kitty fever

sanrioland - ikebukuro, tokyo

for dot, the hello-kitty-krazed-krackhead who unabashedly flaunts her love for the white japanese cat with little regard to personal reputation.

ps: i never thought i'd see the day when hello kitty would appear on this here blog, but i guess this is proof that anything is possible.

bye bye tokyo, hello singapore

the streets of asakusa


getting rid of bad fortunes


the healing smoke


making the effort


japanese and their large visors


the golden turd


men and their porn


the tokyo national museum


the last bit of dry we saw on an incredibly wet day


everyone using cellphones at the dinner table. tsk tsk


home sweet home...

long time no drink

and i have to say it's a blast getting sloshed in a foreign country with good friends.

being drunk in shibuya is weird... no one speaks english, and both visual and aural stimuli are overwhelming. definitely a memory to cherish.

now time to sleep....

there's peace, tranquility and then there is harajuku

ok not that it was that hectic, but after the extreme quiet of the meiji jingu shrine just a stone's throw away from harajuku, it was no wonder that the words that best describe the transition between the two would be 'shell-shocked'



a torii gate that marks the entrance to the meiji jingu shrine area


the blessings that kids ask for


a traditional japanese wedding ritual. interesting.


funny


looking up


more shops


shibuya revisited... in the rain


too lazy to write more.

till tomorrow.

majulah shibuya

been in tokyo since last thursday, and this is the first bit of breathing room i'm managed to find and blog. the weather is fantastic compared to the last time i was here in august, and things here seem just as crazy, but a little more familiar this time round. since i'm so lazy, here are the highlights of the past six days in point form:

thurs (18/5/06):
- packed sticker packs for the design festa till 2am
- rushed home to shower and pack my own stuff before getting a ride to the airport at 4am
- between the seven of us, we had excess baggage totaling 108kg, which, when combined with our allotted 20kg per person brought us to a grand total of 248kg worth of luggage.
- bloody entertainment system on the plane crapped out, given a USD$50 rebate to be used on next flight.
- followed mart's instructions and actually made it to the hotel in otsuka in one piece.
- a visit to ikebukuro for the newbies to take in the sights, followed by a bang up dinner/drinking session consisting of fried chicken cartiledge, shishamo, grilled squid, raw horse meat, sashimi, sushi, japanese pizza, fried mini crabs, lots of sake and beer.
- bundled a sloshed randy into a cab with richard and two newbies, took the train back.

fri (19/5/06):
- a visit to akihabara for a good ramen lunch
- electronic window shopping at yodobashi
- cool chocolate thingamajigs at some free internet cafe
- last minute shopping for plastic bags, table cloth etc for the design festa booth
- met up with rest of party at shibuya for a sushi dinner followed by a lame assed 'party' in ebisu complete with drunk englishman dj wannabe and bad 1940s orchard towers KTV ambience.

sat (20/5/06):
- start of the design festa. mart showed up at the hotel at 7:30am and proceeded to divvy out the various things us pack mules were supposed to carry
- got to the tokyo big sight an hour before opening and proceeded to do the typical singaporean thing of working under pressure at the last minute.
- long day, followed by an awesome dinner of shabu shabu at shinjuku before heading back.

sun (21/5/06):
- another crazy day of design festa-ing
- tear down followed by a dinner at some crazy place in ueno that cost 4220 yen (SGD $60) for a five course meal and unlimited booze.

mon (22/5/06):
- slept in (finally!)
- akihabara to meet martin and to buy my new toy

and today? well overslept and didn't make it to the fish market, but harajuku, here we come!!!

more pictures to follow.

safe and snug

there is nothing quite like the sense of security two bloodthirsty guard dogs can give to one's home.

procrastinalections

aka elections = good excuse for procrastination.

you've heard it before, i apologize for not blogging, then promise to do better, then fall right back into the trap of pure laziness. well get used it it, it will be the one recurring theme on this blog. in the meantime, some pictures that never saw the light of the printed page.


this year, we actually had a choice

surprises all around at the results... not

beware of lightning in foul weather

a sense of confusion in some camps

and yet the crowds came despite... erm... difficulties

he jumped off more than just the back of a pickup

lots of work, lots of sweat, no real tears, and after it all, a sense of accomplishment, and boredom as life reverts back to daily grind. i might post a few more election pictures, or i might start looking forward to japan.

either way, i'm back... for now.

paired for life

how can anyone looking at these pictures NOT see them as a couple forever?