pinku

End of hanami - beginning of spring!!!

It's the end of hanami season in Tokyo. Parties have been going on at parks all over Tokyo the past two weeks. Our very own park was once again this year very spectacular. This was Jake's first hanami and we took him on the boats!!

I love how Japan really celebrates the cherry blossoms. It's kind of crazy. There are sakura-themed everything - including disposable nappies....of course we use that brand!!

With all this sunny weather, Jake has now been able to get some use out of his baby banz. Darin reckons he looks like a member of Duran Duran.

And in other exciting news, Jake is obsessed with dogs and our guinea pigs. They could keep him entertained for hours. He had his first close up dog experience yesterday. It went very well and luckily Jake didn't pull on his fur like he pulls on mama's hair.

Tokyo is SO hot!

Yep I love summer but 35 degrees everyday for three weeks will test the resolve of most. As soon as the sun goes down, it's lovely but while it's up it's draining. Our pigs hate the summer way more than us. They eat less and they limit their movement. Here is a picture of Loretta and Sugar cuddled up to a cold pack that we keep in their house. They rarely leave their cooled down tiled area and they even have their own personal pig fan.

Their favourite summer fruits are nashi and watermelon - much the same as me but I also love peaches.

Whoppers are back!!!

It doesn't take much to excite me these days.

Burger King is back in Japan after pulling out of the Japanese market in 2001 and their first store in Tokyo opened in Shinjuku this morning. The store can be found at the Shinjuku I-land building which is directly connected to Nishi-Shinjuku station on the Marunouchi subway line. Mmmmm.....whoppers.

Meeting Barry

Thanks everyone for your baby congratulations! We are both really excited and anxious at the same time. While I was in Australia I had my 19 week ultrasound and I found out the sex of the baby. We really didn't mind either way as ALL we want is a healthy baby to bring home in October. Seriously that's all we want. BTW, Dudley really is a boy!! I totally thought it would be a boy and the Chinese Gender Calendar told me it is a boy too. I've felt our little thrasher kicking since about 18 weeks and that is truly an amazing feeling.

I have plenty to say about being pregnant in general, being pregnant in Japan, planning to give birth in Japan as a western woman, and the too cute Japanese baby clothes that I so far have been able to resist. So there'll be lots of those kinds of posts coming up.

In the meantime, I'll share a really fun experience we had last weekend. Darin and I went to see graffiti artist, Barry 'Twist' McGee talk at the Watarium as a part of the opening of his new exhibition.

The talk was entertaining and educational. Barry talked while doing a slide show containing pics of graffiti from the 80s and 90s located in SF, NY and Brazil. There was a Japanese interpreter there but there were a number of times when I wanted to get up and help him out. Especially when Barry was trying to convey his feelings of distaste for corporate advertising.

After Barry's talk, the Japanese boss manager type guy told everyone not to bother Barry after the show and ask for autographs as he had been working for 48 hours straight. So we stuck around when most people just left and as we thought about leaving I saw a bunch of people gathering around Barry so I told Darin he should give him some of his new stickers. So we went up and Darin gave him some stickers which he really seemed to like and then I asked to take a photo with him and he was more than happy to oblige. Did you know Barry is half Chinese like me!!

And I only had my ticket stub on me so I asked him to sign that too!! Sweet! Darin has already framed it.

The rest of our photos are up on the Juxtapoz blog so check them out!!!!

Cupcake update!

Whilst most of you are probably watching the Oscars or doing everything possible to avoid watching the Oscars, I'm at work - it's Monday morning.....ughh.

In exciting news, I just got a call from Rae to tell me she had spotted cupcakes at Dean & Deluca in Shibuya (thanks Rae!!). I will go and check out what's available at the D&D near my work during lunchtime.

I welcome any more cupcake spottings around Tokyo!!!!

Cu

Something for the ladies...and guys?

I've been meaning to post this photo for a while and considering it's a Friday you all deserve a treat!!

Family version of a photo of Darin and Tyler at the men's rotenburo at Maguse Onsen in Nagano. You actually couldn't really see anything except for a bit of flank. You might be able to see something if you look really closely at the guy actually in the hot springs!!

An amazing view that's for sure. Darin tells me that his view in this photo was even more amazing. Please note an old Japanese guy offered to take this photo of Darin and Tyler and he was also naked and kinda squatting when taking the photo. TMI?

On a completely unrelated topic, there is a yarn sale on at Mitsubaya in Tokyo for all you local knitters. It's basically 20% off all yarn including some Rowan. The sale is on until the end of February. I picked up some tweed regia to make a pair of socks for my host mum in Aomori. I'll be there next weekend. Snow here I come.

Have a great weekend!!

Do you like chunky?

The other thing I wanted to talk about the other day is chunky knits. What do you think about them? Are they just for the skinny models?

I just pre-ordered Wenlan Chia's upcoming book, Twinkle's Big City Knits. There are a few sneak peek photos here.

including this one

I'm also considering cancelling my order. I'm sure the photos and the designs will be super cute (this point may win me over in the end), but how would they look on me? I'm not a petite person as I (unfortunately or fortunately) did not inherit my father's Asian body shape. I love the Kim Hargreaves cardigan I made out of Big Wool, but it teeters on the edge with regards to chunkiness for me. I don't need any extra bulk (even though it is very warm and toasty). I love the idea of quick knits - fun times for sure, but I just don't know about chunky knits. I think the book would be super popular here in Japan where baggy is IN (which is good for me too because their baggy is my fitted).

Speaking of fitted, one up and coming knitting book that I won't be cancelling is Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. I have high hopes for this book and am sure I will be satisfied. I think Steph's designs flatter all types of body shapes and I like the idea of fitted knits.

