i love hong kong in the spring time -

maybe for me, tokyo is uptown,
and hong kong is the east village.


it's gritty, yes, but you actually feel the energy and the industry all around you.
everything isn't perfect,
but there's a "street energy" you can absorb as you step outside.


brands even sponsor their own grafitti here:



tim would LOVE this, he's all over the animation,
from avatar to venom.
so i guess that would be from A to V.

but don't get me wrong.
there is definitely a healthy dose of glamour to the grit.
it just tends to whiz by really fast, no matter how frequent:

on the road, again -

i am spending a ridiculous amount of time unconscious
on those things in the background.

bless you little ambiens.
you make time zones a blur,
and i end up someplace new, all happy.

unlike this poor boy, who seems to have crashed mid-trip:



this is the hong kong airport, one of like sixty lounges scattered between the shops.

they take cherry blossom time SERIOUSLY here:

just try to escape em.

they are freakin' everywhere.

creepy little flowers . . .

found my groove in tokyo town -

all it took was a little gray sable,
and someone to lead me a bit through the translation:


sweet jim franzen never knew what hit him.
i wanted to see everything, so he took me to see . . . EVERYTHING.

traditional flower arranging: check.


a view of the city from "on high": check.


cherry blossoms (tis the season): check.


fine dining hidden down side streets that you have to enter through the back courtyard: check.


the most amazing part of this restaurant (well, besides the classic landis desire to move in immediately), was the vanilla and stilton bleu cheese ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

i know what it sounds like, but we were all like "oh. my. gawd. yes. please. master. more."

jim rocks the "julie the cruise director" category.

and he does it without cocaine. amazing.

OMETESANDO, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh -

can i just move in?

it's the prada flagship. surely they won't mind.

i'm small. i don't take up much space. (the dogs MIGHT be an issue, but i'll give them something other than a nine hundred dollar floral heel stiletto to gnaw on.)

i'm sure this will work out JUST fine.

ometesando is the (one of the) pricier areas of japan. more madison avenue, where they call the retail flagships, not "flagships", but "cathedrals". i kid you not. because they are that much beyond a flagship. i wandered inside that prada store for half an hour not even seeing the merch because the architecture was so amazing, all bubble windows and doubling back stairs.

even the produce (which here is considered a great gift) is not cheap. witness HUNDRED DOLLAR BOX OF CHERRIES:


or the great wall of soy:


or my fave store, LOVELESS, which is underground. well, located under the goyard store, in the catacombs. but the poster! ah, BLISS!


then down an alley behind dolce and gabbana to this amazing gyoza shop. all they serve is one kind of gyoza, steamed or fried, with or without leeks and garlic. and cucumbers in peanut sauce. that's it. people lined up around the block. and worth it!

say SHIBUYA six times fast -

the shibuya area is a crosswalk of insane proportions, mainly from the sheer crush of humanity pushing it's way through the walkway at all hours of the day. it's the home to the cheap chic part of tokyo, the fast fashion, and more than it's fair share of the costumes you see so often on the blogspots.


overall, i love the freedom with which people dress here. for a culture based on uniformity, it's hella fulla individuals, none of whom seem to blink at statements small:


or slightly more distinct:


or downright intentionally bold:


but it's the un-intentional beauty of the dressing here that most often is catching me off guard:


oh. and HERE. proof that i'm actually in the city:

well! EBISU you, too!

'allo.

writing to you from semi-sunny tokyo here. can you see the shadow of my plane from my landing? it's like where's waldo if waldo were a several ton piece of metal hurtling through the atmosphere and trying to land on a small strip of concrete on an island.

(i'm a GOOD flyer, i clonazepAM)


just in and out for a week, soaking up some alien culture. because it is more other-worldly here than it is foreign, and the strange keeps seeping in in weird ways.

like their oh-so-easy to nav subway system. can you get anywhere by subway? uh huh. is it easy? well:


however the street fashion defies description. it's sick. it's chic. sometimes, it's both:


and they love them some american cultural influences:


you can't see hillary duff and the multi-colored disney phones in the picture. because i purposely cropped them out. because they are hillary duff and multi . . . never mind.


i just love the above shot. who are pinky and dianne? i don't have any idea, but they like thems some blonde girls.

more, above ground, tomorrow.

besos, mi mochis!