pinku

Weekend roundup

On Saturday I met up with Bronwyn, a fellow knitter from Canada visiting Japan for a couple of weeks. We had a great time checking out the yarn stores of Kichijoji and all of the other shops and then sharing a cold beer in the park. She was sweet enough to bring me some delicious handspun, hand-dyed wool from Victoria where she is from. Here is a photo of us in the park. Oh and there is one thing that we have in common apart from our love of knitting - you'll probably never guess, so I'll just tell you. Both of our fathers are Chinese. Amazing, huh!! I mean maybe I can see it in me, but Bronwyn has blond hair and blue eyes - genes are amazing things!!!

On Sunday, we went to Musashino Park for Darin's Skate BBQ - there was skating, lots of good food and company, and it was the first ever bbq for my friend Aya - she came dressed in a beautiful yukata and gave the bbq a little class!!! Here are some photos:

On the way home from the park we came across Mitaka's Awaodori Festival, and it was amazing. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. It is moments like these that I feel lucky to live in Japan. I never feel that way on the way to work in the morning on the train....

Ramblings

I've decided to have no real theme to today's post....I'm gonna ramble and I talk about pads and tampons so be warned.

Last night I stayed up late watching the Olympics between episodes of The Sopranos (series one on DVD) - thanks Jen - and I am suffering today. It's my own fault, I know. I did get to see the Thorpedo win a bronze medal tho' (it's his first as he usually wins gold and silver). It is 36 degrees in Tokyo today, so I avoided going outside at lunch. Sometimes at my work we have big sales during lunchtime. Sometimes they sell clothes, shoes, candy, gift food, scarves and gloves, hats, but today was one of the most popular sales apart from the J Crew sale - they were selling sanitary napkins!! Oh I know that it is kinda taboo to mention menstruation, but damn this is an interesting phenomenon here in Japan. Many Japanese women don't like tampons - they are not popular and are not widely used, which kinda sucks for us foreign gals as it doesn't leave us with many local shopping options. Of course everytime I travel overseas I stock up, but recently I ran out (how did that happen!!). Anyway I would say hundreds of women in my company building line up to buy 6 months to a year's supply of sanitary napkins. The way they have it set up is hilarious. There is a really long table and a sample of each type of pad for sale is taped in a row along the table - it's kinda weird. Anyway I wish I'd taken a photo, but I was too busy shopping for....yeah you know what I bought. It was really cheap (I guess that's why it's so popular) - 60 for 420 yen. bargain. As I said though tampons are not popular and I did not see a single woman among hundreds pick up a box of tampons (they were kind of sitting off to the side of the pads looking very lonely and unloved!!!).

ANOTHER INTERESTING JAPAN FACT is that many Japanese companies (including mine) provide extra days off for female staff suffering badly from their period. Very ludicrous. You can take one day off a month and they are in addition to your paid leave - you just have to call in the morning and tell them the cramps are just too bad. I admit here that I have taken advantage of this cultural difference and I did abuse it a little considering it wasn't even that time of the month.

So my goal this morning was to find a way I could get my hands on some NON-APPLICATOR tampons here in Japan. They are NOT available in the shops. After some very lengthy research via google, I came across a e-conception - a website run by a Japanese lady living in Australia. She sells aromatherapy products and 100% pure organic GMO free cotton Natracare tampons. Score. If you spend over 3000 yen, then shipping is free. Score. A 20 pack costs 800 yen.

Another score at the lunch sales were some ziplock hello kitty lunch bags!! I think I am going to use them to store crafty stuff - I'm not even a big hello kitty fan, but they are cute!

I think that people visit my website for a number of reasons: the knitting/crafting thing is probably the biggest reason; and the next biggest reason would be the lure of mysterious Japan. I've never really categorized my blog and listed it as a knitting blog as I would feel to much pressure to produce FOs constantly, and the main reason I started pinku was because it is such a great way to record your experiences and memories when living overseas and an even better way to stay in touch with family and friends. The most unexpected benefit from having the site has been the amazing number of new friends that I have made (virtual and real) - I love it!

That's all for today! Rambling ends here.

p.s. Best web discovery today (there are always so many) is a cool site called Watashi to Tokyo about Tokyo in English by a Japanese girl. It's great - full of lots of content and links - check it out! Welcome to the blog world, Mari!!!!

Ganguro

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. It's not Halloween, just another day out on the town for this ganguro girl. Ganguro was a fad among teenage girls in Japan around 1999....however my friend Hiromi in Kyoto (the wonderful photographer) has discovered that this trend is still alive and kicking. The dictionary translates the word ganguro as black face, charbroiled face (that's my favourite), burnt-black look or dark tan. I find these fads socially interesting, but I get tired watching these girls perform - so much effort to maintain a look. That's not me for sure.....actually I have been feeling guilty that I haven't worn a scrap of make-up to work for about a month. Do you wear makeup to work? I just find it tiresome - of course if I have a meeting, then I try and make myself look pretty, but if there's no meeting, then it's au naturelle for pinku!!!

Here's a great article about these Japanese fashion fads from Salon.

One of my favourite quotes from the article is:

On her 25th birthday, an unmarried Japanese woman automatically becomes what's laughingly referred to as "spoiled sponge cake," in honor of the Christmas sponge cakes that are discounted and rarely purchased after Dec. 25.