On a completely unrelated note I found out yesterday that employees from my company get a 20% discount at all Dean and Deluca stores throughout Japan - I think there are only five though. Luckily one is right near my work. The discount still doesn't make lunch there cheap - it just makes it affordable. I was also very strong today and resisted the doughnuts from Doughnut Plant. A great thing about D&D in Japan is that they offer half sizes of all their sandwiches, bagels and quiches, so today I had half a piece of Quiche Lorraine and half of a lox bagel. Yum!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! See you next week!

Birthday Duck

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Lucky for me it was a long weekend (this Monday was also a holiday) so I was able to celebrate for three days and even managed to have a semi-productive day on Monday (I cleaned up my clothes pile!). I've been pushing my birthday FORTNIGHT (why celebrate for one day when you can celebrate for two whole weeks) on Darin for a while. Unfortunately that all comes to an end tomorrow.

On the day of my birthday it was cold and it rained and it rained and it rained. I had plenty of plans but they all got thrown to the wayside and we ended up staying at home all day until 6:30. I was treated to coffee and cake in bed and I got the cutest present ever (I've named her teenie) from the best husband ever.Then Martine made my day by bringing over croissants, an awesome birthday present AND a birthday cake!! We sat around and ate and ate and we also watched Pretty Woman - the Director's cut (personally I couldn't tell the difference). So as you can see I had a great day regardless of the cold mean weather (especially when I usually celebrate my birthday in the middle of summer).

my cake (thanks again, Martine!)

The food didn't stop there. We headed to a great new Chinese restaurant we discovered recently - Chinese Cafe 8 with some friends. We went to the main branch in Roppongi but there is another one is Ebisu and one is opening soon in Akasaka. I consider myself a pretty good judge of Chinese food considering my parents have a Chinese restaurant. This place is great: it's open 24 hours, the food is cheap but delicious and their peking duck is devine (3860 yen for a whole bird).

When you order a whole duck, they bring it out to show you before cutting it up. My photo of the whole duck sucked but here is one of the cut up duck.

The decorations in the restaurant are somewhat intriguing. Yes it is what you think it is.

The company was also fantastic! Daz the mountain man - seriously he's made out of mountains.

C&J.

Ty, Sachi and Andrew

But it didn't end there. We ended up checking out another two izakayas before making it home in the wee hours of the morning. It's good to know that I can still party with the best of them :)

I want to write about three new restaurants we have discovered/rediscovered recently but I'll leave that until tomorrow. See you then!!

Our first week back

Has involved catching up with our cute pigs. We missed them terribly. A big thank you to C&J for taking care of them and giving them lots of cuddles.

It also involved our first experience with caviar. A few weeks ago I did a favor for someone at work that was travelling to Azerbaijan on a business trip so he brought me back some Azeri caviar. I was scared of those tiny black eggs even though I've eaten plenty of fish eggs here in Japan.

To make a night out of it, we headed to C&J's place for a Russia themed night and man did we feast - Chicken Kiev, creamy cheesey mushrooms, mashed potatos, champagne, caviar, white russians and all the Russian music you can imagine. So we braced ourselves for the caviar tasting and made sure we had some cream cheese on hand (we heard it complements the taste of the caviar). It turns out that we all LOVE caviar. We are totally prepared for high society.

We also spent time enjoying our park and the autumn leaves. It sucks how they've stopped people having fleamarkets on the weekend by the way. Mitaka city - stop trying to take the impromptu fun out of Inokashira Park!!!

oh and here are my jaywalkers! I finished them with a light pink yarn and they are still cute, cute, cute. Not so mutant like at all.

Knitting Peaches

This year's Knit Out was great - actually it's the first one I've ever been too. It was a bit tiring and nervewracking waiting around to do the talk shows, but heaps of people were there and it was great to see people young and old sitting around knitting!!

The venue - Omotesando Hills

The patterns and yarn that was being given away

There was a knitting performance

Another reason Pinn rules - her awesome Halloween costume!!

there was knit art

And Taeko and I managed to get through two talk shows without any major hiccups. Talking in front of a large crowd in your native language is hard enough, but doing it in your second language is even worse. Except I'm kind of adept at blocking out Japanese (even my own) and ignoring my mistakes. Thanks to Taeko for all of your support!!!

The highlight of the day though, without a doubt was PEACHES and the HERMS! As soon as I finished my second talk show, Daz and I ran to the train station so we could get to the venue on time. The show was due to start at 6pm and it really did start right on six with no support bands (good ol' Japan). It was so weird to be watching the crazy powerful, energetic, rauchy band at 6pm in the evening (I think they were slightly weirded out by it too). We got out of there by 7:15pm - crazy. I found out we weren't supposed to take photos when one of the staff grabbed at my camera but luckily he didn't make me delete the photos I had already taken. Peaches did all of her costume changes on stage - she'd just rip off one layer after another and then add some awesome capes.

Right at the end of the show, Peaches and Radio Sloan spat out some red (blood-like) liquid into the crowd - when they turned the lights on at the end the young Japanese girl in front of me turned around and looked at me completely horrified that her clothes were now covered in red stains - I just reassured her that it would come out in the wash.

And Darin even made some new friends after the show.

Everything is peachy

Life is getting busy. With less than three weeks before we leave for the US, our schedule is packed in such a great way.

Things kick off this Saturday with Clover's annual Knit Out - the event was held at Roppongi Hills last year and it has been planned a little differently this year with lots of mini knit outs in cafes around Harajuku/Omotesando/Aoyama. The main session of the knit out will be happening this Saturday October 28 (12:30pm - 8pm) and Sunday October 29 (11am - 8pm) in the basement of Omotesando Hills. Come and knit!!! As a side note, both Taeko and myself will be participating in a talk show on Saturday, where we'll talk about the Tokyo SNB and Taeko's other crafty group - Shibuya Shugeibu. It's a little bit nervewracking.

