I’m going to write a longer post with a slideshow of photos from our weekend soon. Waki and I spent the weekend with Vitaly at Caryn and Andy’s beautiful house on a mountainside in Izu. It was absolutely beautiful, a huge antique Japanese house complete with a tea room and onsen(Japanese bath house). I chose my macro lens for the trip and took some pretty wild photos. Just wait for the slideshow, I’ll build it soon…

It’s 2AM on a Saturday morning here in Tokyo. The weather is hot and slightly humid. I just got home and my brain is wiped out. I spent the majority of the day illustrating pirates. Had lunch with my friend Lizzie, we had chicken rice at a Singaporean restaurant in Azabu Juban that is simply fantastic. Tonight we met Waki’s friends who took us out for dinner to celebrate our wedding, a sort of late afterparty. We had dinner at this really posh restaurant called NOS which had an interior covered in paintings that looked very much like the ones Ryan use to make of cartoon characters. They had a disco ball the size of a small car. It was an amazing place, we got kicked out after three hours though since our table reservation expired. We moved to another restaurant upstairs and ordered more drinks and a plate of raw horse and some sushi. Loads of fun and here I am, back in my apartment again. All a blur and yet another week passes by. Just trying to save money now and plan for the honeymoon and the reception party back in Boston. Skyrocketing oil prices may strike down our plans and we may wind up swimming back to Boston. We’ll see. Besides all of this, I’m generally in good health, eating well and getting enough sleep. Tomorrow we’re taking a train to Izu to stay in our friends house on a mountainside. I’m excited to finally have some time away from a computer. On our way home, Waki and I stopped by a little cafe not far from our apartment in hopes of getting a cup of tea and sharing some cake before sleep. It was a tiny cafe with little cakes in the window. We asked how much it would be for a piece of cake and a cup of tea per person. $20(my assumed conversion from yen to dollars). Ya, $20 per person for a tiny little piece of cake and a cup of tea. We said thank you and walked back to our bikes. The waiter looked disappointed but screw him and screw that place. How dare anyone in such a crappy location charge $20 for cake and tea! Anyhow, that didn’t bother us one bit. It’s definitely time for bed, I’m typing boring stuff now and the alcohol isn’t helping…

Obediently kneeling before the big boss.

From time to time our friends give us odd gifts which we’re not always sure how to utilize or when the appropriate time to drink/eat them would be. We’ve had a few bottles of fine wine which we’ve been saving for a special moment but still feel they are too nice to open just yet. Sadly, this evening I think I made a joke that maybe wasn’t taken as inappropriate, but actually felt inappropriate to myself and in many more ways reminded me of something that has been concerning Waki and I lately. After a few glasses of wine and some talk about odd foods of the world, I stood up and pulled out a bottle of Myanmar whisky we had sitting on our shelf for the past year. Never daring to open it as it’s ranks up there with vintage wine from mainland China, I had almost forgotten we had it, and was rather excited to have remembered it at that moment. It got a rise out of everyone and I chuckled a little at this bottled oddity. Then it struck me that it wasn’t funny, and that our friend who gave it to us meant it as a funny joke for us at the time, but that friend is actually in Myanmar now. She works for an NGO there and left over a year ago to live there. We haven’t heard from her since then, and we’ve attempted to email her since the storm and haven’t heard anything. We’re hoping she is alright, or that she is already back in Japan, but we’re not sure as we don’t know anyone else who has contact with her. I still can’t imagine drinking Myanmar whisky, and I’m sure she had a good laugh giving it to us as a gift so long ago, but it’s turned from a gift into a reminder that our friend may still be there, and it’s a tragic mess over there right now.

Anisuru took this photo with my camera at Waki’s parents house last weekend. We had a family gathering and he cooked a fantastic curry dinner with my favorite sweet curry eggs again. I’m not sure if it was his intent, but the photo he took of this watermelon slice just feels so emotional to me. Those eyes, so intense… or maybe I’m the only one that sees a face in this watermelon??

Don’t you want someone to pick you up in one of these? While everyone stands there jaws dropping as this thing bounces up the street, you get to jump in for some good times with your yakuza pals. The hydralics made it bounce up and down as it cruised past Tokyu Hands one evening in Shibuya.

Glub! Glub! Glub!