Fashion Hayley Hits Japan

Goodbye Tokyo

2007-08-16T15:40:00.000+10:00

Well I'm sorry about how I have neglected this blog lately, but what with moving back home and all the things I was doing I was just way too busy!

BUT here it is. The Final Post about Tokyo! After this the blog is changing directions and changing cities!!!

Ok so Here goes

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to Tokyo Decadence, an erotica crazy party. Well yes I did go and it was NUTS! So many g-strings and so much leather and glitter make-up. I took Hilary and we had a great time. I even got to meet Nanbu from the Tokyo Shock Boys!

I went to Spank dj, Teenage Kicks, Vanity, Hanabi, Disneyland, stayed at spank house, went to the best swimming pool ever, airport...soooo many things in my last 2 weeks!

Tokyo Decadence

Kawaii!!!

This photo shows the crazy wet underpants comp.
The men started off having paper wrapped around them
then members of the audience started squirting them
with water guns so the paper will fall off!
CRAZY

Bondage man!

ewwwwwww
There were alot of people dressed like this!
I repeat, ewwwwwww

Me and Nanbu from the Tokyo Shock Boys.

Kawaii Dancing girl

Tripple Nipple played.

Me and that is Abe at the front. We met him that night, and
I ended up going to a few parties and to Disneyland with him.
He is from the USA, he was in Tokyo for 2 months, he is
a fine art student. He had a crush on Maya.

Galllermic and Tabuchi

Me and Hil

Flexible Hil

Spank DJ Party

From left to right:
Ume, Asami, Me, Saki, Tabuchi,
Maya, Eri and Yuki.

Dance

Me and Yuki

Last Spank Lesson :<

Yuki, Tabuchi, Maya and Saki.
I gave them each a certificate that Henry made for me.
They passed with flying colours.
Cool Bananas!!!

Teenage Kicks

DJ booth

Saki, Asami, Maya, Eri and Yuki!!!

Shingo, long time no see!

Bikini Dancer (The dancers are from Tokyo Decadence, they were doing a performance!)

Me, Abe and Pink tranny guy.
I was dancing like a maniac!

Asakusa Hanabi Matsuri
(Asakusa's Summer Fireworks Festival)

Hanabi (Fireworks)

Tabuchi and Maya
It was so much fun, so many people, so much beautiful fireworks!

Also lots of beautiful Yukata (Summer Kimono)
This was at the train station on the way to the festival!

Vanity

This party was meant to be full of Fuji-Rock celebs. Apparently it was, I just didn't recognise anyone due to being drunk and kinda not into bands....oh well.

Tabuchi and Gallermic in his Green cape!

The guy with the bowl cut wouldn't let me take a photo of him...until
I told him I was a photographer for the Australian mag Oyster and he
would be in the next issue. Then he really wanted me to photograph him!
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Swimming Pool

This is the craziest pool I have EVER seen! It is the Edogawa Pool Garden. It was very cheap to get in, only 500Yen (About $5AUD) which for Japan is super cheap! Other pools cost $50!
I liked this pool soooo much I went twice. Once on my own and then again with Hil. The pool is very very shallow, only up to your upper thigh! But that is normal for Japan, because my friend KG who lived in Aus for 1 year was very very shocked by Aussie pools and how deep they are, he thinks it is very dangerous. I think however Japanese pools are more dangerous, because the ground is painted the same colour as the water and EVERYONE has these floaty boats, but the kids have the dangerous banned in Australia ones. The ones that your legs go through and if it turns upside down you cant turn it upright and you are stuck. This happened to a 2 year old infront of me and Hil, so we had to rescue him....sooooooo dangerous!

The STRANGEST thing about this pool though is how every 2 hours there is an announcement and everyone gets out of the pool. When this first happened I had been there for 5 minutes and I thought it was closing. But I stayed around, watching what happens to see if maybe its just to clean the pool or something. Well the lifegaurds all get together and talk, and 10 mins later everyone can get back into the pool. I asked the Spank girls WHY this happens. They said it is for your health! What the? Its so you have a break. It doesnt make any sense to me. Crazy Japanese. When I took Hil to the pool she thought it was the silliest thing too.

ALSO they have a water slide and a big loop pool that has a current that pushes you along. Its very fun!

Lots of people at the pool!

Me and Hil in our swimsuits!

The loop pool that pushes you along!

I ended up having to stay at the Spank Girls houses due to my "Gaijin house" (foreigner share house) wanting me to pay my FULL RENT to stay an extra 5 days! BULLSHIT.
But it ended up being the best thing ever. I stayed at Maya's house for 2 nights, Yuki and KG's for 1 night then Tabuchi's for 2 nights! Maya's house is very small but nice, and Yukis house is CRAZY small, but nice. Tabuchis house is the biggest and very clean. I had sooooooo much fun staying at their houses, I'm glad that its the way it worked out! Maya was soooo nice, so helpful, helping me pack, get a suitcase posted to Australia and sooo much more. Maya I miss you!!! Yuki and KG made a great dinner of soba noodles (actually it was a different noodle, but same kinda thing) and Tabuchi made yummy tomato soup. Soooo great! Yay yay!

Disneyland

I went to Disneyland with Maya, Abe and Saki. Maya, Abe and I got the starlight passport from 3 and Saki came at 6 with the nightlight passport.

Welcome!

Goodbye
Saki, Me, Abe and Maya!

Our photo from Splash mountain. Its actually a photo of the photo they show you that
you are ment to buy....haha.
You can see that Saki is ducking, and Maya was trying to.
This was our 2nd time on the ride, and me and Abe were trying to make them not duck,
but it was impossible. They were too scared, so cute.

Me and Maya, Im Minnie Mouse and she is Daisy Duck.
Kawaii!

Goodbye Party at Tabuchi's House!!!

"Western Eyes"
kinda racist...but hey I did Japanese eyes for them too...they just laughed!

Everyone enjoying Tabuchis GREAT cooking.
It was amazing, all vegetarian and healthy and "Oishi" (Delicious in Japanese)

We had to pick up my suitcase from the Spank shop.
Hil and Maya slept over on the last night too, after the party.

Hil is very Kichigy (crazy)

Airport

Ths Spank girls, Hil and my student Sakiko all came to the airport to say goodbye.

I look in shock.
Yuki, Hil, Tabuchi, Me, Saki and Maya.
After this we all cried!

Me and Sakiko my student. We ate Maccas breakfast on the observation balcony!

That was my FINAL Tokyo post (for now!)

I had the BEST time, better than I ever imagined.
I miss EVERYONE.

Love Forever Hayley xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SPANK! Road trip and Beach Hanabi PARTY

2007-07-21T18:44:00.000+10:00

YAY

The road trip was alot of FUN. I got picked up in Shinjuku, just out front of work, and I had to change from work clothes into "Spank!" clothes at work...which your not allowed to do, but ehhh who cares I'm leaving soon.

KG was the driver, Yuki was the gps navigator and it was me Tabouchi, Saki, Eri and Maya in the back. We had ALOT of chips, chocolate, candy and a HUGE box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that Maya got. Krispy Kreme has only got 1 store in Japan, and its in Shinjuku behind my work. You have to line up for more then 1 hour to get them...poor Maya!

We went to Enoshima beach, which is near Kamakura beach, but it isnt as dirty. We had a huge picnic dinner that Tabouchi made and it was sooooo yummmy. It was all vegetarian, she has an American boyfriend who is vegetarian so she knows how to cook for us! YAY

Eri, Tabouchi, Me, Maya, Yuki and Saki

Charlies Spank Girls

Fireworks for Hanabi

Jumping yay

Crazy Kg and Me

Excited beach dance

Eri's bunny shoes died. Sayonara

Yummy vege food!!! Thanx Tabouchi

Picnic yay

jumping in the sand

Me and Tabouchi

Cute Saki and Maya

Pink fireworks

kawaii

Maya dancing

Crazy swirly photo...no photoshop

KG draws something

twirling tabouchi

The Hanabi fireworks turned out to be fireworks Yuki bought and we let off. You can buy fireworks anywhere, conbinis, donkies ect....crazy.

However most of the fireworks are kinda just big sparklers, not many shoot up in the air ones.

After alot of fun with the fireworks the police came and told us off because you cant use them after 10pm in this area. We didnt know that cos we are from Tokyo, so we wernt in trouble.

It started to rain a little bit so we all jumped back in the car to go to Enoshima Mountain. On the top of the mountain there is a kind of radio tower/viewing deck. Its a popular date spot, you come with a padlock and lock it onto the metal fence and throw away the key and then the lock is there forever and your love will last forever. Romantic!

I was to scared to go to the top of the viewing deck, it was very shaky the tower, and since the earthquake last week I'm a bit jumpy.

The view...a little shook up

We saw a frog!

Going back to the car after a FUN night!

After that it started pouring with rain so we jumped back in the car to go home back to Tokyo. We dropped Eri and Maya of at Shibuya Station, then made our way to my house so they could pick up my stuff: my red drawers, my giant hello kitty light, my white mirror, my red chair and a whole lot of hair stuff like curlers and hairspray and also a few magazines. I still have alot to get rid of before I make the move back home...ahhhh stressful!

Tonight I'm going to this party called Tokyo Decedence...its kind of a S&M/erotica/harajuku fashion party....its going to be cool hopefully.

I'll post more pics then

Bye Bye xxxxx

Henry is gone and I'm leaving soon too! NEW FINISHED

2007-07-09T18:35:00.000+10:00

***Like the new fonts? I realised its better to change the font on the template rather then the actual edit of the post, that way no sudden huge text will appear...yes I'm bad with computers, and now my old posts are going to always look ugly, unless I go through and fix them all...which I cant be bothered doing at all!!!***

Yep, the time has gone to say goodbye to Japan. Henry left on July 5th and I'm going on August 6th, 1 month earlier than expected. Seeing as it was Henry's last weeks in Japan we did alot of fun things, and I wasnt able to blog for a bit, but now I have heaps fo time.

Before Henry came to Japan, I was able to have fun on my own, but now without him it is sooooo boring! I have no one to talk to, go out with, shop with, kiss ect... Ahhhhh I'm looking forward to seeing him again soon. I think being here has deffinatly made us closer, especially due to the wedding. It was so much fun. Its sad that our time here is over, but I'm ready to go home, even though I made that angry rant about hating Australia, it is home and I do miss it.

Ok so the last few weeks we did alot of "touristy" things. The 1st was we went to the new The National Art Center gallery in Roppongi. The outside of the building is actually very impressive, and the inside foyer is cool too. But the gallery's are soooo pokey and poorly designed. The architect is Kisho Kurokawa, the same guy that did the original Melbourne Central and also KL international airport in Malaysia. He is a Japanese architect interested in primary shapes, like cones, circles, rectangles ect...so the building kinda looked like melb central with a glass cone roof area and glass cone pedastools for restaurants (hard to explain).

Anyway Henry had free tickets to see the Monet exhibition because hsi student is a curator there. So we saw that, it was very very crowded, and it was a monday! The exhibition didnt have the huge waterlily painting we saw at the MOMA in NYC but it did have an impressive array of paintings. I'm not too interested in Monet's work, he is an easy artist to like, but its funny to think his paintings which are very accessible for the masses lead to contempory art and abstraction that most everyday people hate. So yeah it was nice to see some famous art, but we had already seen the best ones in New York. There was also another exhibition on at the time about Fashion and Architecture and the similarities between the 2. It was interesting to see how some designers like Comme Des Garcon and Vivien Westwoods work is similar to Architecture....like pleating or deconstution. I have no images from the exhibition, but it was very cool, with the manequins next to architecure models and drawings. Henry loved it, but he loves Architecture more than me, and I also hate the kind of Fashion that was displayed. Its very Architectural, structured and grey whereas I like free fowing colourful clothes.

After the exhibition we went outside to walk to the new shopping mall in Roppongi called Midtown. However once outside the gallery we saw this neet bicycle taxi thingy and it was only 300yen each to have a ride so we thought why the hell not. Its very fun, everyone stares at you.

Midtown was disapointing, just very expensive desginer stores like chloe that I cant afford. BUT there was a very yummy bagel shop so that was fun.