Then that night we are heading to see Peaches at Unit in Ebisu.

On Sunday to celebrate the visit of my friend Amanda, who's on her way back to Australia from Copenhagen, we are going to search for an outdoor onsen with views of pretty red leaves.

At the beginning of November there is even more excitement with more visitors - I'm finally getting to meet Mariko and Kelly who will be visiting on official Superbuzzy business.

In Jaywalker sock news, I decided to take Stephanie's advice and finished the second sock in um....a totally different sock yarn. It is certainly now a mutant sock. Photos to come!

OOH and Jen of Moving Hands, one of the original founders of the Tokyo SNB and mother of two has started blogging again, as has Joy of Dynamite Knits who now lives in beautiful Hawaii (so jealous...) - YAHOO! Nice to have you back ladies.

Oh and in piggie news, we've decided that Loretta is our teen pig. She's rambunctious and rebellious and just a little bit crazy. She talks constantly, picks fights with Sugar and headbutts her dish in the morning...sometimes at night too. Darin created this photo just for her. You get the idea.

Lip them! Lip them off!

Some things just make me happy like this cutey cute mini pouch/coin purse (zip in top) which I purchased today from one of my favourite crafters/artists here in Tokyo. (sorry about the crap keitai photo)

And then some things make me sad like this sorry state of affairs:

Stephanie was sweet enough to gift me with some beautiful Socks That Rock yarn back when she visited Japan last year. I finally got around to knitting up some socks and decided that Jaywalkers they had to be. And embarassingly enough, even after reading the most helpful of websites and being the millionth person to knit these socks, I ran out of yarn. I wasn't even close to finishing the 2nd foot and to be honest I kind of knew when starting the 2nd sock that this would happen. It was kind of like when you are in a bad relationship and you know you should end it, but you want it so bad that you delude yourself into thinking things will work out until they come to a full stop (as shown in the picture). Um yeah, so anyway...

I was thinking of ripping back the toe of the first sock and using that yarn to finish up to the toe of the 2nd sock and then using another colour to knit the toe, but I think I'm just gonna rip the entire first sock and reknit it with a shorter leg. To be honest they are a super quick knit, but it's still pretty depressing.

But moving onto more exciting and happy news, we're more than likely going to the USA for Thanksgiving (my first real one) - woohoo! I'll finally get to meet the talented Erin, one of the organizers of the fabulous Girlie Show in Oklahoma City. If you are nearby OKC this Friday and Saturday be sure to check it out!

I have more to write, but I'll leave it there for today. I have a tendancy to write about seven posts in one. It's just that I have so much information to share with y'all. Oh and did I mention that I cracked and purchased a kit from here!!! Nearly finished it actually!!

In My Life

What a great weekend - summer is FINALLY here and we enjoyed a perfect day yesterday here in Kichijoji. I FINALLY got around to documenting a day in my life for Leslie's In My Life flickr group. Actually I kept forgetting to take photos all day, but we did manage to capture most of the fun.

Morning with our piggies

Noon at the kiddy pool/fountain

Afternoon with my good friend Bree

Evening eating the best summer dessert ever - kakigori (shaved ice with condensed milk)

You can see the rest of our photos from yesterday HERE!!! Hope you all had a good one!

Wowza

Whatta weekend! Here's the breakdown:

Friday night: Through the wonderful Glitter community of which Pinn is a regular member, we met up with another Glitter member, Jenny Hart (of Sublime Stitching fame) and her buddy, Stephanie!! This was their first trip to Japan and they were keen to experience Japanese karaoke - we were more than willing to oblige.

Also want to add a congrats to Jenny on being one of the winners of Fred Flare's Next Big Thing contest AND also to Pinn on her second published design - Blosson on Knitty!!!

Here's a cute pic of Pinn and her husband, Seimi before the karaoke madness began:

Um, here we all are in the karaoke room (except daz who is taking the photo) before they delivered the pitchers of beer. We are all still looking respectable at this point.

Darin rocking the mic:

And by this next photo, the beer had clearly worked its magic:

It was a great night (which I paid for heavily the next day!!). See you ladies in Austin in a few months!!

And on to Saturday we go. It rained all day Saturday. Our friends from Tiny Cafe had put a lot of hard work into organizing an outdoor music festival to be held in Akiruno - out near Ome in Tokyo.

Here's a manhole cover in Akiruno - it's for you Martine!!

While nursing karaoke hangovers we head out to the Nutrian festival (named after the animal known as the nutria). The only time it didn't rain was during our 20 minute walk from the station to the festival - lucky us. The green of Akiruno immediately eased my hangover pain.

Hard to believe that this is officially still Tokyo!!

My favourite thing about the festival were these smiley fried potato things - they really made me want to smile!

See they really work!

This is a crap photo of a fun Japanese girl band that traditional style music

The party went on well into the night in the mud and rain. Thanks hisari and oi for all of your hard work!

And finally we come to Sunday! The perfect way to spend a Sunday is at a rooftop bbq in Kichijoji. The weather was pretty miserable Sunday morning but the sun came out in the afternoon to cheer all of us up.

click to view larger version of the panorama

Socks and babies

On the Saturday before last, I excitedly received my SockapalOOOza socks from Kathryn in Canada (who has the cutest pitbull, Bogey). Unfortunately I'm an essentially lazy person and didn't email her straightaway to say thanks. Sorry Kathryn! She was worried that I didn't like them, but she couldn't be further from the truth. I love my new socks and actually wore them to Costco the day after they arrived. Here they are in all their pink glory. Perfect for me, huh!

Thanks Kathryn!

Also on the weekend, Daz and I went to a combined birthday party for three one-year olds in Shinjuku gyoen. It was definitely a first for me - there were strollers everywhere.

