90210 v.2

North Avenue Beach on Labor Day; click on photo to see item in sky

So the new "90210" premiered last night around midnight in Chicago thanks to WGN (CW) owning the Cubs, who took their sweet time losing to the Phillies. Basically, I have been waiting for the 90's to be revived since the 90's ended. Last night I heard "Rhythm is a Dancer" by Snap! in a mix on the radio and was brought back to my childhood of naiveté, however briefly, as the song was mixed out quickly and replaced by something that was not Technotronic or something equally awesome.

But basically, WOW: Kelly has cankles; Brenda's arms are huge; the Peach Pit is crazy; Annie looks like a cross between Aunt Becky and Eva Mendes; Ethan looks like Mordecai's friend from back home; Dixon looks like Chris Brown; no one cares about the principal's boring bastard child backstory; on that note, I miss Jim but not Cindy Walsh; Silver looks like a girl from my Paris program; she wears lots of American Apparel and now I must have those items; what is going on with the newscaster girl with the hyphenated last name containing "Zuckerman"; Naomi seems to be a cross between Kelly and Donna in that Kelly was rich and popular while Donna was ugly with crazy hair; Naomi also reminds me of Jessie Spano of "Saved By the Bell"; Mordecai is calling incest; and who is Kelly's baby daddy???

Yummy

Richard's latest post has reminded me of this very post-worthy breakfast I had last Sunday. While Jenni stayed with us, she kindly made blueberry pancakes, some shaped like a mouse or panda, depending on your view, and others in various island forms. This picture is also an ode to happy blog, who always has amazing food-related posts. I hope she adjusts well in terms of nourishment; I just find it difficult to imagine that Canada has better food than Japan.

Moo

My dad claims that when I was a kid, my favorite part of the Lincoln Park Zoo was the cow-milking demonstration. Jenni and I went to the zoo last week (has anyone else heard of fries shaped like animals, or did I just make them up???) and we happened to enter the barn as they were wrapping up the milking demonstration. It is generally kind of gross, but I used to drink a lot of milk when I was young so I guess I appreciated this procedure back then. What young child pays attention to giant cow nipples changing sizes and being rubbed with vaseline-like balm anyway?

UPDATE: "Who is this man? この人誰？" MYSTERY RESOLVED

Left: My photo
Right: From Mizuno

Earlier this month I posted a picture of a man at Narita Airport, unaware of his identity. It turns out that he is not a K-1 or MMA fighter like I guessed, but an OLYMPIC SWIMMER. I was perusing Japanese medals and didn't recognize the swimmer Matsuda Takeshi, so I clicked on his profile. I didn't match him as the guy at the airport immediately, but Mordecai did, pointing to the birthmark on his left cheek. It turns out he swam against Michael Phelps the other night in the 200-meter butterfly (not the 100-meter butterfly where Phelps barely won to the Serbian guy) and won the bronze medal. We're the same age! Even Perez Hilton dropped his name in a Michael Phelps post! He's an Olympian medalist! He's my new favorite Olympian swimmer! WOW!

Argo Shmargo

I just accidentally took someone else's large iced maté laté even though I ordered a small :D

Homage to Yokohama Baystars Cheerleaders

We went to a Yokohama Baystars vs. Tokyo Giants game and sat in the bleacher seats. There is no point in going to a Japanese baseball game unless you sit in the bleachers! All the action is where the cheerleaders (ouendan) are--they tell you who you're cheering for, what to cheer, and how to cheer (the rhythm can be tricky; there are different cheers for various players and even moments during the game). These boys/men are all very passionate about cheering, and what they do is not insignificant--the cheering can be heard distinctly on TV, so if there is no guided cheering, the team and its fans look half-hearted and pathetic to everyone in the stadium and watching at home. They're like orchestra conductors! (See video below.)

And then there is this weirdo, who is apparently always present at Baystars games. He wanders around all of the stands on the Baystars side, always wears his sunglasses, and always carries a hand-made sign with weird messages. This one says something about not throwing stuff into the field even if you are angry...or something.

And here is a video of the bad-knee cheerleader guiding us into a victorious cheer for...Yoshimura? They seem to have a nickname for him. I can clap along but I never say anything because I don't know what to say, except that if I had a male child to raise in Japan, I'd encourage him to become of these guys! But maybe he wouldn't want to cheer for the weakest team in all of Japan, with the sorriest record ever? がんばれ横浜！

Watermelons of the Future

Top left: pyramid shape
Top right: 3-D trapezoidal & square shapes
Bottom left: Heart shape
Bottom right: Godzilla's egg shape

At the Yokohama Station (west exit) next to the entrance to Takashimaya, there is a fancy fruit store where years ago I witnessed the famed square watermelon in person. Supposedly they were made to fit neatly into refrigerators, but what you gain in efficiency, you lose in taste. Now they're just messing around with watermelon DNA. Maybe one day we will see human-shaped watermelon? It'll be like Anpanman, wandering around searching for hungry children and offering a piece of his head to stave off hunger.

