Next stop

Bus 52's destination is "Dreamland." Do you get to eat French macaroons, kyoho grapes, and play with Akita and Shiba puppies and roll around in cotton candy clouds all day there?

Gumi-Neko Returns

Jenni suggested I give this cat a name. The other day when I saw it again, I baptized it "Gumi-Neko." It's a cat (neko) from Gumisawa (its hood), so obviously, it's "Gumi-Neko."

On my way out to the internet cafe tonight, I walked downstairs and who do I see but Gumi-Neko lounging about. I think it stalked me to figure out where I'm staying. It probably sensed my sympathy for its scraggly ass. Who else takes pictures of the local dirty stray cat and posts them on her blog? Anyway, I went back inside and got it a tray and milk. Gumi-Neko slurped it up quickly, meowed at me very loudly, and I threw the tray away so that the neighbors don't bicker at me or my grandma for feeding a stray cat so close to the apartments.

Chanel Robertson Nail Collection

These nailpolishes were released in honor of the new Chanel boutique in L.A. I heard about this in May, and had been waiting to hear how I could purchase them. Back then if you didn't live in or near L.A., where you can get them directly at the store, you had to sign up on some useless email list and wait to see when they would be released online. But I inquired at the Chanel counter at Takashimaya here in Yokohama and the pretty Chanel lady told me that they were going to be one of ten locations in Japan to sell the line starting July 4th. After accompanying my grandma to her doctor's appointment that day, we stopped by Takashimaya and I picked up the pink and purple polishes.

"Melrose"

"Rodeo Drive"

I couldn't not get "Melrose" and "Rodeo Drive" is perfect for my quest to turn into a grape or Baikinman. I was tempted to get the orange "L.A. Sunset" since it matched my relatively dark skin, but common sense told me not to and for once we agreed on something. Here is the interactive site for the nailpolishes--you can purchase them and download a desktop image you "create"! Yay for materialistic art!

Consumer Lifestyle

I've been in Japan for a little over month now, and I think I'm getting used to things: internet-lessness, the limited surface area-per-person, all the walking, the people dressing differently-but-the-same, and feeling kind-of-foreign-but-not-really. But the one thing I cannot get used to is how my money just DISAPPEARS. I was prepared for the transportation fees, but I underestimated the power of sales/bargains/bazaars/whatever you want to call them, where things are no longer outrageously priced, only mildly expensive. No seriously though, there is SO MUCH TO BUY. I think there are two major reasons why my wallet and account suffer: one is that I'm here for longer than recent trips, and the other is that I am not here with Mordecai right now. Searching for and looking at weird, if not entirely dull buildings to the untrained eye is so much cheaper than going to CIAL, VIVRE, the Landmark Plaza\Queen's Towers\at! (triple threat!), World Porters, Takashimaya's makeup floor, or heaven forbid the ever-glitzy Motomachi numerous times a week.

But it has been revealed just now that he will be coming three days earlier than previously planned! Which is really just two days earlier, because the day you arrive is sort of timeless and nonpresent, when you're dazed from the long-ass plane ride, people feed you things and you fall asleep relatively early. I think if I complain any further about this his plane might drop, I'm even surprised there were seats open, so I'll stop now and figure out how to reserve bus tickets from Totsuka to Narita :D

Kyoho Grapes

I’m still obsessed with grapes. As far as I know, there are two kinds of grapes here: tiny little ones (I forget their name) and giant roly-poly ones (Kyoho, above). I stopped at a local, mediocre grocery on my way home the other day and saw that the little ones were on sale. But where there is a sale, there is a reason. In each package, there was at least one grape that was showing clear and distinct evidence of expiring. I just happened to notice out of the corner of my eye that there were Kyoho grapes not on sale, which appeared fine to the naked eye. I decided to give them a good home.

SO GOOD. American grapes are alright, and it’s nice that there are two color choices, but my goodness they are so bland compared to Kyoho grapes, which are so so so tart and juicy. You have to peel them, which is a real pain in the ass, but that’s when you realize how juicy they are and you know you’re going to have a good feast when you’re done. All the hard work makes them taste that much better. It used to be worse—when I was little, I had Kyoho grapes that had about four large seeds in each grape. Technology has advanced, my friends—forget the square watermelon (I think it is mostly forgotten anyway), on with the seedless Kyoho grapes! Make them teleport to Chicago!

Japanese McFlurry!

They have a new limited McFlurry here: milk tea + Oreo. The ice cream part tastes kind of like milky earl gray tea, and then you get little Oreo bits as a bonus. SO GOOD. My grandma says American McDonald’s tastes better than Japanese McDonald’s, but I wonder if she’s just biased against what she can always have. Likewise, I can’t really tell if I’m just excited about the novelty of eccentric flavors and products or if I really think these products are better than their American counterparts. I never think even once about getting a McFlurry in Chicago.