Tokyo dreams

Tokyo was super fun! It can be overwhelming but it's such an interesting city with so much to offer - the sights, the names, the sounds, the dizzying lights. Everything is automated in Tokyo. At the immigration, a computer screen will instruct you on what to do. In the cab, there's a voice system that will remind you to put on your safety belts. Then there are the millions of vending machine that sell everything from drinks to cigarettes to food (real, piping-hot food), and even flower bouquets. Japanese toilets are of class A standards, equipped with automatic flushing sounds (to mask your real pee sounds, that's what I think) and of buttocks washing buttons and a sensory palm scan so you don't need to touch others' pee-infiltrated hands. Everything is compact in Tokyo. They've managed to scale practically everything that can be scaled down to a miniature size of extreme efficiency and tidyness. Like pouring a teaspoon of milk into your coffee, you get a milk pourer the exact size of one teaspoon.

There is something of a defiant nature against the supposed rigid society. Cosplay, harajuku street style, the crossroads of Shinjuku. It's a city of opposite ends, alternating between reality and fantasy, closedness and openness, normal and abnormal. By the way, we checked out a Maid's Cafe, which was a really out-of-the-world experience. It's a cafe where young girls pose in french maid costumes, serve you, "master", food and drinks with "LOVE" (and I really do mean, love - they make you recite some cute mantra with cute gestures after them), and then you can take a souvenir polaroid with them, also posing in bunny ears or frog ears (I took the latter).

We did a day trip to Hakone - the traveling took about 6 hours to and fro, but for Hakone, it was absolutely worth it. I was touched. The mist that looms over the mountains that stretch across the lake of undulating colors.

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Hello! I'm back from my holiday! L.A was great, great, great. One day was spent shopping in Melrose (which can be equally divided into 3 sections: trashy, ok-price, high-end), one day was spent at Santa Monica & Venice Beach, and another day was at Magic Mountain (love it!!!), while the rest of the time was spent cutting yards and yards of fabric for the wedding, and of course that one special day where all the hard work culminated into the coolest day in wedding history. Basically, my sis and gabriel organized, designed, and created their entire wedding. From the wedding rings, the wedding costumes, to the stage, the bar tables, the inflatables, souvenir earhorns, a 360deg swing (which is one of the best thing I've ever taken), a boat on wheels that can be driven down the roads, a sphere-shaped wedding cake...and a lot more.

ciao ciao! will be flying off in approx 3 hours!

1-11 August: L.A (for my sis's earhorn/tyvek/lion dance/360deg swing wedding/888, i play the role of greeter & flashcard display holder)
12-18 August: Tokyo Dome! Neon lights!