I just bought this poster

I think it's pretty fresh and fun and cool and word.

larger

"The Goyard's So Hard...

That i'm hugo's boss". Kanye said it and i didn't know what it was about till i was looking for a store called Loveless. Next door was the french trunk maker, Goyard, store. I fell for it right away.

The couch above is from Loveless. I think this was one of my favorite stores in the Aoyama district.

Great song

It kinda spells out how I would like, maybe attempting, to live my life.

Paris Tokyo - Lupe Fiasco download it

Cool little vintage shop i stumbled upon in Shibuya

The placement of these bansky (well known street artist) stencils is so random and low-key i have no reason to believe they aren't real. They were in the small hallway on the 4th floor leading to this very well done vintage shop. I asked the lady if i could take a few photos of her store but she declined.

View from the top of the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Overlooking Kyoto

21st Century Museum in Kanazawa

I didn't get to see the exhibits since it is closed on mondays; which was probably good thing since i spent more time observing the building and it's surroundings instead. I think these are some of my favorite images from the trip.

museum-0744.jpg

puri-kura

This is what Miho had sent to her phone from our puri-kura session I don't know what it says at the bottom. I was just picking random things on the screen.

Observation of cars at a cross walk

The first things i noticed when I rode around Kanazawa was the size of the cars. They were all so tiny! I stopped on my ride home from the Ninja Temple and took a few images of some of the cars that passed by. [kml_flashembed movie="http://wordbk.com/cars/loader.swf" height="368" width="500" allowFullScreen="true" base="http://wordbk.com/cars/." /]

Takoyaki

Thick batter with slices of octopus cooked inside.

This is just octopus I had with Miho and the gang

ワード ビーケー

Thanks Mayumita for translating some things for me. ジェームス (James) ブランドン (Brandon) キング (King) ビーケー (BK) ワード (word)

*THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO

Tokyo Girl, originally uploaded by sistereden2.

i didn't get any good photos of the people on the streets but i really want you to understand what i saw a million times a day. I promise this is not an extreme case. the it was the norm but only imagine a little more coverage on the arms cause it was colder.

heysus.

I'm much more interested in taking photos of people. i just didn't get a chance to focus my energy on doing it this trip. the next time i go thought, i promise.

I honestly felt a little too much like an outsider feel like i could take good photos.

Some music I picked up

download it.

Geisha!

I think i said it before, but i guess Geisha aren't' the easiest folks to randomly see. The first time I saw one she kinda ran out of a house and around the corner. I almost completely missed her. The next time was just before we went to Monkey Mountain. There was a group walking with a few men.

This is for you Nadine.

One of the best thing i ate

okonomiake

this is a discription i got from a web site:

This is a Japanese Pizza, made with sliced cabbage and a flour/egg based pancake mix. Toppings including pork, onion, mushrooms, cheese, shrimp, scallops, spring onion, etc. can be added. The ingredients will be served raw. It’s up to you to cook it.

1. Rub oil on the flat cooker in front of you. 2. Mix the egg mix, cabbage & toppings in the bowl provided. 3. Pour all onto the flat cooker and wait to cook on one side. 4. Flip over when golden brown until the other side is done. 5. Brush the brown “okonomiakeEsauce over the pizza. Mayonnaise, nori-seaweed, and fish flakes are optional as extras. 6. As with Italian pizza, you simply slice, serve and eat!

i'm terrible at buying gifts and souviners

I'm not sure why I am so bad at getting things. I crack under pressure. I go out and buy the things i think are cool then i think about them and i wonder if anyone else would like them. For instance, i totally missed the chance to bring back Japanese candy. DUH! Why would i not pick some up. Okay, i had all intentions of picking some up but I thought it could wait for the airport.  My train ended up being canceled while i was waiting on the platform and the other came an hour later. In that hour, I was walking around totally confused and thought i missed the train. i just hopped on the next train heading to the airport and hoped that the ticket man would let me be. I had to do a mad dash through the airport to get to my gate on time. Anyhow, here are most of the things i brought back. Some stuff i have people in mind for. If someone is really expecting a good gift from me (dad, ebony, mom, snipper, loren, aileen, mari, marcia, ajana, jillian, tyler, sonya, add your name here, etc) then my bad.  come over and pick up something or just consider my steady blogging and staying up late to post photos my gift to you. it was a lot of work ;)

I'm so nervous no one will like the things i even considered not giving any of it out just to avoid letting someone down. oh man, why is this so hard?

i didn't think till i got home that i should have picked up this hat for Snipper (my step-dad) as well. ARGH!

mom, you like tea right? It came from the National Art Museum. I walked a LONG way to go to this place on tuesday only to find out they were closed. I went back the next day (be for my flight) to look for something.

coming home

Today is my last day in Japan. It's time to come home. (ps im writing this at home cause i didn't have anytime to blog in the hotel).

I have to figure out how to pack all this stuff (i bought an extra suitcase).

the plane riding outfit. this is what i left out and i packed up everything else

Kanazawa Castle

Back in Kanazawa.

I visited an old castle (or location of an old castle) that dates back over 500 years.

I didn't kow how to explain how to say it so i asked my writer friend (shout out marcia) to help me:

Listening to Radiohead's In Rainbows while looking out over a castle with 500 years of history is beautiful and melancholy in a way that reminds you of everything thats past, and everything that will come to pass and by seeing those two things, makes you more able to clearly see the present.

Perfect.

and a little update from japan expert Mish:

 Kanazawa castle is actually I think the newest rebuilt castle in Japan. the building started in 1995 and I think was done a year or so later. till then the only "old" part was the gate- Ishikawa mon- on your first pic. actually the grounds of the castle used to house my university (Im sooo sad that they move the uni to the mountains in the middle of no where with way too much snow). so anyways, yeah, the original castle was destroyed in the Meiji restoration around 1868 or so....sorry to spoil the mood that it set you in.... there actually only three remaining original castles in Japan.

Roppongi. Galleria Signage

The best wayfinding in Tokyo. Every 1oo or so meters there was a new sign. The building is brand new (opened in the last year) and connected to it is teh Ritz Carlton. (I saw 1 Rolls Royce Phantom, 1 Bently big boy, and 1 Maybach all in a 1 minute span) beautiful.

I promise they are for a little girl.

My good friend aileen emailed me the other day and mentioned that she has family member ( i think niece) who really loves the J-Pop band News. So the last thing i did before my flight home was go on a hunt for something NEWS related. First i went to tower records and found a CD but i was looking for posters. Mayumita told me i should try harajuku. BINGO

I walk upstairs to a room filled with posters and small prints of j-pop boy bands. I had no idea what they looked like so i asked the lady if she could help me out. She spoke about 3 words of english and they were:

"Do you like boys?"

...only for the Aquino family.

This was a suprise to me

They happen to have a piece of chocolate for all the days of the year. Today's piece neatly shows the day my Dad was born.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD.

another solid identity.

hot chocolate wine. sweet and delicious.