried seaweed.

Today was Friday, thats the future for those of you in Eastern North America, and I was done with school early. Went back to the dorm, rested up for a while, then headed out to Harajuku. It was a bit after the sun had set (which happens really early here, around 5:30 to six) and we walked around, checked out a mall called La Foret which was overwhelming with the amount of stuff to see. Then got some food at a ramen place which was altogether confusing (We thought that I had ordered a bowl of ramen with stuff in it and Andrew had ordered a bowl of plain ramen with nori, but only one bowl of ramen showed up, full of stuff like meat as well as nori. We waited and no other bowls came so we figured we had befuddled the waiter. Such is the language barrier.)

then we tried to find this shop/club/restaurant called Candy Shop in Shinjuku and failed completely. this is a busy cross walk in Shinjuku.

Some things in japan are legal that are not legal in other places.

street preformer! her band was called Green Spice. she may be the forgotten japanese spice girl.

Everything in Japan was designed by Stanley Kubrick:

2008-09-04T09:08:00.000-05:00

bar in Tokyo

milkbar in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange

floor in a Japanese store

floor in The Shining

Yum

2008-09-02T10:34:00.000-05:00

pretty nasty looking, but very yummy curry with eggplant

bento from the grocery

octopus sushi

sake juice box

tri color soy/bean curd (?) shish-kabob candy thinger

Mail

2008-09-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

I would love to receive mail, I will even write back! Mail can be sent to:

Hannah Schulman

Temple University, Azabu Building

Student Services Office, Second Floor

2-8-12 Minami Azabu

Minato-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 106-0047

Park & Shinjuku

2008-08-31T08:10:00.000-05:00

We went to a big park in Shinjuku today. It was really really big but seemed very cut off from the city despite in the middle of a busy area. Very well manicured and had some cute animals living in it. It seemed popular as a date spot. The sound of cicadas was deafening and the bugs themselves are about 4 times the size of American cicadas.

the entrance gates. entrance was 2¥. knee socks are popular.

french style

creepy roots

lots of cute bridges

feeding the koi

snacks!

temple or something

making new friends

walking around Shinjuku

lunch: udon noodles with tofu

^all the dudes carry purses!v

pregnant chick

Pictures

2008-08-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

arcade

funny faces

azn photobooth

treats at a cafe in Shinjuku: maple syrup toast and unknown chocolate cake thing, with moist napkins packaged like tampons

cute umbrellers, huh?

bike parking lot

big box, it's sort of a mall and the arcade takes up a floor in there. Uniqlo is in there too.

raw fish at the seiyu (our grocery store). it's really inexpensive.

octopus!

tonight's dinner, from seiyu

dessert

Things I Learned Today

2008-08-29T05:51:00.000-05:00

Mugicha is barley tea, and it is not very tasty to my western palate.
I'm really not going to know what I'm ordering or eating most of the time.
Paperwork for foreigners in Japan never ends.
The Japanese own cute. I saw an old lady riding a bike with a long haired dachshund in the front basket.
The Japanese really are the nicest. Me and Andrew were huddling from a sudden downpour under a restaurant awning when a waiter from inside gave us umbrellas, with no intent to make us come inside.

rainy Waseda-dori street, it's near the dorm.

I was too hungry to remember to take a picture before I ate dinner, so here is the aftermath. The whole process was rather confusing. I thought I was ordering steamed dumplings but it turned out to be scallops with roe. It was still yummers. Pretty much we just said arigato (thank you) over and over.

my bedroom

my dessert

Plane ride

2008-08-28T06:08:00.000-05:00

middle of the pacific

tip of Japan

Japan countryside as descending

Things I'm going to miss.

2008-08-27T21:43:00.000-05:00

All Packed Up

2008-08-27T01:24:00.000-05:00

Last Meal(s)

2008-08-25T20:14:00.001-05:00

breakfast nachos with egg, cheese and turkey bacon (our presentation got better with practice)

yellow curry with tofu, yellow bell peppers, and rice

veggie stir-fry with squash, mushrooms, green peppers, and rice
taco night! with saitan and vegetables
nachos using Fritos instead of tortilla chipsCheers!

The pants have been freed

2008-08-24T23:51:00.000-05:00

I tried getting Urban Outfitters to remove it for me but apparently thats against store "policy." So I used a lighter. Also, I found a cute suitcase in Adams Morgan with a FREE sign. I think it's too small to take to Japan, but it's pretty neat.

Security

2008-08-22T01:21:00.000-05:00

I have started to pack. While I go through my clothes, it becomes very tempting to try things on. I tried on a pair of jeans I bought at Uniqlo this summer in New York. I think it was late May or even June, at least a month and a half ago. It's been a hot summer, so I haven't worn anything but shorts. I was surprised to discover when I slipped on the pants that the security tag was still attached. And very securely, I might add.

Hōnen Matsuri in Komaki

2008-08-21T07:42:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I will be missing this festival which takes place on the 15th of March. It is a celebration of fertility, specifically in deference of the penis.

Comme Des Garcons for H&M

2008-08-19T17:08:00.000-05:00

The Comme Des Garcons colaboration with H&M, designed by Rei Kawakubo, has its opening in Tokyo in November. This is a teaser pic, and maybe I have dull taste, but I'm not that into it. The shorts are so big, and polka dots are kinda overdone? The blazer is alright, and I like the crazy hair. Anyway, we'll see. I bet it will be crazy packed and sold out in 2.3 minutes though.

Hello.

2008-08-18T02:13:00.000-05:00

I leave for Japan in ten days; that's next Wednesday. I'm a little nervous. Still have to get my visa, went to the consulate today.