Two days ago...

Greetings and Salutations!

When is the last time you heard someone say that? I can't remember the last time, but I do remember the first. It was in the movie 'Demolition Man' (forgive my poor grammar). Do you remember that movie? Wesley Snipes was in it, and I think he was a cop, who went to the future to stop some evil villain, or something like that. I can't count how many times I watched that movie when I was a kid, in fact, when I was younger I used to watch the same movies countless times, before watching another one. Now, after I see a movie once, I really don't want to see it again (even really good films). I suppose, since I'm a film major, I should probably get out of that habit.

I bought a new camera (a Canon G10), and I'm very happy with it. I can now start working on the weekly contests, and whatnot. I'm looking forward to it. I like breaking out of the norm, and doing something extraordinary, every once in a while. So, I promise to start on that as soon as possible, but since I was so excited to have my camera, I went to one of the shops here in Toyohashi, and took some pictures of the clothes, and the interior for your viewing pleasure.

So here are a few of them (click them):




(This is the entrance. How cool is it to have a motorcycle in the entrance?)










(These are the stairs leading down to the store, take note of the Tide on the upper shelf towards the left.)








(This is beautiful. I want to display my shoes like this in my house.)








(The checkout area, and the owner, who is also apparently the DJ)







(OK... this is the selling point. There is a glass box in the middle of the store.)








(The jewelry is displayed in the big red toolbox)





(I kind of messed this picture up. I wanted to get a shot of the glass box in the middle of the store, but I ended up having to mend to pictures together, and it turned out like this. It show you how awesome the box is, but you can easily find the seam of the two shots.)


The name of the store is 'pas de chat'. I think that it means 'the laughing cat' in French. I don't want this post to turn into a commercial, so I'd tried to keep it brief.

It sucks, but I really haven't made many friends since I've been here. I would like to blame that on the fact that my Japanese isn't perfect, but I know that isn't the real reason, because I honestly don't have any real friends in America either. I've never gotten close enough to anyone to get to that point though. Recently, I figured I'd do something to change that. I kind of let myself go (concerning my appearance), so I figured the first thing I should do is start to shave, and dress nice again. Make myself attractive. I mean, think about it guys... if you are someone who doesn't just throw something on in the morning, than do you want to hang around with someone who looks like a bum? Hell no.

Speaking of fashion-forwardness... most young Japanese people are EXTREMELY meticulous about the way that they dress. I'm usually someone who is against making generalizations like that, but I don't think that I'm wrong in saying so.

Back to the store. In my attempt to start to look better, I decided to go around to a few of the clothing stores here in Toyohashi. What I found were a lot of clothes that were out of my price range, or way too small (I'm 6'3"). 'pas de chat' is is one of the former, however I really liked the way the store was arranged, and for some strange reason, they have Tide (yes the detergent).

I'll keep you updated on the transformation progress.

So, other than that, when I was on my way home from taking the pictures. I ran into a homeless guy, or rather a homeless man... hunted (?) me down. He said to me, "It's cold isn't it?" I didn't have any plans, so I entertained him. "I'm pretty hungry", and "I don't drink alcohol," are the next words that came out of his mouth (...well not exactly, since he said it in Japanese). "The Brazilians usually help me out, but they didn't come today," and "They say tomorrow is going to be colder", are amongst a few of the weapons in this skilled pity-grabber's artillery. Of course I gave in. It's funny though, because he knew I would, probably before he said anything to me, but was shocked when I could only give him 500 yen. The expression on his face said "That's it?!?". Here's the picture of Ito (taken with permission, obviously):











I'm going to try my best to get those pictures next week. Until then.

Weekly contest

So I just came back from Tokyo (right now I live in Toyohashi, in Aichi prefecture), and I visited Harajuku.

I think that, out of all of the wards in Tokyo, Harajuku is probably my favorite. The way the people dress there is insane. Everyone is so fashionable, and particular about how they dress, it's amazing, and of course every clothing line imaginable has a store there. I think that this may be the fashion capital of our planet, really.

My absolute favorite clothing line has always been Ralph Lauren, and they have a flagship store in Harajuku. You really can't compare this area of Tokyo to any other place, BUT if you've been to New York City, and you visited the area on 5th Avenue where all of the pricier stores are, than that's kind of what Harajuku is like, but all of the pricier stores like Fendi, Prada, etc. are in an area called 'Omotesando', but I think that Omotesando may be considered Shibuya, and not Harajuku. It's strange when you go directly from Harajuku to Akihabara, because although the majority of Japanese people are very fashion-conscious, you actually see 'nerds' in Akihabara, and I don't mean people who dress like nerds, because they think it's cool, I mean nerds. I love going there, because I'm a huge Street Fighter fan, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike is by far my absolute favorite, so I go to watch the matches (they are really incredible).

This is my third time visiting Tokyo. The first time I went, was for the Tokyo Game show, the second time was for a campus tour of the university that I want to enter, and this time was so that I could get out of my room.

I'm getting off topic though, I was trying to think of an interesting way to show you guys the different fashions in Japan, and I came up with the idea of doing a poll on who is dressed the best every week. Maybe I could show you guys one person each weekday, and then run a poll on the weekends to see who you guys (which as of now is probably just my sister, and my father), thought was the best dressed. I need a new camera though, because mine is terrible, so after that I'll start doing this I'm promise. I'll have to start here in Toyohashi though (which is good, because you'll get to see the difference between smaller towns, and Tokyo's fashion trends...).

Also, on a side note. I realized that selling stuff on eBay, may be a little bit harder than I originally thought as there are a lot of stores on the internet which already do so. Having said that, my original idea of selling all types of things has been scratched. I will only sell things that I don't think that you can get from any other place on the internet, and I won't sell very often.

Thanks for reading this long post.

ようこそ！

Welcome to my blog! First, and foremost, thank you for coming.

This being my first post, I feel as though it would be only right to make a pledge... so here it is. I pledge to change the banner on my page at least once a month. I pledge to tell only the juciest (not a word... until now), most interesting stories. I pledge to try my best to keep the use of the ellipsis to a minimum. I will also, be posting items that I sell on ebay every once in a while, so please check them out, I pledge, and promise that they will be cool.


Speaking of which this is my first item.










I will be listing MANY things in the future, from food, to clothes. I also take requests. So if you want something from Japan, than let me know. Seriously, anything.

With that said, 'Welcome'.