Harajuku

Today a special post about a place in Tokyo I like: Harajuku. It's not about cosplay or Takeshita-dori. If you want information about this just look at the wikipedia article or type Harajuku in google. It's more about the jingumae area. It's not a shopping guide, just some pics of the different shops I like to visit when I go there.
For those of you who are visiting Tokyo and want to stop by: get out at Harajuku St. (Yamanote Line), go down Omotesando on the left side (stop at Choco-croissant if you are french). Pass Meiji dori (Laforet is behind you on the left). When you see Wendy's at the corner just turn left. You are in the fashion victim paradise.
The pictures of the store link to the website when I could find it. Have a look.

Neigborhood is a strange brand for me but the store is worth a look.

The Vestax Shop. I went to see a showcase of Q-Bert last friday in there. Here is a video of the show:




Bape nerds. Bape is a very succesfull japanese brand. The main store is down the hill near Omotesando station but there is another one in this street, just in front of the Vestax shop.



Recon is not a japanese brand but it's nice. graffiti.


On top of this AF1-only store, a rag shop. There are a lot of second hand clothing around. Vintage T-shirts with Hard-rock bands from the eighties are popular now. Buy the way I am looking for a white T-shirt with a BW picture of Axel Rose. He use to wear it during concerts I think. If someone can help, please leave a comment.

Swagger, a new brand. Probably the hottest hiphop store in Harajuku this summer.


My favorite: the icecream store.


Bape Cafe. We stopped once with my girl friend and found Pharrell Williams seating in the next room... She still did not completly recover from this (Pharreeeelll Kakoiiii). Well...

X-large shop, not a japanese brand but cool, and very popular in TW too.


Stussy and Undefeated. Nothing Special about Stussy, just a big retail shop (ok, I dont like this brand that much). Undefeated has some very nice stuff, strange mix of streetwear and sportswear.


Beams is a very big chain of fashion store in Tokyo, they also have recored labels and this T-shirt only retail shop.


Nothing, I just find it funny.


If you want to find more, superfuture gives maps and information about the main shopping areas in Tokyo (others cities also listed).

Hakone on sunday

We visited Hakone on Sunday afternoon. Mountains, hot springs, black
eggs, trains, calbe car. The weather was great and it was good to
escape Tokyo for a few hours.

More info on Hakone: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html

Perdu dans la traduction

Un peu de franponais amusant. Quelques enseignes qui m'ont fait rire
au Japon la semaine dernière.

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Party report

Some pictures from the party last friday. I found it on Mehdi's myspace webpage http://www.myspace.com/djmehdi
Thanks to Alex from KazuNoco for the pics, you can play at where's Waldo for those of you who know my face.
it was really a great party but Fafi did not sing :( I could not believe how many Justice songs where played in a single night, maybe there is a reason why they are compared to Daft Punk after all. Actually I heard those tunes on loudspeakers for the first time, believe me it's very different and a lot better than my ipod's earphones. If you can see them in concert this summer you are very lucky!!

L'institution

I am going to take some vacations after 3 weeks of hard work in US. My girlfriend was kind enough to invite me to a party on friday night with DJ Mehdi ("What? you did not know? But it's on my blog!"). As a 21st Century's couple we know communicate using our blogs, so here are the news darling: I will take BR2198 and arrive around 2pm, I will go directly to hotel to drop my stuff and meet you for dinner in a restaurant in Roppongi. I suggest l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon or Yoshinoya. Up to you.
Je t'embrasse et à très bientôt

Edit: I forgot to explain the title of this post, I guess you found an explanation in the picture

Visiting Vancouver Part 2

Taxi service.

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Visiting Vancouver Part 1

I visited a friend in Vancouver (Canada) last week-end. Really a great
city, I was very surprised actually. Remove the 2am limitation for
bars and clubs and I will think about moving there someday.

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I'm Lovin' it

No comment

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Full house

Back in SF this week end. We were lucky with the weather. Do you know
where you saw those houses before?

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Sufferin' Colorado

The bar in front of our hotel. We had a really good time chatting with
local people in this place before they suspected I was a terrorist (I
did not shave at that time, is it the reason?). Anyway, my coworker
and I managed to convince them we were only on a business trip.

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Miam

Great food in Colorado Springs. Hopefully I stayed only 5 days...

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The Motel and the car

Our Motel and Rental Car in Colorado Springs. We are not military or
AAA members so we did not get any discount.

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My Son is in the Software Industry

I am trying to find stickers like this one to put on my car back in
Tw. If someone can help me, I am interessted in "My mother is an
english teacher", "My oncle is a surgeon", "My brother is a phd
student". Also, for my girlfriend, I am looking for "My boyfriend is
french".

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It's all about California

My hotel on California Avenue (I am suprised they have the
hotelcalifornia.com domain name). There is a french bakery on the
first floor, and the street is full of french restaurants and bistro.
Obviously Palo Alto is not an "average" american City. Stanford is at
walking distance so the hotel is full of students (or exchange
students as it's summer vacation now).

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Back in California!

I arrived last week in San Francisco. I just stayed for the week en in
Palo Alto and moved on Sunday to Colorado Springs. Palo Alto is a nice
place, I will post a few pictures later. Reading news paper in here is
like reading slashdot.org: google and the iphone are the main topics
(Silicon valley is very near).