We also went to Odaiba to go to "Puppy the world" which is a store that you can hire a puppy for 1 hour. However in summer the dogs get "air exhaustion" and cant be walked. Well I was a little annoyed as we had come all this way to play with puppies. Luckily Henry notices a place nearby called "Kitty Living" where for $15 for 2 people you can go into a cattery full of cats and play with them. They give you some food to give the cats and a warning piece of paper that says

"Here inside be Careful of the Following Things: Cats are basically free creatures. They get angry if they get woken up while they sleep, if they are molested or taken by surprise"

What the....molested???

There was lots of other Engrish, but that was the best one.

Henry and Fluffy

Me out the front

Im very excited to see a cat

What you doing there?

After molesting a few cats we made our way to Muscle Park, a new themepark that is kinda like, well like nothing I have ever seen before. There are no rides, just like brain/body tests to test your reflexes to catch a ball, how good your balance is standing on a ball, how good your concerntration is to hit a ball through a moving obstacle course...so its kinda like giant computer games but for people. We didnt do any because it seemed kinda boring and was very expensive. $10 per game...bahhhh

Then we went to Megaweb. Toyota's mega showroom or "car themepark" as they call it. There are lots of attractions in this futuristic building, such as the driverless car that Hen and I went on. For about $3 each we went on this twisting circuit through the building with the car being directed by circular sensors on the road. So the car drove it self...it was kinda freaky, the steering wheel jerking about on its own. They also have a free "cinemotion" type thing of a car race...its really lame, you just feel turning curners slowly and breaking alot...kinda like being in traffic! Fun..not! They also have a museum of old cars that was kinda fun, especially as they had the back to the future car which Henry is obsessed with! I'm not usually into cars, but all this was free so it was my kinda fun.

Henry poses with his dream car

Megaweb is super futuristic. This is the path the unmanned car drives along

In the driverless car yay

Megaweb is attached to Palette Town, which we went to just before xmas with Jackie...Its just like timezone, and we played some funny games, there is one where you are on a treadmill walking your dog. I played a game where I was the tram driver of the tram in Kamakura, it lasted about 10 seconds because I think I killed a passenger (all the instructions were in Japanese).

Strange walk the dog game

We also had last days together in our fave places like Harajuku and Koenji and also a "Goodbye Henry Karaoke and Izakaya Party!" with the Spank! girls. Sooooo cute. We had unlimited drinks for 2 hours, so I got plastered, while the Spank! girls didnt drink at all basically. But sooo much fun singing Aqua hits and Sclub7, ohhhh finally I met people that share my backward taste in music...which is no taste, I just love silly bad stuff. They also did some cool Jpop songs like my fave Yuki, Joy (look it up on youtube). It was such a FUN night!

Kawaii, Saki, Maya and Yuki having some Karaoke good times

FUNNNN (who said I'm a mike hog?)

OH and before that party we had a party with Gallermic and EVERYOBE which started at Yoyogi Park drinking chu-hi with 15 people, then moved onto a nightclub opening in Shibuya that Kim's friend ran. To get there we had to walk past all these Ganguro kids practising para para, sooooo funny! The nightclub was 100% tacky, but we got in FREE and it was FREE unlimited DRINKS>>>so I got wasted! Somehow we ended up at a karaoke booth, me and Gallermic stole some bottles from the counter, then I kept leaving our karaoke booth to annoy people in other rooms, till they sent security up to tell me off! People got very angry at me, but what do you expect if you give me free booze all night? Plus Gallermic stole the bottles too but everyone blamed me...and now no one is speaking to me....So I'm kinda angry cos Ive dealt with Kim being very drunk, and Gallermic and i didnt get so angry. Poooo to them!

OHHH and the last English lesson with Spank! that Henry came to was a bit sad. Henry gave each of the spank! girls a pink flower which was sweet, and they gave him a HUGE badge that says DORK! sooo cool.

Last lesson for Henry

KG wore a funny t-shirt to the last lesson

So
Happy
Ive
Turned 40

(he is Yuki's very funny and nice boyfriend, who lived in Australia for 1 year and acts very very Aussie and embarrases poor Yuki...he is also our driver for the super fun road trip that I will talk about in a min, yay!)

So yeah I took Henry to the airport, and we said our teary goodbyes and now I really really miss him :<

When I spoke to him the next day he had a funny story. On the plane he wore a crazy nu-rave style outfit of giant pink keith harring print shirt with skinny black jeans and his glow in the dark nike high top sneakers. So there were these teens on the plane that came to japan from some country aussie town for a sport thing, and they thought Henry was a rock star. So they dared one of the boys to go sit next to Henry and talk to him and see if he was a rock star. So this greasy pimply long haired 15 year old boy sits next to Henry and starts talking a mile a minute, which for Henry was really confusing cos he hadnt heard much English in a long time. The kid asked Hen alot of questions, and Henry found out alot about the kid, I think he had a band, his bestfriend was the other guy with long hair and he hates his home town....ahhhh soo funny. Henry the Rock Star!!!

The night after Henry left I went to Sweet Dreams, a party in Shibuya. It was really cool, very nu-rave with loads of cool fashion, but I was SUPER BORED without Henry, like dying. Its fun to talk to Jap people, but you cant really talk more than saying "Kawaiiiii" and "fun music" sooo its not exactly in depth...still I had fun looking a the clothes and seeing my J friends!

Poppy, ??? and Kaori. I love ???'s nu-rave style kimmono.

Rave style

Gallermic and Rory dj...but I'm mad at Galler

Dance floor madness

I forget his name, but he was also at the crazy too drunk and people angry at me night...very fashionable!

The design team from Chapter (they make the clothes they are wearing) I forget all their names but they are super super fun and nice.

Pretty much since then I've stayed at home because its been raining (we had a typhoon, and then a big earthquake) BUT I have dont ALOT of shopping which I will post soon. I got soooo many goodies I cant wait to share them all with you.

OH and This weekend is shaping up to be my best ever! I'm going on a road trip with the Spank! girls, going to a super fun party, Mt fuji and also Fuji-Q Highlands amusement park with Hilary. YAY I cant wait...and maybe there will be some photos of me in a Yukata (summer kimmono)

Sayonara xxx (ummmm Actually I think saying "Bye bye" is more common in Japan then Sayonare, its too formal, but bye bye is used EVERYWHERE!)

My Fashion Lovies

2007-06-22T15:43:00.001+10:00

click on the picture for a larger image

From Left to right:
New black and white check dress from Harajuku (so cheap I have it in red too), New white lace babydoll dress from my wedding Tokyo, New black and white babydoll dress with bib detail from three minutes happiness Shibuya Tokyo, Vintage yellow smiley face bag from thank you mart Harajuku Tokyo, Vintage tartan jacket from Kinji Harajuku Tokyo, New white jelly shoes from Harajuku Tokyo, Vintage red check dress from flea market in Shimokitazawa Tokyo, Vintage white wayfarers from Laforet Harajuku Tokyo, Lolita heart glasses from ebay, heart brooch from Hunter Gatherer Melbourne Australia, I heart Spank badge from my friends shop in Harajuku Tokyo, Peace necklace from wego Harajuku Tokyo, Brooch which was a gift, Owl necklace from flea market in Shimokitazawa Tokyo, Vintage red polka dot skirt from Harajuku flea market, Black brogue hells from Melbourne Australia, Vintage blouse from Shimokitazawa Tokyo, New red and white check dress from Harajuku, New black and white striped skirt from Melbourne Australia, Vintage Shiny Leggings Kinji Harajuku Tokyo, New silver oxfords from Harajuku Tokyo, Vintage blouse from NYC, New hear shaped bag from Shimokitazawa Tokyo, Vintage oversized flanny from Koenji Tokyo (I wear it as a dress)

Fashion Lovies is an idea from the fashion blog Style Bubble basically you take photos of all your fave items in your wardrobe, the things you dont need but you love ALOT! Well those were my lovies. you can see that I'm really inspired by Japanese Street Fashion, and shop alot in Harajuku...well thats because its cheap!!!

Sayonara xxx

Beach trip

2007-06-19T02:59:00.000+10:00

Me and Henry had a lovely weekend in Kamakura and Yokohama. Kamakura is a beach town about 1 hour from Tokyo. It was the 1st capital of Japan in 1192. and it was a samurai government. There is a GIANT Buddha statue called Daibutsu that was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were washed away by a tsunami tidal wave in the end of the 15th century, and since then the Buddha has stood in the open air.The statue is smaller than the Buddha statue in Nara, but this one was amazing, I think because of the beautiful scenery of mountains behind it.

As you can see there are heaps of people. This is a popular weekend spot for the Japanese, and its probably better to not come on the weekend. We only came on Sunday because it was meant to be better weather (we wanted to go swimming...more on that later). You can also go inside the Buddha for 20yen. Its amazing that they cast this almost 2000 years ago! Inside was some graffiti from 1870! Our photos didn't really work though, sorry.

Me and Henry in matching colours...by accident!

Kamakura is famous for having beautiful Hydrangeas at this time of year. So we stopped and looked at them for a bit.

Like my outfit?

Ok so as I mentioned this was a beach trip. Yes there are alot of temples in Kamakura, but really once you have seen 1 temple you have seen them all, and being good Aussies we really love the beach (well actually thats not true, we only started loving the beach after living in Tokyo for 9 months, we miss all this "Aussie" stuff we never or rarely did back home, like BBQ's in the park, going to the footy, pubs etc) The beach is called Yuigahama Beach and my students had all told me that Kamakura beach isn't clean, but I didn't believe them. They always say Tokyo is filthy when really its not, so I thought this was just another thing like that. Well no, this beach is DISGUSTING!!! I cant believe how filthy it was, I didn't think it was possible to have a beach so rank. There was trash everywhere, and strange half built shacks, no seagulls just menacing crows and a HAWK!!! Plus I almost stood on a used condom, and I searched for pictures on google of the beach and I found a photo of a GIANT VIBRATOR someone found on the beach!!! Ewwwww. Also the sand is black (from the inactive volcano) which isnt so bad (Tahiti had black sand in some areas...but here it just added to the ewwwness). There are also 3 storm water drains going straight into the water...It was really disappointing, because we were all excited to go swimming, but I put my legs in for 1 minute and had so much floating rubbish around my feet I couldn't move. So we sat on the sand, on our new beach towels wondering why this beach gets soooooo packed in summer. Who could swim there? Well I guess we have it good in Melbourne, with the exception of St Kilda beach, but even that has been cleaned up recently. The view out onto the water is pretty though. Lots of sufers and windsurfers and hills to the left. PLUS it was nice to see some open space!

Rusty boats

Relaxing

Nice view

One of the crows with the beach shacks behind

Below is the photo I found on google of what someone found on the beach here!

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

On Monday we went to Yokohama. Yokohama is the 2nd biggest city in Japan, just 30 mins from Tokyo. It has a Chinatown and some shopping malls and an amusement park called Cosmoworld. We went to Chinatown 1st. It wasnt very busy, and we couldnt find any vegetarian food, plus all the restaurants were very expensive. It wasnt as good as Melbournes Chinatown if you ask me. Melbourne's Chinatown is more real, like it has an organic feel to it, and it isnt just full of tacky giftshops. I would say that Melbs Chinatown is more like an Asiatown though, with Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants and shops. However it was fun to go see what its like, and eat some prawncrackers (heyyyyy they are the only meat product I ever eat!!!)

Dumpling street stall

Numchucks and instructions

Cool dudes

One of the many panda gift shops

A Chinese temple

Next we went to have a look at the harbour. Its very pretty.

Henry, looking fine and fashionable!

I bought this hat in Chinatown and it was about to blow off...hence the mad laughing crazed woman face!

