December 24, 2002
and Tatsuo
He arrived decked out for Christmas & gave out candy.That's the spirit! I loved seeing him having a good time although he said his beard was a pain...
Kojo the dj.
He'll be playing in SF&Miami in March.He & Kei told me about Ageha.A new club that holds 5000 people! Gotta try that!
Kenji who makes videos.
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and unlike the small screen @ Sugar High,now he has a large sheet that divides the room.His videos are more a part of the scene.I really enjoyed watching while dancing.
Went to Ruby Room
and met up with Kei.The place was pretty packed (and smoky...) cuz they had a live show. Kei's group put the show on.
December 23, 2002
Everyone loves a beautiful sunset.This is from my living room.
December 22, 2002
Protesters walking down Omotesando
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Against China's treatment and control of Hong Kong...
You gotta love harajuku fashion...
There are still the gothic black dressed white faced figurines, but there seems to be some movement towards color. Fun!
Kyoko saying hi
She ususally wears really sexy outfits, but last night, she had a buttoned up shirt and a preppy sweater. I was busy commenting on that and didn?t notice until later that she cut her hair...used to be to her butt and now it?s my length! Takes guts...but like me, she cuts her hair like twice a year, so she figured she might as well get her cut?s worth...
At Morena with Kyoko and regulars
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So I worked Sat and it was freezing and I didn?t want to venture too far from home. This is why I love my neighborhood...I can walk to a place like Morena?s and if not chat with Kyoko-san, there will be somebody I know. There was a shoe designer I had met before and another neighborhood guy. Totally enjoyed myself for a couple of hours. It?s usually the case that just when I?m about to leave, a new group comes in and we begin all over. By then, Kyoko and I were the only women so I stayed a bit more to keep her company...In the video, there is one guy who apparently is kind of shy or whatever and over the past 2 weekends, he spent about $2,000 at kyabakur (bar with very friendly girls...and you pay for it). He sighed, but said it was worth it. Whatever works, I suppose...
December 21, 2002
Forgot to post this. Conversation @ Enoki.
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As ususal, really interesting people at Enoki. The woman at the far left lives in Singapore and works for a magazine. She visits Tokyo once a month. She was just visiting her old school in Akita and was shocked and saddened to hear that high school girls, who wear their uniform skirts super mini mini with those loose socks, are actually suffering from the cold. Because their legs are essentially are freezing everyday, many girls stop menstrating. It takes 6 months for them go get back to normal, but of course, the girls want to continue slaving to fashion...I would like to find a way to tell these girls that life can be so much fun without doing that kind of stuff or living by peer pressure...that the older you get, the more fun it can be because you realize more and more that you can do whatever you please...How to have them realize they have so much power??
December 20, 2002
December 19, 2002
Ｃｈｉｚｕｒｕ Ｍama-san.
よろしく
Ｈey Ian, she says hi but your Ｅnglish emails are too difficult for her to respond to. datte.
December 16, 2002
a scene from home...
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My flatmates are rather camera-shy.
December 14, 2002
a bit of salsa @ booze & vinyl
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Another cool night there after stopping by at Kyoko's. Master is planning a New Year's party...in mid-January, so I should be able to attend. I really like Master's style...He has the perfect balance of engaging you when you wanna talk, but subtly stepping into the background when a lively group conversation erupts. And he's always thinking of how to better bring people together. Like the New Year's party...he was telling me some of his ideas of how he wants to do it. Having a great bar like his or Kyoko's is a real skilll...kind of a creative artistic outlet, ya know? I like observing bar owners and how they ply their trade...
December 13, 2002
My director & Ministry of Finance guest
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In b/w the wine, I did say they would be online.They were sorry to not have `outfits.' Cool bunch.We compared US vs. Japan humor which I don't get both, & managed to laugh a lot. That's all that counts, right?
So basically we had a great time...
But we were at a place where you have to take your shoes off. And there were many other groups in addition to us. And although the servers I'm sure try to keep all our shoes organized, as I said, they were also busy serving us on schedule to get us out of there. Plus, everyone is a bit tipsy...so when we were leaving, our former Director couldn't find his shoes! We looked all over and figured some blissed out salaryman slipped on the wrong pair and didn't notice. The restaurant had, for some odd reason, left over pairs and offered the closest size they had to our former Director. They kind of looked clownish since they were still big and he had to shuffle home. The restaurant will be compensating him by the way. You'd think they'd have a better shoe system by now...I mean, combine 50+ drunk people and all their shoes scattered around. This must happen all the time. I just don't get how the restaurant had left over shoes though...
um, yeah, the food wasn't bad...
