博多 - Hakata

For Golden week, three of my friends and I went to Hakata, which is on the island Kyushu (just south of the biggest island for those of you who don't know what Japan looks like) and here are some pictures from that experience.

This was my bento on the Shinkansen.  It was good but one of the onigiri (riceballs) had baby shrimp in it, and I did not like.  
Outside the hotel room, they were practicing for matsuri (festival) that was going on the weekend we were in Hakata.
This is the biggest shopping mall in Hakata, and it is thus called Canal City (a river runs through it)
And there was a Murakami sculpture!
And a pineapple bacon hamburger (I ate one, it was good) 
The beach (it was a little cold)

This is the bus stop.  Please note the grass growing out of the top.
Near the bus stop...
Shouldn't we all deserve to pick up the hotness of our choice?
Black sesame and Pumpkin scones, respectively, at the Muji cafe.
I don't know if you can tell what's going on here, but the hole closes if i push the thingy that my finger is one the other way.  
Hakata-style ramen!!  Only the BEST! (the chain of restaurants called Ippudo serves this style ramen, and it is soooooo good)
ウルトラマン (Ultraman) soda...
Hokkaido style ramen was also found... corn and butter... can't go wrong!
Oh, yeah.  And i saw Crows Zero II.  It was amazing.  The new characters are just as hot as Oguri Shun!!

Cell Phone pics from My Cool Day

So, yesterday I went to this really cool place.  The whole gallery was red (except for the articles on sale and the art).  The reason that I went there with my friend Haruhi is that there were four Banksy works on exhibition.  Two were on canvas (one was even hand-signed!) and cost as much as a small car, according to Meibi, one of the guys who works at the shop.  We hung out on the store for a whole while and got to be friends with the two guys that work there.  One of their girlfriends has some stuff in the gallery, and I really liked it.  Click Here to peep her blog.  They also had some work by Banksy-inspired artist named Prole.   Pretty sweet stuff.  We met up with everyone later after Haruhi and I did a little shopping around Shinsaibashi went out to yakitori with one of the shop workers (I forget his name because we just kept calling him otousan (dad) or maru (circle)) and the wife of Ken Hamazaki, the red gallery's namesake.  Isn't the toilet funny (for all you art history nerds)...Somewhere in between gallery visits, Haruhi treated me to lunch.  It turns out that her dad actualy owns a restaurant in Shinsaibashi on Dotonbori on the other side of the street from this fugu called Dotonbori Imai.  I had egg and duck soba soup like thing, and it was awesome.  

Harihi looks pretty badass, ne?
I FOUND BIC LIGHTERS!  Funny thing, though, they have no child safety thingies...

AND NOW FOR SOME RANDOM IMAGES~

There was a rainbow around the sun on Friday.  It was only around (pun intended) for like 15 minutes.  SO cool!  Have you ever seen anything that cool?
The advert for the host club next to a Club Pure that I went to last Friday.   Where's Marinara?
That's all, folks.  I'll try to be more consistent in the future.  No guarantees, though.

Love Love

TAKARAZUKA

This is the outside of Takarazuka.  It took up like an hour and a half to get here.  You bet I took a picture.
These are the Takarazuka stairs the my teacher likes. 

This is Patrick.

This is my friend, Masa.  I think he was pointing to the chandeliers, which he probably said were "fierce".  Yes, I taught him that.
Takarazuka is an all-female production with amazing stage changes and tons of flamboyant costumes (bright colors and glitter).  The people there are mostly women and there is a whole culture for when to clap for your favorite actress and the women get really into the women that play male roles and it's crazy bizarre.
I apologize for how late this is, it's really embarrassing.  You must know that I do care about you and love you all, but I have been busy.  

blingee is the best

it's like purikura, but on the internet.  heh.  ok.  sorry i haven't updated in a while, i have been mad busy.  

love you

花見

Okay, so, sorry it's been a while guys, you know that I'm having so much fun that sometimes I don't need, want to use or think about the internet.  But I know that a lot of my friends and family maybe need to live vicariously through me so, perhaps, they need my blog to for entertainment and/or happiness.  Sorry for the delay, folks.  On Sunday, I did 花見, which reads ha-na-mi and means flower viewing, flowers referring to sakura blossoms, which are in full blast right now.  Hanami usually involves going to a place where there are cherry blossoms blooming with a bunch of friends, a tarp and some alcohol.  Since the park we went to already had tarps laid out in advance for all the flocks of people that come every day, we had more room for drinks!  We went to Kyoto, the best place in Japan (and thus the world) for this kind of activity.  We went to Maruyama Park, which is apparently pretty well-known for hanami.  The pictures are pretty self-explanatory.  
God bless Macro setting
Sunset!