After having a bite to eat and checking out some malls we went to Cosmoworld. I convinced Henry to go on the log flume ride. It was soooooo much fun! Its really really fast and it has 2 big drops into the water, and you hardly get wet. Henry was terrified and after the 1st drop told me he hated me and wanted to get off NOW! It made me laugh so much...poor Henry, he is such a wuss! I also went on the rollercoaster (alone) which is called Vanish, because the big dip takes you into a hole in the ground, so you vanish! Cosmoworld is really pretty, behind the park is a nice view of the city, and Japans tallest building, Landmark Tower, with the worlds fasted elevator at 45kph...we didnt go up to the observation deck on the 69th floor for exactly that reason...I HATE LIFTS!!! BUT I'm not scared of rollercoasters, wierd hey. I'm also terrified of ferris wheels, so we didnt go in this one, which is meant to be the worlds tallest Ferris wheel (I thought the one in Odaiba was. but thats Tokyo's tallest)

Cosmoworld by day

Cosmoworld by night

Me posing infront of the photo wall

Bad photo of the coaster going into the hole

Landmark Tower, the view from the park

Sayonara xxx

A week of Work Fashion

2007-06-14T03:17:00.000+10:00

I decided to post a weeks worth of work outfits to get your opinions. My company is very conservative when it comes to dress sense and I am always in trouble for my clothes. It really annoys me because I am trying to dress conservatively, and it is if you see what I normally wear. In Australia this wouldn't even be an issue, because wearing fashion to work is normal, but in Japan everyone is a black suit clone. When I look at Aussie fashion mags and what they suggest for work wear its all very cool, but you wouldn't get away with it here. Some things I bought from the work section of TARGET!!!! and they get me in trouble!!! I don't get it! So here are my weeks worth of work clothes (so far 2 days worth) and I want to know what you think. Are my outfits too fashionable for work? Are they too "maid style"?

1st work day, Tuesday 12th June

Dress: New, bought on the weekend at Three Minutes Happiness in Shibuya, $26
Bag: Anap Harajuku, $50
Shoes: Big W work heels $20 (bought in desperation for a job interview!!!)
Hair in a ponytail...looks a bit shoddy!

In this outfit I got told by students that I look like Kirstin Dunst!!!

Cute Bib detailing

2nd work day, Wednesday 13th June

Ballet Flats and hot legs in pantyhose!

Blouse: Vintage, Kinji in Harajuku $8
Skirt: Vintage, Savers Melbourne $4
Shoes: Payless shoes Melbourne $30
Belt: Portmans Melbourne $30

3rd work day, Friday 15th June (Thursday I forgot to take a photo!)

On Thursday I fell off my bicycle because of the rain and got huge scratches all up my legs. I was also late to work because I had to go home and change due to my pantyhose being all torn and muddy! Really annoying!

Blouse: Vintage, Kinji Harajuku $8
Skirt: Vintage, Savers Melbourne $4
Shoes: trendy brogues, Mollini Melbourne $119
Braces: Target Bendigo $20
Bow necklace: Diva Melbourne $6 (gift at the airport from my mum)

Not really the best outfit, but my knee hurt and I was tired. Notice how much black and white I'm wearing to work. I got in trouble for wearing colour. So boring!!!!

BUT my fashionspiration comes from Chloe Sevigny

She has AMAZING legs...that guy cant help but check them out!

I was talking to my superior about what I wear, and he said I need to look at someone and model my look on them. I was like "I do already, Chloe Sevigny". He was like, uhhhh not what I meant! LOL...oh well!

4th work day, Saturday 16th June

Shirt: Valleygirl Melbourne $20
Vest: Valleygirl Melbourne $15
Skirt: Target Melbourne $30 (I had to remove tons of ugly beads from this skirt!)
Belt: Portmans Melbourne $30
Bird Necklace: Diva Melbourne $3
Payless shoes Melbourne $30

Very Melbourne...

So that was a weeks worth of fashion. Not too exciting, very toned down from my regular wardrobe...but I still get in trouble!!! WHYYYYYY?

AHHHH something strange happened to the font size...even if i make it tiny on the published blog it goes HUGE...ahhh sorry ill fix it soon!

Fashionspiration and Wish List

2007-06-10T18:28:00.001+10:00

It is becoming SUMMER in Japan and I have never before been so excited for Summer. I guess it is because I have had a whole year of winter. I'm craving going to the beach and swimming like you wont believe! I dont think I've been swimming at a beach since we went to Tahiti for the Christmas of2005 (what a jetsetter hey? we were so lucky to go to Tahiti and stay in a 5 star resort for FREE thanks to Tahiti Airlines who we flew with to New York because they were the cheapest...$1000 each plus tax to NYC is AMAZING!!!! But to have 2 days in Tahiti for NOTHING was sooo FANTASTIC...even though poor Henry got very badly sunburnt)

Anyway I have compiled a picture list of things I want and things that inspire me.

Has anyone noticed that I only wear red, black and white? Well I'm hoping to change that by adding YELLOW to my wardrobe which is the colour of the season...It is dificult for me to do this though, as I havent had any other colours for about 3 years now (yes I am slightly insane!) but seeing as I am now a blonde I'm thinking yellow will suit me. I cant believe I had black hair for soooooooooo long, blonde hair really really suits me. Students ask me if I'm from Scandenavia (wtf how could I be teaching English then??? You have to be a native speaker) and I get sooo many compliments.

For my new YELLOW look I think this skirt will be perfect. Its from Supre in Australia and its $35. I saw it when I was back home, but I didnt have enough money at the time (I went home with only $150 for the week, soooo annoying. I had to get things like toothpaste and work shoes, not fashion...poooooo) I want to order it online, but as my credit cards are all maxed out I cant. I'm going to go shopping tomorrow in Harajuku for something similar.

This dress is also from Supre (hey I guess I like teen fashion) but I think its sooooo cute. Its also only $35 and I think it will be perfect for putting on over my red polka dot tankini (singlet bikini, to hide the belly) It can go from beach to street very easily.

Just like Kirsten Dunst did. However I will be putting a t-shirt on under mine to hide the jelly arms.
Beach Street

I'm also missing my Marc Jacobs basket beach bag because stupidly I didnt pack it when I went back home. I got it half price when we were in New York (and some fantastic Marc Jacobs shoes too) and its perfect for this season. I'm missing it so much I'm thinking of getting this tote. Its just a plain bag with very obvious branding. BUT the selling point is its only $12!!! I've seen it all other the fashion blogs, and I checked it out on his website. I'm hoping they sell it at the Tokyo Marc Jacobs store.

I'm also excited about this silly bag too. Its by Anya Hindmarch and it has been so popular in the UK since its launch it is sold out. Lots of celebs have been caught wearing it. It sold for £5 originally but now the price has gone up a bit. People sell theirs on ebay for $250 or more! Well anyway it is being launched here in Japan on July 14th and will be available through Anya Hindmarch stores in Japan, Isetan and Dover Street Market Tokyo. The colouring is cream with green writing in Japan. I'm wondering if these are going to sell out in seconds here, with lines going around the block (most store openings are like this) But I'm mostly curious to see if the Japanese will know what it means. They use so much plastic here its nuts. Every individual strawberry is in its on plastic bag, anything you buy is put in a bag, even a drink and Maccas! They do this because its rude to not package things, its a tradition....a very annoying one! Anyway I'm gonna get myself 2 of this I reckon. 1 for me and 1 for ebay....shhhhh

In my previous blog post you can see I tried to make a House of Holland tee, but even though I'm happy with it, I'm really wanting a real one anyway. PLUS my FAVE model Agyness Deyn wears hers ALL THE TIME (she gets paid to wear it as a model, but also loves it so much she wears them for FREE, great advertising!)
If anyone knows where I can get 1 in Tokyo please tell me.
I love Agyness so much, she was the face of UK Vogue last month, which has to be the best cover ever! She also parties at all the hot parties like misshapes and boombox (when me and Henry went to misshapes in NYC we thought it was hella boring, and so do most of my friends, Yohei did a funny impression of all the people standing around posing...everyone says boombox is the best one, Yohei loved it...god I need to go to london!!!)

I'm also loving this Cory Kennedy chicks blog. She is like 17 and rich and famous, but also super fashionable. What I love the most though is how she was this net celeb and her parents didnt notice, but once they did they shipped her off to boarding school. It hasnt stopped her partying, just now she doesnt blog as often.

Here she is with her friends and Kelly Osbourne.

Im still obsessed with white wayfarer's. I bought some (you can see mine in my previous post) but I dont thing the lenses are dark enough. Anyway here are some of my fave celebs in theirs

Kirsten Dunst
Im loving her flanny shirt over bathers smoking a ciggy combo. God I want to go to the beach!

The original and the best, Chloe Sevigny

Mary Kate

I'm no longer angry either. That was a moment of insanity. I just wanted to be photographed at a cool party. Melbourne isnt so bad, and I am glad I went home, I mean it was for my beloved nanas funeral. Plus me and Henry are going to open a shop ASAP! so its going to be FUN!!!

Sayonara xxx

Angry

2007-06-08T05:13:00.000+10:00

There are so many reasons for me to be angry right now. Number 1 I am angry at myself for dropping out of uni. Basically because of that I cant live in Japan long term, I have to leave in September. I dont want to leave, infact I never want to leave. While I was in shitty fucken Australia I missed the BEST party, the VICE party....Guess who was there? COBRASNAKE www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos.html he took photos of all my friends (check out the tokyo pics)...but of course not me. He takes all the photos from cool parties around the world and he is very very famous...I mean he took photos of Mary-Kate, and he also propelled Cory Kennedy to stardom via Nylon mag. If I go back to Australia there is none of this, no possibility of meeting anyone cool or famous, no possibility of any FUN. I dont know what to do. A friend suggested seeing if I know anyone who can sponser my visa...they suggested the Spank gals...but I'm 100% sure I need a degree to be elegiable to be sponsered. Fuckity Fuck fuck fuck! If anyone knows how I can stay longer than the extra 6 month visa extension let me know please!!!

Anyway I had to write that down because I needed some healing!!! (crazy yes?)

UPDATE: some of my friends are on www.gawker.com/news/blue-states-lose/one-ironic-elvis-fan-can-be-wrong-261676.php
Which is a blog that teases cool people! Why? Cos they are jelous honey...anyway #7 is Yuki, #2 is Ole and Rory and #1 is Jonte! Check it out!!!

Sayonara

Birthday Gal, SPANK! party, Vice mag Gals AND Tokyo Fashion!!!

2007-06-05T03:43:00.000+10:00

It was my 23rd Birthday on Wednesday. I didnt really do much, as I had to work and as we recently had a huge wedding party I couldnt be bothered orgainising something else! Instead Henry made me my fave meal, vege tacos for dinner and gave me a cute birthday cake!

I also have been feeling really inspired lately to draw and design and to just generally be creative. I feel that online there is this whole community of creative people doing things and I need to be part of it. Suddenly there are all these street fashion blogs from around the world, I used to take photos of people on the street in art school as art 4 years ago!!! Now its very common. If only I was more tech savy back then, I could have a cool blog read by thousands of people. BUT I dont find blogging very fun, its slow, I hate computers and I get bored easily...so I guess I cant be bothered. I do this blog sparadically, and only recently have I been doing more than 1 post a month. I'm living in Tokyo, there is alot to do every day, so blogging isnt a priority...but I wish it was...and I wish I could be bothered doing it everyday and post photos of all the crazy Japanese fashion I see, get more readers and become famous! lol

Anyway here are some drawings I did of ideas for my wedding dress

The SPANK! gals had the BEST PARTY for their 3 year anniversary of their shop. It was held in Shibuya in this really cool club. It was the 1st time I had seen more than 10 SPANK! gals at a time. We walk into the club and their are like 150 pink faries dancing so hyper like 5 year olds who ate too much fairy bread and drank alot of red cordial! Soooooo cute!

So many girls, soooo much pink!

Yohei is back from London, where he was shocked by the drug use at Boombox
(hot London party) Tokyo has no drugs!!!

So cute, I heart you!

Bunny's

Petty, who is a model for Zipper...or Cutie?

Gallermic has new gungaru Shibuya boy hair.

From left to right: Ebony from myspace, Saki, Jamie from Vice mag, me and
Peggy a fashion designer from Kansass city.

Dance floor

Yuki and Maya perform the crazy SPANK! dance!

Toxic Lipstick, a band from Aus who live in Osaka.

Maya and Yuki as bunny's

My outfit for the night. I love my shirt!

Henry's outfit

The other night at 4am me and Henry were bored so we got crafty. Right now we are loving baggy t-shirts worn as dresses and House of Holland prints...so we got some cheap tees and some fabric pens and set to work on a fab creation!

