Trippy Traditions

To the Left, to the Left…

A colleague of mine mentioned that Tokyo follows the British way of traffic—to the left. Yet the left mentality pours over to their way of walking as well. It may have taken us a little bit of time to figure out that we need stop fighting the flood of people when walking on our right side and just go with the flow to the left. Took every ounce of will power to go against our nature.
I Miss My Shoes

Upon entering a home, one must always take of their shoes and put on their slippers. To keep one’s home clean and all. As a Ukrainian, putting on slippers at home was second nature. Toilet shoes, however, were something new for me. Whenever you enter a bathroom, one must change out of their house slippers and into their toilet room slippers. My Finnish friend explained that traditional Japanese toilets were, how do I delicately word this, a hole in the ground. In order not to dirty your house slippers, and thus one’s house, one would put on toilet slippers. Despite leading the world in toilet technology now (kid you not, Japanese toilets are crazy amazing and cool. They self clean, sanitize; there are seat warmers, etc. Google if you need more information. There are maps and tours) the Japanese stick to their toilet shoes.

Well Heeled Indeed

Gwen Stefani has done many a good deed for the world of fashion: bold red lip, shock blond hair, and introducing the rest of the world to Harajuku. Basically, Harajuku is a ridiculously awesome shopping district. It’s a beautiful world were goth and cosplay meld with the chicest Parisian loins and harmoniously meet somewhere in between with affordable Topshop, Forever 21 and H&M options. It’s wonderful. You can fall down the rabbit hole of teen angst and plunder your way through the craziest of shops. Or you can skip (and by skip I mean move with the rush of the crowd hoping its ocean-like waves don’t crush your body) down Omotesandō street and stare at the windows of fashion’s best while the drool falls from your lips and your little brother has to pull you away from the window because people are beginning to stare….not that that happened or anything. Omotesandō street is the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo.

It should most definitely be noted that despite Tokyo’s much deserved reputation for fun, bright, youthful and crazy outfits [http://www.dropsnap.jp] yuppies still rule. Streets and metro cars were reeling with sharp, smart, classically chic men and women.

The suits: tailored to perfection.
Heels: stacked, creative, graceful.
Hair: Coiffed, well-cut and colored, and most surprisingly—rarely a bad dye job in sight.
Accessories: added with careful editing or spilled over with the best of effects; men wore scarves and hankies, completely unafraid of adding personality and thought into what they were wearing
Color: People wore some besides dismal black!!! (It was wondrous).

Overall, Tokyo has style and then some.

PS. If I were an architect, I would most definitely check this place out. The integration of style and function, old and new, etc. blows one mind to bits. And I have far too many pictures of store fronts...more than happy to show them to you.

Vending Machines


Vending machines are cool. They just are. You throw in your money and quickly and conveniently receive your product. They rock. Not a discussion. Simply fact.

With that statement out of the way, vending machines were everywhere in Tokyo. I like to get lost in new cities—makes life more fun that way and you usually come across fantastic local eateries or parks—and even when Sasha and I were stumbling around random alley ways and private streets, vending machines spotted the streets like the never ending fries at Red Robin.

Please check out the ridiculously cool vending machines Tokyo has to offer here: http://www.toxel.com/tech/2009/06/08/14-cool-vending-machines-from-japan/

Too eager? Ok, maybe.

White People and Advertising
Must be said.

Caucasian people and advertising in Tokyo. It’s everywhere. The Caucasian population in Japan floats somewhere around the 2% mark, and yet somehow this minority easily represents a third of their advertising! Completely caught me off guard. Western news sources have covered Japan’s obsession with cosmetic whitening creams but I still assumed that most Japanese adverts would reflect its respective demographic. Not so at all.
Western blond girls touted the benefits of buying a certain brand of seaweed, while blue-eyed young men would enthusiastically hold up Japanese soft drinks. Hollywood A-listers, whose image teeters on being “too cool” in the states, pimp coffee and eye liner on mega billboards all across town. The presence of Caucasian models on metro ads, in store front windows, on tv and every other form of media was a little disturbing. Just take this blog on ads in Japan…first one includes Hugh Jackman: http://adsofjapan.com/

Interesting note, Tokyo ad agencies are some the most creative and recognized in the world. Tokyo’s museum of advertising clearly brags about campaigns of the past that have fused together beautiful art movements and sales. With such a rich well of creative energy, I don’t understand falling back on having blue-eyed blond girls selling Japanese products.