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Local (x)news

On continue avec les news locales. On trouve quelques quotidiens en langue anglaise a Taiwan, pas forcement passionnant quant aux pages internationales mais pour le local c'est souvent tres bon. Hier matin je lisais cet article du Taipei Times qui nous racontait l'histoire du "Black beauty night club". Le plus ancien club de Taipei a 70 ans et vient d'accéder au statut de monument historique. Extrait de l'article: "The building's cultural significance lies in it having witnessed the development of the city's sex industry [...]". Je vous laisse méditer sur cette forme d'ouverture d'esprit qu'on imagine difficilement chez nous (en Hollande?).
Une bonne nouvelle pour les libertés individuelles ici, la police vient de perdre la charge des inspections des ménages... Lisez l'article et dites moi ce que vous comprenez:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/06/06/2003364020
Imaginez la police débarquer chez vous: "Et la vaisselle bordel!"

(L'article sur le Black Beauty night club: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/06/06/2003364021 )

Mal a la tete (Welcome back)

Did not post for a while. I've been on vacation in May, then back to France for 3 weeks and just arrived in Taiwan this week end. Woke up at 9am on Saturday because of the workers in the apartment under mine. Nine in the morning on a Saturday, they were breaking walls... I managed to make them stop but it was not really easy, none of them quite understood what was wrong. Later that day I discussed with a friend's Taiwanese wife.
"Except if it's 6am in Taiwan you can not complain if people are working". Well, I did not complain about their work actually, but more about the noise....

A few changes in Taiwan recently. Mister Donuts shops are spreading but that's not so significant (it still opens at 11am, Donuts for lunch??). The Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial hall finally changed name. It was named after the dictator who ruled Taiwan after WWII. For sure some Taiwanese people don't like to remember this man as a great figure. But the move probably comes from the pressure of China's government. The building's English name is now something like "Taiwan democracy memorial hall". I don't know what they will do with the huge statue of the dictator and his collection of Cadillac limos visitors can find in the building. Someone may eventually point out the mismatch with the "democracy memorial hall".
You can find details here: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/05/10/2003360233

No Logo

Les taiwanais sont assez nuls pour trouver des noms de marque (BenQ, Asus, Tatung, Sampo, Acer s'en sort pas mal). Jusque la c'était Etron Technology qui me faisait le plus rire: http://etron.com/etrobn.htm
En arrivant a l'aéroport samedi je suis tombe sur le nouveau concurrent de Ritek: Super-Chien! http://www.super-chien.com.tw/

Merde j'ai pas vote

Réveille difficile lundi matin. Avec le décalage il aurait fallu me lever a 3h du mat pour voir les résultats. En fait j'allume la télé de l'hôtel vers 6h30 pour voir la NHK parler de "Saroukodzi" et "Segouren Rouayre". La homepage du monde.fr m'éclaire davantage.
Au bureau un collègue me demande si je suis en congé (parce que je lis les news). Je lui explique l'histoire des élections en France. Il fait un jeu de mot avec le mot "élection" (le "r" et le "l" se confondent en japonais). Je lui dis que c'est pas drôle et que Saloukozy will be president. Il me répond que c'est pas bon pour le Japon ça (Sarkozy en voyage a HK avait déclaré que le sumo était un sport de simplets obèses et que Kyoto était une ville sinistre). Chirac avait attendu d'être élu pour être détesté par la terre entière (surtout du cote du pacifique justement), Sarkozy a de l'avance. Si ça inquiète même les salarymen japonais, je me demande comment en France on fait pour pas s'inquiéter davantage. Tenez, et même ma tante m'envoie un mail (c'est que vraiment la situation doit être critique):

CHAINE DE L'ESPOIR.

Ceci n'est pas un spam, si cette lettre t'arrive, ce n'est pas

par hasard, rien n'est du au hasard.

Marie P. a vote UMP en 2002, deux jours plus

tard, sa maison a brule et tous ses enfants sont morts de combustion

spontanée.

Pierre F. a vote UMP lui aussi : il s'est noyé

dans la mare aux canards de sa ferme, on n'a jamais retrouve son corps.

Catherine K. a vote UMP aux derničres législatives : une semaine

plus tard, elle a du se faire poser un anus artificiel.

Joseph D. a pense a voter Sarkozy. Depuis, il purge une peine a

vie dans les prisons turques. Le pire, c'est qu'il avait

pris un billet d'avion pour Namur, il a ete victime d'une erreur a

l'embarquement.

Patrick B. a touche un bulletin Sarkosy dans l'isoloir aux

derničres législatives, depuis il ne cesse d'emettre des

pets malodorants et dégage une haleine pestilentielle qui a fait fuir sa

femme et son chien.

Ne VOTE PAS SARKOZY, ou tu finiras comme eux.

Forwarde ce message a 10 personnes que tu aimes ou

tes dents tomberont.

Si tu ne votes pas Sarkozy, tout ira bien, tout le monde te

trouvera sexuellement desirable, tu n'auras jamais de

cancer du foie ou des poumons et tu gagneras plein d'argent.

Chinese New Year

My first chinese new year in Taiwan (I was in Japan last year at that time). On Friday at midnight the fireworks started and did not stop until tonight. I am at the airport in Taipei now, leaving to France. Back in something like 10 days. Did not take any picture in Taiwan so here is a song with some kind of relationship with the title of this post.

Spent a great weekend 10 days ago with Miho in Shanghai, will post photos soon if she gives me her agreement (you're never to prudent concerning copyrights nowadays).