CHOOSE
HAYLEY
TRAVERS
HUGHES

Henry was blown away by the coolness of our craftyness

So as mentioned there were some Vice gals here in Tokyo. Jamie is a photographer for vice and Peggy is a fashion designer, both are from Kansass in the USA. I missed the huge vice party because I was in Melbourne, but we got to meet them a few times. Nice gals, and it was nice to speak English instead of Engrish! I believe Jamie was here to take photos from vice mag about Tokyo fashion, so maybe that will be in the Aus edition, I'm not sure.

Yuki, Tabouchi, Peggy and Jamie.

I got a new dress the other day. Here it is worn at Tokyo Dome City amusement park, where we missed the rollercoaster by 10 mins. I really wanted to go on it....poo. The dress is from a vintage store in Shimokitazawa and it was such a find, just what I have been looking for, and only $40 which is good for vintage in Tokyo!

The dress looks better teamed with a white t-shirt and white shoes and my new fave hairstyle, high ponytail in a black and white polkadot scrunchy. Photos of that will come soon!!!

Anyway its 4am, my usual bedtime

Sayonara

Tokyo Design Festa

2007-06-04T16:22:00.000+10:00

We went to the Tokyo Design Festa at Tokyo Big Site in Odaiba last weekend. It is Asia's biggest design festival, and the biggest thing like it I have ever seen. It had over 500 stalls, all with crazy art, fashion, music, toys, dolls....anything. My friends Yuki and Cagey had a stall, but I didnt get to see it because they only had it for Saturday and I had to work!!!

Tokyo Big Site

Lots of people in the foyer

Some nu rave music

A crazy robot thing that really moves!!!

Yellow Art. live painting (we missed the live part)

Pink art

Red Riding hood....the emo version

On our way we got very lost. We caught the right train....going the wrong way, and didnt realise for 30 mins! It took 4 trains and 2 hours to get there! Gosh Tokyo is confusing sometimes. AND we only got on the right train by accident, because Henry thought we were in Shibuya not Shinjuku which wasnt the case...its a long story ahhhh!!!

Anyway me and Henry wanna go shopping for giant t-shirts in Harajuku now.

Sayonara

Tokyo Fashion for not much cash!!!

2007-06-01T02:14:00.001+10:00

Tokyo has changed my style. This was evident to me as soon as I touched down in Melbourne. People were staring at me, commenting on my outfit. It was strange. I didn't realise how different I was dressed. In Tokyo right now grunge is "in" in a pretty big way. Its all about giant shirts, baby doll dresses, smiley faces, peace necklaces, white wayfarer's, shiny leggings and oxford style man shoes. That pretty much is my uniform now. In Melbourne people are dressed fashionably...for last season. Anyway I felt like showing you some of my fave looks and accessories that I scored for not much money!

Wayfarers: Topman Harajuku ($37)
Owl necklace: Koenji flea market ($14)

From Left to Right
White platforms: ebay ($60)
Black pumps: Vintage store in New York ($50)
White jelly's: Takeshitta street Harajuku ($20)
Silver oxfords: Takeshitta street Harajuku ($20)
Black heels: Mollini Melbourne ($120)

Mary Kate = Fashionspiration

Shirt (worn as dress): Vintage store in Koenji ($20)
Shiny leggins: Kinja Harajuku ($7.50)
Badge: Spank Shibuya (Free)
Peace Necklace: We Go Harajuku ($10.50)
Bag: Thank You Mart Harajuku ($3.9)
Shoes: As before
Total: ($61.90)
Wow a completely Tokyo outfit, and very cheap too!!!

Dress: Savers Melbourne ($3)
Peace Necklace: Paris Kids Harajuku ($3.15)
Bag and shoes as before
Total: $30.05
Toooo cheap, its almost Free!!!

T-shirt: Henry's (FREE)
Skirt: Savers Melbourne, was a dress ($3)
Shoes as before
Bag: AMAP Harajuku ($50)
Total: $73
The bag made this outfit expensive!!!

*All prices are in AUD, anything bought in yen has been converted to AUD.

Melbourne and back to Tokyo

2007-06-01T00:02:00.000+10:00

As you all know I went back to Melbourne for a week because my Nana died. It was nice to see my family, but it was very weird to be coming home for this. For me it was really weird because I never saw my Nana sick, so I was still kinda expecting her to be in her rocking chair in the lounge room.

My sister did a very good job organising the funeral. It was nice, and I got to make a speech about how much of a good Nana she was to me and Ebony. On Mothers day we took the flowers from the wreath to the beach where my Nana grew up. From out of nowhere beautiful black swans appeared as we threw the yellow roses into the water. It was very moving.

I also got to catch up with friends. I went out with Lauren to her ex bf Dylan's gig. He is a drummer. The band is kinda crappy but his drumming is amazing!

Here they are posing "Japanese style"

I also went out with Henry's parents and sister for dinner, yummy Vietnamese. God I missed Melbourne food. I had all my old favourites, bimbos, Vietnamese, la porchettas and hungry jacks. All the portion sizes were HUGE! I couldn't finish anything! It was nice to see Henry's mum, she was very happy that me and Henry are married now, which was a bit of a surprise!

I really missed Henry while I was away, it made me scared for when he leaves in July. We will have 3 months apart again, and I'm not looking forward to it. Going back to Melbourne for the week made me not dread going back like I once did, its really not that bad, just a tad small.

Anyway I'm back in Tokyo now. The first weekend back was Sanja Matsuri, which is a big festival in Asakusa. Me and Henry went and took lots of photos. There were thousands of people watching the festival. What happens is groups of people carry a temporary shrine called a mikoshi around the town, chanting, singing and blowing whistles. The are many different groups from all over Japan. I'm not exactly sure what this Matsuri is about, I know that Matsuri's that happen in September are to do with the rice harvest. It was Henry's first Matsuri, so he really enjoyed it. Some people stand on the mikoshi, but that was banned for the 1st time ever this year, but yakuza looking men did it and were promptly arrested.

OK that's all from me for now

Sayonara

Wedding Party PHOTOS NEW

2007-05-24T02:13:00.000+10:00

Wedding Picnic Photos NEW PHOTOS

2007-05-05T20:42:00.000+10:00

We had the BEST DAY ever! We want to thank everyone who came and helped out!

Sayonara xxx

I'm coming home for a funeral

2007-05-03T20:00:00.000+10:00

I will be coming home on Monday for 1 week because my nana died this morning. I don't know if I mentioned this on the blog before, but my nana has been in hospital for 6 months (she went in after I was here in Japan for 1 month). She was in a coma type thing for a long time, and then got better and got to go home 2 weeks ago. She was sick because she was a smoker for 40 years. Her lungs weren't functioning and she had to have a "Tracky" (my mum calls it that, a hole in the neck for breathing tubes) and she had heart problems. I got to speak to her on Sunday, and then wham she was back in hospital on Monday, and then she died today, Thursday the 3rd of May.

My grandma loved fashion and was always very picky about what me and my sister wore. She never had alot of money but she loved pouring over catalogues on the weekend circling what she was going to buy on laybuy at Forrest Hill Chase. Sure it wasn't a Louis vuitton catalogue, it was a target or Kmart catalogue, but when she wore her new purchases she looked and felt like a million dollars.

And yes the wedding is still on, mainly because my nana was so happy about it (on the phone she called me Mrs Travers)

Sayonara

Gift

2007-04-30T13:33:00.000+10:00

I havent posted in a while, due to having a 2nd job...but I quit that shit. Who can be bothered waking up at 5:00am just to make some more money. Honey I just wanted more sleep.

Well There have been a few parties, Teenage Kicks and Gift. Teenage Kicks was a bit boring for me because Henry drank all my alcahol so I wasnt drunk....but Henry was! So fucking annoying. PLUS we had to ride our bikes home, and he crashed many times. Stupid foolio. And the SPANK! girls wernt there (well only 2 Maya and Asami...Maya was cute because she has a crush on this boy who is in a band who was going to play...but he broke her heart because he already has a girlfriend) , the rest were in Chicago buying stock for the shop! (lucky girls, and Saki went to New York...super jealous) So no super cuteness at Teenage Kicks. When they got back they bought me a presant, everything was red, red bag, red necklace, 4 red headbands, red sunglasses....they know my style lol!!! :>

Here are some Teenage Kicks Pics:

This is Henry looking cute and drunk

Me looking cute in pigtails

This is Emiko, from CANDY and the dj group SEX who are playing at our wedding!

This is me Maya (with the pink) and Asami

OHHH I almost forgot, last week I got really sick and started vomiting in Shibuya. So I went to the Koban (police station) and they called me an ambulance. YES thats right...I went in an AMBULANCE to hospital! It was my 1st time in an ambulance, and it was really fun and exciting (even though I was sick) Ambulances here are realllllllly realllllly LOUD because they yell over a loud speaker in Japanese "get out of the way" and the Ambo's were really nice, they were kinda excited to practice English. They had a book with symptons in English they wanted me to point to what I had. So funny. OH and the ambulance was full of soft toys...so cute! Anyway when I got to the hospital there was a group of nurses and doctors who spoke English waiting. The nurses said I was very cute and fashionable. It was funny because the doctor asked me "How are you" and as you know in English we always say good out of habit...so I said "good" and the doctor was like "Why are you here then?" he didnt get my auto response. Anyway I had a stomach virus they call Noro virus here *pronounced noro verus* For the 2nd time ahhhh so crap! and poor Henry was so worried, he was doing an extra training day for his job and he was about to do a very important test when I called him to say come to the hospital. So he had to leave early, but the trainer didnt believe him. Oh well. Back at the hospital they asked me if I wanted to go on a drip...of course I didnt want to, so I asked did I need to, and they said no...so of course I said no to the drip, I HATE needles! Another strange thing about Japanese hospitals is the doctor doesnt tell you what medicine he is giving you, you find out at the chemist! Very strange. I also read that doctors tell the family 1st if you have cancer, then its up to the family wether or not they tell you, and most often the dont! CRAZY!!!

Ok so that was a poorly written paragraph, but hey I never said I was a writter, I'm just a fashionable girl living in Tokyo.

The next party was Gift in Ni-chome in Shinjuku (the gay area)

It was a costume party, so me and Henry dressed up as the Olsen Twins! I bought this giant flanelette shirt to wear as a dress and a peace necklace (grunge is back) and Henry wore his new $200 April 77 very skinny jeans with a red check shirt and braces. Very cool. We started the night at a BBQ at Gallermics new appartment (he is no longer homeless after being kicked out of my place) which was really cool and fun. Mai and Ole were there, so was Kim from Osaka. OH Gallermic and Ole are in TUNE magazine this month, Mai is in Fruits, and so is Yulia (who is djing at our wedding) and a whole bunch of other people. I love these people! I never want to leave Tokyo, but at the same time I cant wait to go back home and open a shop with Henry. Its a strange place to be mentally...I know I have to leave in September, but it is too soon, but not soon enough...Ah.. I think I need to visit Tokyo every year for the rest of my life...and if we have a shop we will be able to do that very easily ala spank.

This is all of us on our way to the party. Gallermic is wearing bernhard willhelm!!!
Do you like my dress?

Ok so at this party called Gift we met this really cool guy called Jonte. He is the chereographer for BEYONCE! He also directed her film clips and appears in them. OH and he knows the Olsen twins, and he danced for Madonna, Janet Jackson at the infamous superbowl concert....ahhhhh my god in Australia we would never meet someone like that! He was wearing only a g-string too! (kind of like the Borat g-string swimming costume, lol)

Bizzare who is djing at our wedding and this nice girl who I always see....i love her but forget her name, oopps. She is in FRUiTS mag this month too!

Yohei was really really drunk and fell asleep in the gutter

Gallermic, Jonte in more clothes and Kim

Yulia who is djing at our wedding

Our wedding is next Saturday I cant wait.

This is the party invite

This is the picnic invite

Yesterday we had to go to Spank to pick up the necklace Maya made for my wedding. It is sooooo cute. Its a red love heart with Hayley and Henry forever written in it. We also went shopping, there is this new shop called UT which is a shop by uniqlo and in collaboration with Terry Richardson. Anyway this shop is really cool, t-shirts are all $15 or 1500yen and they come in capsules all along the wall, kinda like vending machines. Henry bought one that says FASHION IS DEAD we still make it. So cool.

