Don't touch my bone!

Gen is back

clockwise from me: Gen, Junko, Mayu, Kayo, Super Ichiko

Ready for the cheesy line?? The picture isn't the best quality, but being with old friends is. OK, now that that's over with, Kayo organized a small gathering of old NOVA friends the other night in Shibuya for dinner with Gen. He is back in Tokyo for a few weeks after travelling around Europe and the Middle East for a months. He is going back to San Fran for a month then heading back here again. It's always cool to see old pals.

Nothing in life is free?

Paul introduced me to his tailor friend, Suichiro, up in Mizonokuchi a few weeks ago and I went and got measured up for some shirts with all the fixings, customized everything: pockets, collar, cuffs, buttons, thread color, pattern, and even my name embroidered on the sleeve. The thing is that when I went to pick them up my name was on the cuff. I wasn't even upset all because it looks pretty cool, but Suichiro apologized profusely and I got both shirts for free, with two more on the way and he knocked ¥6,000 off a suit of this season's new mohair that I am getting tailored up for Gabriel's wedding next month .

Rountine Way

These are some of the pieces Helene put together for her project/exhibition last summer entitled, Routine Way. Her purpose was to capture the feeling and essence of the Tokyoite commuter coming home to the suburbs after a long day in central Tokyo. All the models wrote captions for their series' in their mother tongue and then Helene used an instant translator for 'genuine' translations into French, Japanese, or English to get the true effect of fake Tokyo. My caption read:

I am a guerrilla, a soldier of fortune. I leave the battlefield in search of a comrade, a piece of tranquility. I find nobody and I find nothing. I find myself sinking into an abyssal loneliness many leagues below the surface of sanity. Situation: Normal (All Fucked Up). Outlook: Grim. Next deployment: Back to the front line at the same time tomorrow. War is Hell.

I leave the battlefield in search of a comrade, a piece of tranquility.

私は りょうゆう の 静けさ の 部分 を 求めて 戦 場 を のに す。

I guess working for NOVA for so long really put me in the pits....... I am glad I work for Oracle now.

All photos © Helen Iodtschin. 2007.

Club Ever

I have been spending an awful lot of time with Helene recently; I think "Frenchness" is starting to soak into my bones. Last week Helene's boyfriend, Nikki (a.k.a.Westwood), hosted a party at Club Ever in Omotesandou with 6 DJs, Esie, and a live painting session. I felt like I was in Hansel's party place in Zoolander with all the artsy people in there.

The BJ League?!?!?!?!?

One of my friends, Misuzu, has the hookup for free tickets to Japan's professional basketball league, The BJ League (Basketball Japan League). The name always throws me off.

Miho's Orange Flower

Miho

Be Kind to the Future

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Greetings from sunny Italia!

Risa (on the right) just got back from Thailand and she is off in Italia now. She reminds me of me a few years back when I had more freedom. The period between finishing uni and getting a job kick anus!

Suzuki 2.1 & Alice

Basketball & Heartbreak

Saturday, Helene wanted me to pose for another of her photo projects and I eagerly accepted. This project is supposed to be about love and Tokyo, so I decided that the best place would be the basketball courts in Yoyogi Park. I love basketball and I also fell for a chick who I played ball with there; it was the perfect marriage of ideas for the shoot. I rendezvoused with Helene and Kozue, then we trekked around Shibuya-ku after the shoot, ending up in classy cafe near Omotesandou station. It was a cool afternoon with lots of French in my ears.

ALOOX

Eri and I caught up Friday night and headed to my buddy Alex's going away party. He and his new wife, Tomo, just got married and are returning to Canada to start their new life. Congrats to them! Alan is always a center piece at parties, what with the tattoos and piercings.

Wendy the Wonder Dog

Wendy is our company mascot. The night demons take care of her after everybody goes home at night. She is an actual employee of the company with an employee number, a security badge, and.... a junior CEO position under the president! I am not even making this up. What am I doing wrong!?!?!?!??!?!

Greetings from sunny Okinawa

Misuzu in Okinawa

Stanky Panky

I saw this and it reminded me of that old Project Pat song, Ballers, on his first album, Ghetty Green.

Ballers we be on some twanky twankies. Player haters get found stanky stanky. Chiefing fat blunts of that danky danky. Big diamond rings on our panky panky.

Sex sells.... unless you're foreign

I came across this sign in my part time job's neighborhood. Apparently, back in the 80's Japanese folks thought that you could only get HIV/AIDS from anybody other than a person who is ethnically Japanese and born in Japan. The idea still carries over today. There are loads of brothels and soapland sex shops that cater exclusively to the dirtiest, disease-ridden Japanese salary men, but would never allow a foreigner inside. A blessing in disguise for some idiots; Japan has the fastest rising HIV rate in the industrialized world because they never use condoms. Sometimes the world is really backwards.......

The Black Russian

The Black Russian.

Paul got a haircut and a Russian military hat.

Mushashi Kosugi

Musashi Kosugi from Futako Tamagawa

mid winter 2008

Greeting from sunny New Zealand

Another installment of the "Greetings" series. This a a picture snapped by my old Futako buddy, Yuko of Lake Pukaki, New Zealand.

春一番, Haru Ichiban, Spring First

The Haru Ichiban, 春一番, are the winds that signal winter is coming to a close and spring is around the corner. This year's winds brought thick, choking clouds of red dust and debris to go along with the inconvenience of the crazy winds. I was hacking up crap all this afternoon and digging red & brown dirt out of my eyes, ears, and nose. My apartment smells uniquely earthy now.