Dusty sage

On the one hand, certain small but important accomplishments are occurring in my life, signifying responsibility. Most of my wanty-ness is directed towards the house (read: expensive!), so I am striving to eat in more, meaning I have to prepare food more often. Tonight's menu: "cream stew."

On the other hand, the old wanty in me still lives.

I saw a woman at the Fullerton train stop wearing a sparkling gold version of these. I initially wanted those until I came across them in "dusty sage" at J. Crew. What a name. This is a variation of the color I've been obsessed with for the past year, so they were a must. Thankfully, they don't make my legs look like daikon, like Keds did. Wow, that was horrific!

Stolen images

I'm not sure what the law exactly states in Japan, but I believe that I was somewhat unlawful by taking these pictures above, and I continue to be so as I post these onto a public blog. In Japan, all cell phones, including iPhones, are rigged so that you can't turn the shutter sound off when you take a picture. The phones always makes a distinct sound, like a photo is being taken with an SLR. So everyone was surprised that I could turn the camera sound off on my phone when I put it on silent. I took advantage of this discrepancy and snapped away, though not up girls' skirts' or whatever the male equivalent would be, which is what the law and the pre-rigging of phones are meant to prevent. (At one point I refrained from taking a picture of a cute but very young girl holding a stuffed angry Pokemon about a third of her size. It was a great image, so it was hard to resist but I did.)

We have here a female eki-in, or station master, at Yokohama station for the Keikyu line. Maybe she's not exactly the master, but that's a cool title to aim for. Then there's a surgeon, who operated on a close family friend's father. Though he looked oompa loompa-ish, he was totally on top of things. And then it turned out that "elevator girls" still exist! The department store Sogo apparently cannot afford them, but eternal rival Takashimaya can. They should look into recruiting "elevator boys."

Things, places

Food displays

Japan

After settling down in our new home and inaugurating it with Joe's drunken antics, I left for Japan again. I got back on Sunday and it is only through miracles that my schedule is not a hot mess. For the past two nights, I've become unfunctionally sleepy around 8PM, make it to about 10PM, and then fall asleep until my phone alarm goes off around 7:15 the next morning. To be jetlagged for me is to live on a normal schedule. Who knew mornings could be so useful?

I love Japan so much. Sometimes I think that I can live without going to Japan for a while, especially with my own home here in Chicago. But then I talk to my grandma until the sun is about to come up (this is an easy accomplishment when your grandmother is mine), I blend in with everyone else everywhere, I take the JR and subway trains, I buy Japanese clothes, I use Japanese cosmetics, and I nearly cry tears of joy when I eat Toraya sweets or Katsuretsuan's katsu bento, and I realize that I can't live without going to Japan at least once a year. I used to try to think of ways to find some way to partially work in Japan so I can come up with a legitimate excuse to be there frequently, but I've given up on trying to create a reason because I already have them. Just as much as Chicago is my life, Yokohama is my life too!

I brought my Rebel and G9 with me to Japan, but I made very little use of them. Instead, I used my iPhone to take pictures. Since Apple updated the camera, the pictures are not as shameful as they used to be. I'm going to try to update with some of those photos, and maybe I'll throw in some May photos as well.