Here he is wearing it and me in my Mary-Kate inspired dress at the Spank shop

I have so many more photos I want to post, but I cant be bothered right now

Sayonara

OMG really annoying

2007-04-30T04:24:00.001+10:00

AHHHH I have just spent 3 hours trying to get my blog onto the new blogger system. It wouldnt have taken so long if it was in ENGLISH but due to my location it automatically goes to JAPANESE and I CANT READ Japanese! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh god that took forever, cutting and pasting into an online translating program, dechiphering the ENGRISH it gave me and then trying to type in Japanese. AHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I was going to post cool photos from a party we went to but I cant be bothered now.

I will update tomorrow

Sayonara xxx

Hanami

2007-04-01T23:52:00.000+10:00

Ok, ok I know I said I will post daily during fashion week...but I've been busy!

Henry and I decided to get married while he was here in Tokyo, so I've been orgainising that. We are having a picnic wedding ceremony in Yoyogi Park, then a cool party in Shibuya with Spank dj and Gallermic dj! Its gonna be so much FUN!

I bought some cool fake chloe shoes to wear to the wedding on ebay from the USA. It was really annoying to pay for them because we had to use western union and there is only ONE in Japan and it is far away and really really busy grrrrrrr. The good thing is its near the Imperial Palace, so me and Henry had a nice time afterwards in the garden of the palace!

Arent the shoes HOT???

The Imperial Palace gate. I love the swan!

A large "Bonsai" style tree in the Imperial Palace garden.

My wedding dress is a lover look white lace babydoll dress I bought for only $50! sooooo cheap. Its really cute and short! Its gonna look hot with my shoes and the Spank gals are making me a giant red heart necklace thats says hayley n henry in it...soooo coool

OH during Tokyo Fashion week me and gallermics photo appeared in the daily fashion week paper...it was a paperazi style photo, so cool. Our photo was right next to the PRIME MINISTER of Japan, Abe!!! Like we were important!

*****I will upload a photo of the paper soon*****

Also right now the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) is out so its Hanami party time. We have been to a few parties lately...its soooo crowded, like the melbourne show!

This tree is my faveourite. Its near my house so I see it every day.
It seems a bit dangerous to have all the branches so close to the
powerlines...but hey its a cherry blossom tree..so I guess thats
why they dont cut it down. On Sunday people even had a Hanami party
under this tree! They blocked off the road and hung lanterns in it.
I didnt get to take a photo of that, sorry.

These are some trees in Yoyogi Park.

Me in yoyogi Park.

This is in Shinjuku Park. In front of me is my friend ***** who
is visiting from *********. Then the guy in the blue shirt is her *******, and the other people
are her *******'s friends. Notice how Henry's daks are out! Ha ha!
When me and Henry arrived it started photo mania. Because we dress
"Kawaii" or very cute we always get people wanting to take our photo.
So basically for 30 mins we were posing to a chorus of "kawaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiii"
"you are so cute", "cute couple" etc...It gets embarrasing!!!!

Look how many people. Most cant even see the cherry blossoms! CRAZY!
People cheer when the blossoms "snow" petals as its the most beautiful
part of Hanami. It really does look like snow!

Near my house there is this cute dog that sleeps on a 2nd story ledge that seems really dangerous!

Can you see him?

Here he is....so adorable! KAWAII!!!
My camera does a good zoom in!

Also I have had another visitor here in Japan. Her name is *****, and we met off ************.com (a bit embarrasing) but she is really cool. We took her around Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku. We took her to the spank shop, she loved it. Maya was there being cute.

Me and ***** out the front of Meiji Shrine in Harajuku.

We saw some Kimono clad girls at the Shrine. Kawaiiiiiii.

Here is the Shrine.

Ok I have to go meet ***** in Akhibara Electric town. We are going to a maid cafe! YAY!!!

Sayonara.

*some names have been edited for privacy

Tokyo Fashion Week Day 1

2007-03-13T06:33:00.000+11:00

I have had a really good past week. On Saturday night we went to an AMAZING fashion party at my fave venue, Nude Trump Room in Shibuya, the place with all the deer heads and chandeleirs! The party was called Sweet Dreams, and it was the most Fashionable party I have been to. It was like someone opened the pages of FRUiTS magazine and they all fell out of the pages and into a party. All the subcultures were represented, Spank hyper pink, Indie, Gothic, Ganguro, Raver....EVERYTHING!!!! Gallermic dj'd and so did the spank girls. The dj's played all my FAVES like "call on me" and "hung up" I love that my fave "bad" music is COOL here! I love dance music!!! Its soooo much fun to dance to, me and the spank girls danced around the pole and people pulled me up on stage and everyone cheered...infact anything I did people cheered. Me and Henry got asked for photos about 15 times! Gallermic thinks he discovered me...lol...HONEY I discovered myself thankyou.

Here are some party pics!

Yuske

Below Yuki is dancing

Saki in me glasses

Gallermic (The Fashion Ramone) djing

Shingo

Cass...He loves to DANCE!!!

The girl with the curls is my hair dresser!!!

Maya is sooooo happy!

I look like "Miney mouse"

The party was maybe my FAVE so far...the music...the fashion it was just soooo fun!!!

Next up I went with Gallermic to Tokyo Fashion Week day 1...I will be going most other days too. Its really cool because he has a press pass so we can sit front row, and go to the press office and drink Free Red Bull. We dont have to line up at all and people think we are really important! We got our photo taken by the international press and people just stared at us because we are dressed sooooo "out there" its soooo fun...I cant believe I am so lucky!!!

Me out the front...I changed into better shoes just after this!

Gallermic

The 1st show was "mercibeaucoup" in the north tent in Tokyo Marunouchi area. We got to walk ahead of everyone and sit front row...loving it!

The runway had cute forest mushroom plush cushion things...really cute!

The clothes were AMAZING!!! Really colourful pieces apparently inspired by balloons.

I will let the clothes speak for themselves but my fave is the big blue plaid dress...Its such a HOT shape right now, I'm loving plaid and its an amazing cut. I love the way they cut fabric like origami here.

The next show was "Hisui", I wasnt in such a good spot because we were late but here is 1 photo

The clothes for me wernt as exciting, but they are cut really well. The show also wasnt as spectacular, maybe because it was in the foyer of an office building rather than a fashion runway. My fave piece is the middle outfit with the white singlet over the navy shirt. I love the detail on the singlet.

Ok well thats all for now, more posts throughout fashion week. Tomorrow I am seeing "Ne Net" in Harajuku and apparently FRUiTS will be taking photos there so cross my fingers hope to die!!! Apparently at the market I went to last week the photographers were there and took a photo of one of my friends....1 hour before we got there....poooooooo

anywayz Sayonara!

Flea Market

2007-03-05T01:00:00.000+11:00

Hey this is hopefully going to be a more interesting post than the last one!

I found out that people are actually reading my blog! Like people in Tokyo...I met one of them at a party...and one of my Japanese friends told me she reads it too. This is embarrasing...my blog post "my life is a dream" is sooooo dorky I cant believe I wrote it...but I guess I am happy here. I knew my family and friends back home were reading this....so I wrote that for them to see how happy I am!

Ok, well the other night my Canadian housemate came home drunk with the local net cafe guy who me and Henry met just before Christmas. He is very excitable and "hopes and wishes to be our friends" Anywayz we ended up thinking it was a great idea to go to the local conbini (convinience store in japanese) dressed up crazy!

On Friday I finally met up with Hillary again! I havent seen her since Christmas day when I was reallllllly sick and before that the day I moved out. It was sooo good, I have really missed her! We went to an art opeining at "The magical artroom" gallery where Hillary interned and her collaboration partner was having an exhibiton.

Some Art

This cat drawing is soooooo funny, I LOVE it! and below the tennis racket it so cool!

Me and Hillary modeling!

Afterwards I took Hillary to meet my friends at a private Teenage Kicks Party at Coins bar in Shibuya. She really liked it...I think it was her 1st time to go dancing in Tokyo. Her boyfriend Naoto came and was super shy as always, but he is such a sweetie!

Hillary and Naoto in love...sweet

Shingo being Shingo, currently in Tune magazine.

Gallermic (The fashion ramone and the love of my fashion life!!!) sporting a new haircut, and Rory (I think thats his name....ah he is a model and dresses cool) *PAT if you are reading this you so could be a model in Japan

Henry and Shingo....about to make out???

Cass (not sure on the correct spelling) cute little raver boy as seen in last issue of FRUiTS!

Aiko, orgainiser of Kicks....a model and also girlfriend of Rory! As seen in FRUiTS with Gallermic.

Me and Shingo...I look drunk!

If you didnt know yet Henry is staying here until July 5th...maybe. He has been working at GABA but isnt getting alot of shifts sooooo he may still need to return home cos he has no money...But hopefully that wont happen. Anywayz he has 7am starts, yikes, and had to get up and go to work after only 2 hours sleep after this party...which meant we missed the party I wanted to go to on Saturday night...dress up Animal party...oh well! It meant we were well rested and able to go to the Yoyogi Park Flea Market in Harajuku. It was AMAZING, so much cheap stuff, and I bumped into Maya from Spank (I keep bumping into friends, the other night In Harajuku waiting to meet Henry after work...he works there...I bumped into Saki and her boyfriend , Saki is also a spank girl...we went shopping at Tower Records, I always bump into Shingo because he lives in the next suburb...I love bumping into friends in Tokyo!!!) Anywayz here are some market photos!

The market has over 800 stalls

some cool grafitti

Henry searching for a new shirt

Fashion Hayley stikes an angry pose

Henry looking cool

Yohei and Perry who are djs/fashionistas who want me to be a model for them...Me a model??? but I said yes...I dont know what I have to do.

Group shot!

The market was really cheap. I got so much stuff, 3 whit shirts for 300yen or $3 AUD, a tartan scarf for 10yen or about 10cents, a black dress for 100yen or $1 AUD, a free Nova rabit. Henry got Free Architecture magazines and a new shirt and braces for 100yen each!!! Sooooo good.

The market is held once a month on a Sunday, I am definatly going to go every month from now on. Its sooo cool, they have bands and everything. Its 100 times better than Camberwell market back home!

Ok its getting late,

Sayonara

New Hair and Asthma

2007-03-01T15:35:00.000+11:00

Ok, I havent posted in a while, mainly due to being sick. I had a really bad asthma attack last week just after I got my hair dyed back to Blonde.

Here is a photo of me sick

I got to go to my first ever Japanese Doctors. They are a little old fashioned here, they use old asthma treatments like the ventalin pump and also apparently sometimes you take your medicine analy instead or orally!!! Luckily all my 5 (yes FIVE) pills were the oral kind! Also the nurse is in the doctors office passing him things...kinda cute. I still have to get my money back from my insurance...but it was only 6000yen or about $60 AUD, so its not urgent.

and this is my NEW hair!!! Its HOT.

I got my hair done at Number 406 in Harajuku. Its the best salon ever, you can watch dvds at your chair and the interior is like a princess castle! I dont have a photo...next time I will take one. OH and its soooo cheap... only 7000yen for 4 hours of hair colouring!!! Thats only like $70 AUD!!!!

Those photos are taken on Henrys new Ketei (cell phone in Japanese) it has a 5megapixel camera...but those photos were taken low res so we can take alot of photos untill we buy a new memory card. I LOVE this phone and I'm thinking of getting an upgrade. Its soooooo handy and pretty in red.

I havent done much else but I did teach an English Lesson to Saki and Maya at the Spank shop in Koenji. Tabouchi and Saki are in the USA getting new stock for the shop. It was fun, I taught them about email language and also fairy tales. Fun times!!!

Because I was sick I missed the BEST party of the year. The Ksubi Neon Speread party. Karren O was there and alllll my frienddssss...not fair. BUT this weekend there are lots of parties to make up for it.

ok I have to go to work for some new kids training.

Sayonara

My life is a dream!!!

2007-02-12T04:05:00.000+11:00

In my post dated Monday, September 11, 2006 I say that my aim is to get into FRUiTS magazine....wellllll I havent done that yet BUT I'm so close, closer than I actually ever thought I would be. I'm in the next issue of Tokyo Graffitti magazine with Henry (we got asked on the street in Harajuku to answer a question and let them take a photo of us...the question was whats the difference between japanese schools and the ones where we are from...I said Japanese students are under alot of pressure compared to Australian students....BUT they have a better uniform!!!), and the japanese version of Tokion (I'm not sure but maybe the USA issue too....hopefully!!!) Thanks to the fab Fashion Ramone (Gallermic my old housemate) who takes fashion party pics for Tokion. Both mags come out late Feb, so I will try and post pics here somehow...but I dont have a scanner.

