At work.
Take a look at this, it may just change what you think is possible:
other then that… I’m stuck inside getting square eyes.
I’ve been playing Taiko no Tatsujin on ds recently. and I’m working on downloading the album for a couple of the cool catchy tunes that I’ve had stuck in my head.
PEach….
I’ll link it up once I get my copy down off the W W W.
K not much else going today:
Candy Cigirette
Overflow
Recycle to save electricity
NEW JOB!
Means I will finally have a little free money lying around! Which means that after i wipe my debts the new toys can start rolling in. That, and I can continue saving for my next visit to Japan in April next year. It’ll be kind of a celebration of my twenty first, and I would rather that then doing a yard glass…
So before all that, I’m excited about my new job! And to celebrate, I’m looking at toys to decorate my new desk!
I’m thinking a couple of these should do the trick!
To be Precise, The middle one, Jon Burgerman, and the right by Tado, Two of my favourite dunny decorators.
These are 8-incher’s and I’m sure will be hard to snatch up when they are released so I’ve done my best to put a pre-order in. Hopefully I can scab them bother for a reasonable price.
To fund that I’m thinking about selling my Golden ticket dunny.
It will look like this when I get it out of its little undistinguishable box:
Its Pretty, For sure, But the fact that its a three inch…
Aside from all that, I spent last night in an arcade with Sig and Roy. It was a lot like this:
All that AND me with my fish buddies in OSAKA. ><ii> l’-‘l <ii><
cute
Its staggering how many quality designer toys are released consistantly. Without browsing too far, I managed to find two great pieces.
The first is in celebration of the looming Dark Knight movie. They don’t stick too close to the film itself but are rather iconic of the Batman series, I like them.
The colours on both are such cool combinations.
The second toy is Amanda Vesell’s Underwater Carnivorous Giraffe resin.
Looks Great.
Both discoveries are curtsy of Vinylpulse.com the perfect site for the occasional toy fix. Check it out.
So me and Fran are back –
Back to old – and new – jobs, back to the ever unpredictable weather and constant roadworks of Auckland. Its comforting really; that nothing has changed.
I jumped straight back onto Underworld to gather up a bit of money to get back on my feet before, hopefully getting back to Uni next semester. That’s the plan.
Fran’s got a new job with the same people that shes loving, up at Wall Fabrics. Employment/Money-wise things kind of just clicked back into place for both me and Fran which is good because I did get back with a few too many Duty Free purchases.
Before anything else I’m going to finish up on how the rest of the trip went. All the details and days that got lost in the absence of decent cyber-cafes in USA.
Just to get you back in the Zone, THIS is Japan.
Shinkansen Travel is unphotographical.
I whipped my camera out just quick enough to snap this mother of all mountains. Fuji SAN
Travel to Osaka was a little edgy for the both of us, we were out of our element.
Here we are in Hiroshima Peace Park.
AND my new plan is to get back to Japan next year at the end of winter but further into spring when we will there for the cherry blossom magic.
We loved it this much!
I guess I’ll occasionally upload more photos from the rest of our trip but i have found my motivation waining. I think its time to move on to new interests.
Here we have the beautiful Okami. My newest game crush.
A Newish series of rad key rings.
And an amazing animated short by James Jean. Its an advert for Prada.
That will be all.
Alright.
So I haven’t been posting many if any pictures while in America, simply because of the lack of computer time, cyber cafes and space on my Flickr account. But tommorow morning (Sunday for us) we leave LA to jet back to Japan, sadly only for about an hour and half…errrr lame. Then we jump back onto a plane to head over to christchurch. and then back up to Auckland. phew 29 hours after leaving we arrive Auckland international at 12:35pm on Tuesday. (NZ time)
And once I have time and a comp, ill load up the remaining 1900 photos sitting on my mem card. couple of epic events, celebrity appearances and The Ivy have all happened since my last post – lots – but ill leave you with my intense adventures in outer space.
peace
Hello!
Photos are finally here! None of our infamous travels on this guy:
The Shinkansen
Nup, I’ve loaded up a bunch of what we have been up to over the last four or five days in San Francisco.
Were we involved with the Nazi’s?? Really?
After coming through the rather strange customs process, we hit San Fran:
We have been pretty busy walking all around San Anselmo, the area that my uncles Inn is in. We also took the ferry to the city a couple of times and yesterday went on a drive over to Berkley. Great place! Its full with activism and character, I could even tell that from the small afternoon spent there.
Here are a couple of pictures from our second evening in San Fran, when we went up to headlands above the bridge.
Amazingly clear sunset up there…
Franny and the Harbour
The Gang up on the hill, Peter and Kate wern’t around
Long way from Japan
And then there was the city…
Finally in the city, it took me a few days to get out of bed.
On Pier 1. Nice.
Definitly in California now…
Seals at Fishermans Wharf
ChinaTown
San Fran Architechture
Chinatown
Dangerous.
