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.

Keipop Econ 101

I've actually made attempts to understand the financial crisis. My knowledge of the situation has not increased at all, but I am now more familiar with the vocabulary involved: mortgages, credit, stocks, government regulation, $700 billion bailout plan, taxpayers, etc. Note that this is coming from someone who's step zero was to realize that Fannie Mae is not the same thing as Fannie May. I justify this initial confusion by noting that the candy company had some financial problems in the past couple of years or so. So goes my-style economics, 101.

The problem with finances for me is that I like to see my money in one place. I don't like borrowing it, I don't like thinking about interest rates, and I don't like credit cards. Basically, I don't want to step outside the world of addition, subtraction, and positive numbers. The Porok in me lives on strong!

But now, I figure, I should move away from this financial primitivism. This will help me understand more complicated monetary ideas that are important in the life of a typical upstanding citizen. However, that entails acting against my motto, which is this blog's theme, however thin it is: the preservation of youth. Still, I'm not against mental exercises, so I decided to start with the more thoughtful money management of all the frivolous things I currently covet.

Under my financial adviser Mordecai, I have taken the things I want now, and tried to rationalize and prioritize potential purchases. Generally, the goal is to satisfy "wantiness" and minimize spending. In other words, how do we satisfy "wanty" Kei while also reducing Mordecai's criticisms of Kei's overdesiring and overspending? (I just realized the personifcation of the objective.) So for every item I want, I ask myself, "On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being 'meh' and 10 being 'omgmusthavenow,' how bad do I want the thing?" This number is the "desire magnitude." Next, I need to know how long in days I've wanted the item, the "desire duration." And finally, a column for the price.

The "desire duration" shouldn't be weighted as much as the "desire magnitude" because as the days go by, this number will always increase. The magnitude is very important but stays about the same over time, or averages to whatever the start magnitude was (this is generally true at least for me). So the duration is divided by 4 (more or less arbitrarily chosen), and added to the magnitude. The sum is divided by the price, and the total multiplied by 100 to work with whole numbers. This results in the "purchase potential." So, you can see which items can be justifiably purchased and which items to put on hold for further deliberation.

This might seem like a lot of work with results that ultimately match pre-calculated intuitions, but it's not and it's also nice to have a systematic process for all the small things that add up. I could go into other ramifications of the methodology, but I'll stop here. Comments and suggestions for improvement are invited. For now, what to do with these preliminary results...

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Related articles:
FAQ on Lehman and AIG, NYT Freakonomics 9/18/08
"Money Disorder," NYT Fashion & Style, 9/24/08 (at least see the ending quote)

Bag Voyeurism

A number of people have responded to my request to show the contents of their bags: Wesley, Mordecai (unearthed the blog!), Jenni (second comment), Richard, and Phoebe (I am glad our bond continues with shiny bags and eyeliners). I don't know what this amounts to or if we can make anything of these posts, but I like to know these quotidian facts about people (and share my own), especially if I regularly read their blogs (and if people read mine). How I wish I could ask happy blog to show us the contents of her bag, though she already lets us into a good part of her life with her constant updates and photos.

The contents of my soul

Sometime last year (I can't find the post), I mentioned that I was going to disclose the contents of my bag on a random day. In Japanese Seventeen magazines, models are asked to show their personal bags and what's inside them. I've also seen this on a TV show in Japan, where the host looks at guests' cell phones, planners, wallets, and how much cash they're carrying at that moment.

Lately I've seen "fashion bloggers" do this voluntarily. Unlike Seventeen and this Japanese show, the bloggers neatly lay out the contents on a nice background to make things easier to see. But also unlike the Japanese predecessors, they don't really talk about their stuff. I've taken my inspiration for this post from both sources.

I have many bags, and I can never really stick to one. Lately, I've been using this one I bought in Japan this past summer, though it is by golfer Arnold Palmer. He has a line of cute, kind of preppy-but-fun line for young women called Arnie, which I have never seen in the States. I think this line is good especially in the summer--imagine sipping lemonade+iced tea+vodka cocktails, lazily playing golf, hanging out at beach resorts. Arnie has everything you're imagining wearing in such a world.

Here are the contents, minus the camera. From the bottom left, readings: David Lewis on subsistence, James Tully on democracy, and Robert Almeder on the evidence for life after death (!!!). My Moleskine notebook I've had since graduating college; clearly, I don't use it that much. On it are my pen and chapsticks. Below the notebook are three acorns from a Studio Ghibli store in Yokohama--if you recall, I was obsessed with acorns last fall, and this summer I finally got my hand on some Japanese-style ones. My iPod, water bottle, keys, and a pack of tissue I got for free in Japan (they hand them out as advertisements). Above that is my Domo-Kun makeup case, the contents of which will be unveiled below. My wallet is by Hobo International. Oh, there's only $1.09 in change and a yen in there. My phone is the pink Chocolate by LG for which Hilary Duff briefly advertised two years ago. And then my shopping acquisitions for today: Judas Priest-y earrings from Forever 21 and pyramid studded bracelet from Brooklyn Industries.

I used to be quite minimal about makeup (I lived by only Hard Candy's Galaxy eyeliner and Max Factor mascara for seven years), but the contents of my cases are growing.

From the left: I use Covergirl Volume Exact waterproof mascara, advertised by Queen Latifah. When I'm lazy, I use Visée liquid eyeliner, advertised by Koda Kumi. Next to that is my eyebrow pencil. I reluctantly use this crappy Aveeno chapstick when I have no others. When I have time, I use Shiseido eyeliner that comes in cream form in a pot with a little tough brush applicator. It was recommended to me by the lady at Shiseido, and I love it. Next is my Visée eyeshadow, also advertised by Koda Kumi. The last item in that row is my foundation, from the "d" line at Shiseido. I also asked the Shiseido lady for help with foundation, and she came up with this light powder foundation, good for beginners. Actually, I think I just loved the Shisedo ladies because they were so nice and didn't try to make me buy unnecessary crap. And then the bottom row: eyelash curler, eye drops, Claritin, and pins from Claire's.

This is much lengthier than I thought it would be. Anyway, I invite others to unveil the contents of their bags, purses, satchels, man-purses, and so on (makeup case optional): Mordecai, Kira, Richard, Joe, Wesley, Phoebe, Jenni, and/or anyone else reading this?