holy crap, you guys.

my bandwith just got murderlized!

all the pics should be back to normal by the 12th, so no new posts till then i guess : )

here are some inspirational shots from a few japanese magazines/lookbooks that i picked up on my trip:

Urban Research, Women’s Spring 2011

Vogue Girl, shot by Gia Coppola

Ships, Women’s Spring 2011

Journal Standard, Spring 2011

ahoy.

oh yeah, i noticed 80% of japanese dudes dress like Tintin, who i really enjoyed catching up with on tv over there.

Randa, Spring 2011

i think this has to be the most beautiful editorial i’ve seen in a long time:

Brutus Magazine

sigh. more Brutus:

i bought this brown kewpie for Y65 and i thought it would be appropriate to stick him next to this blackface editorial:

kurt hummel vibes from the model, no?

Figue

walking around japan i noticed a few tote bags being worn over and over again by girls in quick circulation; the most popular of which seemed to be a very particular anna sui.

the culprit behind this phenomenon turned out to be ‘e-mooks’, a magazine-catalog hybrid that is issued by brands and come with a free gift (most ostensibly, of course, a cute, cheaply made tote)… the entire thing hinges on the idea that you get to keep a little something from your favorite brand for a fraction of what it would normally cost.

this bag came with the Figue e-mook for Y750:

i remember seeing a particularly stylish girl on the train carrying a tote with a braided hair pattern on it and thinking it was oddly adorable… i was so happy to find that it was actually an e-mook by muchacha-ahcahcum

the rest of the pics on the blog should be back up by the 12th so till then, i’m sorry for the eyesore!

Something Good Can Work

Maybe you’ve seen “Akihabara Majokko Princess“, the just released Kirsten Dunst / Takashi Murakami short directed by McG (lol) that was shot around Tokyo last year.

I can almost guarantee that the one thing you didn’t see in this video was this eager Maid Cafe chick who, out of all the 127,000,000 people in Japan, happens to be the exact same one that we took a picture with in Akihabara:

My boyfriend says I’m just being racist but I can 100% guarantee that she’s the same person!

Ah, Japan, will your wonders never cease?

010110

I am a clusterfuck when it comes to linear storytelling. Sorry for that!

Photos from New Year’s Eve… Took the train to Zojoji Temple and saw Tokyo Tower on the way.

I thought these shoes were flyyy

Their Gas Stations hang from above for some reason. It’s pretty insane which, in Japan, just constitutes for normal.

Tako Balls! My fingers were so numb from the cold and they seemed like a good way to heat up.

Yoshinoya @ 2AM

And finally, New Year’s Day:

Last meal from the Grocery round the corner: Mango and Peach Yogurt Drink + Chirashi

Roll Over Beethoven

Left-over rolls of film from Japan Part 1:

<3

The french sweetheart over at Smokethorn wrote a little entry about my trip to Japan:

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

This is incredibly sweet.

via: Smokethorn

Be Good or Be Gone

These were taken on the 31st of December, the last day of our trip and the only time I was able to explore on my own.

Fresh Tempura & Kakiage on the street. Yum!

Ventured further into the cemeteries and shrines around the area. So beautiful.

There was an abnormally long queue winding out of Wendy’s for some reason:

Turns out it was for a Y500 burger that they’d launched that day

Edit: It’s been pointed out to me that the long lines were actually in honor of it being Wendy’s last day in all of Japan, which when you think about it, is really kind of sad in a nostalgic, end of a fast food decade sort of way.

Made a pit-stop for one last bowl of that awesome unagi/crab leg/ ebi tempura:

Thinking about it now, I die

The Visual Merchandising for the window displays of Isetan was so wonderful. They blew up these Japanese illustrations and arranged the products in the foreground to resemble what was happening in the image.

My favorite one was of this Japanese woman dropping her sandal to escape a summer shower. To mime the image they scattered a few Marni’s across the floor and it was just so simple and effective, I’d stop to look at it every time I passed by.

Strawberry Shortcake is traditionally eaten around Christmas time in Japan.

I got this one from the food basement at Isetan:

The sponge cake was light and the cream and strawberries were super fresh. It was perfect.

Shibuya

Piggies, Gaga Hair Bows & Bejeweled Calculators

We’d been eyeing this Unagi joint all week (really) and decided it was high time to try it out.

It wasn’t the tastiest unagi I’ve ever had, but the meat was so different from any of the ones I’ve tasted before. It was more mild and neutral rather than having that slightly fishy taste that I usually associate it with. I’m wondering if this has to do with how fresh it is.

Dragged my brother to the Isetan Food Basement for Sadaharu Aoki Macarons

I tried Lavender, Framboise and Caramel Sale.

I was having a really hard time choosing between these two silver rings and ended up just getting both:

Oh yeah, and I got the little plastic porkers too. 5 for Y175! How could I say no :]

Something More Productive like Roscoe

Finally had some film processed!

Woke up mighty early on the 24th of December to visit my lola (grandma) in the country.

Proceeded to fall asleep once there

My cousin, Philip, on the train to Shinjuku from Narita airport:

My mom is the little one in the middle:

This little shrine/ cemetery was one block from our hotel, suffocated in between buildings in the heart of the city.

I thought it was so beautiful.

People dropping like flies on the train

Outside someone’s home in Harajuku:

Ramennnn

The Ramen Museum in Shin-Yokohama is such a trip :]

It’s an entire Japanese Village circa the 1950′s rebuilt underground.

It’s supposed to be the 9th best Ramen place in Japan, so I decided to try the Tonkotsu Ramen even though I was quite sick of eating Ramen by this point hahaha.

The broth was rich and milky, and was made with crushed pork bones and garlic. It was pretty good but nowhere near as amazing as the Ramen that I had on my first night in Shinjuku.

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Kamakura

Took the train to Kamakura, a sleepy little town full of cemeteries and shrines and pudgy cats and ramen shops.

It was absolutely beautiful.

We went through this trail through the forest to reach this giant buddha statue and it took about 2 hours to get there.

This little Sweet Potato shack was at the town at the end of the trail.

They had sweet potato ice cream, chips, croquettes and pastries. So awesome.