BUT thats not the best bit....for me the best bit is that I'm friends with all these cool fashion kids....who are in ALL the magazines. I cant pick up an issue of a magazine without saying "oh theres so and so in FRUiTS" or "hey thats the spank girls in Cutie"...Thats why my life is a dream right now....this was my dream for 4 years or more...and now I am reallllllly living it...I cant believe I know the people in FRUiTS...and they have told me the secrets of how to get in because they think I sooooo can...YAY but sorry I wont tell you all because then I will have more competition!!!

I finally feel like I'm making it in FASHION....Ive got a job interview on Thursday to work as a fashion buyer here in Tokyo...so maybe no more NOVA even though I really enjoy it. Obviously teaching English isnt my chosen carreer, so I hope I get this other job...It would set me up for life...getting cool jobs back home or even in London!!!

Me and Henry saw Marie Antoinette the other day in Roppongi. Its def one of my fave movies ever...the costumes, music and acting....ohhh I loved it!

Also in Roppongi we went to the Mori Tower to the worlds tallest art gallery, on the 53rd floor. There is an observation deck on the 52nd floor and I got really scared, even though Ive been there before without a problem. The exhibition was great, "humour in art"...japanese contemporary art is soooo cool and funny. I remember a few years ago at Fed square in Melbourne an exhibition with 6 Japanese artists and 6 Aussies...(including one of my uni tutors), The Japanese art was soooo funny but the Aussie stuff more serious...I LOVE art that takes the piss...all of my art is funny...I think maybe its the only way people can relate to art these days...a pretty picture doesnt cut it anymore.

The view of Tokyo

Me and Henry went to a few parties...but not many recently because we have been sooo poor. It costs about 4000yen entry each to most parties when I cant somehow get on the door list soooo when thats all we have till payday (Which is once a month in Japan) theres no way we are going!

This is me at HAPPY in Shibuya...I coloured in my eyebrows for a freaky effect but just look stupid!

Henry has decided he wants to try and stay for 6 months...because he failed uni last semester he has to repeat 1 semester either now or in July...sooo he is thinking July... Right now he is trying to get a job (He had one but didnt go...because he is stoooooooopid) and orgainise the money...so by the end of the week we will know if its 6 more months or 1 more week!

Today we went to Yoyogi park to fly a kite and have a picnic! We rode our bikes there and it was a nice day, but verrrrrry windy. The kite was a failure, it ripped and fell appart, I guess thats what you get for buying it at a 100yen shop.

Henry and the kite

Me on the picnic rug

We found a better way of getting to Harajuku on bike...no hills, flat all the way and we get there in 20 mins, Shibuya 30 mins...so now we dont need the train...bike all the way baby! AND no more EXPESNIVE taxis!!! YAY

Ok Its time for bed for me!

Wish me luck with the job,

Sayonara!

Parties Parties Parties

2007-01-21T18:54:00.000+11:00

Henry looks super wierd here:

OK Well Ive had a busy few weeks partying. The first Party I went to was Teenage kicks on January 6th. It was in Shibuya at the Chelsea Hotel. It wasnt that big a venue and there wasnt as many people as the last Teenage Kicks I went to. But still I had fun...Henry was very grumpy that night, he didnt like the music or the way people danced...BUT it was fun for me. There was a funny punk band that played, they were wearing cool clothes...and they stage dived into the crowd...but no one caught them...lol!

Some photos from that night

Me and Spank gals Yuki and Maya

The camera got all foggy from the cold, but this is the band!

I also now teach the SPANK! gals English...I teach them at their shop in Koenji. I went shopping there the other day and visited Eri and Yuki..

Super Kawaii!!!

The next Party I went to was the CSS (Cansai de Ser Sexy) after party in Shibuya at the same venue as the Fashion Parades after Party! So Cool. Henry REAAAAALLLLLLLLY loved it, he is finnally understanding the music and the way people party...its more fun then Melbourne...basically bad dance music is cool...my FAVE music so I'm happy...but coming from Melbourne where "cool indie rock" is what is IN its hard to listen to "stupid music" as Henry calls it...but I mean even in New York dance/pop is whats played at the cool clubs...stupid Melbourne music scene dominated by male fuckwit bands (M&N'ers you can laugh at Misshapes all you want...but HONEYzzzzz we all know you are just Jelous...and too late too...Misshapes is dead! Been there done that!)

ok now that rant is over here are some photos!

Shingo and 2 gays

Fashion designer from Yokohoma

After seeing the deers in Nara this doesnt seem as cool!

Henry and his Palestinian scarf

Im dancing to Madonna baby!

Gallermic and Shingos ex girlfriend in the glasses and this other chick who owns or works at Candy in Shinjuku...she is also in the current FRUiTs magazine

AND finally Teenage Kicks again this time 19th January in Roppongi...

I was the Champagne girl. I got this messgae on myspace syaing "I like your clothes, can you be champagne girl on dance floor at next kicks" I said yes not knowing what it was...but basically I had to hand out champagne and dance...yay and I got in for FREE and so did henry and thomas and his friend yayayayayaya!

OHHHHHHHHh AND my hair is kinda orangey blonde...on my way back to my natural colour I have to be orange for 1 month.....I went to a cool hair salon in Harajuku that the spank gals go to...its in and appartment...and inside it is like a princess's bedroom...sooooooo coool and cheap! $70 for 3.5 hours and 2 people working on it!!! omg so good!

OHhhh and the Damn Arms played...they are from Melbourne...but I missed most of their set drinking cans of chu-hi fromthe conbini outside!

And also the dj played CRAZY FROG...wtf so funny...the song got the biggest cheer from the crowd...sometimes the music is soooo silly!

photos from kicks

This guy reminds me of Tony

These dancers came on stage...and stripped....it was crazy

Me and the Spank gals from left to right: I forget, Maya, Me, Saki, Yuki and Eri. I am holding Eri's doll...Toooo super Kawaii!

Me as champagne girl...with champagne coloured hair!

7% Chu-hi made Henry VERRRRY drunk! but his bow is cool....inspired by a cover of Popeye mag and a guy in Streets mag...yay

Ok enough already....Sayonara

Kyoto and Osaka

2007-01-05T23:02:00.000+11:00

Henry and I celebrated New Year in Kyoto and Osaka. We went for 7 nights. It was realllllly beautiful and romantic.

Osaka Castle

Kinkaku-ji (Golden temple) in Kyoto

Fushimi-Inari Taisha, Kyoto.
Hundreds of red Tori gates line the hillside around the temple.

This is the GIANT Buddha statue that is inside the Daibutsu-den Hall in Nara (below) the largest wooden building in the world.

Below is one of the 1200 deer that roam the hillside of Nara around the temple.

You can feed them rice crackers that you buy for 150yen.

Below is Himeji-jo, Japans most beautiful Castle, built in 1550.

Henry has been here 1 month already!

2007-01-05T21:43:00.000+11:00

Konichiwa from Tokyo, where you can ride a panda anytime you want!

I can't believe Henry has been here for 1 month already. It only feels like yesterday when I was madly excited that he would be here in 2 weeks! Its crazy, even crazier because he leaves in 1 month! I'm going to be so sad, maybe I will have to leave with him....

So far we have done alot of shopping, bike riding and partying. We also had a 17 year old from Australia stay with us, who was here in Japan on a school exchange in Nagoya but got kicked out of her host familys house for no reason. She was here for Christmas. Lovely girl. OH and before Henry came I had a few other visitors, Jarra who I've known since primary school and Marrawa who works at Genki and is a circus performer who only wears a Koala outfit. Kawaii!

This is Marrawa plus a few balloons at the after party for a fashion show we went to in Harajuku, under the Marc Jacobs store! The after party was in Shibuya at this cool bar that is decrated with millions of deer heads, chandeliers and guilded mirrors.

Ths fashion parade was at a cool place in Harajuku under the Marc Jacobs store, the runway was on a see through hallway that you could see bear traps under your feet.

Marrawa and Gallermic (the Fashion Ramone) enjoy the chu-hi limited edition strawberry flavour.

Me and Henry look good on bikes.

Henry and Jackie the 17 year old run away from Nagoya also enjoy the chu-hi limited edition winter strawberry flavour.

Gallermic and me.

Henry looking scared on the worlds TALLEST ferris wheel in Odaiba, Tokyo!!!
Its 115 metres tall!

Gotta love the fake statue of liberty in Odaiba!

The cool kids do karaoke!

Christmas day. Jackie made all the food (I was realllllly sick with gastro virus...I had to leave work half way through a lesson to vomit...ewwww). Hillary is with her bf Naoto, and beside me is my new housemate Gabrielle from Canada...

Teenage Kicks, Spank me and more!

2006-12-01T23:48:00.000+11:00

I havent posted in a while due to being lazy and partying! Fucking fashinista post modern me in Tokyo Honey. Teenage Kicks is a fully HOT party, KIM from the Presets dj'd and so did my friend Gallermic (The Fashion Ramone). I danced all night, and met some cool fashion chicks from a shop called Spank Me. Im getting into the fashion world....my friend Gallermic was in FRUiTS mag...and Tabochi and Yuki are in Cutie mag alllll the time... They are soooo cute and cool i LOVE them. We went shopping together the other day, and they showed me their cool shop Spank Me...its near Harajuku. They have another one in Koenji, and Im going to teach them English...yay...They sell cute vintage clothes they source from America...coool

Tabochi, Yuki and another Spank girl at the Spank shop!

I also went to an indie rock gig with Gallermic, Singo and Sono (wearing Marc Jacobs shoes)...So fun. We looked fashion, and I stole a plastic pizza and we ate junk food and caught a taxi home together...

mmmmmmmmmmmplastic pizza...Gallermic fashionista blogger photographer is in the reflection

Sayonara

Me at Sanrio Puroland

2006-11-18T20:13:00.000+11:00

Kawaii

I moved house and Halloween party

2006-11-09T13:47:00.000+11:00

I havent had the internet for a little while because I moved house finally! My new place is so amazingly close to everything its crazy. I will post photos of my new house next week. Right now I want to talk about Halloween. I went on the infamous Yamanote gaigin Halloween train, Basically you get on the train at exactly 9:07 at Shinjuku station with about 500 other forigners and a few Japanese people dressed up and you ride around the yamanote circle, drinking, turning off the lights and frightening old people! When we pulled up at a station old people would literaly run the other way. We took up 2 carriages and they were jam packed, It was soooooo noisy and crazy, people sitting on the racks above the seats....Oh what fun.....Then when you pull up at Shinjuku station again after about 1 hour of train time madness you alll jump off....When we jumped off you wouldnt believe it but there was a Japanese Sallaryman ASLEEP on the seat....h e slept through the whole loud crazy thing. I have no idea how he did that!

I dressed up as a horse!

I will post more photos latter

Sayonara! I have to go to work!

Love Hotel swimming pool and a 4am haircut

2006-10-19T02:08:00.000+10:00

B4 haircuts

Ok on Monday night me and Thom from work went out after work. We went to Omotesando to this cool restaurant called SIGN. It has a really funky interior and yummmmmmm food. Downstairs is a gallery and upstairs is a cool bar called Office....which looks like an office and it has an amazing view of omotesando dori. We ended up missing the last train (as usual!!!)

Sign Restaurant

We decided that as we were going to have to stay up all night we should go to Shibuya to party. We caught a taxi and it only cost 660yen (about $6.60) cheap for Tokyo (it was about a 2 min drive) and Shibuya looked dead (it was a Monday night) so we were getting desperate! We went to this gross hip hop club called Gas Panic that was full of American GI's....we hid in the corner so we didnt have to talk to them and we could watch the cool and cute Japanese hip hop boys dance...They did this dance sorta like the grape vine....just more hip hopy...They are the most gentle non bad ass hip hop boys in the world...anywhere else in the world and they would be on drugs and fighting...but here just dancing....and it was only boys dancing...again very unusual for anywhere else in the world. After 2 drinks we decided to leave....the American army guys were too gross!

