pinku

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 article about one of my favourite shops in Tokyo, Ranking Queen. Things I have bought at Ranking Queen: curry-flavoured toothpaste, lip balm from Nepal, really yummy cheese-flavoured mochi snacks, and for a while I coveted this popular grapefruit-smelling perfume, but I can't remember what it is called.

There is one near the East ticket gate at Shinjuku Station and one in Shibuya Station near the JR Entrance on the 1st floor. Crap directions, but check them out when you have the chance.

No love for the scrunchie!

Ladies - I didn't expect all this dissing on the poor old scrunchie, BUT to be fair, scrunchies always did have the worst elastic inside them, and they never really held the ponytail firmly. I used to rock the ribbon in my hair when I was in kindergarten, but now ribbons tied in bows around ponytails make me look.....well, childish. Much better to tie them round your neck! I also momentarily considered a foray back into headband territory on the weekend. My friend Claire and I spotted some cute (very thin) colourful plastic headbands at a shop, and proceeded to try them on. Hmmm, cute but I just don't think I can get away with it at 30. I also had a flashback to when I thought it was cool to push all my hair back with the headband to proudly show off my five-head (this is what Darin and I call big foreheads). It was an embarassing time.

We have reached capacity numbers in the swap (45, I think). See I was very lenient (I'm a pushover really) and went over the 40 person limit. I think we have odd numbers, so I guess if there was one other person who REALLY wants to participate that would be fine, but I can always be a partner to two people. I am considering making my hair accessories - there are so many cute vintage buttons and beads just begging to be wired onto bobby pins...we'll see.

Is Veronica Mars on tonight? I am very desperate to watch the last few episodes. That girl is just so cute and perky.

Pinku Secret Swap 3 - update

Thanks to all the girls that have signed up so far! There are still 7 spots left in the swap, so be quick (see details in previous post!). Hopefully I will have all the information ready by the end of the week, so I can email you the details of your secret swap partner by May 1.

Now I can't stop looking at all the hair accessories in the shops I visit. On the weekend I found so many GREAT possibilities to send to my secret swap partner. It's gonna be fun!!!

Happy ANZAC Day to those in Australia/NZ - you lucky things with a day off and all!!

It's here - Pinku Secret Swap 3

This is going to be so much fun! It's all about pink hair accessories this time round and it's going to be secret like the first secret pink earring swap. However cruel it may be, I am limiting participation to 40, so be quick to sign up. There is no deadline. Once I receive 40 willing participants, I will secretly assign you a secret partner and then the secret crafting (or buying) will begin in secret. Uh yeah, anyway, here's the rules:

* The hair accessories should be new - they can be handcrafted or bought (but vintage is also welcome - just don't grab something from the bottom of your drawer and chuck it in an envelope - but I know you wouldn't do that anyway)
* The hair accessories should be super cute (and should include some pink!!)
* You should spend no more than $10 (or the equivalent in foreign currency).
* You must wrap the hair accessories in cute paper and send them with love to your secret swap partner, and you must be willing to send overseas.

End of rules. Who wants to play??? Email me at [email protected] with your full name, mailing address and your preference of hair accessories (it's ok if you have no preference) - no use receiving a pony tail tie, if you don't have a pony tail.

Types of hair accessories: bobby pins, little and big clips, hair ties, barrettes, ribbons, combs, kanzashi (if you want to get all exotic), scrunchies (if you wanna go 80s), and anything else you can stick in your hair!!

Oh and let's all go and give Darin a pat on the back for the very cute drawing of pinku for the swap!!

Pretty knits

Ah, blogging has been sporadic here at pinku, but that is about to change. As I speak I have Darin working on some designs for the upcoming Pinku Secret Swap III. It's going to be all about pink hair accessories - handmade or bought, it doesn't matter. It's going to be perfect for Spring! So, the official launch of the swap sign-up should be in a few days time. I was thinking of limiting numbers because it is so hard to monitor everything when there are too many people (80 might be too many, 40 is very manageable) - what do you think?

So, did you check out Kim Hargreaves new Spring collection??? They are all so beautiful - that woman is a genius. I love her designs. I adore Glee, Glint, and Glimmer - actually Harmony is cute too. Rowan is really going to miss her. I think I love Glint the best though. It seems that they are only selling kits including the pattern plus yarn, which is kind of terrible because it is so expensive (mail and yarn costs - can't substitute the Rowan yarns). The Glint kit alone would cost me 8000 yen or about $70 - that's just really too much, but I am tempted :)

** Ooh nearly forgot, we had some extra exciting news last night at our Tokyo SNB. One of our very own girls (and one of the original co-founders) has had a pattern accepted for Summer Knitty 2005. She is definitely our most unique, super-talented, inventive crafter!! Congrats Pinn!

