8tokyo goodies.
By a serendipitous stroke of luck, I became friends with Yoko, the lovely founder of the equally cute & sparkling 8tokyo.com.
I was invited to dine with a group of her friends, along with Emily from Twitter, last Saturday at a popular yakitori place down in Omotesando/Aoyama. It was awesome meeting everyone — they were all so nice to me even though I was freaking out half the time.
When I met her at her office, Yoko passed me a packet of delightful goodies!
I wonder what’s inside… (I love the striped packaging!)
A cute mousepad with the horses drawn by Naho!
I’m going to pin this onto my Mitsubachi tote! (Also by Naho!)
Yoko also included a guide to Osaka, which I thought was incredibly thoughtful! I wish I had this when I went to Osaka back during Spring Break.
It’s well-designed, with good font-choice and beautiful photographs.
Speaking about photographs, I had the honor of meeting two photographers (Komiyama Yusuke and his wife) and they critiqued my very embarrassing portfolio. I’m usually not easily moved, but hearing them seriously go over my photos and give me advice was very, very nice of them. Thank you so much.
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Replies:
Yuri: Yes please! I’ve fallen in love with Matterhorn’s cakes. Can’t wait to go back again!
Gakugeidaigaku (学芸大学)
Traveling, traveling, I’m always traveling. Coming back to my dorm room in Nishiwaseda makes my other life blurred, and sometimes I just want to stop going to school and just go on a long trip with just a suitcase and my camera.
Lately, I’ve been taking photos with my F50 (5 rolls left undeveloped) and the Camera + app on my iPhone. The latter’s a pretty good app and well worth the money. I get sharp shots on the fly.
My culture class headed to Gakugeidaigaku (a favourite haunt of Hiki and Ebony) for an ikebana and sado class.
On the way to the school, I noticed Matterhorn! A cake shop that was raved about in Hiki and Ebony’s blogs! I dragged my classmates there and proceeded to gasp over the selection of cakes and ice cream.
Their boxes are darling.
I bought a custard choux cream and a mini mont blanc!
summer travels
I’ll be visiting Kanzawa, Shirakawa-go, Hida-Takayama (and Nagoya) the following week. I haven’t been on a long trip since Spring Break — not counting my 2 day trip to Matsushima during Golden Week — so I’m really excited.
I’m also going to be traveling with friends from Singapore! I’ve been traveling by myself for the past… 8 months that I’ve been here so this is a first for me.
photo by jpellgen
Any places that I should definitely check out in Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go and Takayama?
dancing (or, I should be paying attention to my plastic gun-toting teacher in class)
He lived in a world bleached from life. The colors slowly faded away that even black & white roared with a fiercer intensity.
Carlos picked up his shot glass of something — at this point anything that could get him drunk was good — and tipped it into his open mouth.
It was as though he was trapped in the baby section of the department store. Pink and blues were watered down to grossly indifferent pastels. Colors that were fixed: “boy”, “girl”, and “what the hell are you buying for your baby”. Inoffensive colors that couldn’t hurt a fly, let alone babies’ goo-goo eyes.
He blinked. Maybe he was going mad. But he could still see everything in their own color, albeit a powdered fluffy version.
Another shot.
Maybe he wasn’t going mad, but just waking up to the droll reality of it all. The world was never as intense as he had lived it. It was always this flannel blanket of a world that didn’t want its own people to walk into table-corners and chew on wires.
He swiveled on his bar stool and looked out onto the crowd of pulsating people. They were supposed to be dancing, but to him, to Carlos who had two left feet, they looked like they were flailing. Pretty badly, too.
“Bartender, give me another.”
“We’re all out.”
“You’re all out? Of tequila?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of place is this?”
“A good one that stops serving drinks to customers who are too far gone.”
“What d’ya mean. I’ve barely gotten started.”
“You aren’t out there on the dance floor with the rest of them.”
Carlos’ eyes narrowed. “The rest of them. The rest of them? You mean those things out there?”
“Ah huh. People who haven’t had enough to drink head out to the dance floor.” The bartender hadn’t yet looked Carlos in the eye. He picked up another tankard and wiped it, slowly, methodically, with a faded old rag.
“I haven’t had enough to drink to join those idiots,” Carlos replied. The shot glass he was holding came down with a bang and bits of glass flew up into the air.
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I want to start a writing exchange, so that I can start writing again.
rain, rain go away.
Life has been slow, but incredibly busy these days too.
On Monday I met the lovely Yoko from 8tokyo.com and her husband, Noriaki, for dinner at a cozy trattoria at Kagurazaka, which is fast becoming one of my favourite neighbourhoods.
The food was so delicious I forgot to take photos of them, but I finally remembered to take a photo of the delicious baked/glazed pudding that I had for dessert. 本当に、本当に、ありがとう。Everyone has been so nice to me, I feel really motivated to work hard now.
I have lots of work due over the next few weeks, along with exciting plans that involve music, travel and friends. I’m also hoping to travel to Kyoto in the summer for the Gion Festival. I was there during the last day of the festival two years ago, and I hope to be there for a few days, at least, this year!
Some photographs from my Late Spring in Tokyo.
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Replies
Sun: Thank you for visiting! And thank you so much for the lovely comments. 
aron: They are! I keep buying so many for myself, sometimes I worry if there are any left for the customers…