Who is this man? この人誰？

On July 17, I took this photo from the bus taking Mordecai and me from Narita to Yokohama. I noticed journalistic frenzy surrounding a relatively built man; I figure he is an athlete of some sort, but because you can't enter images or objects into Google yet, I have no idea who he is. Maybe he's related to K-1, MMA, fighting stuff? He's got that look in his eyes, and either a scar or birthmark near his left eye. Or maybe he's just a famous sailor/seaman?

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.

Baikin Clothes

I saw the movie “The Magic Hour” (pronounced "Za Majikku Awaa") today. I even bought caramel popcorn (pickled-plum-with-something-green flavor was sold out), which came in a little bucket in a plastic bag. I guess to make sure you don’t spill? And then when you leave the theater you put your garbage neatly on a tray, which all gets taken care of by a theater employee. The popcorn was lightly flavored, and might as well not be labeled “caramel” given Garrett’s signature flavor. Anyway my outfit colors were purple, black and gray, inspired by none other than Baikinman, who I posted earlier. It's funny how I hated purple until very recently.

Pedometer Purchase

Jenni introduced me to this random Japanese girl’s blog. She appears to be Japanese, but writes all her posts in near-impeccable English. My hypothesis is that she’s studying at maybe Aoyama Gakuin in Shibuya to translate in the future, so the blog is her personal language exercise. A while back she wrote about how she got a pedometer and how she walks a lot around in Tokyo. Inspired, I bought a pedometer at Yodobashi Camera the other day. It counts how many steps I take, and apparently it also tells me how many kilocalories I burn as a result of my walking. I wanted it to record and confirm that I walk a lot more in Japan than in Chicago, and by how much. Also, it’s to replace the Pikachu pedometer I once had my freshman year of high school, which ended up on the CTA train tracks. The blame went to Vinh, who was borrowing it for some reason, but it turned out the person who actually caused it to end up on the tracks was none other than Nik. If I complain, I’ll look like the asshole, so let me leave it at this: Pedometer Pikachu lived a fulfilling life and died a brave, noble death.

Anyway, I walk a lot—I usually exceed 10,000 steps, which may sound like nonsense to most people who never even think about how many steps they take in a day. But the other day, I surpassed 20,000 steps, and my feet died. But it turns out meandering doesn’t burn many calories, especially if you stop for a McFlurry and a dorayaki back to back and come home before dinner completely full :D

Caramel Corn Bath

You can enjoy Caramel Corn in bath form. They are adamant about not eating the bath salts or drinking the bath water mixed with the salts.

I'm glad I took this picture and not a picture of the salts mixed in. It looks like a pool of urine, basically, though it smells like milky caramel. Either you get used to the smell or it's not too overwhelming. I imagine the latter to be the case so as to reduce the temptation of consuming the bath water. Now I'm both afraid and curious about the chocolate bath salts I saw at the same store.

Jeromey-rome!

I wanted to take a picture of the famous crosswalk at Shibuya facing the Hachiko Statue. And then Jero had to get all up in my photo. Good timing!

Peter Rabbit in Japan

Generally speaking, Isezakicho is a kind of odd place. The first strange thing there that comes to mind is the Snake Store, where they sell strange medicines made from snakes. There's a sign on the door that says to only enter if you are making serious purchases; it's intimidating enough to make you reconsider entering to gawk and then pretending like you didn't find what you were looking for and leaving without saying anything. The other strange sighting I have yet to see but have heard about is our family priest roaming about, lonely and drunk. The other day, I saw this man with his rabbit on a leash. Naturally, people stare and comment on how "kawaii" it is, but it looked really anxious and displaced to me.

Fauchon in Japan

Apparently in the U.S. there are only four places where you can enjoy Fauchon delicacies. Three of them are not surprisngly in Manhattan, and the fourth one is surprisingly in Dallas, Texas. In Paris I was too intimidated and too poor to enjoy Fauchon products; plus I was incredibly satisfied with local bakeries' pastry choices anyway. But Fauchon in Japan? This is just plain destiny.

Internet and Hot Dogs

Marron & Sakura

I'm experiencing a sudden burst of internet availability FROM MY OWN LAPTOP at my uncle's. What a fine feeling, to return to my own bookmarks, to use Adium, to download profusely from Jpopsuki to save money so I don't waste lots of money on CDs at HMV, to randomly Google random things on Google.COM and not .co.jp. The list is both endless and frivolous.

