The girls are alright November 30, 2007

Being a girl in Japan, well in Asia in general is a recurring subject on that blog… Is it so difficult? I think not, on the contrary, I do feel much better in Asia. If I wear a skirt no matter how short it is, no sleazy d*** head will come up to me like you’re wearing a skirt so you’re easy, so I’m allowed to talk to you like you’re my b****. You can go out at night, you can go to clubs and dance the night away and no f***** a**hole will come up to you and try to lambada dance with you… Well of course there is a trade off, that is to say sometimes getting no attention at all from men can make you feel like maybe there’s something wrong with you…

But what I usually miss it’s little things that only European guys do, like holding the door for you, throwing a small complement … I miss gentlemen that make you feel like you’re special…

Friday night Sophie and I had a great evening of reminiscence… Ah Europe and European men… We went to one of my favorite Izakaya in Ebisu, (0357212980) and chated the evening away…

Sophie and I…. that picture looks kind of weird in a way!

I Karaoke November 29, 2007

What is Japan’s favorite entertainment? Karaoke of course… and yet somehow I’ve never had the opportunity to go there!!! Very strange! But that was before Thursday night!

Cause on Thursday night with the Shintaido crew we went on a special Karaoke night for AnG’s soon to be farewell… So for those not acquainted with Asian Karaoke… basically you rent a room and you have big couches, a TV and a huge variety of songs… downside is they usually don’t pay for the rights of the music video… so they make there own and it’s always quite cheesy!

It started off quite strangely as we were told not to order alcohol… like do you expect us to sing tacky songs sober?! Thank goodness crazy bojutsu sensei arrived… and the first thing he did was to order beer! And so we had beer and we heard Japanese songs and sang in English all in good fun… though I still felt a little selfconscious and not quite ready to truly have a go… no solo for me only duets!

Well here are some pictures

Saved by the beer!

Everybody’s gone but still they sing! (AnG and our Bojutsu sensei)

Hippy Sunday November 25, 2007

Sunday was a beautiful day! Like waking up and it’s not winter it’s a gorgeous fall’s day! Plus Momiji season has already started… So I decided to go to Yoyogi park! Yes not very original I know, but it’s actually quite a nice park for Momiji sight seeing!!!

Surprisingly enough on that same day a hippy kind of festival was organised at main stage! It was so nice to be outside seating down listening to new age music, breathing incense… There was music, dancing, food, drinks and a kind of flea market, very relaxing. Then I met up with Gina and AnG for a walk around Yoyogi. Just peaceful… It was indeed just a lovely Sunday afternoon, chill, sunny, with friends.

In the evening Gina came by my place and we tried some “nigori sake” (unfiltered sake) it is supposed to be the sweetest of all sake… it was mostly… chunky in a porridge kind of way! Not sure what we bought or if we poured it right! Anyways we had Belgian beer as a back up plan so that was nice!… need to learn more about that nigori thing!

Exotic Dancer and New Age Music

Momiji season at Yoyogi Koein

Ah beautiful momiji with little fountain…

The Japanese Momiji are actually very tiny leaves, with different shades of orange

Double Dutch

Kawai in it’s purest sugar coated form with whipped cream on top … but they just can’t get enough of it!!

Tokyo Dance Music Festival November 23, 2007

Friday was a day off… and what a day it was! Natsuko who was to celebrate her Birthday told us about this special event. Basically during the day there is a kind of outdoor DJ party at Yoyogi park, and in the evening the party moves to clubs!

The outdoor part was fun, though it was quite cold… but most Japanese used copious amounts of beer to keep themselves warm! It was all joyous, kind of like a baby rave in the city! and the DJ’s were really good… I especially liked DJ Q’hey, he was awesome!

Outdoor party!

When Japanese go wild he was waving 2 rabbits!

In the evening we went to a quiet and rather cheap bar in Shibuya definitely a good place to have a drink… or two… or more cause it’s so cheap! It’s called plate of pie.pop (0354594100)

Natsuko the birthday girl and Malo

Then we headed towards Womb, cause the entrance was only 1000Y if you got in before 10pm… Yes I know Japanese people go clubbing Very early! Anyways, Womb is a totally awesome club! It’s in Shibuya in the middle of the love hotel district! There’s a main stage and the ceiling is quite high so you feel like you can breathe even if people are smoking and the lighting effects are just magic. there’s a huge disco ball that they use to propel light there’s I don’t know how many devices for special lighting effects! Absolutely great! then there’s an upstairs more cosy.

