Tea

I was on a fairly empty 1 train the other day and looked up and saw this ad.

so confused... wait, am I in Kyoto? no, wait, I'm in New York... wait...

I had at least one of these a day when I was in Japan and it was so comforting to see the ad!!

The fine/fuzzy print says: "If you can read it, chances are you already drink it."

I felt like a Japanese tourist walking up to the ad and snapping a photo of it- pretty good for being on a moving train!

Blue and Red

Waiting for the bus at Essex and Delancey, Tschumi's Blue stood up against the blue sky while red brick buildings with their red signage and red curtains bathed in the late afternoon sun.

Japanese-style Urban Camouflage

I read articles like this and I get frustrated because people think of the Japanese as silly and naive. At one point, Japan was known as the pioneers of technological advancement- computers, cars, robots!!! But they are potentionally hurting their reputation with some of these far fetched and silly ideas?!?

Back in the day, ninjas wore all black to disguise themselves at night. Inspired by this practical idea, a young fashion designer invented a bulky full-size vending machine costume to elude assailants! One interesting invention is the "manhole bag": when unfolded and put on the street, this purse hides valuables by disguising itself as a sewer cover. Of course, the texture could give it away and to me, if you know that you're being followed, then how and when would you have time to lay this on the street without having someone see it?

This just brings back the major difference between American and Japanese culture... Americans want to protect themselves from criminals, and strike back, while many the Japanese, who avoid confrontation and self-assertion at all costs, favor camouflage and deception. I guess we all need a bit of common sense and creativity just to be safe.

DoCoMo in New York?!?

Walking through Nolita with my sister and some friends the other day, I saw a very familiar object from my past year in Japan.... The DoCoMo mushroom!

I ran in and saw a huge pile of thousands of the cute fuzzy characters that had smiled me from every DoCoMo mobile phone shop in Japan! There is a great temporary (October 19-28) exhibit by 16 up-and-coming Japanese painters, fashion designers, ilustartors and artists on these "Docomodake" (DoCoMo mushrooms).

Since I refused to have several pounds of obnoxious cell phone straps from my phone, I ended up hanging these DoCoModake "keitai sutrappu" from each of my pull light chains in my apartment... who knew I would get so sentimental?

My sister rolled her eyes and told me that they were going to check out the shoe store next door.

SKETCHBOOKS v.1

An exhilarating preview of the gorgeous images...

Made by a good friend of mine, this is an amazing... book within a book, culled from five years of sketchbooking. All works siphoned from the world around [her]; a manner of dialoguing with art exhibits, books, fossils, architecture templates, food wrappers, RV culture, love, cats, photography, sake, childbirth, cities, graphics, origami, tape, people on the street and landscape.

Bon apetit!

BUY THIS BOOK here!!!

Random stuff found in the ¥100 Shop

#1 & #2) MULTI-PURPOSE ETIQUETTE PLASTIC BAG: So useful! A stylish plastic bag for containing your vomit! Get one for the whole family!!


























#3) Another variation of the dried squid as ecologically responsible vessel for your favorite alcoholic beverages! (This time, for beer!)
















#4) Adhesives to protect your clothing from nasty underarm sweat or deoderant stains!



















#5) Suspicious massaging tool.

New Yorkers in Kyoto

Anne Marie is a trooper...


We met at the super futuristic Kyoto Station, dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and then headed straight into Kyoto's nightlife district for some, um, Mexican food (ha ha- what a great 1st meal for her!).

We then picked up some beer and went down to the river to people-watch (hundreds of young Japanese and foreigners hanging out, drinking, playing drums, etc.) and to catch up on all the gossip from life in NYC to boys to, of course, our (my former) coworkers.





Sunday was crazy- we wandered around Nishiki Market, poking into all the food stalls, ended up in that awesome colorful store (see post below) for hours and giggled at our ridiculous inability to walk more than 20 feet an hour. I was so excited but a bit overwhelmed as we were also meeting up with Glen & Kli on Sunday and those plans were not well coordinated. After some frantic phone calls, we finally met up with Kli and his family who drove them the 2 hours from Mie just so that we could meet up for the afternoon!!!

It was awesome to see the boys again! Glen and I immediately bonded again, just like our "golden days" in New York! Kli's amazingly wonderful family drove us around Kyoto to see Kinkakuji (the shiny Golden Pavilion), the lusciously orange Heian Shrine with its "wall of sake", and finally to Kiyomizu Temple, one of my favorites! It was kind of a rainy day so it was really nice to chill out in the car and catch up!!!