Here's Nico, Lucy and Aiden with their mums/dads - please take a look at the amazing banana duck birthday cake that Jo made! She's a genius. I won't mention the fact that I was the one that kept asking her when we could eat it and the fact that I was the first to devour a banana cup cake, or the fact that as we were leaving Paul told me that there was yellow icing on my forehead. Shameful!

I personally think Nico will be famous one day. I mean how many one year olds can say they've sat in a Paris Hilton Bag signed by both Paris and Nicky themselves. He doesn't look very happy about it though!!

Hobbies and Hot Dogs

Last Saturday Pinn and I made our way out to Odaiba to attend Japan's largest Hobby Show. It was rainy and cold outside, but luckily there was lots of fun crafty stuff inside to keep us warm. The Hobby Show was on for three days, but I could only make it on the Saturday because of work, so unfortunately I missed out on the Prince's talk show. However we did make it in time to see a talk show with Tomoko Takamori - Japan's leading amigurumi artist - and man, is she cute!

That's her on the right! Cute dress and cute shoes.

We were introduced to Takamori-san later by my friend from Nihon-Vogue and even though we talked about her visiting the Tokyo S+B, I didn't think that she would come to our next meeting three days later. Of course I didn't have my camera with me. Dumb. I am going to do an interview with Takamori-san though - the interview will appear on my new Japanese craft site...which will hopefully be up soon!!

Here's Pinn looking super cute in her handmade beret and capelet. We were lucky enough to receive a free bento lunch from my friend - yay!

I actually don't have many photos from the Hobby Show as photography was not exactly allowed. Here's the three other photos I took.

Um, I think this one needs no explanation.

And here's Rira-kuma (relax bear). You could have a polaroid taken with Rira-kuma so I went to line up, but they told me I needed some silly special ticket.....I was so sad.

But the excitement does not end there. The next day Daz and I head off to Costco for the first time. We had fun because everything was BIG.

I made French toast for breakfast with blueberries and stewed apples with walnuts and raisins - yum!

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the Costco at Tamasakai by train. It's really easy to get to and only a 10 minute (or less) walk from the station. Good directions in English here.

We found it!

Daz feels right at home with the gigantic trolleys (or carts as you Americans say)

Since we were hungry when we arrived, we went straight to the eatery. We ordered two hot dogs, one pizza slice, one churro, and two bottomless cups of soft drink - it all came to less than 1000 yen.

Me using the relish machine to load up our hot dogs

Darin eating the gigantic pizza slice

Click to continue on below and see some photos of really large amounts of food. We actually didn't buy any of the featured products....except for the 4kg box of old fashioned oats!!

Yuck - ranch dressing

Darin has been craving liquid cheese. He claims it's an American comfort food. I did promise that Costco would have it and that he could 'pour' it on his hot dog, but this was all we found. It stayed at Costco.

Darin sitting on a large stack of Budweiser. Please take note of the XXXX in the background. We really wanted to take home a slab of Coopers Pale Ale, and even though it was nearly half price per bottle, we figured that we wouldn't be able to control ourselves and the Coopers stayed at Costco.

Darin with a thick cyclinder of boneless ham

And here's me holding one of the few things we did buy - 4kgs of old fashioned quaker oats!!

BTW, if you live in Tokyo it costs only 500 yen to have a box of your shopping (up to 30kg) delivered to your home if you don't have a car!! Also Costco only accepts American Express and cash.

Soon to come

So I'm not afraid to embarass myself. I've done it many times before. A couple of days ago I did a short interview about the Tokyo SNB for the Metpod - the podcast for Metropolis (Tokyo's free english magazine). It was short and I'm not really sure what I said, but I can remember being flustered when I couldn't think of witty rebuttals more than once. If you've ever wondered what my Aussie accent sounds like, then check out the Metpod later tonight. I'm not going to listen to it though. I just can't. I can remember once when I came across a tape, which I had recorded as a young teen, and listened to it many years down the road. It was very cringe-worthy - what was I thinking?

Updated: Or you can read the written interview in the current issue of Metropolis or online here. It kind of cracks me up that I'm on the same page as Natalie Portman - ha! I'm so glad I chose the photo I took with the Hirose-san - that truly has been the media highlight of the Tokyo SNB so far!!!

To add some pretty colours to this post, here's what's been on my ipod lately. Since I have a shuffle I don't usually have full albums - I just choose particular songs. Most of what I listen to on my ipod is upbeat to get me through Tokyo rushhour (which is a little misleading as it should be called rush hourS) and strenuous lunges and ab exercises at the gym.

And to satisfy the 'crafty' category of this post. I finished grafting the toes and weaving in all of the ends of my sockapaloooza socks. They look pretty (photo tomorrow - hopefully). Will be sending them out tomorrow (hopefully).

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Anna R-D

Wow, I've been having a great day today. What a nice change! The beginning of this year (ever since we got back from Australia) has been a little lacklustre. I wasn't feeling it at all and being sick twice certainly didn't help. The spring weather has made me so much happier!

I got up early this morning so that I could work out at the gym longer than usual. Going in my lunch break means that I really only have 25 minutes which is just not enough. I started a new program and it was really challenging. It has made me feel good. Then Darin tells me my new bag which I ordered from Demano arrived at the house and that a torrent I have been wanting to download has finally succeeded. It was the finale of the Biggest Loser - S2. I am completely addicted to the Biggest Loser series and cry in nearly every episode. It is so encouraging and positive. The transformations are amazing. I love that a show promoting exercise and a reasonable diet is proving a big hit both in the US and Australia.

And now that I exercise in the morning, I can enjoy some SPECIAL time (as Darin calls it) during lunch. Today I had a lovely lunch with a work friend and then we wandered around the cherry blossoms at the Aoyama Cemetary which are in full bloom - right now. Here's a pic of the cherry blossoms in Inokashira Park - I took this photo with my camera on the way to work this morning.