Hanami Bandwagon

It is hanami time in Japan as you may have noticed if you visit the blogs of people living in Japan. Hanami means 'flower viewing', but it really means 'we are all so excited that winter's over that I am going to get drunk with a bunch of buddies under some pretty trees'. We had our hanami party last Saturday. We were very organized and put out our tarps the night before at midnight - some people slept in the park overnight, but since we live super close, we slept at home. We recovered on Sunday and the past three days have been hella cold. Most of the blossoms have fallen off the trees (it looks like it has snowed - cool!), but the weather is nice today (19 degrees and sunny) so I saw people putting out a couple of tarps out in the park ready to keep the party going.

I was too excited about the warm weather, spending time with so many friends, and of course the cherry blossoms that I didn't end up taking a lot of photos (well not many good ones anyway). Here is a glimpse of our Kichijoji, Inokashira Park, Tokyo, cherry blossom, hanami life.

Inokashira Park

Part of our hanami posse

It must have been a special occasion coz darin brought out his Mexico beerholder!

Jennifer made some delicious cupcakes and cookies. Yum!

It was THAT packed!

Squeezing in a photo!

The photo most people don't take.

Ending with pretty pink blossoms.

You can see the rest of our photos here!

Thanks to everyone that came - I had a 12-hour blast in the park! (ending the night with karaoke until 2am and then late night/early morning ramen - mmmmm!)

See you all next year!

Thank you spring!!

I walked through the park this morning - the cherry blossoms are blooming, and the rest of the trees are sprouting new green leaves and it is just such a wonderful place to be. Well, except for the rubbish that was floating on the lake from last night's hanami parties...

We went to our first hanami party last night and the weather, the people, and the vibe were all fantastic. Unfortunately I forgot the camera and couldn't be bothered going home to get it, so this'll be a boring pictureless post.

Wait a minute - I do have a picture. Our hanami party is coming up this Saturday, so if you find yourself in Tokyo - come along and share a few beers with us, and bring some snags for the barbie!! I can't wait.

Here's the invite:

If you look closely at the 2nd photo, you can see the elaborate planning that goes into some of these hanami parties. The people behind us had built a big shoe box storage thing out of cardboard. They also had a menu, table, etc.

Phallic weekend

I know you are wondering where the hell I went on the weekend! Darin made this little flashing image of the main attraction at the Kanamara Festival (aka the Fertility Festival) in Kawasaki. If the flashing annoys you - just scroll down quickly. This festival (which Darin demands I call 'the penis festival') was a lot smaller than I thought it would be - it was really just a little local festival, and I have a feeling that it caters to a lot of dirty foreigners like us who just want to see a big bunch of penises. Nearly everything was written in English, it is located near the US military base in Yokosuka, and they were selling french fries. Regardless, in a country that suffers these kind of problems, there was no sign of restraint today.

Highlights apart from the large pink penis carried by some gorgeous transvestites included the man handmolding penis and vagina candy, daikons carved as penises, the gorgeous weather, and the anticipation of more upcoming summer festivals and fireworks displays.

I could show you some knitting progress photos, but I figure these are way more fun:

some lovingly carved daikon

Dreams

First to satisfy the random category of this post. Do you ever wonder what the person sleeping beside you is dreaming about? Well, this year I don't need to wonder because one of Darin's new art projects for the year (Sandman 2005) is to complete a new piece of art every week based on one of his dreams. Let's just say that my dreams pale in comparison except for maybe d's latest dream (eek, I'm sleeping with a geek!).

And now to satisfy the Tokyo/Crafty categories... I found out today about the 2005 Japan Hobby Show that is going to be held from May 12 to 14 at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba and the theme is 'Rediscovering the fun of creating'. I am sooo going to go - it looks amazing and very inspiring - it covers any craft that you can think of including knitting, amigurumi, paper craft, scrapbooking, needlepoint, beading, sewing, sand art, printing, macrame, leathercraft, doll making, candles, weaving, printing,etc (you get the picture). There will be about 700 booths. It costs 1000 yen, but you can print out a discount ticket (700 yen) by filling in this questionnaire. Here's a report about last year's Hobby show.

Finally I have cast on for Orangina and it feels great to have such Springy brightness on my needles!! Do yourself a favour - buy the pattern from Stephanie and cast on too!! I'm making mine with this pink ramie:

ps Details of the newest Pinku swap coming soon... (it's going to be pink...and very, very cute)