So our office had a bonenkai...to forget and say good-bye to the year. Basically a good reason to just go drinking with colleagues. EVERYONE has bonenkai now. Getting a taxi was difficult and our reservation was strictly until 9:30 so even though we were happy drinking and talking away, the servers kept gently knudging us to keep eating. They had to make sure we were out of there so the next group could come in and forget the year...
December 12, 2002
warning sign @ trainplatform
Honestly, when I first saw this, although I knew it was about fingers & doors, Ithought it was also good to subconciously remind wandering hands on crowded trains not to be temptedto, ah, go on a feeling expedition.I mean they do already sell bras that give off electrical shocks...
Perks of the job
Here's some stuff that successful and very happy applicants/scholars have brought to me. Maybe in a couple of years I'll have a mini-cultural museum!
Piles of files
OK, since my waking hours are kind of crammed with work now, I may as well describe a bit what I'm doing. This week is the deadline for applications for a scholarship I administer. The pic. shows the files I'm inputting now. Everytime I walk through the mail room, my box is stuffed with faxes and DHL packages. I keep getting calls from worried applicants. I answer "This is Mie Kennedy," then I invariably hear the international beep, then a gap of silence, then a "Hello!! You Ms. Kennedy???" I try to explain that I'm still processing the files to even be able to check what I have received.
What is the most frustrating is that English test scores are required. It says it very clearly on the application AND I even made a nice check list for them to complete. So far, about half seem to have conveniently just ignored that or even written "n/a" where I ask for scores...
On the other hand, this year I got my first application from Papaua New Guinea. I like the sound of Toowoomba grammar school : )
Tomorrow is Friday so I'll have more 'fun' stuff to share...for example, our office is having a bonenkai (party to forget the year). It might not be as wild as they ususally go since we'll be having members of the Ministry of Finance join us. But AFTERWARDS, I'm hopefully gonna make it to Booze&Vinyl to see Master, and to Morena to see Kyoko-san.
December 11, 2002
View from my glass box
Just another view from my office near Hibiya park. Although I'm not a fan of spending so much time in an office, I rather like the views. After living in SF, I'm enjoying and practically fascinated by the seasons. Everyday, at twelve on the button, tons of people fill the sidewalks on their way to lunch. If I want to go right at twelve, I have will have to let several elevators pass by as they are packed with people. All I need to do is leave slightly off-time. I usually go after one anyway when everything is much quieter. At that time, some places offer little extras along with your lunch, like a dessert or special tea. Lately, I've been eating at my desk though...
City cats in the night
After I got home, although it was still very very cold, I wrapped myself in layers and took the cats out. I live on the 5th floor of an apartment building and I've trained the cats to venture out down the stairs to the ground level so they can explore a bit. They definitely like getting out of my small apartment, but being in the city, it's still a scary adventure for them. Before this, they had access to a wonderful forest in Oakland, CA. I only let them out late at night when it's most quiet and I think everyone is more or less asleep. So far, one of my neighbors has caught me 'walking' my cats. At first they saw my cats roaming the stairs and were like, "what the...," then they saw me, the gaijin (foreigner) and figured, "I knew she was strange..."
I don't think my cats have ever experienced such cold temperatures though. Kats went all the way down to the 1st floor but Waka was her princess self and meowed a complaint on the 4th floor and wouldn't budge. Fine...I decided to be a good sport for Kats and joined him to the 1st floor (he kept coming back up so I figured he just wanted me around). But Waka meowed louder and louder...and I looked up the stairwell and saw her little head poke out looking down at me. She eventually whined her way to the 3rd floor but was making such noise that I worried the landlady (who lives on the 3rd floor) would come out and discover my nocturnal activities. So there I was in this freezing weather, close to midnight, running up the stairs trying to shush Waka...only to start hearing Kats meowing wondering where I went. Sheesh. What I find myself doing!
December 10, 2002
w/ ayako @ french resto
Ayako and I used to work together and now she works at an NGO. She took me to Paris Shokudo in Iidabashi and we had a sweet dinner for under 3,000 yen. Cute bistro...reminded me lots of those tiny Paris restaurants. Wasn't crowded, maybe b/c of the weather. Good conversation. I look forward to checking out more places with her!
December 09, 2002
new cell post
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Taimur works for the IMF in Washington and has visited Tokyo several times. Last time I took him around Shibuya to some tiny drinking places and we had a great time. It's such a pleasure to show favorites spots to someone who appricates Tokyo and its wackiness. So he was back in town and despite the freezing weather, we decided to have dinner. I took him to an Asian fusion place in Ebisu. The place has no signs...it seems like you are entering someone's personal apartment...food is fantastic though!
snowy tokyo.
this morning the trains were a bit delayed but nh so crowded!