It tops off a great week actually. On the weekend we went to Keirin with some buddies and that was an interesting experience. I'll post my photos in Flickr later, but in the meantime you can read Darin's post about the Keirin. My only advice is that I wouldn't really recommend  soing to Keirin for a date - it kind of smells of stale smoke and is FULL of old men. I ended up playing a game called 'Spot the Female' - it was hard. The only bonus was there was no line at the ladies toilets. We had one wager, guess what colour racer I bet on?

Here's a great polaroid shot of Darin taken at Keirin.

My favourite thing about Keirin was the old man food stall selling soba/udon/curry and onigiri - that's it. Oh and the free rokucha and water machine.

And on the way home, I spotted an awesome looking thrift store that is only open between 1:30pm and 5pm on Sundays - it was 4pm on Sunday. Guess what we found! Not one but TWO Print Goccos and a whole case of inks. They were originally priced at 250 yen and 300 yen respectively, but they were on sale for half price. Meaning that we walked out of there with all of that for much less than $10.

I also scored a cute vintage Japanese dress with the tags still on it for 200 yen, which I am now calling my wimbledon dress.

BUT I have been saving the best news for last. This happy spring post is dedicated to Anna Di-Iorio Reyes - the new, new daughter of our good friends, Angie and Sam. She was born on Sunday March 26th at 1:59am. Man, I am so happy for you guys and I want to come and meet Anna soon.

The story of the golden shoes

My love for Tokyo has been waning lately. I think it probably has something to do with the cold weather and my anger at still having to wear a big coat. I am envious of everyone that can go thrift store shopping whenever they want. I miss the excitement of finding something special. So to restore that love, I set out for Harajuku after work yesterday. It's pretty cool that such an amazing area of the world is only a 15 minute walk away. It was rainy and cold but I didn't care. I decided to check out some vintage stores that I had heard about but never really ventured inside.

First stop was G2 (3-22-7 Jingumae, 2F, open everyday 11-8). This shop is a great place to wander around - lots of bright colours, 80s motifs and kitsch zakka, but it is overpriced. I found the cutest vintage polka dot dress but it was nearly 8000 yen. Too much. They had some shoes that even fit me (size 9) - shock horror! I receommend it for inspiration and to have a browse.

Next stop was the kebab stand run by men from the middle east. I have been there many times before but they always ask where I am from, and then they continue to charm me by telling me how beautiful Australian women are - it always elicits a smile from me. No vintage clothes here but 500 yen got me a delicious kebab and more importantly sustenance for the rest of my shopping adventure.

I crossed the road while stuffing my face and head to the YM Square Building which is home to my favourite store, Hanjiro. You can see photos inside the store here. They really provide the full shopping experience - amazing atmosphere, good prices, awesome point system, and a very beautiful cafe with an outdoor balcony!! However before Hanjiro I went to the new secondhand store in the bottom of the YM Square Building - can't remember the name. Their stuff is cheap - nothing much more than 800 yen, but it's more secondhand with a few vintage pieces thrown in the mix. All of their winter stuff was 70% off but even so I didn't really find anything I needed/wanted. I was tempted by the 200 yen prices though.

So off I went to Hanjiro and I had one of those great shopping days when everything you try on fits and looks pretty cute. Usually in Japan I can virtually guarantee that most things won't fit right but yesterday was not one of those days. My love for Tokyo was slowly but surely seeping back into my bones. I spent most of my time on the 4th floor among the recon stuff, cute girly gold and silver shoes and of course the dresses rack. I walked out of there with ANOTHER recon tshirt and some gold heels - the grand total came to 1500 yen after using my points card and still have 150 yen discount to use the next time I go. Their point system is great - you get a 10 yen discount for every 100 yen you spend. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't find a dress I liked. I love vintage dresses and was really eager to stock up on some for spring.

I wasn't going to give up though. Most shops shut at 8, but I knew there had to be at least one still open.

We Go stays open until 9 - this was my last chance. I went straight to the basement and to the dress rack. Certainly not as cheap or as exciting as Hanjiro, but I found two super cute dresses - one brown and one red. Total came to just less than 4000 yen.

I was really happy that after two hours I had a cute new recon tshirt, a pair of gold strappy heels and two spring dresses for around 5500 yen.

My love for Tokyo is back with a vengeance.

I didn't have time to take a photo this morning, so my very kind and loving husband took one for me. It makes me smile because he found a way to sneak his skateboard into the shot!!!

oh and by the way, look who can't stand to leave our cozy home:

Whatta weekend!

I'm all recovered. Life is so much better when you are not weighed down by tissues and a runny nose. And I have discovered that winter is much more bearable when it snows for one whole day. If you read any other Tokyo blogs and some more then you'd already know that it snowed ALL DAY in Tokyo on Saturday. This is big news especially for us snow-deprived Queenslanders. We celebrated the snow by soaking in an outdoor onsen with the snow falling on our heads and taking lots of pictures of snowmen!!

And that was just Saturday. Look who I got to hang out with on Sunday!!

I finally got to meet Molly and her mum, Jan. Both of them were as cute and interesting as they are on their blogs. We had a lovely lunch with Daz and Stefana and then us four ladies head out on a crafty tour of Kichijoji. A perfect Sunday really.

For more snowy photos, click below.

