Monday, April 30, 2012

Flower Viewing 2012





Jacket: vintage
Blouse: vintage
Shorts: Gap
Tote: free from Nylon Japan

Location: Waterfront, Portland, OR

Friday, April 27, 2012

Assistens Kirkegård: The world's happiest cemetery

It's true! This is the happiest cemetery you will find. It has a very fairy tale quality to it that other cemeteries are so lacking. Everything from the colorful flowers to the tiny animal statues placed beside the tombs seem to put a smile on the face of this graveyard. It also helped that it was a lovely sunny day, and the Danish treat their cemeteries like parks, riding their bikes and picnicking all around. "Quaint" and "charming" are words with which you might describe this place. Some of the smaller plots were even lined up link miniature gardens. 

I feel rather embarrassed, talking all peppy like this about a cemetery. Of course, death is neither quaint nor charming, and it is always difficult for me to express my love of cemeteries without a certain sensitivity for the topic at hand. This being said, I hope that I can still indulge in my fascination of such places, their character and beauty, without being disrespectful to those resting here. 

























Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Iceland Air Part 2: The way home

Oh! These pitcures have been sitting in my photo album just dying to reveal themselves. Maybe I was too tired from the 20 hour flight (which included three layovers) from Copenhagen to the States to remind myself to tell every one that the plane I took on the way home was called the Eyjafjallajökull!!!



Not only does this plane share the same name as the famous Icelandic volcano which erupted in 2010, but Eyjafjallajökull shares a very special place in my heart, because it erupted around the same time I met my partner, and was the topic of one of the very first emails we exchanged. How fitting then, that over a year later we both boarded a plane named Eyjafjallajökull together, after two long weeks in Scandinavia....

While en rout out of Iceland, I also took these amazing photos of  Greenland. Hmmm, maybe next time I'll check it out...or not. It kind of looks like the end of the Earth, haunting and beautiful all at once.





Friday, April 20, 2012

Taipei Day 1


You know those candid shots that look totally posed when they're actually not....yeah....



Cape: American Apparel
Dress: H&M

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Starbucks Japan Revisited: An Homage to Spring

Spring time is no small deal in Japan. The changing of seasons is  fundamental part of Japanese culture that reveals itself in everything from the largest of  festivals to the most mundane of household items. The overture to spring of course, is the blooming of the cherry blossoms, an event which is chronicled daily on every form of media from the national news, to twitter, to even...macaroon packages at Starbucks...? Yes, in case you were daft enough not to realize what was going on, even Starbucks will remind you to take a stroll through Ueno park and have yourself a good look at the cherry blossoms.



Sakura "flavored" macaroons.

I arrived too late for the Cherry Blossom latte - or was it a mocha? - which I heard about only after they removed it from the menu.  But I did come just in time to sample the Orange Brulee late, before it sold out. Now, I'm no fan of orange flavoring by any stretch of the imagination, but this latte was damn good.




Alas, they has run out of the special powder for the drink, but I still got the orangey-caramel sauce.


Spring time pastries at Starbucks are also inspired by the seasons. Notice the pink "sakura" cake in the bottom left corner, or the orange pudding thing next to it. 



And of course I didn't forget about the ol' favorite, the Matcha latte. I see some people shaking their heads saying, "wait a minute, Matcha is just green tea, and we have green tea lattes in America." Oh my friend, but you don't. Matcha is like green tea on steroids, and Japan's matcha latte is far too "green" and too "tea" to be sold anywhere is America....



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Bathroom Bliss: sometimes the best places in Toyko are the ones you would least expect

To me, Tokyo is like an old friend who just keeps surprising you. As soon as you think you have her figured out, something new and unexpected pops up. It was kind of like that when I found this bathroom in a quiet office building near the Shinjuku Sanchome station.

My original purpose was to locate a Tsutaya (bookstore) for some last minute shopping. My map indicated that there was one right outside the station, but when I got there they hadn’t even opened, so instead I opted for the Kinokuniya (another bookstore) across the street.
On my way back to the station, I couldn’t help but notice a curious Starbucks sign on the corner of the street, and thought I might as well stop in there for a latte. It turned out that Starbucks was actually on the second floor of this deserted office building, but at least they were open. After the Starbucks I decided to go to the restroom on the second floor. I leisurely walked in, and, to my amazement, found this:








Sometimes I like to chronicle the randomness:
Sequence of events that lead to restroom discovery:
  1. Tsutsaya (original destination) being closed
  2. Kinokuniya being located across the street from Tsutaya
  3. Starbucks sign being visible from Kinokuniya
  4. Me deciding to go to the bathroom after Starbucks
Coincidence Power ^ 4



Sunday, April 15, 2012

Tokyo in Technicolor...

I'm sorry, but nothing is more amazing than my ability to pattern clash like a fiend and pose against this unruly background..




Top: Urban Outfitters
Pants: Self-made, Spring 2012 Collection


Rainy Days in the City

 These days we do lunch indoors with the rainy cold weather that Portland winters always bring. This day's lunch was in the lobby of the...