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.

Lincoln Park Day

Today we went to the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and the Lincoln Park Zoo. There are no pictures of zoo animals because my camera battery died, but here are some other photos from the other places.

This looks cool, but structurally unsound.

Here is a special duck or waterfowl of some sort. It looks more regal than your average Chicago duck, the speckled brown ones or the green headed ones. When I was little, my mother collected the crusts of breads I would reject, and we'd take them to a pond probably not too far from this one, and feed the ducks.

There were these nice cherry blossoms, so pink they look like they would reek of Fanta Strawberry or something equally artificially sweet.

Tree bark. When my dad first went to Japan with my mother and me, he'd often fall behind everyone because he'd stop to take a gazillion pictures. I remember distinctly one time when he disappeared, and we all stopped to ask where he was. We found him directly up against some random tree, taking close ups of its bark.

Here's another one, but with vertical lines and orangish-brownish colors.

At the Conservatory, I walked out of the Fern Room and the first thing I noticed after taking a breath of fresher-than-Fern-Room-air was this woman's stockings. And then I realized she was painting her nails some gaudy pink color that vaguely matched her equally gaudy, furry top. I think I was both appalled and impressed by her behavior. And then Mordecai pointed out that that bench is dedicated to a Kei Roth.

At this point my camera battery was not going to come back to life even if I rubbed it between my hands, so I was not able to take pictures of: a droopy camel hump; a rhinoceros' behind and its contents unloading; shivering and diving penguins; a regal lion basking in the sun; a jaguar pacing back and forth, licking its lips while eying two ducks outside of its cage thingie; a wonderful tiger peeing and pacing around; and random primates. Too bad!

Diner coffee!

Last Friday was Matt's last day of work. Emily invited me to his last lunch outing, and since Mordecai and I had no other obligations for lunchtime that day, we went down to Hyde Park and joined them. It was good times.

It was very good. I like the little splotches on the cup.

Emily and I ordered the exact same thing.

I miss these folks!

Pro-Grape

Yesterday I decided to personify my favorite flavor of soda and candy: grape. The boots are from the past, around 1998 or so. I'm not sure why I got them, as I had never been a big fan of purple or pseudo-metallic fabric, and only recall wearing them once back then. A decade later, they've returned to my feet, to gather comments, stares, and one classmate wanting to steal them.

In honor of this outfit, Mordecai took me out to Mr. Sub. I got a hot dog, fries, and Grape Crush. I know Mr. Sub doesn't mess around with grape soda. Afterwards we walked around Logan Boulevard to "exercise" (maybe it counts as "physical therapy"?), but only to collect more calories in the form of coffee and chai tea at the Starbucks on California.

I thought of getting Skittles yesterday to count how many grape Skittles there are in a given bag. I really think they're underrepresented, though I don't have an exact theory of why yet. Instead, my co-TA gave me a grape Dum-Dum he found on the ground somewhere on campus. It was flagged with a quote from John of the Gospel, and it turned out that it was from the peeps at West Loop UBF. Shout out to UBF! (Hi Abe!)

Tulips

I like tulips. Are they available throughout the summer?

TRAGEDY again

I dunno what happened to the straw, so I cut that area with my teeth.

TRAGEDY

I didn't look at that greenish-yellowish sign on the door to see the details of Doggie Diner's fate. Hopefully it was just a fire and it'll take some time to revive the place, and not a total demise of the home of the world's greatest cheese fries.

Eternally 12 Years Old

Good God.

As an official member of Mariah Carey's fan club, Honey B. Fly, I feel obligated to speak on the matters at hand. Let's begin by assuming that they really did get engaged and married. I'm just sort of annoyed at how irrelevant Nick Cannon is. It seems like this whole relationship is just an extension of her slogan, "I'm eternally 12 years old!" which would be eternally sad. But overall, the 11 year age difference, whether or not they had a pre-nuptial agreement--I don't really care. We all know that Mariah Carey is crazy, and hey, as long as she's not linked to Eminem, I'm OK with everything.

But what I really care about is the ring. Let's give Cannon the benefit of the doubt and say that he didn't give Mimi the leftover ring from his previously failed engagement to a Victoria Secret model. I've read reports that the one Mimi was seen sporting recently is a $2.5 million customized Jacob & Co. pink and white diamond, platinum ring. What I'm pissed about is that I'm just a measly fan--I don't even get out of control at concerts and yell, "THIS IS MY SONG!" and start screaming the lyrics throughout her performance. And yet I know that she's got connections to Van Cleef and Arpels; those ridiculous butterfly rings are customized by VC&A. Surely Mr. Cannon must've know her penchant for Van Queefer and Apple jewelery! That's all I'm mad about. Now we just wait and see what official people officially say about all of this.

More recent purchases

For my birthday, Mordecai's parents generously sent me this nifty gift card from Best Buy:

I had some things that I had been meaning to purchase for a while, and I was able to acquire them all at once. It's pretty sweet to hold multiple things in your hands, not having to decide which to sacrifice for a later time.

From left, I got Marie Antoinette; The Police, "The Police"; Lost in Translation; Michael Jackson, "Thriller" (25th Anniversary, Deluxe Edition). My interest in the Police has significantly increased since singing "Next to You" and "Synchronicity II" in Rock Band, so I got some massive Best-Of compilation. And my favorite song by Michael is "Beat It," so I figured if I were to buy my first MJ album it oughta be "Thriller." I like the shiny, holographic cover, and splurged on this edition because it contains an extensive little booklet that may or may not be worth the extra $10. If not, I guess the translucent paper is worth it. Also, the DVD is a little transparent, which is pretty awesome (but the DVD is included in the non-deluxe edition; I'm not sure if that non-deluxe DVD is also sheer-like).

I've seen both Sofia Copolla's movies here, but I hadn't seen them since the theater releases long ago. I'm looking forward to the scenes featuring macaroons in Marie Antoinette. As for Lost In Translation, I've always had mixed feelings about it, and I still do after seeing it again at home. There are many questionable moments that render parts of the movie uninteresting, even bordering on offensive. But I'm always eager to see images of Japan, especially of areas that I have been to, like Shibuya, or of people I've seen on TV who I love, like Matthew Minami (a.k.a. Fujii Takashi). I think the movie was made with the right intentions, even if some of them slipped through the cracks. Overall, I have to say the movie makes me excited for my summer vacation in Japan.