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| About Me In 2004, I returned to New York City, after three years of living in the alternate universe known as Tokyo. I currently work in eBusiness for a bank, snap pictures occasionally, and travel as much as I can. My Blog The Japanese, as the world greatest fashion victims, provided constant amusement for me, especially from the knees down: fur, sparkles, and more fur comprise daily footwear. This fascination provided inspiration for this site's name, TokyoShoes. I originally conceived of this as a way to share my experiences in Tokyo with friends and family, debunking as many myths about Japan as possible along the way. For some reason, someone over at Japanzine deemed TokyoShoes worthy of a “Best of Japan on The Web 2003” award and Metropolis Magazine interviewed me for an article on blogging. My struggles with HTML led me to write a popular Blogging for Beginners guide cited by Ask Yahoo! and Instapundit. Best Comment Ever "...when I told [someone] about this site... they thought the URL meant "tokyos hoes" and that it was a porn site. :D" from this entry. Life in Japan As there is Chinatown in New York, there is “little gaijinville” in Tokyo, an area with a high concentration of foreigners and the stores and restaurants that cater to them. That’s where I lived. At first I worked at a bank, then built a creative services agency, Crisscross Creative, for Metropolis Magazine the de facto English language entertainment weekly in Japan. Work life was nearly indistinguishable from home, except for all that bowing and business card (meishi) stuff. In Japan I was intrigued by the shop windows of high end brands, became obsessed with the girls of Harajuku, perfected a mean yakitori, positively failed at learning Japanese, traveled as much as I could, and took a few pictures. No, I was never once groped on the subway, nor did eat sushi all the time. Yes, I saw THAT movie. Anything else you want to know simply peruse the archives. Most frequently asked question about Japan What’s the hostess club thing about? Find out here. Back in The City I originally moved to Manhattan in 1991 for school and couldn’t wait to escape the suburbia of my childhood. New York was the utopia of my dreams offering me anonymity, opportunity, and variety. It was pure magic. It was a miracle I ever left the City. In fact for 10 years I rarely ventured off the island of Manhattan, and towards the end seldom went beyond the plot of land south of Houston and north of Wall. But leave I did, for 3 years to Tokyo, the fodder that provided inspiration for this blog. Now I am back in the city, I find it different, and the same, somehow too familiar. My question is, will it be magic again? My Photography One day I finally got tired of traveling to amazing places and having my pictures look like crap. I enlisted a few photography friends to teach me the basics and I am now taking a photography class at FIT. I confess I photoshop, some pictures more than others, generally upping saturation. I shoot with a Nikon N65 and a CoolPix 3100. It's not much, but I've had my photos appear here and here.
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