Life with a cold

For the past few days I've had to go to work while nursing a pretty bad cold. I just took a 3-week vacation so I really couldn't take anymore time off work. So my life with a cold amounts to drinking copious amounts of ginger tea (shouga-yu) and making afternoon trips to the convenience store to buy multiple packets of those lotion tissues (the really soft ones), vicks vapour drops and while browsing the other cold-related goodies at the family mart, I couldn't go past these gems:

I remember the days when I would visit the conbini to buy a sweet afternoon snacks....the good, healthy times. Now I have resorted to purchasing frightening white patches to put on little boys' chests....I did use them last night but since I have lost my sense of smell I couldn't smell a thing. Darin tells me they were quite strong. It's sad to think that little boys don't need their mother to rub vicks into their chests any longer.

I haven't resorted to wearing a white mask though. I'm just not going to do it. Some girl on the train this morning was staring at me quite blatantly while I slathered some moisturizer on the end of my nose - it's red raw. She seemed quite horrified. The moisturizer felt good though.

In other news, I have discovered that American Apparel now have three stores right here in Tokes (thanks suzy!). I am excited to check them out but I must admit that I was quite disappointed when I went to their stores in New York. The quality seemed questionable and the price didn't match. Their sizing also seemed to be for the androgynous body-type - I am sure they'll do quite well here in Japan.

The Evens

Am back from work in Nagoya. Took a bunch of photos at the Aichi Expo, but haven't managed to edit them yet or even crop them for that matter, but hope to do it some time during the upcoming long weekend (hallelujah!). I also have photos of some brand new Japanese knitting mags that I want to share. Of all the new ones that have been released in the past couple of weeks, there are three that I really liked.

Teami Daisuki 05-06 ISBN: 4-408-62742-9 - this book went on sale yesterday - lots of cute stuff

O-uchi komono by Ondori ISBN: 4-277-17185-0 This book is super cute. It is filled with lap blankets, socks, shawls and the best looking cabled room shoes!! I especially love the red and white crochet blanket on the cover.

And I can't remember the name of the last book (it's at home), but it had a lot of cute crocheted and knit bags with ribbons and beads - nice! So keep watching and I'll put up some photos over the next couple of days.

Last night we had a nice evening of free music - pretty much unheard of in Tokyo unless it's a free concert at the park. We went to see The Evens (Ian Mackaye of Fugazi and Amy Farina) record a show for NHK radio. We just had to fill out a postcard and send it in. Playing before The Evens was Mikami Kan - an older Japanese man from Aomori that we had never heard of. Wow did he really blow us away. Just one man and an electric guitar. The Evens were great - the songs were really powerful both lyrically and soundwise. Amy had a beautiful voice and anyone that can sing and play the drums at the same time has my complete respect. Unfortunately a lot of the political undertones were lost on most of the crowd - a very quiet bunch. Ian Mackaye was trying to get people to be noisy, but it never happened. You could seriously hear a pin drop between songs - that was pretty funny. You can listen to show the Evens recorded on NHK-FM on October 5 from 11:20pm to 12:20am, and Mikami Kan on October 12 at the same time.

Scarred for life

Tokyo may have really cool cafes, cute clothes, awesome restaurants and fantastic shopping in general BUT it also has EARTHQUAKES. You know some say that small earthquakes are kinda cool, but they are SO NOT! I figured that out while crouched on the floor under my desk on the 20th floor of my work building scrambling for the phone so that I could call my husband.

SO.NOT.COOL.

SP, Showa Kinen Park, Hanabi

So about a week and a half ago I received two great packages in the mail: one was from my Secret Pal and the other was a RAOK from Priscilla. They both made me really happy. It's taken me ages to get around to taking photos, but here they are:

Soy silk in my fav colour, a knitted flower kit, a cute card, wool soap, and the cutest stitch markers from my SP - thanks!! You may notice the empty lolly packet in the photo - no, my SP didn't send me empty packets - that would be too cruel. You see I ate all of the contents of all of the packets before I had a chance to take a photo - ha!

And Priscilla's RAOK - some knitpicks shimmer (which I have been hankering for - how did you know??!!), three cute hand-beaded flower bobby pins, a notebook, some lip gloss, a small bag, and another cutey cute flower pin - I am spoilt! Thank you so much!

So to read about my weekend and last night's fireworks, click to continue!

Lately our weekends have been so busy that I have little time to catch up on any kind of mundane chores - that's why every country in the world should have three-day weekends as the norm. Two days to have fun and one to do every you need to do to get ready for the (4-day) week ahead. Anyway on Saturday after being lazy and watching A LOT of Gilmore Girls episodes (I've been keeping my GG addiction a secret as I didn't want to know what happened in S5 - it's all ok now as I have completed watching ALL five seasons in the space of about a month!!!) , we headed to our friend, Martine's new house which is just a 20 minute walk from our place, for dinner. Yum, yum, yum - nachos made with lots of cheese, Darin's fresh salsa with coriander and lime, and beans!! Sorry no photos....

On Sunday the three of us headed to Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa. What an amazing find! The place is massive and full of greenery (including grass), fun things to do, pools, a lake and really the list is endless. After having a picnic, we headed to the Rainbow Pool to cool off. This water park normally costs 2200 yen, which is a little pricey if you ask me, but if you wait until 2pm (the place is open til 6:30pm) you can get in for half-price (1100 yen) and this includes entry to the entire park which costs 400 yen anyway. At the water park there are water slides, a wave pool, a current pool, adventure pool, clover pool (it's shaped like a clover), kiddy pool area etc. It was super packed, but it was very refreshing anyway. You can leave the water park at any time and go back into the park and then re-enter the pool area as much as you want in one day. You can even do it in your bikini (not an option I exercised). After our dip, we went back into the park to check out as much as we could. First stop was the sunflower fields.

Then we spotted some 'net idols'!!! Supposedly there are some girls that get famous on the Internet among 'otaku' (geek) guys and they arrange to meet in public places so those dudes can take photos of them. So weird. Anyway, here's those guys taking photos of those girls.

Darin then thought he'd try his luck as a net idol. Unfortunately I was the only one that wanted to take a photo.

