BACK!

It came, it went. Japan. Sigh.
I had wanted to do a post sooner when I got back but the jet lag has been of the intense sort, and I needed time to get my head screwed properly back on my shoulders. So here are just a few of the highlights from my trip to glorious Nippon!



Yakitori in Shiga...might be just as cozy as my grandmother's house....





Sushi and crab dinner @ Kinosaki-Onsen.







Kinosaki at night...





Old friends, new friends...



Possibly one of the greatest things I will ever see in this life...the eight story sex shop in Akihabara.



While my sense of taste has definitely retrogressed back to American style food (DEVISTATING), nothing can break my addiction to all things soy. These are little boxes of soy milk, 88 yen a piece. In a billion different and wonderful flavors. Pictured: Chestnut, black sesame, sweet potato.



Laundry minus the dryer...If I had a balcony I would love to line dry my stuff here too, come spring.





Walmart's total world domination, on schedule.





GINZAAAAAH.



One of those sweet potato trucks that nobody in America believes really exists.
Photographic PROOF.









The warmest, most relaxing bar in the world? I think so. I took just under ten billion pictures in here and the owner got a bit aggravated. I couldn't understand why he cared so much until the Maker's Mark wore off and I actually reviewed the photos. So many I could probably make an animated flip book. すみませんでした。



Cute right down to the yogurt.
Aloe yogurt.
<3>

Christmas, Part I

I Love Christmas.
I love reminiscing about how it was the pinnacle of everything good, rad and awesome circa my entire childhood. Cookies galore, dreams of Barbie mansions, playing with the nativity scene perched above the dryer in the kitchen as if it were a doll house. The way the multicolored lights made everything glow, the smell of pine, not being able to sleep for such severe excitement on Christmas eve. My sister and I would make top secret plans to wake up at 4 am and sneak downstairs to check out the goods, read tags and figure out who the biggest presents belonged to.
It was just pure bliss with two weeks off of school as the exclamation point.

I am hard pressed to think of any equivalent to this as an adult. Actually, I get kind of jealous of my 6 year old self if I think enough about it. But there are still so many things I adore about the holidays, one of them being decorating with abandon, even if it does get a little bit tacky...

as in installing purple LED lights behind my shoe shelf...in addition to more traditional, subtle things also...



The miracles of wired ribbon...



$1 for 16 ornaments at Target...



Saving such ornaments for a few years can make for a good display in that weird nautical oval- shaped bowl you bought for no good reason...until now.



More Christmas Shoe Fabulousity.






My main objective in decorating the windows is to make the kids in the neighborhood happy. At this point it doesn't seem like many people in this complex "deck the halls", so to speak. Which is understandable, seeing as nobody has lawns, trees, front doors or anything of the sort. But still, I think it's good to work with what you have.



More cheap-o target ornaments....



And some throwback vintage hand-made ornaments from 2008-or-so...



My first ever DIY wreath!



AAAAAND the pink tree in all of its radiant glory. While this wall looks entirely fabulous,
it's not really cohesive with the rest of the decor. But whatever, I'm fine with it for the time being. Policecop was surprisingly fond of the purple LED's, he thought it looked hi-tech and "like outer space". So it stays.

Happy Japanuary!!!

While it's definitely not January quite yet, I'm happy to announce that on the 4th of said month, I will be flying on a jet plane back to my second homeland for the first time in three years!
I'm awfully, terribly excited. It's been far too long, I can't begin to count the people and things that I miss on a daily basis.
Onigiri and Oden at 7-11...
Hot canned coffee and royal milk tea out of vending machines...
Cigarettes out of vending machines...
The food...
Kotatsu tables...
Sala shampoo...
The smell of incense....
Everything...Everything...Everything.

Almost every minute of the day I'm thinking about the places I want to visit, the people I want to see, things I want to do...
And also, obsessing about how to make the 24 hours of travel involved as stress-free and luxurious as possible. This is a task in and of itself when traveling coach. And always involves sleep aids.

So incredibly excited!

Market Darling

This weekend I took off for Keene New Hampshire for the 24 Hour Starving Artist Music Festival, where my lovely friend Gwen's band performed. Unfortunately, I expired before the full 24 hours were up but managed to have lots of fun, and take quite a few photos:

Gwen's hand-made CD cases, SWOON.





























All in all an extremely good time. I'm lucky to have such an amazingly talented friend. You can check out the goods here on facebook.

Thrifting GOLD:

Lately I've been on a winning streak when it comes to second hand/thrifting. Here are some of my best finds:

#1: Vintage purse: $4.99 @ Salvation Army
It's much bigger than the Louis I've been using religiously since the end of August. Not real leather, but spotless and brilliantly designed none the less. With one push of the clasp at the top the entire bag opens up like a clam shell, I don't have to dig around for anything in this purse. I think I was drawn to it because of the hard briefcase-like structure in a vast sea of slouchy, oversized hobo bags. That, and the fact that it definitely resembles vintage Coach. And did I mention the lining?...



#2: Diane Von Furstenberg Heels: $24.00 @ Twice as Nice Consignments



The metallic pentagon shaped heels are responsible for stealing my heart.
Shown with another well-loved find, extremely long chain earrings from Savers, for $2. I've found these to be the cheapest, easiest way to add ping to every one of my fall outfits.

And then, saving the best for last:
#3: Authentic Louis Vuitton Wallet: $14.00 @ Savers



Savers...of all places. My Mother informed me that they were having a 50% off sale for veterans day, and after work I decided to drop by for a peek, never expecting to find this...buried underneath two obviously fake Louis pochettes in their "valued items" case. It was entirely too good to be true. And yet the date code, stitching, details, wear and tear...it all checks out. Say hello to my new wallet.

And lastly, another cheap-but-excellent buy:


Sinful Colors Nail Polish: $2 a-pop at Walgreens. I was on a desperate search for a cheaper alternative to Chanel's Jade Lacquer from Fall '09 (Yes, I'm admittedly behind the curve here).
Sinful Colors Mint Apple (shown on the far right) was the absolute closest I could find, and it's gorgeous. I bought this along with some of their other colors, including glitter coats and found that not only are they brilliant looking, but have extreme longevity. Highly recommended.

So now I'm off to bed. One more day of work and then a 24 hour music festival in New Hampshire with Gwen this weekend! I'm predicting vast amounts of caffeine in my near future.

Kazu Makino: Girl Crush.

Last night I hit up the Paradise with a bunch of good friends to see Blonde Redhead. It was my second time seeing them and I was no less transfixed by Kazu Makino the second time around, even though I'm not feeling their new album as much as their previous ones.
For whatever reason I find myself much more drawn to female rockers than their male counterparts...I can't take my eyes off of them at shows.
Karen O, Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes, and Kazu Makino...they just have this ethereal yet rock-solid presence on stage...I'm always left fascinated that a girl, cut from the same basic cloth as me could be so god-like. Their talent blows my mind. I want to be them.
And special props to Kazu for the fact that she's from my heart's hometown of Kyoto. And also for designing the band's t-shirts. I'm never usually a sucker for the merch stand, but last night I couldn't pass this up:

Now if only I could get my hands on a pair of those glitter leggings...

Here is a brief interview with Kazu that I found today. I wonder if any of my friends back home went to school with her. Hmm...