on a whim

Ji and I drove to ny last night around midnight. We got there at 2 and left at 5, and that jawn was still bustlinnnn.


A Yoshinoya sighting had us reminiscing about our (separate) Nihon dayzz..



Justin Bieber in McDonalds. I only found out recently that his name isn't Justin Beaver, which is a shame really.


Our last act in the big city was getting our portraits done. We both stared into the eyes of this Chinese man for half an hour a piece. Things got pretty intimate.

Currently I am listening to the latest from Autolux and preparing for the punk rock flea market. I hope to see you there tomorrow!

concrete jungle

(I admit it, I love empire state of mind.) So my sister and I ventured to ny yesterday, Manhattan and Brooklyn specifically. I made an itinerary and everything. We got shepherd's pie for lunch at an Australian place called Tuck Shop. After refueling, we did some shopping in SOHO (Uniqlo!). Apparently the Kardashians were at Topshop when we were there. Here is a conversation that the pop-culture conscious Carol and I had.

"Who are the Kardashians?"
"Uh.. they have dark hair?"

Then we had our first taste of MACARONS at La Maison du Chocolat. They were a lot smaller than I had imagined. Here is a picture of me next to some macarons to give you a sense of scale.

So navigating around Manhattan was a hitch but sadly Brooklyn was kind of a bust. It was only my third time there so gimme a break. First we tried to get to the Brooklyn flea market and we couldn't find it. Instead, we settled for smoothies at Bklyn Crepe and Juice bar, which were DELICIOUS! I had a blueberry/coconut/ginger smoothie. It was spicy and tangy and everything good, and even though it turned my teeth purple and seedy, I luuurrrved it. I also had a box of blueberries for breakfast on the bus over. Trivia(l): As a child, I was allergic to blueberries. I guess I'm not anymore.


Then we went to the Brooklyn Museum for a free night of activities. We found it without a problem but the lines were decades long (who knew so many people liked free stuff?) so we stayed for an "electropop" act for bit, then headed back to Manhattan for dinner. Korean BBQ!

There were lots of really young girls who were totally into this band. Strange, as this was a lyric that I caught: "Give it to me, give it to me slowly. It's a small motion explosion." Here are some other interesting things I heard yesterday:

"Sorry, I'm not a hotdog girl."
"I wanted to breastfeed him tonight but I was wasted."

I feel like I'm getting much better at navigating through ny. I saw an otherwise "cleancut" boy wearing bright red lipstick. Korean boys were trying to charm my pants off. Someone called me a fairy on the way home. All in all, a day well spent.

I've got big plans.

I'm finding it a lot harder to blog in Tokyo than it was in Philly. But I'm doing it now as a way to procrastinate from writing term papers and also to remind myself of these big plans of mine. So far, I've stayed in Tokyo, with the exception of a day-excursion to Yokohama. So here's what I'm thinking.

Nov 6-8: Kanazawa area in Ishikawa Prefecture (right after a Lightning Bolt show!).
Nov 12: Tokyo Disney Land
Nov 14-15: Nagoya and Hamamatsu
Nov 27-29: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara. Although I should do this on the 20-23 since I've got that Thanksgiving holiday, but Battles is playing on the 21 so I don't know..
Sometime during weekend of Dec 4-6: Hakone onsen/ryokan trip. OMG LAST WEEKEND can you believe dat ish?



And apparently we only have one full week of school left, so I still want to make it out to a few places in Tokyo on my days off. Everyone is scrambling to make plans for the remaining weekends. kind of looks like we're all going our separate ways but I'm looking forward to it.

Edit: I want every single pair of United Nude shoesies. check the new collection.