Moving right along. There are 11 different species of sunflowers in the park. This one is called Sailor Moon because it is light in colour just like the moon.

Then we headed to the kid's play area coz you know, we are all kids at heart. And look what we discovered!!! Trampolines in the shape of white clouds. I would have to say this was a highlight of the day for me. If for no other reason you want to visit the park, this should be enough to get you to go!!!

We did a lot more in the park, but I guess I didn't take that many photos - that'd be right. I know that Martine has a bunch of great photos that she took, so once she puts them up you can check them out!!!

So last night was the Jingu Gaien Fireworks display. The national rugby stadium just happens to be right outside my office window, so after work we bought a bunch of beers and together with family and friends watched the fireworks. Every work day should end like this.

The view from my office at dusk - you can see the skyscrapers of Shinjuku to the left, and the stadium that's all lit up is the baseball stadium - the home of the Yakult Swallows.

And then the fireworks began....a great way to finish a great weekend!

Come with me to Ueno, won't you?

I have tons of stuff to write about, but never seem to find the time to do it lately. I think the biggest problem is motivating myself to take and then edit photos. Last weekend was a three-day weekend here in Japan - definitely my favourite kind of weekend. I'll let the photos tell the story of what we did - be warned there is NO knitting content, but you'll be excited to hear that I took my first babysteps in fair-aisle knitting and it was thrilling. However there was so much tension and concentration in my hands that daz needed to massage them after knitting.....

We went to the Ueno Summer Festival on Sunday to see the lantern floating ceremony, wander the antique market, and marvel at the amazing lotus plants in Shinobazu Pond. Before we made it to the festival we shopped around Ameyoko-cho between Okachimachi and Ueno stations. It was like being transported to South-East Asia - there are tons of little stalls selling cheap food, fruit on sticks, fake designer bags, and cool t-shirts.

WARNING: photo heavy post ahead!!

Ameyoko

Some stuff we saw along the way includes a crazy Bob Sapp mask

A flying Doraemon - this was kind of lame and fell to the ground pretty quickly - even the guy trying to sell it was pretty embarassed

Darin then convinced me to go and check out Rodin's Hells Gate with the Thinker - pretty cool!

On to the park we went to enjoy some cold beers on this VERY hot day - it was about 33 degrees! This is a cool bar that overlooks the pond with the lotus plants.

Then we walked around the pond and checked out the antique market along the way. We found some very interesting and cool stuff. Speaking of which - I really wanted one of these Tokyo 1964 Olympic lanterns. I really think Tokyo would have been super, super cool in the 50s and 60s.

Here is an awesome traffic safety poster that we spotted:

And just when you think Japan can't get any weirder, we see this poster. I have no explanations for you. Do you have one for me?

Maybe you can't see clearly, so here's a close-up

Because of the heat and because it's summer, we sported our thongs/flip flops!! I bought some cute little flip flop socks so that they don't rub my feet, but these ones ended up being crappy and constantly sliding up my foot. That's what you get for spending 300 yen instead of 500 yen. I've learnt my lesson. Darin has even been recently spotted wearing a pair of these socks - he can attest to their amazing ability to provide flip flop 'no rub' comfort!!!

And then we move on to the traditional portion of the day's events - the basketheads! They were pretty spooky!

And then they floated lanterns on the lake (sorry the pic's blurry)

So on the way home, we stopped off at a pet shop - BIG mistake. It was full of super cute puppies and I want nothing more than a little baby bulldog. Please notice the price tag.....insert a decimal point two spaces from the right and that's the price in dollars. He was SUCH a cutie!

And then the next day Darin got to meet a big poodle. Now that was a great weekend. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Turning 30

I turned 30 a few months ago. I didn't really think about it much, certainly wasn't worried, and was lucky enought to spend it in beautiful Thailand with my 'new' husband here:

Since turning 30, and maybe even a year before I turned 30 I noticed that I am definitely becoming more health conscious. I figure that now is the time to make myself fitter, more flexible, and in general healthier. I am certainly not obsessive about it, but it has definitely become more of a state of general consciousness for me and I like it.

I found a yoga studio near my house, so I am going to try it out on Sunday to see what it's like. It's not cheap, but nothing in Tokyo is, and as Darin says you are really saving 1000s of $$$ in the longrun because you won't have to fork out as much money for health bills in the future.

Tonight I am also going to check out a store called Lululemon in Aoyama. I found it via the Being a Broad forums. It's a Canadian leisurewear company that focuses on yoga gear. That's been the most fun thing about getting healthy - there's a reason to buy lots of new 'gear'! The company also produces a monthly ezine, which is packed with motivational stories about health, fitness, food, and living. Check it out! All the archives are available too.

So yeah, everything's was good until I read this article. I just thank the lord that they didn't take away the site until I downloaded the Veronica Mars finale.

ps How's the hair accessory making/buying going? I think I am going to take care of that this weekend. Look at these cute Hawaiian bobby pins (the link was one of my google ads - thanks google!).

Crazy needles

So I thought I'd share a pic of the crazy clover needles (neither circs or straights) that I found at the Salvation Army Bazaar here in Tokyo. I also scored an old Clover crochet needle set in the cutest red case, and some not so cute but very useful double points. Nothing was more than $2. Bar-gain!

and here is the diagram that was on the needle packet

and finally a pic of inside the crochet needle case!

Darin also wanted me to mention that he is really happy with a drawing he is doing for a super secret project. Go get 'em tiger!

May-licious

The weather is warm. The parks are green and pretty. The hint of summer is in the air. So many great things are happening this month that it is hard not to get excited.

Japan Hobby Show - this three-day hobby showcase starts this Thursday (May 12) at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. I really want to go on Thursday because I might have the opportunity to meet and possible take my picture with Japan's knitting prince, but it looks like I can't get out of work. Damn work!! I will try and get there on Saturday though.

