The Japanese, as the world greatest fashion victims, provide constant amusement for me, especially from the knees down: fur, sparkles, animal prints comprise daily footwear.

And, I confess I love shoes of all kinds from sexy high heel pumps to sexy high heel sandals to sexy high heel boots.

Hmmm… this should be coming together for everyone now… she loves shoes…she lives in Tokyo… Tokyo… shoes… tokyoshoes.

A friend was kind enough to give me some instructions on using my new (film) camera, the Nikon N65. Immediately after our "class" and photosafari I got the pictures developed. Most of them looked like this:

I did get this signature tokyoshoes shot:

I think I deserved an "F" but my kind teacher gave me a C.

Reminder, it is not too late to sign up for the Tokyo bloggers’ party on Friday, February 28 at The Pink Cow in Harajuku organized by me and HUNKAMIKE. Details are here. If you havn't rsvp'ed to Mike, please contact me if you would like to join.

In addition, I will be teaching a Workshop on creating a blog using Movable Type on Saturday, March 15 in Tokyo. The workshop is organized through Digital Eve Japan. If you are interested in attending, please email: workshops@digitalevejapan.org. After the class I will post my notes to tokyoshoes.com.

Below, these three pint size police women looked so funny in their leather motorcycle suits and crash helmets. For what I could determine their job was to write parking tickets.

On Friday night I was out with a few friends at a sayonara party for "S." She has been in Tokyo for 7 years and is moving to NYC. So sad.

S told me a story about how she was out one night at a bar when a Roppongi guy* came up to her and said, "hey baby," in one of those Steve Martin, SNL, we are wild and crazy guys kind of way.

Without missing a beat, S gives him her best the lights are on but no one's home, deadpan vacant stares, characteristic of blondes in Hollywood B-movies, that I believe only intelligent people can effectively deliver. Something like this:

And she squeals, "How did you know my name was baby?"

The guys answers, "Wow, your name is really baby!"

*Roppongi guys are the expats, sometimes English teachers, and other foreign men who flock to the bars and clubs of Roppongi, a popular nightlife district in Tokyo. Their main objectives are to consume lots of booze and chat girls up, with the ultimate goal of "scoring".

Here we are, the three vixens. Our ultimate goal is to terrorize Roppongi guy.

Twice in the last week and a half I ate at Gonpachi, the restaurant made famous by GWB, who ate there during a trip to Tokyo last year. Inside it feels like you are in a courtyard of a little rustic village. Lanterns hang from the 2 story ceiling.

There is an open kitchen where you can watch the cooks grill up unlimited numbers of yakitori skewers.

I so love Japanese pottery and lacquer ware; my kitchen cupboards are full of the stuff. Last week I went to the Tableware Festival, a very comprehensive display of Japanese and European tableware to see and buy, along with a table arrangement competition and a few art pieces. The place was packed with young and middle aged Japanese women scouring booths filled with plates, bowls, chopsticks, and any and everything to be put on a table. Last year when I went I was the only westerner I saw in the place.

There are four main styles of Japanese pottery (that I could determine).

The rustic, hand made look. Usually in natural colors, beiges, browns, greys. Generally earthenware clay is used, but sometimes stoneware. This is my favorite.

Lacquer ware, which comes in black or red/rust, and occasionally brown. It is made of bamboo and the lacquer is painted on; it is buffed, repainted and buffed again until the required effect is reached. The red color of Japanese lacquerware was the inspiration for the colors I chose for this site.

The modern, clean lined variety made from porcelain usually in clean white or very light blue.

White glaze with blue designs painted on, sometimes painted in red/rust, sometimes with green, yellow, or gold accents. This is the most prevalent type, but I get the impression most of it is mass-produced versus hand made.

Sometimes the designs include varies swirls or other abstract graphics, sometimes there are Buddhas or babies, but the most frequently occurring element are bunnies. I have yet to figure this out. I know that cute things are important in Japan, but why bunnies? Why not doggies or kitties or fishies?

Contrary to popular belief bloggers are not geeks. I know this because I am not a geek and all the other bloggers I have ever met are also not geeks. So if you are a Tokyo-area blogger or blogger enthusiast why don’t you join HUNKAMIKE and I at the coolest Tokyo bloggers’ party on Friday, February 28 at The Pink Cow in Harajuku. Please RSVP if you would like to join. Details are here.

I have lately been on a ramen kick. Here are some plastic ramen displays at a restaurant in Roppongi with a curry in the front, right.

Cute, in Japan, is part of the cultural mainstream, appealing to adults as well as children. Women in their 30’s carry Hello Kitty notebooks, and the country is blanketed in cute comic characters with big, round, baby eyes on every street corner and product imaginable.

I suppose from an anthropological point of view, part of Hello Kitty’s popularity can be explained by its extreme exaggeration of juvenile features, large head, wide spaced eyes, small chin, that are designed specifically to elicit a mothering instinct. Perhaps this is more important in Eastern cultures, with their greater emphasis on the feminine.

From the Kitty Goods Collection catalog there is merchandise for the whole home.

In Japan, street signs look like this and are usually accompanied with warning messages to be careful or dangerous or simply, NO.

We celebrated V’s birthday at the New York Grill at the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku. She was quite surprised when the “dancer” showed up.

I made a few minor modifications to tokyoshoes today, most importantly is that the home page brings you automatically to the blog to save you, my dear readers, the extra click.

Friday night I had dinner at Soho’s with Fifi. Here he poses for his photo.

Fifi then directs my pose. Yes that is a purple velvet blazer I am wearing. So 70's glam rock!

A picture of the cab driver on the way home taken with my cellphone. The cabbies who work the late night shift should really learn to drive a little bit better or they are likely to end up with the contents of people’s dinners on their back seat.

In the west you may not know about the big Hollywood stars who sell out in Japan. See if you can match the star with the product. I can only assume these stars were paid mucho bucks with iron clad contracts that these ads would never appear in the western world.

A. Schwartzeneggar
B. Kevin Costner
C. Brad Pitt
D. Bruce Willes
E. Ben Stiller
F. Charlize Theron
G. Jodie Foster
F. Ewan Macgregor

1. Gas Station - includes star in bug costume.
2. Rolex.
3. Canned vending machine coffee.
4. Honda - star driving with orange puppet.
5. English language school – this ad is everywhere
6. Rahmen noodles includes spinning bowl and stars spinning head.
7. Canned vending machine water with star speaking dubbed Japanese.
8. Executive Recruiter – star says "be all you can be."

Answers and links to sites that specialize in stars who sell later this week.

If you are Tokyo-based and interested in setting up your own blog, on March 15 I will be teaching a Workshop on creating a blog using Movable Type, the web-based content management system used to run this site. The workshop will be taught through Digital Eve Japan at a beginner's level. Further details to come, but if you are interested in attending, please send an email to workshops@digitalevejapan.org.

DigitalEve's mission is to promote women's digital lifestyles by offering a supportive community and programs tuned to women using IT in their workplace and in their everyday lives. I have taken a number of courses taught through them and they were all excellent including a web building class by MJ. Below are two photos I took as a part of a digital photograpy class taught by Kristen.

Archives