Several hours later, they headed back to Mie, and Anne Marie and I headed to Osaka for a JET concert/ charity event at an Irish pub. I felt pretty bad that all of her nightlife experiences were in western places! It was a long day/ night... we walked around Umeda Station checking out the fashion trends, wild hairstyles, crazy signage (a restaurant named "EAT MAN"?!?), and video game arcade cuteness until we finally caught the last train back to Kyoto!





Monday was another packed day of temple and shrine visits- Ryoanji, the famous zen rock garden, then to Tenryuji temple/ garden in Arashiyama. Hide, my Japanese police officer friend, was coincidentally heading up in the direction of Miyazu after getting off a 24 hour shift, so we caught a ride back with him. Two whole days of being in the city made me miss the green rice fields and fresh country air. What will I do when I get back to New York?!?

My favorite store in Kyoto

This is the place where I (well, Paul and me) adopted Browl & Growl, our wonderfully cute brown & green owls...

Anne Marie got to Japan safe and sound, and we browsed through this store for, oh, about 2 1/2 hours. We finally had to leave to stop the "bleeding of the money".

Konpira Shrine, Kotohira, Shikoku

Konpira Shrine is a famous shrine at the top of a fairly steep mountain in Kotohira, Shikoku. Becky, Jun, and I climbed up the 1368 stone steps to the top and we were very proud of Jun for not taking a single cigarette break!

There were many shops situated on the sides of the stone path/steps where we could rest and browse for souvenirs.

The shrine and the view at the top were beautiful but because there were so many other tourists there, it didn't feel as intimate as the one we visited the day before. We threw our coins in and clapped to get the Gods' attentions, and prayed for health and all that good stuff. I love how people tie up their wishes on paper and wrap them around trees!!!


Many Japanese tourists were prepared with walking sticks, backpacks and water bottles!

We went to a relaxing onsen complex with indoor and outdoor baths (with floating flowers!). We splurged on an "akasuri" treatment (exfoliation & body shampoo)... can't say that I enjoyed that too much though- my OCD-ness was kicking in after I realized we were all just getting on top of this padded vinyl table one after another and the woman was like mechanically flipping us like burgers and vigorously scrubbing us with the same exfoliating gloves! Questionable.


However, we did enjoy a huge dinner afterwards. Shikoku is famous for its udon, so of course we had to try it. The menu offered a big wooden tub of it for 4-5 people, but the 3 of us polished it off, along with a few other side dishes effortlessly. Behind us was a group of yukata-clad older men, maybe on a company retreat or something, with their "company" (beautiful paid female "escorts" dressed in smart green skirt suits who would "accompany" these men for the night (paid by the hour!)... I suppose sort of like what "geisha" used to do back in the day.


At one point, we passed an impressive blooming onion field- the green leaves (stems?) were at least 3 feet high, each one topped with a ball of white flowers! It looked like something out of a Miyazaki film!

peko-chan & poko-chan

"Peko-chan" is the cheekiest girl I've ever seen with that little tongue sticking out and all her little outfits! I had been mistakenly calling her "The Milky Girl" for several months until a Japanese friend corrected me...

We found a Fujiya shop in Sapporo which had all these Peko & Poko collectibles and even the shop clerk looked like Poko-chan, with his chubby cheeks and happy demeanor. He didn't flinch once when I pestered him with questions (Is the boy "Poko" her brother? Or is he her boyfriend? Where did they get their names?)

He patiently told me that Peko-chan was born in 1950 (but has not aged) as the official 6-year old mascot of Fujiya Confectionary Co., a major cake / chocolate / sweet company in Japan.

Poko-chan is Peko-chan's boyfriend, and is one year older. He was created in 1951 after marketing executives realized that Peko was so successful. Together, they represent the yummy Milky candy. He also informed us that Peko's name was inspired by the northern Japananese pronunciation for cow ("beko") whereas Poko was derived from the Japanese word for boy ("boko").

Although Fujiya was rocked by a major scandal earlier in the year, looks like things are OK now after some major changes and cleaning up. Who can turn their backs on this charming little girl?

Even Dondon-ya, my little udon shop in Miyazu has a Peko collection!


People have been caught stealing the nostalgic life sized Peko dolls outside of the Fujiya stores- and getting pretty severe prison sentences!

You can download adorable desktop wallpaper here.