Childhood Friend

I grew up with Anpanman (Sweet Bean Bread Man?) and his archnemesis, Baikinman (Germ/Mold Man?; above). Ironically, he appears to be advertising for vacuum cleaners at Yodobashi Camera.

Macaroon Dialogue

Man in Blue: What are these giant things blooming on this tree? I thought this was a blue flower tree.
Man in Green: These are the tastiest macaroons Kei has had so far in Japan, from Yoku Moku. Apparently, the size and textures are perfect and they all taste magnificent.
Man in Blue: They will crush us if they fall.
Man in Green: We will die a sweet death.
Man in Blue: Why are we floating?
Man in Green: Perhaps we are already dead and are in Macaroon Heaven.

---

It is obnoxiously smokey in this internet cafe, the employees are awkward, and I overpaid 100 yen for the time I will end up spending here. Grumblegrumblegrumble.

Chanel Mobile Art

Another day in Tokyo, another day of waiting in line. It's like I'm in Disneyland. Naomi accompanied me to see the Chanel Mobile Art exhibition at the Yoyogi park in Harajuku. Entry is free, but you have to reserve tickets for an exact date and time. They were sold out for the entire time the exhibit is here at Family Mart (convenience store), and apparently the line for this weekend's tickets at the box office started forming at 8AM so it was totally impossible to get any when we arrived at 11AM. We ended up waiting in line to enter the exhibit that day, which we were told was possible because there are often no-shows. But it was well well well worth the one and a half hour wait!

You enter through the cave-like part, and exit where the woman is standing by the slick glass doors. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the structure is basically a mobile art museum with Chanel-bag-related contributions from various artists. It moves from city to city—it started in Hong Kong, came here in May, will move on to New York in September, and then I think it goes to Paris. When you enter, you get an audio guide that helps you navigate the building and the works of art. The woman’s voice who guides you sounds like the old lady at Margie’s—for those of you who don’t know her, she’s a crabby old lady who takes ice cream orders inefficiently and sounds like she’s been smoking since birth. Anyway, it was a cool interactive guide with nice music and direction. Before you leave, you get a gigantic, unstapled (wtf?) magazine that includes artist information, interviews with Karl Lagerfeld and Zaha Hadid, and other random cool stuff.

I should've checked to see if my camera has a panoramic option. I highly recommend seeing this exhibit if possible. Long live Uncle Karl!

Speaking of waiting in line for donuts...

On Wednesday I went to Shinjuku on a whim, and decided to pick up a box of donuts for Naomi et al on a whim. The wait totaled to about 30-40 minutes. My favorite part was that there was a donut guard (top right), who administered the line. I wonder how much he gets paid and if he gets stressed out. Like back at home, they give you a free donut while you wait in line (bottom left); it tasted the same. You can see them making the donuts, just like at the Krispy Kreme out in Rosemont (does it still exist?). I'm not sure if they discard the disfigured and failed ones that flip over and get sugar coating on the wrong side in Tokyo too.

Pon de Awesome

Mister Donuts is so awesome. Their “Pon de Ring” donuts are soft and chewy, like donuts + mochi = Pon de Ring. It seems they’ve expanded their lineup to include green tea flavored Pon de Ring. To some extent, as gross as it is, I’m reminded of Nik’s cell phone picture he sent me of the results of his St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Sorry—I’m just telling it like it is. People here apparently line up for two hours for Krispy Kreme in Shinjuku; I hope Pon de Ring is as appreciated, even if there are no lines or morning specials on TV for them.

My Neighbor at Totsuka

I first saw this guy the day arrived in Japan, when I was walking from the Totsuka Bus Terminal to a different bus stop. But as of late, around 6PM or 7PM, I’ve been seeing him on my way home from the Totsuka train station. He always has that backpack with a keychain of Canada’s flag, and carries what looks like his dinner for that night. The last time I saw him he was walking along the exact same path I take, and he kept looking back, noticing that I was taking the same route too. To dodge suspicion, I took a less trodden route. Maybe he saw me taking photos so it was too late anyway?!

French Macaroons in Japan

I am in macaroon heaven. They are everywhere--on accessories, in bakeries left and right. So far, Fauchon and Starbucks (above) have the best ones.

McDonald's Japan

Ebi Filet-O

(Filet-O Shrimp)

Chicken Filet-O

(Filet-O Chicken)

To be continued...

Yokohama Subway

I've had a couple of opportunities to use the subway train since arriving. When I went down to the platform the first time, I immediately noticed these barricade thingies, which slide open when the train arrives and its doors open. Being the big awkward American tourist that I can sometimes be, it took me about 24 hours to realize what their real purpose is--preventing suicides. Scary! I'm surprised I figured it out by myself.

