Pictures I look at when I'm stressed

Then at the end, I feel like I came back from swimming!

Tokyo, A Moveable Feast

During the sulky school days of spring and summer, August held gobs of expectations and promises. Leaving my beloved city of Tokyo, bidding tender farewells to friends and places, going home and soaking up the sun on the beach, treading through swathes of forest, catching up with some old friends over cheap barbecue and soju, flying to the city of love and getting lost in translation through throngs of unfamiliar faces.

Now I have only a weekend left till long-awaited August, I'm surprisingly and strangely bogged down with the idea of taking a year long break from Tokyo. I was out in my balcony after sunset and realized those exciting promises of August no longer excite me. I'm going to miss these filthy lights scattered all upon the streets, every corner imbued with the stale odor of cigarette smoke, its reified femininity, and its orderliness and delicateness under the crudely towering skyscrapers.

A bourgeois fantasy of Paris as a moveable feast certainly deserved its fame in the 20th century. But I would have to boldly modify what Hemingway said of Paris a hundred years ago. You first come to Tokyo with ambiguous goals and unfettered dreams and you leave with not many of them answered. However, in this era, if you are lucky enough to have lived in Tokyo as a young person, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Tokyo is a moveable feast. After all, you will remain a fine Tokyo-brewed flapper or philosopher wherever you go.

Showa Boogie, Nishi-Shinjuku

One Saturday night, my friends and I were wandering around Shinjuku and stumbled upon this small quirky bar where they only play Japanese pop music from the 70s and the 80s under the disturbingly dreamy red light. We were such misfits that we only awkwardly made fun of the tacky costumes of the bands that were playing on the big screen, while the rest of the crowd maniacally sang along the songs, clapping, cheering and stuff. It was weird to pee in the co-ed bathroom whose were entirely covered with half-naked pictures of girls from the 70s and the 80s. The whole time I was wondeing how these women would look like now.

Basically the name, Showa Boogie (昭和ブギ), means the Boogie dance music that were popular during the reign of the Showa Emperor (1926-1989). It seems like it had quite a decent following that the bar, which is located entirely in a basement, expands to the 2nd, the 3rd underground floors. We finally stopped curiously staring at the people there and began requesting songs and reacting to the songs we recognized. I wish I knew more of the songs they played but instead I learned some new ones below.

「おニャン子クラブ ーセーラー服を脱がさないで」

Onyanko Club(Kitty Club) - Please don't pull off my school uniform 

This bizarre title prevails throughout the entire song along with lyrics like "I want to lose my virginity before my friends do" Apparently songs with some obscene lyrics sung by a truck load of these cute innocent looking girls were a huge hit during the 80s and the success of Kitty Club gave birth to other massive girl groups throughout the 90s. 

「尾崎紀世彦　ーまた逢う日まで」

Ozaki Kiyohiko - Till the Day we meet again 

At the end, we flipped out at the bill we got, 1400 yen for a beer + seating charge! GAAAAHH, but no regrets. It was a very confusing Shinjuku-like Saturday night.

Overnight hike to the sunrise

My dad was in Tokyo for the weekend and we hiked Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, with my friend, Emilio. The cold mountain air crept in, and we were some five to six hours above the world peacefully tucked under thick clouds. An endless string of flashlights of every climber dotted the thin zigzag trail down the steep hill, and it was slowly and quietly moving along towards the top as if it is a stream of stars glittering on the rough earth. As we gasped at the thin air making slow progress, the night sky shone its thousands of constellations and glistening milky ways and shooting stars on us. A sense of serenity and solemnity loomed over the unawakened Fuji.

my 21st, 10 cafe, Takadanobaba

Fiona Apple - Why Try To Change Me Now

I'm sentimental
So I walk in the rain
I've got some habits
Even I can't explain
I go to the corner
I end up in Spain
Why try to change me now

I sit and daydream
I've got daydreams galore
Cigarette ashes
There they go on the floor
I go away weekends
Leave my keys in the door
Why try to change me now


Why can't I be more conventional
People talk
And they stare
So I try
But that can't be
Cuz I can't see
My strange little world
Just go passing me by

So let people wonder
Let 'em laugh
Let 'em frown
You know I'll love you
Till the moon's upside down
Don't you remember
I was always your clown
Why try to change me now

Girls Night @ Cotton Club, Takadanobaba

Cafe Cotton Club is pretty much the only fancy Italian restaurant in Takadanobaba where lots of uni students live. Fancy--I mean..good pizzas and pastas on the terrace open to the street, candle lights and great atmosphere.. how fancier could it possibly be in this town? To fit in with the Takadanobaba standards, their meals and drinks are incredibly affordable.

Last Thursday, we had a girls night here indulging on their awesome deal for female customers which offers 3 hour all you can drink just for 2000 yen. It was to catch up in general and especially to say hi/goodbye to our friend Hannah who was going back to Germany after her short visit to Japan. Though they didn't have cosmopolitans included in the deal, unfortunately!, it was the perfect excuse to chat for hours with all my lovely girlfriends sipping on girly cocktails, feeling the estrogen pumping!