I had a really good time the music was great and the atmosphere was nice… though people faded quite early… the problem with Japanese is that they drink too much, too fast, too early, so at 10pm “bodies” are already being carried around!

Womb magic!

Because Blondes have more fun

Thanks Giving November 22, 2007

I’ve finally had my very first “Thanks giving” diner! Gina took us to the US military owned New Sanno hotel in Hiroo. This hotel is actually restricted to US military personnel and officials.

It’s a gorgeous place quite massive! They even have a post office and all the price are in USD. The “Thanks Giving” diner was held in the ballroom, it was buffet style. The quantity was absolutely impressive… all Caucasian food! Turkey obviously, green bean, courgette, pasta rolls, mash potatoes with gravy, roast, ham… and for desert… cheese cakes galore, ice cream, cookies, pumpkin pie… It was difficult not to go absolutely crazy over all the food there was! And so we ended our meal with tight bellies and a feeling of satisfaction!

I shall remember this first “Thanks Giving” diner with great nostalgia… Ah food glorious food!

Ah Food

Gina is happy

Oh poor melting turkey, looking like a swan

The Gals went to a bar in Roppongi to finish off the night!

The best place to dine November 19, 2007

On Monday night Ikuko, Melinda and I were invited to probably the best place to dine in Tokyo! This place is called “Hinomaruken” (33256190) the chef says he is making Eurasian food, I guess it’s kind of mix influence… that night we had so many different types of food it was unbelievable! We had squid with squid ink sauce, a kind of tomato salsa with octopus, tagine, couscous, lamb kebab, a kind of croquetta with what seemed like spinach in it, chicken kind of tandori… Just amazing! What else was absolutely insane was the wine we had some Beaujolais nouveau of course! some Cornasse and some Bourgogne from Ikuko’s “vintage year” and some Madère from 1908… !!

So why have I given the title of best place to dine in Tokyo to that particular restaurant? Well it’s not just about the food!… It’s about atmosphere and decoration! This place is just completely hectic! A poster of David Lachapelle is flirting with Old Eurasian dress with very XIXth century tacky wall paper… it’s just things that were just so unlikely to meet all dancing gloriously before your eyes… I do not see words to describe this place! you just have to go there and I promise you that you will be dazzled!!

What happens when you grow old!!

Ikuko enjoying her “vintage year”!

 

Melinda tempting us to a glass of california wine

Bull in a china shop (+18 only) November 17, 2007

The end of fall, it’s momiji season now (the maple tree leave that become orange) the beginning of winter, temperature are now under 15°c but the weather is beautiful nice sunny sky no more humidity.

Saturday AnG, Gina and I went for a girly night! We started at a very nice nomihoudai in Shibuya called “Wan”. It looks like a very authentic Izakaya with Japanese style tables only and an english menu for drinks, and plenty of pictures for the food menu so for the illiterate gaijin that we were it was perfect! We started with beer and then got some hot sake! Of course our conversation was hilarious and got more and more ridiculous as we were pouring down the sake! Nomihoudai time finished and it was still quite early and after the wild conversation we had only a wild idea could spur!!! And so we followed Gina to Akihabara to go to a very “special” place!!!

Yes the three of us went to M’s… And for those who do not know what it is, basically it’s a five storage “adult shop”!!! We started from the top! The 5th floor is basically wacky and kinky costumes (all wrapped in plastic covers on hangers) you can find just about anything, the classic maid, hilarious j-string for men, weird and not really sexy female underwear (like what you’d wear when you were 6)… The 4th floor is plain disturbing, it’s mainly porn videos but most of them have girls tied up on it and they don’t really look like they’re having a good time… you can also find ropes and kind of gobstopper… just disturbing! Ah but the third floor is dedicated to women! Rabbits of all shape and sizes strange device with remote control so your partner can “tickle” you from a distance! And all sorts of things I’ve never seen before! The 2nd floor is dedicated to men, and I think that’s where we got the biggest laugh! Very weird things (to us) are exposed women trunk in silicon women plastic back part, silicon tubes women front part with fake body hair! Just absolutely hilarious though we probably scared off a few customers! The 1st floor is back to disturbing porn with girls in school uniforms… in France any reference to underage girls is strictly controlled… I mean really if the girl is in a school uniform she is obviously underage!… I am quite concerned about sexuality in Japan!

Anyways we had a really fun time and decided to finish the night with one last drink (or 2) we walked to Kanba and went to a bar called M’s Crux (0364275085), a small cozy bar right next to the station nothing kinky about it… It was all joyous and our next girly night shall be to watch “The rocky horror picture show”!!!