I guess my cake is not only spoiled, it's been thrown into the trash. Personally though I think of myself as a delicious bottle of red wine (not those Japanese chilled screw-top ones) - it justs gets better and better as it gets older. I definitely feel slightly wiser - that's for sure.

photos by Hiromi in Kyoto this week

Random Golden Week Pics

our new friends Oi and Hisari recently got married in Okinawa and instead of rings they got tattoos

some famous bowling guy - you could buy a signed postcard for 1000 yen ($10)

Darin and Tyler on the beach at Chigasaki in Kanagawa prefecture

funny sign in train station

This is a darin looking at a big and I mean large menu at a delicious tonkatsu restaurant we discovered in Shibuya - bring on that deep fried pork!!

Golden Week

One thing I love about Japan is that there are LOTS of national holidays - there were 12 last year and they are pretty much spaced out so you have at least one 4-day work week every month. There is nothing better than a 4-day work week. Well actually there is the 3-day work week...and then the 2-day work week. I vote that Wednesday should be declared a global weekend day - everyone in the world gets Wednesday off. Doesn't that sound good? I do find that it gives me time to catch up on things I don't have time or the inclination to usually do during the week. This year Golden Week nearly works out to a full week off work - sweet. Yesterday was Green Day and it was a ripper. It was totally unplanned and we stayed local, but the weather was perfect. I knitted at an outdoor cafe, then at an outdoor restaurant and then in the park. We hung out with friends - ate and drank lots of good stuff. Everyone deserves a Golden Week.

Here's some interesting information about Golden Week:
Golden Week is a group of national holidays in Japan, beginning with April 29 and ending with May 5. This is not only one of the longest holiday periods, but one of the most popular as well. With well-placed weekends, it can be even better.

Apparently the origin of Golden Week comes from the movie industry. They thought it would be a "golden opportunity" for people to have the time to go to the movies.

Golden Week Holidays

April 29: Midori no Hi - Green Day
April 29 was the birthday of Emperor Hirohito, Showa period, who died in 1989. Following his death, the holiday was changed to Midori no Hi, in honor of the environment and nature. The Emperor was passionate about environmental issues and a nature lover.

May 3: Kenpo Kinenbi - Constitution Day
On May 3, 1947, the new post-war constitution became law.

May 4: Kokumin no Kyujitsu - "Between Day"
This recently created national holiday was added in order to make the Golden Week a continuous holiday period.

May 5: Kodomo no Hi - Children's Day This holiday was originally called Tango no Sekku or Boys Day or Festival. Families with boys would celebrate by flying koi nobori or carp streamers and gogatsu ningyo or May dolls.

Takashi Murakami and Otaku

Here's a really interesting interview with Takashi Murakami about his interest in otaku* culture.
* Otaku is an obsessive fan or collector of anime, the Japanese animations based on manga.

Thanks for the link, Darin!!

Please smoke inside!!!

So a couple of weeks ago, the painted signs (as seen below) appeared on the footpaths/streets of Kichijoji, my local hood here in Tokyo. Aren't they great (love the pacman character)!! What does it all mean - well, 'you are NOT allowed to smoke while walking outside anymore' - HOORAY!! There is actually a better one of a monster breaking a cigarette, but I haven't gotten around to taking a picture of that one yet.

This ban is limited to Musashino city - some other cities may follow suit. I must mention though that you are still allowed to smoke at our monthly meetings at work in an air-conditioned building. While I was walking to work the other day I saw some young ladies carrying signs (they looking like lollipop ladies) on the road. They had been hired by the city to walk around with these signs that said, 'No more smoking while walking - please smoke in 'manner' areas only'. Very interesting method of publicity. Regardless I love the signs and am very happy not to have smoke blowing in my face in the morning on the way to work.

Hanami 2004

The weather couldn't be more perfect here in Tokyo. Spring has arrived and so have the cherry blossoms. Yesterday we joined the masses and had ourselves a little hanami party in Inokashira Park - this is one of Tokyo's prime cherry blossom viewing spots and it just happens to be our backyard. The party started at 9:30 am, well actually I was minding our party spot from this early hour and the revellers started arriving from about 11am. Darin and I were joined by Matt and Kim and a bunch of their buddies, a bunch of friends that I studied with, our local pals Tyler, Jamie, Bernie, Yoshi and Josh from Bondi Books and Martine popped in for a quick visit. It was a big day. Check out my Hanami 2004 photo gallery to see some of our pics!!!

See Kim's pics HERE!!

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Bonds + Hipsters

To an Aussie girl, these words have nothing to do with financial istruments or people who think they're hot! However, if you do wear them you will look hot! Bonds hipsters are undies - really comfy, cotton, Aussie undies that come in a bunch of different styles and funky colours.

This post was inspired by a post in Nicole's blog that was all about being an Aussie and some of the girls mentioned loving Bonds. Basically Bonds is an old Australian company that revamped its business by introducing a funky line of underwear (which every Aussie girl loves). I always buy some when I am at home - I mean ALWAYS!

For those of us far from home, particularly in countries like Japan where the lingerie options are well....lacy, frilly, very padded and come with lots of bows - buying lingerie on trips home is a must. Since living in Tokyo, Victoria's Secret has been my main on-line undie and bra shopping source, but a google search today introduced me to Zodee - an on-line AUSSIE lingerie shop THAT delivers overseas!! They carry Elle Macpherson, Bonds, Bendon, Berlei, Formfit, Finelines, Love Kylie, Playtex, Simone Perele, Hey Sister, Sloggi (now that's a classic) and lots more. They also carry swimwear.

You can sign up to join their club (FREE) and you get 5% off all purchases, a $10 voucher, and 2.5% of every purchase is credited back to your account for future use. Sounds like good value to me, mate!!!

I expect lots of dodgy google searches because of this post.

Shibuya

Was going through some old emails and came across this pic. It was taken in Shibuya a while back, and darin added the captions. Pretty apt I reckon.