We were walking around wondering what to do next, when these cute boys came up and spoke to us....I dont really remember but we ended up walking trying to find this bar that me and Henry went to last time called Alcatraz ER where its medical and jail themed. The boys said there was no such place, and they took us to lock up...which is just jail themed...I was like "noooo this is the wrong place" and it was shut anywyaz....the boys left us and we walked for about 1 minute and then there it was Alcatraz ER I knew we were close....stupid Japanese boys didnt know their own city!!!

However it was 4am and that too was closed so we walked down to the main street and noticed that the hairdressers was open. We bought a few beers at 7/11 and drank them in the street and went in to get our haircut at 4am...totally drunk. I do not recommend doing this...I asked for a really short style with a short fringe...after about 2 years of growing it out from that...stupid!!! The good thing is it only cost about 4000yen (about $40) and a colour was the same price so I am going to go back to get my hair coloured.....at a normal hour!

After our 4am haircut we decided to go to a love hotel. We found the one me and Henry saw last time that has a cave room, but that was booked out...so we got the 1950's style swimming pool room...the swimming pool was HUGE for inside a hotel room here in Tokyo. We swam until 10am, (well I fell asleep for a while....) but wow what a crazy night. Thom is hilarious...and his 4am haircut looks HOT.... Porn on the TV's and swimming in you own privat oasis cost us 30000yn about $300 FUCK but Thom paid for most of it...Thankyou Thom!

Here are some pool pics!

You can see Thoms hair cut here...he got the same thing...only shorter!

Porn on the TV...gotta love it!

AFTER HAIRCUT

My fringe is too long to leave down and too short to put up!

Oh and I went to Sizzler for lunch the other day... so gross...exaclty the same as it used to be in Australia...But there was a funny Halloween Christmas Tree! YAY!!!

Sayonara from me I have to go pick up my Alien Registration card....2 days late...I think they give you a fine...opps

CRAZY KARAOKE

2006-10-15T14:26:00.000+10:00

Crazy photo of me and Hillary!!!

OK I had the craziest night on Friday night! It all started innocently enough at an izakaya (japanese pub) for dinner with my 2 housemates and 1 gay african american....all of us Nova teachers. However slowly we got drunker and drunker untill we were having food fights at out table and telling the wait staff they were sexy....And then these 3 sallarymen sat down in the booth next to us. OF course I started talking to them (as usual) and we joined our tables....2 of them were married 1 was single so I made Hillary kiss the hot single one (she wants me to get her a bf by being pushy) so they kissed for ages and then we decided to go to a Karaoke booth....Somehow in that time the marrried sallarymen had kissed the gay guy and my other housemate....and the fact they kissed the gay guy was soooo crazy cos here in japan being gay is not accepted at all....Anyway so we end up at the karaoke booth and all the guys get topless and start feeling Hillarys tits, she takes of her shirt and leaves her singlet on....Joanne makes out with the 32 year old married sallaryman (22 is single, 32 and 37 married) and I just laugh hysterically at the action...I kiss the 22 year old for a little and suck hills tit *opppsss!!! but thats all I do....Im not really as drunk as everyone else and I dont like the idea of kissing a married man. All of the guys are kissing the gay guy in intervals between Jo and Hill...The 22 year old and Hillary are really going for it and our time is up. We leave expecting the 22 year old to come back to our place for sexu with Hill...but he ran away saying "chin chin too small" (chin chin is penis) OMG wtf is with Japanese men? Even when they are offered sex on a plate they dont take it....at least not with western women! OHHH and guess what their job was...they were in the meat industry...dealing in chickens...lol gross!

Joanne and Steven

The 3 sallarymen

The kiss that started it all

If you want to see the CRAZY photos from that night email me and I will email them to you....they are to X rated for blogger

Earlier that day I went and had a look at this AMAZING house is Sasazuka which is like 4 mins from work, and 10 mins from Harajuku, Shimokitazawa, Shibuya....basically the loaction is HOT!!! The guy picked me up at the station and made me ride the spare bike to the house...my 1st time riding here in Japan!!! The room is also $100 cheaper a month than where I live now....40 mins from work!!! and 1 hour from everything cool. I find out tonight if I can move in, they wanted me to untill I mentioned Henry is coming to visit for 2 months....sharehouses here are run by companies and you can only have guests stay for 5 nights for free, every night after that is $20. And if they stay 1 month they have to pay the same amount of rent you do....So I asked if maybe Henry could pay half and do alllllll the household chores...They are seeing if thats ok...I think though its worth it to pay if I have to because the location is AMAZING! and its normally sooo cheap!

After that I went to Shimo Kitazawa (walked there in 7 mins yayayay) and shopped and took lots of photos! I bumped into this guy from the night I stayed out in Shibuya untill 1st train....he is in a band called Sleepy dog ...but I didnt recognise him without the hat he wore last time....so for ages I was like ummmmm who are you???? His name is Taro and he lives in Shimo...I have to live around there, all the cool students of mine live there (I have like 4 fashion designers as students....I think we are going to see Peaches together...shhhhh dont tell nova!) Here is a photo of him

And some of Shimo Kitazawa!!!

I have to go to Shimo now and meet Taro and Thomas from work....Sayonara!!!

HERE are some PHOTOS!!!

2006-10-12T00:17:00.000+10:00

The top 2 photos are from Tokyo Art Beat's PARTY!!!

Atushi at the park...he likes hipu hopu

Hillary at Tokyo Art Beat's Party drawing on the wall

Harajuku Rockabilly

Asakusa Asahi building

Me in my new blouse at the Tokyo Art Beat Party

Tokyo Art Beat

2006-10-11T14:02:00.000+10:00

OK so in my last post I talked about what happened Fri, Sat and Sun but on Monday I also had alot of fun! I went to www.tokyoartbeat.com 2nd anniversary party with Hillary. It was at this cool bar in Roppongi called super deluxe....Apparently designers and actors and artists all hang out there. There were people from www.pingmag.com (design mag online about japan) and alot of artists! There were drawing walls and projections of an artist drawing, sound artisits, vj's and d'js. We met the creater of tokyo art beat and he gave us his card and said to email him. Also we met the owner of the pink cow.....its a cafe where artisits hang out in Shibuya and she just invited me to this party on the 27th full of actors, directors, artists, bands ect... Im in with the cool crowd...its so easy because I'm western and they like what I wear...and when I have a camera around my neck they think I'm like a famous photographer or something.....lol....I wanted to stay and hang out with all these people but we had to go because the last train is at12:00 (TOKYO needs 24hr trains!!!!) and Hillary had to work....we had a fight because I wanted to stay and she wanted to leave...and we only just made the last train time...running through the station she got in and the doors started to close and they closed on me....luckily i was indise!!!!! and because we had run soooo much we were like lets run from the back of the train to the front.....Japanese people thought we were crazy....opps we are giving westerners a bad name!!!!!

OHHHH The night I stayed out till 5am I was hanging with a guy who was in Battle Royale!!! ong how cool is that!

OK Blogger is currently experiencing problems with adding photos....or it might be my computer....ahhhhhh soooo check out my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/44497243@N00/

I got a laptop

2006-10-11T03:44:00.000+10:00

I got a laptop on Friday but have been too busy to make a post about it untill now....3am on Tuesday night!!!

Friday was soooooooo wet and rainy here, it was a Typhoon apparently. My umbrealla broke in the wind when I was in Akhibara Electric Town buying the laptop and because of the rain I got soaked and couldnt take any photos. I also couldnt walk around Akhibara and maybe go to a maid cafe because of the rain... It sucked!

On Saturday I worked untill 9pm and then met Hillary to go to Shibuya to try and meet cool boys. We succeded. We met these cool and cute guys from a band who were having a party at an Izakhia (spelling may be incorrect but an izakhia is like a japanese pub...but with seperate rooms for groups) I ended up missing the last train and had to party all night with them untill 1st train at 5am. The 1st train was PACKED and it was a SUNDAY morning!!! I also have no photos from this night because I didnt bring my camera....oppps!

On Sunday I woke up at 3pm (after getting home at 7am!!!) and went to this cool area called Shimo Kitazawa. It is like Harajuku but without the tackyness and tourists....its my new fave hang out. I bought a cool 2nd hand blouse and a red love heart bag that was about $60 au...opps! I also won the UGLIEST doll in a UFO catcher on my 1st try....that happened the other day too....I won a mikey mouse toy....The UFO catchers here are dead easy or I'm very lucky....

Then on Sunday night I went with my friend from work Thomas to a gay bar in Shinjuku called Arty Farty and had the BEST time dancing to pop music and as Thomas said "getting treated like Madonna" basicalley I was very popular and had people hugging me and dancing crazy with me alllllll night!!!!

I had to catch the last train home and I met Atushi at Shinjuku station just in time. I wasnt able to met him through the week because I got really sick and had an asthma attack....and I didnt have my puffer in Japan....luckily Henry was able to post it to me express post and I got it in 2 days....yay!!!

Anywayz we went to Karaoke near my house in Fuchu...and boy can he sing...he is sooooo cute when he sings, I have a video of it but I havent worked out how to make the file small enough to upload onto youtube....so stay tuned for Tokyo videos coming soon!!!

I lost my voice trying to sing but we still had fun, even though because he is underage we couldnt drink (legal age here is 20....he is 19)

After Karaoke we went and drank beer in the childrens playground on my street untill 3am...Im a bad influence on him...He stayed over and slept on the couch...nothing is going on with us at all! he is tooo wierd!

OK my comp wont let me ad photos anymore....so I will try and make a new post!

Sayonara....for now

Here are some photos from Japan so far

2006-10-03T17:39:00.001+10:00

Local donkiotos car park attendant (Donkys is a discount superstore!!!)

Women only train carriage...so I dont get felt up!!!

1 of millions of photos from the BEST concert EVER...I love you Madonna...and I cried like I knew I would!!!!

My LOVELY view....not

MMMMM cocktails Japan is obsessed with Hawaii...hense the themed restaurants everywhere!!!

Naked men doing some traditional Japanese dance in g-strings!!! I have a video of it too...wait till I get my laptop for that!

Mos burger dudes plus Hillary and me!

Hillary (my best buddy here in Japan) and our Japanese friends at a Budhist temple...

I have been having a ball...So much drinking, partying, meeting cute Japanese boys and shopping...I love Hillary, we have such a good time together (she is my housemate)

I have a Hilarous story about a Japanese boy....he is only 19 I met him drunk on the CROWDED train going home (drunk as usual) anywayz we arranged to go out the next night to Karaoke. All day he sends me wｉｅrd emails to my mobile (you can email via your cell phone here）　ｈｅｒｅ　ｉｓ　ａｎ　ｅｘａｍｐｌｅ　ｏｆ　ｏｎｅ＊（ｉｓ　ａ　ｐｅｒｓｏｎ　ｏｆ　ｐｈｙｓｉｃａｌ　ｃｏｎｄｉｔｉｏｎ　ｏｋ　ｔｈａｎ　ｔｈａｔ？）　ＷＨＡＴ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｅｌｌ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｍｅａｎ？？？？　ａｎｙｗａｙｚ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｗｅ　ｄｏ　ｇｏ　ｏｕｔ　ｈｅ　ｋｅｅｐｓ　ｓａｙｉｎｇ　＊Ｉ　ｗａｎｔ　ｔｏ　ｋｉｓｓ　ｙｏｕ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｗｅ　ｇｅｔ　ｈｏｍｅ＊　ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｏｋ　ｃｏｏｌ．．．．．．ＢＵＴ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｗｅ　ｇｏｔ　ｈｏｍｅ　ｈｅ　ｇｏｔ　ｓｃａｒｅｄ　ａｎｄ　ｓａｉｄ　ｈｅ　ｗａｓ　ａ　ｖｉｒｇｉｎ　ａｎｄ　ｄｉｄｎｔ　ｗａｎｔ　ｔｏ．．．．　Ｉ　ｌａｕｇｈｅｄ　ａｌｏｔ．．．ｐｏｏｒ　ｋｉｄ．．．ｂｕｔ　ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ａｆｔｅｒ　ｗｏｒｋ　ｔｏｍｏｒｒｏｗ　ｎｉｇｈｔ．．．

Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｔｏ　ｇｏ，，，ｔｈｅ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄｓ　ｇｏｎｅ　ｎｕｔｓ　ｏｎ　ｍｅ

2006-09-29T19:26:00.000+10:00

It is impossible to add photos at the net cafe right now BUT soon I will have a laptop and you can see all the fun things I have been doing!!! I miss you Henry....I love you

konichiwa from tokyo

2006-09-24T20:33:00.000+10:00

I am in TOKYO as iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiwite this....the comp is hard to use....i am just goimg to say _I LOVE IT HERE and i w upload photos next week when i get my own laptop

sayanara!