The saddest cat in the world

Japan sans Internet

June updates! I'm in Japan but without Interwebs access. It is difficult, but (barely) bearable. I wrote up some posts on Word and prepared images, so I will copy and paste them. See below, as I plan to upload them next according to the date I wrote them. Bye for now!

Tadaaki Wakamatsu Macaroon Necklace

Yesterday I went to Tokyo with Naomi to acquire my macaroon necklace. I found out about this necklace by way of the MoMA store, but at the astute advice of Mordecai, I researched the designer’s name, Tadaaki Wakamatsu, and found that he has a store, Q-Pot, the flagship of which lies hidden in Harajuku. I actually had my mom make an international call before I left to reserve one for me to ensure acquisition.

Without Naomi, I probably would’ve been wandering around for hours looking for the store, which is completely buried among residences and other unremarkable stores, behind the main street, sub-main streets, and sub-sub-main streets. I don’t know if they intend to be secretive so as to enhance exclusivity-ness, or if the rent is cheaper behind all the other stores. Their PVC items seemed significantly cheaper than the other non-PVC, probably special metal products, so I highly recommend the ice cream, banana + whip cream, and macaroon items. They had a lot of wisdom teeth designs, but they were expensive and I most certainly didn’t appreciate the reminder that I need to get mine removed at some point in the probably near future. Apparently there is a lot of similar jewelry for cheap everywhere, including DIY kits, but I went for the MoMA-approved macaroon necklace :D

And then today my grandma and I were out and about at the department stores of the Yokohama station. Many purchases were made, including these little expensive suckers! I got chocolate, peach, and passion fruit macaroons.

Arrival

Umm... chyeah, not sure what happened here but I'll fix it later.

It has been a year and a half since I was last in Japan; it has been approximately seven years since I was last in Japan for two months straight. I haven’t had the leisure to spend a majority of a summer there due to things like “responsibilities” and “financial concerns” but I have jettisoned such worries and embraced extravagance. As per usual, one of my suitcases was almost filled entirely with stuff for my grandma—Jell-O, bagels, cream cheese, Cheetos, organic things from Whole Foods, dried fruit, nuts, JC Penny underwear, and so on.

Riddle

I recently made some Target purchases online. I intended to purchase the item on the right, the Rogan for Target jumper, but because shipping was free for orders above $50, I got the tie on the left for Mordecai as a graduation gift. The jumper shipped first, and the next day, the tie shipped. But how is it that I get the tie first, which came from Minneapolis, while the jumper came from Illinois but got here after the tie? And why did the tie come in this giant box, while the jumper comes all folded up in a bubbled envelope?

Catch!

Who would've thought, there are pictures of me being active. Actually, these were taken after I took a nap while Mordecai and Kota threw the ball around. At least I don't throw like Mariah Carey (video of her pitch at 00:21 here).

Film Location

They seem to be filming "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Logan Square. My mom told me that they had been filming at the Uptown National Bank, and when we saw "No Parking -- Filming" signs up in our neighborhood, I thought it might be the same movie. Mordecai got confirmation from a police officer patrolling Schubert and Francisco, a block away from our apartment. I guess if you put one of these old school vehicle in front of a nice greystone, you get a 1930's scene going on. They should've picked my parents' house! Then again, Francisco has a lot more greystones than Richmond or Whipple.

Security wasn't that tight, I guess because there weren't a lot of people around; it was also pretty chilly today. I think we could've scooted up a little closer to the crew and scene, and actually have seen Mr. Depp's head or something. A giant black Yukon pulled up in the middle of the street while we were lurking, and based on sudden girly screams and camera flashes, I'm guessing he showed his face or something. The Yukon drove right past us, heading towards the boulevard--we were so close to him, if even separated by tinted windows!

Then the old school cars lined up and left. We saw one of them creating traffic on the boulevard, from what seemed like frequent stalling. Mordecai asked the other day, "Where do you think Johnny Depp is staying?" His mother guessed the Drake, his father the Raddison O'Hare, and my guess is the Trump Tower. Or whatever the most European hotel we have in the city--I hear he likes France.

Healed...

...in the sense that I don't need to see the doctor anymore. I think I'm going to start a collection of photos of myself with my doctors--both the medical and academic variety. I have pictures with my college professors, and now my lung and ankle doctors!

Target Bonus

I had been meaning to get some bulletin board-type thing to put up random photos, postcards, and my favorite Onion article ("Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8--Review Calls Ancient Art Form 'Tired'"). I was going to get an actual board instead of these tiles, which I once had in college, but then we noticed something odd.

The "Board Dudes" say their cork tiles come in a "4 Pack."

But look, there are five of them in there! Someone, or something, couldn't quite count right.