As a treat here are some pictures…

Extension… for men with a “small” problem

Tube for special massage

 

Massage again!

Well sorry I’m not sure I’m allowed to post more explicit pictures! I guess you have to go to M’s and see it for yourself!!! 

Dating in Japan… (Part 1) November 16, 2007

Dear readers,

Yes I am continuing my live reporting from this far away island! Today’s hot topic, the Japanese romance! No, no need to get over excited! I am nowhere near dating a Japanese!

So Anyways on popular demand here are some insights about love, dating and romance!

Warning: What follows is just a fun personal report after talking to different people.

 

What the girls want… most Japanese girls have to (decide to) quite their job once they get married. So most Japanese girls would rather get married to a well off Japanese men. The girls will therefore pay much attention to the financial stability, ambition and family background of their potential husband. This might be seen as a “gold digging” attitude but to be fair, if they have to become a housewife, might as well have money! Yes for one might think the Japanese society is very macho but one must realize that in the couple, the wife takes care of the money (albeit half of the pay is actually given as a bonus in cash to the salary men so they don’t really have to give it all to their wives!!! and I’m not kidding!). Japanese girls usually feel that once they turn 25 they should really find someone. So it’s usually at that time that they will probably change their attitude towards men and start to be really serious about relationship and marriage.

 

Men have usually double the pressure, first familywise, they should get a good job because the son is so important, pride of the family…. but they should also have a good job if they actually want to get a lady and have sufficient revenue to have a family! Japanese men are usually extremely shy (that’s actually an understatement) they don’t really talk to girls flirt or say they like someone. If they’re not like that, they’ve either lived abroad, they’re really slithy (start running) or plain weird (keep on running).

 

Meeting someone is the tricky part! you see, japanese society doesn’t really allow you to talk to strangers unless you’ve actually been introduced. Anyways not such a long time ago most marriages were arranged by parents, so this dating issue is rather new. Most people will meet their spouse at uni or at their work place. Should you be still single and unable to find someone at you work place, then to meet potential single men and women Japanese organize GOKON. Basically it’s diner with equal number of boys and girls. So if one girl has a guy friend she might tell him she has a few single girl friends and then he can think of single guy friends he knows and so people have diner and can exchange numbers if they feel like it. Usually alcohol is involved… it takes a few beers to get people comfortable. Though it is quite popular it’s still not something you should openly talk about (as some people might think you’re desperate!) I am yet to experience one of these!

 

The date: A typical date in Tokyo will be probably close to a shopping mall! Yokohama and Odayba are quite popular dating spots, they are nice and clean cafes and restaurant, amusement parks (ah the big wheel!) movie theatres, places to walk around with your darling and take “kawaï” pictures and plenty of shops! (I’ve never considered going shopping with my boyfriend but here it’s actually quite popular!)

The confession: a very important thing! You actually start having a relationship only once the guy has “revealed” his feelings for you! Only then can you consider you’re going out… but it also means it’s serious!

Well I hope you enjoyed that post!

News break November 13, 2007

Yes! I completely forgot to tell you… Guess who’s got a totally awesome new camera!!! It’s an orange Olympus U830 (8.0pixels… compared to the 2.0 of my Casio, it does make a world of difference!!!)… But I still need to learn how to use it!!! so many options!!!

Oh! and I’m also taking up shintaido classes! Tonight it’s Bojutsu (ie you’ve got a 1m80 stick of wood and you learn how to fight with it!!!)

And last but not least I have my first private tuition of Japanese Tomorrow!!!!

The object of my affection

Never without my Vuitton November 12, 2007

Most people in France strongly believe that every Japanese girl owns a Vuitton, and well I guess it’s partly true!

If you own a Vuitton in France chances are you are over 40, high middle income very classic taste in fashion. The types of LV bags you usually encounter in France are called “epi” it comes in different colors and the brand LV is discretely inserted on the side. You only take your bag in your nice and safe high middle income Parisian neighborhood and surely not in the metro! The Vuitton is a way to say where you stand in society and surely not a fashion statement.

Now in Japan it’s a totally different story! It doesn’t matter how rich you are, all the girls want a Vuitton, and the LV should be as visible as possible! It’s actually quite interesting to see these top of the Asian fashion girls or really everyday looking girls all with their Vuitton, just wearing it casually…

So what is the attraction for Vuitton? Well from what I understood it’s the unique “savoir-faire”. Japanese have an inasatiable love for details and prefection, and though I’m not a Vuitton fan one must admit that the quality is undeniable.