Goodbye Party

2006-09-18T10:53:00.000+10:00

My party was AMAZING!!!! Well my work dress up day wasnt that good seeing as I was the only one who dressed up...

My PARTY on the otherhand everyone dressed up crazy HOT and we sang Karaoke and danced untill the police came due to dirt being thrown from our window onto Brunswick Street and landing on cars....Oppps

Here are some photos from the party...I get more and more drunk...

Today is my last day in Melbourne and I have alot of packing to do so I cant write much right now...

Sayonara!

1 week to go

2006-09-11T13:32:00.000+10:00

http://www.expat-blog.com/en/directory/asia/japan/
I have been added to expat blog so hopefully now people can find my blog YAY!!!

There is only 1 week to go untill I will be writing this from Japan. I am so excited. It has come so quicky. I only have 4 more days of work, the last day being Dress up Japanese day. Then on Saturday night I am having a dress up Japanese and Karaoke Party.

Last Saturday night was my friend Rochelles 22nd birthday. We went out dancing at click click till 3am. I'm still recovering 2 days latter!

This is Me, Rochelle and Henry.

Fashion...(She is wearing really high heels)

I think I finally have enough tights for working as a teacher at Nova in japan. (You have to wear tights/pantyhose of you wear a skirt....and seeing as I only wear skirts because I dont believe in casual fashion I have to stock up on tights now because Japanese tights DONT fit me!)

OH and I also finally got a suit Jacket. I have been looking and looking for months and months for one that will fit my fat arms and small waist. I decided to try Bridge Road again (Factory outlet street in Melbourne) and walked up and down the whole day. I didnt find anything I liked and I was getting annoyed. The last shop I was going to visit was Charlie Brown (an Australian fashion designer) and I found 4 or 5 suit jackets that worked for me. So I had to narrow it down to 2, one that was more expensive but was more professional and one that was more "me" as in it had a few quirky design features such as puffy arms and a cool giant button. I decided to go with the more "me" suit jacket a bonus being it was $130 cheaper than the other one I was thinking about getting. YAY now I am going to look like a professional and there wont be a chance of me being sent home! (NOVA are really strict with the dress code)

I have also been a bit worried that I dress like a "Cartoon". In the last few weeks I have been dresssing more conservatly trying to practise my Japanese work clothes. A new guy at work told me I look like the Town Bikes (a dance troop)

He didnt know who they were he just cut a photo out of the newspaper...

AND I met all these Japanese guys on a CRAZY drunken night out with Rochelle. (It was an afterwork drinks thing...I got very drunk infront of my team leader, the "corporate" guys and all my colegues....It was hilarious...I told my Team Leader his band sounds like vomit...) Anywayz me and Rochelle were going up to people and asking if they were Japanese...we ended up finding a whole heap. I become friends with 2 Satashi and Itchi...I went out to another bar with them and kissed Satashi...oppps I have a boyfriend/fiance. Satashi actually slept over at me and Henrys house....oppps how crazy is that.... Satashi and I met up a week latter so he could teach me Japanese and I could teach him English. He sent me a very funny text message:

"Please no clothes like cartoon"

What the? I really didnt think I dressed that out there... I mean in Japan you have people who dress like cartoon all the time...its called Cosplay and Fruits magazine showcases all the crazy things people wear in Harajuku! I thought a Japanese person would understand...

OH my aim is to get a photo taken of me in Harajuku for FRUiTS magazine...stay tuned on that front!

In my next post I will have photos of the dress up Japanses parties...

Sayonara!

Madonna Tickets

2006-09-06T11:24:00.000+10:00

These are what my beautiful Madonna Tickets look like! I am so excited about this concert. I got to meet Harry the Japanese student who lives with my sister in Bendigo at the dorm who bought my ticket for me. I gave him a very "Aussie" presant of VB beer, a VB beer mug oh and some Japanese chocolates that he wouldnt be able to get in the country!

I cant wait to see the concert, I have watched clips on youtube. It is soooo amazing. I love how she does controversal things...its HOT.

In other news I didnt go to work today, I slept in. Its not like I really need the money either. So today I am going to clean up my bedroom (Its like bomb went of in there) so I can find what I need to pack more easily. Only 13 days till I go now. WOW OMG this is CrAzY!!!

Ok got to clean up now

Sayonara!

2 weeks to go

2006-09-05T22:14:00.000+10:00

There is now only 2 weeks untill I get on the plane to go to Tokyo. I am definatly getting nervous now and I only have 8 days left at work, its the 1st job I have ever had job satisfaction at, its weird to be leaving it so soon (I only started 5 months ago).

This is my week so far:

My sisters birthday in Bendigo went well (That is a photo of my family, my sister next to me, my grandfather and my nana with my mum on the end) Ebony loved the ipod! It was exhausting though, we didnt get into the city untill 8pm and we had to go to Henry's parents for fathers day dinner...fun (not) I dont like Henrys mum, she isnt very nice to me...doesnt respect me and what I have done for Henry and Bridie. (I helped them grow up, move out of home and be independant...but mostly I helped Henry overcome extreme social anxiety)
This is Ebony and Henry carrying the picnic basket, they look so fashionable!

On Saturday I went to the local costume shop and hired a Geisha costume (Kimono, obi, parasol, fan) for my 2 days of goodbye celebrations starting September 15! I have to get on the tram dressed like a Geisha and go to work, embarrasing!

I am getting really stressed about the last minute shopping I need to do but I have finally found some tights at BigW. They have a cheap and good selection of tights so I'm going to go back closer to when Im leaving..

This is a list of things I still need:

1 Pillow
Opaque black tights x10 pairs
Opaque white tights x2 pairs
Sheer tights in beige, white and black x15 pairs
3x roll on deoderant
1 suit blazer
3 or 4 summer work shirts
1 black cardigan (maybe)

Im really really sleepy right now

Sayonara

How did I get the job in Japan?

2006-09-02T11:30:00.000+10:00

It is my sisters birthday tomorrow, she is turning 20. Ebony lives in Bendigo (a country town in Victoria) as she goes to uni there. She lives in a College dorm and it is just like those USA teen movies with Frat parties, nude runs and general obnoxious behaviour! Anyway tomorrow we are all driving down to Bendigo (by we I mean my mum, nanna and pa and Henry) for a special Birthday picnic. It is going to be the last time I visit Bendigo for at least a year, and I get to meet Harry the Japanese guy who helped buy me my Madonna Confessions tour concert tickets for Tokyo Dome September 21. I was so lucky to find him because it was impossible to buy the tickets unless you can read Japanese as the only website to buy the tickets from was only in Japanese. I also get to pick up the tickets as they got sent over from his parents house to him (you also needed a Japanese address for the tickets to be sent to)....I have to get him a thankyou present today. Speaking of presents I got my sister an ipod nano 4gb. Well me, mum and Henry got it for her...I'm not that genorous!

I have always wanted to teach English in Japan. I first found out about it when I was in Brisbane staying at a backpackers there were flyers around everywhere. At the time I was too young and didnt have enough experience to be able to do it. In order to tach part time you need to have succesfully completed 1 year of a degree, to teach full time you need to have completed a BA in anything. I have completed 1 year of a fine art photography degree at The Victorian College of the Arts. I quit that half way through 2nd year due to the insanity of the place (art school students are CRAZY) and have been working full time at various call centre jobs for Telstra and travelling to Japan, NZ, Tahiti and NYC. When I returned from NYC in January I started a new job for Telstra in credit management. It is actually a really good shit job because the hours are set instead of working a 24/7 roster and the money is amazing!

But I started to get bored and restless. Then the Madonna Confessions tour dates were announced and she wasnt coming to Australia, but she was going to Tokyo. As I had promissed myself that if she tours this album I would go no matter how much it costs I decided that I would take 2 weeks leave to go to Tokyo for the concert with Henry. However as Henry had uni he didnt have any time to save for the trip I decided to go alone, but what was the point of going for just 2 weeks when I could live and work there for a year? Thats when I decided to apply through AACE to teach English in Japan.

I was really nervous for the interview as you had to do an English grammar and spelling test, but it all went fine. You also have to do a role play exercise where the interviewer pretends to be a student. That was actually really fun and made me excited about the job not just the fact that it is in Japan.

When I found out I had the job I danced around the office I was so excited. Now the date I leave is getting closer and closer (17 days and counting) I cant believe it is happening. It is too good to be true! I am going to live and work in Tokyo and see MADONNA in concert! It all feels like a dream. The only sad thing is Henry wont be there to share the experience, but at least he will visit for 2 months, and it might do him some good to live alone for a while and see how much I do for him.

Anywayz I have to go and get a thankyou pressy for Harry, some picnic food for my sisters birthday and go to the Costume hire shop to look for a Geisha costume.

Sayonara!

My first post

2006-09-01T22:03:00.000+10:00

This is the 1st of hopefully many posts I will be making about my year in Japan. I currently live in Melbourne, Australia in a suburb called Fitzroy. I live on Brunswick Street, above a cafe. Living on Brunswick Street is similar to living on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg NYC...Its TOTALY COOL!!! I am really going to miss the creative community vibe of living here, bumping into old housemates at Bimbos ($4 gourmet pizzas yummmm), visiting galleries and hanging out with my fiance. Henry (my fiance) is staying in Melbourne to finish his interior design degree while I go and teach English in Tokyo, Japan for 1 year. I am really going to miss him. Lucky for me he is going to visit me for 2 months around xmas....not so lucky for my 2 new housemates in Japan, lol. The company (Nova...yes I know they are really bad ect but I currently work for Telstra and it really cant be much worse) orgainises your accomodation, sets you up in an appartment with 2 other teachers of the same sex. If the housemates wont let Henry stay for 2 months I dont know what I'm going to do.

I leave in 18 days, but I'm not that scared because I have been to Tokyo before and I know what I'm in for. I loved Japan last time, I love the many different faces of Tokyo, the tradiontional aspects mixed with the extremely modern. At the top of this post are some of my fave photos from that trip. I found out yesterday exactly where I will be living in Tokyo. It is suburb called Fuchu, 25 mins from Shinjuku. Fuchu has an estimated population of 236,491 and a population density of 8,060.36 persons per km². The total area is 29.34 km². The city of Yarra (the district I live in, in Australia which includes many suburbs such as Fitzroy, Richmond, Abbortsford) has approx 68,000 residents and has an area of 20.0 square kilometres. I cant believe how small Australia is. In Tokyo the streets are always full of people, here it is like we live in a small country town when we walk through the city at night. I cant wait to leave, but saying that there is alot I will miss about Melbourne. I will miss trams, but not the time you wait for one to arrive (Trains in Tokyo come every minute, here its every 20 minutes) I will miss my family and friends, I will miss shopping and being able to fit into clothes, I will miss my lovely house, I will miss Brunswick Street, I will miss the food (cheese, bread, pizza, pasta...Japanese versions really suck).

I need more work clothes for Japan because I wont be able to buy anything in Japan unless I dont eat for a year, lol. Nova are really strict about the dress code and I am getting a little bit stressed about it and trying to do some last minute shopping. So far though it has been unsuccesful. I need some white short sleeve (NOT sleveless) shirts, a black suit blazer and like a million pairs of tights as you HAVE to wear them if you wear a skirt. As it is becoming summer here it is impossible to find tights and I am going crazy. I have given instuctions to everyone I know to send me tights when they see some for sale.

On my last day at my current work we are having a Japanese themed dress up day. I am going to hire a Geisha costume and do the Geisha whole makeup thing. I cant wait its going to be fun. My team leader is going to come dressed in Karate gear. After work we are going to this bar in the city that has those Sumo Wrestler suits you can wear and fight in. Hilarious! And then we are going to do Karaoke...and all this in our costumes, I cant wait!!!! I will post photos! Its not for 2 weeks though.

Ok enough for my 1st entry, I can explain more another night.

Sayonara!