Friday, January 2, 2009
Hanging out with Akira!
11/2 - Last day of ULTRA
I only worked for a little bit when Alida said I wasn't actually scheduled for that day (which is normally a day off), so I said goodbye and checked out a little bit of Tokyo Design Week. I was really unimpressed and uninterested with the 100% Tokyo Design show, but I'm really not interested in product and environmental design.
11/3 - Hanging out with Akira in Harajuku, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa (then Hiroko)
So I had asked my good friend Akira if he could show me around "urahara," the famed "backstreets of Harajuku" and Harajuku proper, to show me some trendy shopping spots. Since I had only bought a shirt out of sheer functionality so far (I was dying in the heat when I arrived), my goal of the the day was to buy several incredible items.
Stores sometimes have mannequins out front to give an indication of what sort of clothes they sell there, so the ones above and below indicate quite clearly that they have really awesome stuff inside:
We elected to go to the circuit girl one (I am such an outsider that I don't know the name of the store. But it delivered.)
I really liked this lane and this picture Akira took for me. I realized when I got back to America that I didn't really have that many pictures taken of me that are decent.
This was settled between really expensive stores. I honestly don't know why.. it might have been an incredibly expensive something or other only for the super in the know, or it could have been the shack inside that it was outside. Either way, I liked the facade.
For color.
Next to the cash register of a sort of gal-ish vintage clothing store.
Okay, I normally don't avoid buying anything cutesy, but my heart melted at Kiddyland's (a famous omotesando character goods store) Miffy section. I LOVE Miffy products with a pointed zeal. Miffy products tend to let the bold original character designs speak for themselves and don't try as hard as Sanrio and Disney products to follow trends (though they used to be trendsetters, now they have such a dated image). So Miffy products tend to age really well and it was hard not to buy EVERYTHING.
For Engrish fans:
So Akira and I meandered into Shibuya (after he grudgingly had checked out closet child with me, a vintage goth/alternative fashion store on takeshita dori), because he had to buy a conservative interview shirt. Even though he had to be somewhere later, Akira offered to hang out with me in Shimokitazawa for a little bit (which with Harajuku, Haight Ashbury, and Melrose, are my favorite places in the entire world to shop).
We went to a tsuke-men place to eat (where you get noodles and put them in the soup in portions).
There are two things Akira looks like: a rabbit and John Lennon. Am I right?
Now when we were picking the amount of noodles, Akira didn't really have time to explain, but I said I wanted a lot of food. He said that the big size was really, really big and he thought it was too much for me, but I just felt challenged so I ended up ordering it. OH MY GOD. IT WAS A LOT OF NOODLES.
My hand for scale:
This picture does not convey how many noodles there were or what it was like to eat this many noodles.
I tried my damndest, but Akira had to help me finish. I felt like throwing up for an hour or two afterwards, and this continued until I after I met up with Hiroko.
I only worked for a little bit when Alida said I wasn't actually scheduled for that day (which is normally a day off), so I said goodbye and checked out a little bit of Tokyo Design Week. I was really unimpressed and uninterested with the 100% Tokyo Design show, but I'm really not interested in product and environmental design.
11/3 - Hanging out with Akira in Harajuku, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa (then Hiroko)
So I had asked my good friend Akira if he could show me around "urahara," the famed "backstreets of Harajuku" and Harajuku proper, to show me some trendy shopping spots. Since I had only bought a shirt out of sheer functionality so far (I was dying in the heat when I arrived), my goal of the the day was to buy several incredible items.
Stores sometimes have mannequins out front to give an indication of what sort of clothes they sell there, so the ones above and below indicate quite clearly that they have really awesome stuff inside:
We elected to go to the circuit girl one (I am such an outsider that I don't know the name of the store. But it delivered.)
I really liked this lane and this picture Akira took for me. I realized when I got back to America that I didn't really have that many pictures taken of me that are decent.
This was settled between really expensive stores. I honestly don't know why.. it might have been an incredibly expensive something or other only for the super in the know, or it could have been the shack inside that it was outside. Either way, I liked the facade.
For color.
Next to the cash register of a sort of gal-ish vintage clothing store.
Okay, I normally don't avoid buying anything cutesy, but my heart melted at Kiddyland's (a famous omotesando character goods store) Miffy section. I LOVE Miffy products with a pointed zeal. Miffy products tend to let the bold original character designs speak for themselves and don't try as hard as Sanrio and Disney products to follow trends (though they used to be trendsetters, now they have such a dated image). So Miffy products tend to age really well and it was hard not to buy EVERYTHING.
For Engrish fans:
So Akira and I meandered into Shibuya (after he grudgingly had checked out closet child with me, a vintage goth/alternative fashion store on takeshita dori), because he had to buy a conservative interview shirt. Even though he had to be somewhere later, Akira offered to hang out with me in Shimokitazawa for a little bit (which with Harajuku, Haight Ashbury, and Melrose, are my favorite places in the entire world to shop).
We went to a tsuke-men place to eat (where you get noodles and put them in the soup in portions).
There are two things Akira looks like: a rabbit and John Lennon. Am I right?
Now when we were picking the amount of noodles, Akira didn't really have time to explain, but I said I wanted a lot of food. He said that the big size was really, really big and he thought it was too much for me, but I just felt challenged so I ended up ordering it. OH MY GOD. IT WAS A LOT OF NOODLES.
My hand for scale:
This picture does not convey how many noodles there were or what it was like to eat this many noodles.
I tried my damndest, but Akira had to help me finish. I felt like throwing up for an hour or two afterwards, and this continued until I after I met up with Hiroko.
Labels: aoyama, harajuku, shibuya, shimokitazawa
¶ 2:39 AM