These are these baskets with burning logs in them.  You can't really get that close to them but I think that they are a tradition either of this park or of hanami in general and their function is to either keep bugs away or keep humans warm.  Or both.  

This beer was smaller than my hand.  It was really cute.  I didn't buy it though, I opted for sake.

Part of the park, there was a small temple.  I know that some people try to do hanami in DC or whatever but that is pathetic.  I don't really have pictures of the size of the biggest Sakura tree in the park or the mass of people in this park, but they were both awesome in every regard.  

I also heard that this year, the flowers are especially pink due to the cold winter.  

WTF

I LOVE VEGI

Japanese Things in Paris

The First Japanese restaurant I saw.  They were mostly all generic looking, and mostly had pictures of sushi in the windows.  When I peered into them, none of the workers seemed to be Japanese.  Oh well.
Glico and Lu teamed up!!
I saw this at Colette, a hip(ster) store.  It is incredible. 

Monocle is a magazine about Manga, and that dude is a character that a Japanese person may recognize.  This pop culture significance is crazy.  There was also a Toto Toilet, which paled in comparison to the ones we have as school.  But whatever, it was like a little slice of Japan to do my business on.  
And there were some racist details!!

HUGE!  ANd near the Tour Eiffel...
REALLy near the Tour Eiffel...  I was shocked!

Other than all these things, I ate all the Confit de Canard and Foie Gras my heart desired, and saw many beautiful things (including one man in particular...)

Spring Break

So, I know what you're thinking. I must be crazy to go to Paris for Spring Break. Well, the truth is this was not the original plan. Initially, my family was going to come over to Japan for some quality tourism around both Kanto and Kansai, but it turns out that our economy is in the shitter and this was just not the most opportune time. So, my mother gave me some miles and now I'm in Gay Ol' Paree to visit my boyfriend, Ben. It is surreal and wonderful. I don't have my camera connector with me, so you will all just have to wait for some images.

Sharing: It's a Rule Now!

That is a quote from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Charlie says it after he has stolen and eaten Frank's "human meat".  

Anyways, I have loads of pictures because I haven't given you guys an update in a while.  This may or may not be chronological.  

So, last Sunday (one week ago)  I went to Byoudoin (Phoenix Pavillion) in Kyoto.  It was fun and pretty.  And if you don't know what it looks like, Masa and I will show you! 

And then, because we were in Kyoto, and there's green tea everywhere, we got some green tea soft ice-cream.  It had green tea powder on it.  It really gave you  surge of energy and turned your mouth green. 

 Then we went shopping in the main shopping area in Kyoto.  We went to Takashimaya, the best department store in the world, and for some reason went up to the roof, where we found all these broken down kid's rides.  THIS IS WHERE JAPAN HIDES THE ROBOTS!!

Yeah, and then I found the saddest one and stood on it. 

CAUTION:  EXPLICIT MATERIAL!

If you are under the age of 18, or faint of heart, turn around and go home.  

Yesterday, a bunch of us went to this great store called Don Quihote (ドン・キホテー）and found some interesting things.  Consider this:

Really Japan?  I mean, REARRY?  It's like you're making fun of yourself.  A whopping 1% of you guys know what weed is.  

And this is where it gets real.  I found this porno in the...well... porno section and found it highly disturbing.  And awesome.  And funny.
For those of you who can't read Japanese or understand what's going on in the picture, that's a nursing home.  It's a nursing home porno!  What the FFFF!!!!?!?!?!!!?!?!?!?!!

And look, Mariah Carey for about one U.S. dollar.  Hooray!  

Alright kids, that's about all I got for now.  I hope you are all enjoying your respective lives.  

Love~