And thats us in the big city over the last week. Its been cool to see such a contrast of Japan. More on both those places sooooooooooonaaaaaaaaaasssssss!!!
The Taxi we caught home yesterday was the taxi used in Friends (Pheobes Taxi) STARSTRUCK!
And Finally Birkleys Drug Free Zone
Me and Fran are Outtie!
At the airport, through our security screening, and waiting for the time to tick away until we leave Japan.
Stink!
but later today – or early today – (We leave Japan at 3:45pm and arrive in Cali at 7am on the same day…eeeeek) we will be in glorious 15+Degree weather, with people who understand us and the KidRobot megastore. yeow.
The Kiosk I’m at doesnt have usb so no photos in this blog, but im sure USA will give me plenty of free time to update all the photos from the last week and a half.
Saying goodbye to Japan via Narita Airport,
Max and Fran
Ok,
So before heading out of Tokyo to roam the countryside/gigantic citys that span most of japans landmass, Me, Fran and the gang headed up the side of a dawnting mountainside in a shakey slippry railcar to get into the cultural grove of Japan with Setsubun.
Setsubun is a traditional holiday that is all about the begining of spring, they throw beans out of the house that symbolise the devils that will haunt you. while later that day casting beans of good fortune back into the house for the new season/year.
On the morning of, me and Franny got woken up by Thomas at our door telling us to slide the window open;
ahah, thats what we saw.
magic.
Popn down the 7/11 just for kicks
Ah the snow was amazing amazing amazing. it was like 100% powdery soft crunchy icing sugar. So we rapped up and decided to ditch the inner city celebration and head out on the train up to _____ (errrr forgot the name of the mountain)
Nami-Chan and Thomas
check out the snowbuildup on the seat
Temple gates at the bottom of the mountain
Me an Cesca out in the subzero
Everyone (Minus Suzuka) right before risking our lives
Can’t see in the photo but its on a 90 degree angle. straight up.
when we got to the top a little van took us the 15 min walk to the shrine, yus
Yeow
Amazing temple in the snow.
More amazing temple
heavy snow
And then as the temple drums sung out and bells chimed there was a small procession of monks who passed into the temple to begin the ceremony, it was really ritualistic and peaceful and the chanting of the monks was really nice in the quiet snow.
Waiting
monks singing and playing instruments.
the Bean throwing, the backward umbrella tactic worked a treat.
And then the ceremony quickly and quietly ended. The monks became real people and we said hi. It was nice that the ritual is a part of their REAL lives.
So straight after that we headed up the steep slippery steps on the right of the temple to the upper shrine. That was a beauty in itself. take a peak;
epic
Then it got so cold that we had to catch a ride back down to find a fire to warm us
Names of those who contribute to the shrine lined the road down, me and Fran got put in the boot of a minivan. ek.
but we found a nice warm spot down there… (This photos for Franny.)
And that was it, the place and the celebration was great. We loved it and had the best time, the next day the weather cleared right up and we shot out of Tokyo down to Osaka.
More on that next time, but as a little foward-flash, Today, Me and Fran went to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum.
It was the most magical place, there were no photos inside so youll just have to trust me on that.
It was really small and a complete contrary to what Disneyland considers the way a studio themepark should be, this place was more like an art gallery, with rooms set up like that of the artists who created their work. It had tons of small details that made it so special. But heres a couple of shots we snapped on the roof, snnnnneeeeaaaaaky
Catch you next time, Love, Max and Franny
It feels like a lifetime ago since i updated you guys on the going on’s.
First up a little notice: My phone is officially not going to work what-so-ever over here in Japan. America will probibly be an entirely diffrent story, but the cell phones (of which i am extremely dissapointed they won’t work on Vodafone, as they are THE coolest things I have ever seen) here are all on plan and roaming in Japan takes two weeks to process…err annoying.
Second up, best way to get hold of me is via email, if your looking to call, the chuck me an email and ill feed you the number.
Third: Hey Mum, Dad, Annabel and my friends, I’m hard out missing all you guys and even though this is amazingly amazing. I can’t wait to see you, Dad – the camera is really really cool. Thank you! Annabel shoes are keeping my toots warm in the soft snow (featured in this ep!) and Mum I wouldnt be here without your ticket help! thanks.
OK
So back to pics and stories.
Heres a pictorial run down of the couple of days spent cruising the streets of Tokyo after our last update:
Everything looks like a toystore, but isnt.
Allyway in Shinjuku.
Arriving in Harajuku, its a sweet little-big street.
Found Wendys there…aaaaaahh tastes like home
Yum imitation food lollies – pretty.
So much to see and do in tokyo. But I still didnt find one toy shop until we hopped off the Yamanote line at the:
Akihabara Electric Town Exit
toyz
Retrogamez
Arcadez
Dinosaurz
Akihabara is pretty much my Dream…
Phew.
