Tomorrow I am leaving for Tibet for 2 weeks. In planning the trip I found these beautiful pictures of Tibet on Flickr and reached out to the photographer. He was kind enough to send me a long email worth of tips and suggestions. God, I love the internet sometimes!

In the last email from my tour operator they imparted this advice, “Keep the happy mood and take it easy, the Acute Mountain illness would be happen more or less. It is very common! So you do not worry more about it!”

Thankfully my bohemian aunt suggested I get a prescription for Diamox for altitude sickness.

The East Village's Sunrise Mart (above the St. Marks Bookstore) had not been part of my walking tour of "Little Tokyo," but is great one-stop shopping for all of your Japanese grocery needs. During a recent visit, I filled my basket with items which reminded me of my stint in Japan: a package of semi-firm tofu, half of a kabocha, a pair of blue plastic chopsticks with little bears on them, shirataki noodles for sukiyaki I was going to make, some mochi, almond crunch pocky, and a package of 20 serving size packets of furikake (rice seasoning) decorated with just about the cutest thing, ever--the shinkansen, Japan Railways' Bullet Train corporate mascot.

Last night I went to Blue Ribbon Sushi, the SoHo establishment that seems like it has been around since forever. The last time I was there was circa ’97, and I am thrilled to have tried it again. We had a 500ml bottle of the special, seasonal sake drinking from wooden box cups. How elegant! The sushi was Japanese style, smaller pieces, which I prefer, as opposed to the huge slabs of fish common here.

Location:
119 Sullivan Street (between Prince & Spring)
212.343.0404
map

These aren’t your momma’s leggings from the 70’s, or your from the early 90’s. Today’s leggings are hot and couture – BCBG (at bluefly) makes a classic, pretty affordable pair, as does Alice+Olivia (at Shopbop.com).

However. HOWEVER. There are some definite dos and don’ts for these pieces of cotton and spandex. As a general rule, unless you’re Kate Moss, you definitely want your ass to be covered. Leggings look best with flowy dresses, tunic sweaters, and stuff you may feel is a little to short to be worn without anything underneath.

Now, leggings are not tights. All tights have at least a bit of sheerness Just because those “tights” have the feet cut out of them and are branded as “leggings,” does not mean they are opaque, cotton, no-need-to-cover-my-whole-ass, pants.

Obey the rules, ladies, and you will be well on your way to legging nirvana.

The "Mysterious Puppeteer" in leggings from the book Fruits.

Japanese people love mayonnaise. As salad dressing, on pizza, on pasta, on omelets. There are even mayonnaise fanatics called mayoraa, a creative Japanese fusion of the words “mayonnaise” and the suffix “er” as in a player. A mayoraa is not just someone who likes mayonnaise, but who puts its on everything, even on top of white rice. Ick!

The forerunning brand in this mayonnaise obsession is Kewpie, known best by their babydoll mascot. The website features a disturbing array of trivia and miscellanea on the condiment, to the history of the fattening stuff, to a collection of recipes including a fruit salad with mayonnaise dressing. The site highlights are Kewpie Jukebox and Kewpie TV, a must-see for all of you mayoraa out there.

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