A gift from my sister from her trip to Seoul. A simple cute horn for iPhone. It actually works. My dad trades these things from China, so it’s always fun to visit his office for goodies. Sorry for the bad color – I should have used a regular lens to photograph… And, a back cover to match…. The front!! Of my new iPad2!!!! (yes, I bought it!)
My French school, L’institut Franco-Japonais a Tokyo, is hosting a small exhibition of Yve Sant Laurant’s old black and white photographs. (Original photos by Jeanloup Sieff)When he was young and just released a new fragrance line, he decided to use his own nude photo for the advertisement, and commissioned Sieff the work. Yve and Sieff worked together for many years and left these amazing, classic, chic photographs. The show is still on until July 31st.
As I may have written before, I had been sewing a very simple linen dress these past weeks. Last weekend, my sister’s family were traveling to Seoul, while I was dog-sitting and borrowed her sewing machine as well. It’s a wrap dress in dark navy linen. A splash of purple in it. While I was sewing the hem (the finishing), one of the dogs, Rey, climbed up my niece’s (baby) chair on her own. So cute. Still sewing. The dress looks like this, it’s hard to make out, but it’s a wrap dress and there is a bow-tie in front. Here are something extra: some shots from this afternoon stroll in an old neighborhood not far from Akihabara (Tokyo). Lovely wall gardens.
There is something about those “Y” shaped street corners. You will understand what I mean if you look at this. The bright street corner is an italian restaurant. Once I was walking around the neighborhood after my French school, found this place, and I couldn’t resist looking into the door. The place was full.I was so sure this place to be a French restaurant, because this neighborhood is sort of like a French quarter in Tokyo, and also because of this cafe in Paris: Au Soleil de la Buttehttp://nyctaloop.free.fr/index.html (an amazing photo site) Looks familiar? This cafe was where Xavier in the film “Spanish Apartment” met his old girlfriend (portrayed by Audrey Tatou), and the only thing I remember about this movie. According to…
Found another very pretty florist in the neighborhood. I don’t know its name, I just know where it is. You can’t find many standard flowers such as tulips and carnations. Instead, they have many standard garden tree branches.近所にまた素敵なお花屋さんを発見。普通の民家の１階をぶち抜いて土間にして、お花屋さんにしてあります。木枠にガラスの嵌った引き戸を開けて入ります。普通のお花屋さんと違い、お花じゃなくて庭木の枝が沢山あります。色も緑が主体。 I bought a branch of hydrangea and another with small white flowers.These are what you can see everywhere in the neighborhood gardens and streets, but I don’t have a garden, unfortunately. So these made me feel like I belong to the neighborhood, to the ground below and its soil.今日は紫陽花と白い小花のついた枝を買いました。近所の道端そこいらじゅうに咲いている花、勢い溢れる緑。家には残念ながら庭が無いので、少しだけ路地の匂い、湿気、土の肌触りを部屋に取り入れています。少し地面に近くなった。 Below, I found while I was walking a back alley. It’s hard to read, but it reads: “Please tie the rein of your horse here.”ちょっと読みづらいけれど、こんなの見つけました。「馬でお越しの方は此処へおつなぎ下さい。」繋いでいるところ見たい。
Yesterday I had a small home warming party at my place. I waited until now because I wanted to have the painting first, before inviting people (you can see a small part of the picture in the background in my previous post).I didn’t invite too many people because (1) I haven’t cooked a real dinner in a while and (2) I only have 3 chairs and 3 mugs (one a bit broken). So there were just my sister’s family (but unfortunately they left before anyone else came), my artistic colleague, an artist who painted the picture, my amazing classmate, and 2 old male friends, one film director and the other a city planner.I felt so very happy to have these amazing friends. They all…
Peonies, along with camellias, are one of my most favorite flowers (my least favorites are tulips and lilies … it’s got to be something to do with their shapes and smells). Peonies can be found in most florists in Japan right now, and I discovered that a big portion of them are grown in the northern part of Japan. It’s not for eating, so I don’t have to worry about the radiation and such. Besides, they are full of dreams and faeries. I love drawing very complicated flowers with simple lines. I think this has been my style since long time ago. Let me show off some of the gifts I received for my birthday this year. Above, a preserved rose (I don’t know…
A typhoon is here. It’s probably coming closer to Tokyo as we speak. The rain drops are unbelievably heavy. Rain of this magnitude is rather refreshing. The noise on your umbrella is like a drum roll, loud and stereo surround you. I remember my high school graduation ceremony. The rain was falling hard on the auditorium rooftop and it sounded like clapping and applause of a huge crowd. It was exhilarating. The painting I purchased arrived this morning. The artist/friend delivered her work in the pouring rain. The painting is making me want to swim in a lake. I want to show you the picture of the painting, but I won’t, for now. For one thing, the color is impossible to capture, when the…
The previous posts were so gloomy, affected by the toothache. I am totally recovered now. I’ve finally emptied the last box, and my apartment feels more like home – I assembled a wall picture, rearranged books, bought some flowers. I also finished reading a book, finished a sweater, fixed my macbook (the battery was inflated after 4 years – is that possible?), and did plenty of shopping. I really needed to shop. I was crushed after I had to cancel my vacation plan. Now that I postponed it to July, I can’t use my flight mileage and it will cost me extra $1000. If you are an Expat, your company will pay huge amount of money wherever you vacation. So not fair. But I feel…
While I was holding my breath not to increase the already unbelievable toothache, my eyes were somewhat blankly following the journey of USS Enterprise. I watched the 2009 movie 3 times during the weekend, sometimes half asleep. I couldn’t knit because it hurt to move my arms, let alone read. I wanted to watch something simple and relaxing, some story that I know very well.As the pain receded I became curious about the old Star Trek series. I rented the movie 1 ~ 4 on iTunes and watched them all in one breath.The old movies were surprisingly well made. The special effects were obviously very low tech, but not corny. There were many small episodes that lead to the new film, which was a…
Sparkles*United