Deisgn Festa is also on this weekend - May 14 and 15

The Thai Festival 2005 is also on this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. We went last year and it is totally worth it just to eat all that delicious food in the park.

Lots of my fav tv shows are finishing up this month - number one on that list is Veronica Mars! Do you really think Logan did it?

Bob Log III is playing in Tokyo on May 25 as are Yo La Tengo.

Last but certainly not least, the best thing about May is that Darin and I are going on a holiday!!! We leave Tokyo at the end of May and fly direct to New York (aghhh - about 14 hours!!! - need lots of knitting) where we'll stay for a week, then we'll spend time with Darin's family in Milwaukee, and then spend another week in San Francisco catching up with friends. I.CAN'T.WAIT!!!

I also had a great weekend finding lots of goodies (old clover knitting needles that are neither straights nor circs!??!!) at the Salvation Army Bazaar, catching up with a good friend, knitting, chatting with my mum and little brother on Mother's Day for free using ichat - how cool is that program??!! I have been using Skype, but had trouble with echo and other horrible noises....ichat was perfect. The park was really busy on the weekend with the Million Marijuana March, and I'll leave you with a photo of a little chihuahua that was enjoying a massage.

Do you have a partner?

I have sent 50 emails today - one to each Pinku Secret Swap 3 participant with the details of the person they must send hair accessories to. I included a web address if your partner had one so you can spy on your partner's hair from afar, and the preferences that each of you sent to me. Some people had no preference. Eight of you have hotmail accounts, so if you haven't recieved an email from me, please check your junk mail box. I included the rules of the swap in the email and you have until the end of May 2005 to send out your hair accessories! Have fun!

Thanks for all of your kind comments about Orangina! It is definitely one of my favourite projects up until now and it is very wearable. It's not perfect though - the top of the back sags a little and even though I can't see it, it bothers me. I might still come up with a way to fix it (starch??). The first purl stitch of the ribbing was loose regardless of what I did (I blame the yarn and my laziness - couldn't be bothered switching to smaller needles again), so the ribbing is a little see-through - I'm over that though. AND finally I found two minor lace errors - dumb, dumb! Darin says he can't see them even when I point them out, so I'm not going to fret about it too much. I guess these little quirks are what make handmade items special. If I wanted perfect, I'd go to the shop and buy something.

Finally I am back at work - every week should be a one day work week! Our Golden Week vacation was really relaxing. We spent our time at the beach, at our friend's house, at home and the last three days we spent camping in Tokyo - can you believe it? Okutama is located in Tokyo - well a good couple of hours out of central Tokyo, but I still have trouble believing that we were still in Tokyo. Here look for yourself:

I will post more photos tomorrow with more details, but here's one more photo of a sandwich that our friend Jess made - I didn't try it, but I heard it was 'interesting' - peanut butter, banana and marshmallows!!!

Summery goodness!

Ah the sun is shining brightly in Tokyo today, and I am rejoicing. Unfortunately I have to rejoice indoors - oh what terrible torture! This morning though I was briefly reminded of what I don't like about summer (please note I love summer and wish it could be summer all year round):

* commuting in summer - of course commuting in Tokyo at any time of the year sucks, but during the summer men continue to wear suits and by the time they make it on the train their white shirts are sticking to their skin with sweat. There is nothing worse than when this sweaty sleeve rubs your very own skin.....

* cockroaches - we live in a nice place and both darin and I love it to death, BUT in the summertime the cockroaches come out to play. Cockies are big in Queensland, so they don't bother me that much just as long as they stay out of our bedroom.

* cleaning the dishes immediately after eating - sometimes we leave the dishes to do until the next day (most people do this, don't they?), but come summertime this is IMPOSSIBLE unless you want your apartment to stink. The worst is accidently forgetting that you have leftover rice in the rice cooker - this becomes very nasty after a couple of days.

* mosquitoes - I get bitten all the time. If Darin and I both walk into the park, I get bitten, he doesn't. It's really terrible. Luckily there is no malaria in Japan. Sometimes I have to resort to sleeping with RID on and I know that's not good for me.

I think that's it. Now for the things I love:

* wearing thongs (of which I now have four pairs - thank you brother, Darin has one), mini skirts, shorts, and no jackets!

**********late addition*********** I just realized how my North American audience may think that I meant 'thongs' like out of 'The Thong Song' and that my brother gave me three pairs and darin has a pair of thongs - a man thong?? It's pretty funny if you read it that way, but I'm sorry my friends, in Australia 'thongs' mean 'flip-flops'. Repeat after me: I say tomarto, you say tomayto!!

* the heat, being warm at night and drinking a cold beer on a warm night

* being outdoors (swimming, bbqing, knitting)

* kakigori (flavoured shaved ice served with condensed milk) in the park, reimen, hiyayakko (cold tofu)

* fireworks displays and other Japanese festivals

* dim sum (ok, this one has nothing to do with summer, but I really LOVE dim sum) My dad is Chinese and I have great memories of going to dim sum with my family and friends on Sunday afternoons. It always seemed strange that my mother never learned to use chopsticks!! Damn those egg custard tarts are so good. I added this to the list because of this article.

ps Tomorrow is Green Day (midori no hi) in Japan, which means that I don't have to go to work and this is only the beginning of Golden week, which means I don't have to set a foot in this damn office until NEXT Friday! Posts could be sparse (we're going camping - woohoo!), but I might have an FO photo in the next couple of days.

Ranking Queen

All of the spots for the next Pinku swap have been filled - thanks ladies! I will be emailing you the details of your secret swap partner by the end of next week, and then you can start crafting or shopping.

The New York Times has a great arti