What a shitty week. You know it's been crap when buying a hoover and do a big clean up of your apartment on a Saturday night feels like the most fulfilling thing you've done.
I wish I had the energy to make light of the stupid bitch of an artist I've had to work with this week, with her grandiose and completely untenable theories about the differences between how Asians and Westerners understand and interpret paintings... but I'm too tired and I just want to go to bed.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Love is in the Ear...
So, how will you be spending your Valentine's Day this year, Mr Moshi Moshi?
Having my ear operated on. Maybe I'll be lucky and the doctor will graft over my eardrum in the shape of a little heart.
Having my ear operated on. Maybe I'll be lucky and the doctor will graft over my eardrum in the shape of a little heart.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Leather Bother
I have been delighted on my return to Tokyo to find that the sales are not over yet. Fearing that I would be picking over the remains of the clothes rejected by the rest of Tokyo's fashion-conscious inhabitants, I have in fact been able to score a number of hits.
One ongoing saga that my friends in Tokyo have been watching unfold was my relentless quest for a jacket.
What I wanted:
-A leather or sheepskin jacket that is warm but not necessarily as warm as my ski jacket, and not exorbitantly expensive.
What I found during my search:
-Nothing but exorbitantly expensive, paper-thin leather jackets.
Now there was no doubt that these leather jackets were works of art, and probably worth the amount that was being charged for them, but there's something disheartening about discovering that the average price of a leather jacket in Tokyo is around 400 pounds. The average price. Seriously, the leather is beautifully soft and all, but we're not talking about Armani or Prada here, so how can they charge that much?? Do the Japanese stroke their cows to death?
To cut a long story short, I worked my way through two jackets before getting to what I wanted.
While back in England, I went to Camden Market, where by the end of the day I must have seen about 500 new and second hand leather jackets. Out of all of those, I only tried on about three because all the others looked so fucking sorry that I didn't even want to take them off the rack. Finally, I found pretty much exactly what I wanted for 100 quid, new -- found at the very end of the day: the last jacket on the on the last rack of the last shop I went into, telling myself that I'll give up if I didn't find anything in there.
Back in Tokyo, I managed the seemingly impossible last weekend, when by chance I found a second hand sheepskin jacket that is exactly what I want for 50 quid! Couldn't believe it, since in Japan second hand shops are pretty few and far between to begin with, and when you do find them, they tend to be more along the lines of "expensive vintage", and given its good condition they could easily have charged 100 for it. Score!
One ongoing saga that my friends in Tokyo have been watching unfold was my relentless quest for a jacket.
What I wanted:
-A leather or sheepskin jacket that is warm but not necessarily as warm as my ski jacket, and not exorbitantly expensive.
What I found during my search:
-Nothing but exorbitantly expensive, paper-thin leather jackets.
Now there was no doubt that these leather jackets were works of art, and probably worth the amount that was being charged for them, but there's something disheartening about discovering that the average price of a leather jacket in Tokyo is around 400 pounds. The average price. Seriously, the leather is beautifully soft and all, but we're not talking about Armani or Prada here, so how can they charge that much?? Do the Japanese stroke their cows to death?
To cut a long story short, I worked my way through two jackets before getting to what I wanted.
While back in England, I went to Camden Market, where by the end of the day I must have seen about 500 new and second hand leather jackets. Out of all of those, I only tried on about three because all the others looked so fucking sorry that I didn't even want to take them off the rack. Finally, I found pretty much exactly what I wanted for 100 quid, new -- found at the very end of the day: the last jacket on the on the last rack of the last shop I went into, telling myself that I'll give up if I didn't find anything in there.
Back in Tokyo, I managed the seemingly impossible last weekend, when by chance I found a second hand sheepskin jacket that is exactly what I want for 50 quid! Couldn't believe it, since in Japan second hand shops are pretty few and far between to begin with, and when you do find them, they tend to be more along the lines of "expensive vintage", and given its good condition they could easily have charged 100 for it. Score!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
After
The living space is about 50% bigger than my previous room.
Nicer floor, higher ceiling, bigger window.
A photo taken in the spirit of a Japanese interior design magazine.
Lots of closet and cupboard space built into the wall removes all clutter and makes the place feel even bigger.
Kitchen area is small but does the job
Before
I said I would post some pictures illustrating the before and after of my living situation. So here are the "before" pictures.
Now these pictures, taken soon after I moved in, show the flat looking something like immaculate, compared to the state I was complaining about so vehemently in the months before I moved out.
What you're looking at is relatively neat and tidy period that prevailed for about three months before my flatmate introduced the the hamsters, his girlfriend and other assorted piles of crap that filled up a further 30% of the living room.
My room: the culmination of 25 years of learning how to arrange the most number of things in the least amount of space (I had a small room throughout my childhood). The major challenge here was the total lack of closet cupboards (bar my flatmate giving me some of the space in his, next door). Hence the love affair with Muji storage began.
Now that I have a closet I can actually have my clothes out of sight and not hanging all over the place.
Clutterkitchen. Imagine this clutter extending to the rest of the room in the picture below and you'll get something like an image of the bric-a-brac shop I was living in in late 2006.
The miserable fish. Not long thereafter they were sidelined in favour of tall, conspicuous, rusty cages full of noisy hamsters.
Now these pictures, taken soon after I moved in, show the flat looking something like immaculate, compared to the state I was complaining about so vehemently in the months before I moved out.
What you're looking at is relatively neat and tidy period that prevailed for about three months before my flatmate introduced the the hamsters, his girlfriend and other assorted piles of crap that filled up a further 30% of the living room.
My room: the culmination of 25 years of learning how to arrange the most number of things in the least amount of space (I had a small room throughout my childhood). The major challenge here was the total lack of closet cupboards (bar my flatmate giving me some of the space in his, next door). Hence the love affair with Muji storage began.
Now that I have a closet I can actually have my clothes out of sight and not hanging all over the place.
Clutterkitchen. Imagine this clutter extending to the rest of the room in the picture below and you'll get something like an image of the bric-a-brac shop I was living in in late 2006.
The miserable fish. Not long thereafter they were sidelined in favour of tall, conspicuous, rusty cages full of noisy hamsters.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Just came back from a really good two weeks in England. I realise that for some of you reading this, this may be the first you've heard of it... argh! I'm truly sorry - somehow I didn't get to see all the people I wanted to see. It's nothing personal. Anyway, come to Japan :-)
My Flickr photo account is still generally doing more trade than this page, but I will try to write more regularly this year.
My Flickr photo account is still generally doing more trade than this page, but I will try to write more regularly this year.
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