So after all that, we spent the next few days rolling around the city at a leasurly pace. We went to an unhappy Zoo and Spent some time in the Ueno district that seemed so innocently quiet and turned out to be seemed so innocently quiet and turned out to be a bustling marketplace. look:
Ueno’s quiet station area,
sweet
about to walk into the zoo
Little shine in the zoo –
– wish theyd put that much effort into the enclosures
aw
angry/sad/mental
Wheres the honor?
This guy reminded me of Foxy, made me miss him.
Uhh, don’t feed the aminals, I guess…
Pelican Face
Killer Crow, swooping for a small child.
So my time is up at the Cybercafe, I havent had time to proof read or update you on our trip out of tokyo or the rest of our adventure in Ueno. They will be uploaded soooooon…
Safe in sound in tokyo again – love Max and Fran
Ohiyogozaimasu all, were back quick sharp for yet another update on the status of us and our ultra exciting trip!
After we left you yesterday -EK a couple of days ago now- we had one of the most action packed, adventurous days you could imagine. We snuck away from that dingy cybercafe, (there really packed tightly over here…) grabed a bite to eat, and jumped onto the trains away from Kichijyoji.
Yum
The food was a bit of a laugh as they didnt have any pictures or understand english so I had to use my Nihongo skillz. It was delicious (Oishii Desu) and everyones super polite and helpful. I have actually been digging into any food put in front of me, Including seafood!
Me and Fran then headed from Kichijyoji into the heart of Tokyo.
Franny at the Kichijyoji Station, stading out.
The train itself is an awesome experience, each stop has its own ringtone. The seats are heated and nobody, NOBODY says a word. No cell phones are allowed on and everyone politely sways in silience. The trains go incredibly fast. probibly over a hundread and fifty K’s per hour, but despite that they too run smoothly and silently. The sudden shake of the train as we pass by another is kind of frieghtening in the silience.
Doesn’t look it, but its super quiet.
The city on a whole, though being full of frantic activity, is really calm and quiet. There isnt any hustle and bustle at all! Its actually really nice. Cars run much quieter and only at night when people yell “Irashimase” (Welcome to our shop) out of there shop doors and music blares along with them do you feel as though your part of such a huge, overbearing city.
So back to the story of our day; Me and Fran went to an area on the Yamanote line named Nippori. The Yamanote Line is the Tokyo equivilent of the Link in Auckland. it runs for about an hour or more, to go in a large circle around the inner Tokyo city. Being on that train was great. You get to see so much of each area and how much they differ. The adverts featuring common anime characters were great, Later on that day we saw a Humougous Billboard for the anime Evangelion. -Photo coming soon!-
At Nippori me and Fran were trying to track down a large fabric store apparently close to the station. What we found was Textile street/Textile Town.
Mental fake furs.
An entire avenue of multi-storied fabric stores containing millions of diffrent fabrics. I got myself a bit of Nintendo-Animal Crossing cotton for a bag when I get back.
Animal Crossing Fabric
On the Street at Textile Town
After we had finished up in Textile Town, we jumped back onto the Yamanote and headed home via a Train change at Shinjuku.
Fran in a Slot Machine Arcade. there are tons of these.
Outside the Nippori Station
It was rush hour when we got off at Shinjuku and ourside the sun had gone compleatly. We came out of the station into Shinjuku and it was the most amazing area of neon lights, building sized TV screens and people swarming the streets.
Outside the Nippori Station
Franny after the Yamanote Train ride back into Shinjyuku (Near our local train line)
After walking up the steps out of the underground station in Shinjyuku
Signs in the sky
Perspective on them
Me in the street at Shinjyuku
Franny too
Spotting Gloomy in silver and gold.
It was cool.
We spent a big eveing in Shinjyuku and headed home after that.
The last couple of days since then have been amazing. I would have loaded them up now but these cramped smoke-filled (people smoke EVERYWHERE here) cybercafes are hell, so you will have to wait. But as a quick preview: up until what you have seen in pictures, I had not found one toy shop, Akihabara changed all that; tons of five/six/seven story toy game and dvd shops. Akihabara is Electronic town. I want to live on the streets there. I have blown a bit of money on dinky Jap toys, be@rbricks are 399 ($4) here, so its not that expensive. Also we paid a visit to the worst zoo in the world. And spent a lot of time roaming the vastness of Tokyo. Many more updates and pictures to come…
Ps. Mum, Dad, anyone interested; Tokyo is actually a really cheap place in terms of transport food and comodities. Clothes are equal if not less then in NZ and the train is cheap as chips. Meals can cost as little as 5/6 dollars each! Its great.
Anyway love from Max and Fran in Tokyo
PPS next installment coming sometime sunday before we head out of tokyo for a few days to explore the island. wooooooooo
Max's Storys 