Monday, September 7, 2015

Early September Weekend in Tokyo

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Sandwiches!

Helloooooo!

OMG! See that beer above? It's a sign that this humid Tokyo Summer is on the way out. FINALLY! MAN I hate Tokyo in Summer. I wish I could escape to another country every year in July until the end of August.

I drank this 'tall boy' beer on Saturday arvo (I'm getting back into Aussie slang, yo!) to celebrate selling out of my Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide zines! Thank you so much to everyone who bought a copy. You guys are the best! Mistakes and all, I hope this little one-man-show handmade zine leads you to some places that make your next trip to Tokyo even better. Thank you also to the lovelies who have emailed about a re-print, but as with all of my zines, I print a limited amount and once they sell out, that's it. Things are always changing in this incredible city so it's hard to keep a hard copy updated and current. Maybe I'll make another one next year. But, in the time being, I will be selling a few last allocated copies at the Tokyo Art Book Fair on Monday 21st October. Please come along and pick one up if you'd like one.

There are also a few stockists in Australia who still might have a copy such as Metropolis Books and Perimeter Books in Melbourne. Kinokuniya in Sydney will also be stocking it soon, too.


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A shop logo I designed is featured this new BNN book!

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Um...ha ha...have you ever seen me in real life with my hair out? There are only about a handful of people on this planet who have seen me without a top knot in the last 6 years! Ha ha. I'm going to wear that bun, too much blush and strong MAC lipstick every day right till the very end. I always wear either MAC's Lady Danger, Ruby Woo or, on occasion, Morange or a limited edition crazy pink or coral.

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Do you remember this cutie Nina from NZ who I met at one of my workshops in Tokyo? Love this lady to bits! She sent me this cute pic of her reading my new book 'Hello Tokyo' which is in stores in Australia and NZ now, and in the coming months will be available in bookstores worldwide.

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Nina also sent me this snap of my book in Unity Books in Auckland. ありがとうNina!!!

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And here is a big stack of my books in Sydney's Dymocks. I wish I could be there to see my books in store in person, but these photos from friends are making it a lot easier. If anyone spots the book in a shop and can be bothered taking a photo to send me I would love you forever and ever! And, ahem, extra points for "styling" 'Hello Tokyo' on top of all of the other books and taking a photo! ha ha. My email is hellosandwichblog (at) gmail (dot) com. Or if you use the hashtag #HelloTokyoBook I'd love to see it!

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I'm embarrassingly late to the party but I went vinyl shopping in Shibuya with my friend Matt for the first time yesterday. I'm totally addicted. He taught me the cool ways to flick through records and we had so much fun in there. Not enough time though before we had to head off to our friends birthday party on this (below) Shinjuku rooftop beer garden. After months of feeling so ridiculously sweaty in this humidity the end of Summer is so energising. We bought 'roadies' (Go, more Aussie slang), and drank them on the Yamanote-sen to Shinjuku style. I'm not often on the Yamanote-sen, or any other JR lines for that matter, so hanging out with our beers, listening to the Yamanote-sen jingles, I couldn't stop smiling. Those jingles are so nostalgic and remind me of when I used to come to Tokyo with Mr Y before we moved back here. 

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Rooftop all-you-can-drink parties. I die!

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This poor fella might have have really taken advantage of the popular all-you-can-drink 飲み放題 system in Japan.

Matt offered to send him to the station, or put him in a taxi but he politely refused. There was talk of getting the police to help him to safety and off the road, but our Japanese friend Shige said "It's Tokyo, it's normal, just leave him".


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Mikoshi weekend at my local park.

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Each year the mikoshi stops outside my apartment and they break for a drink from the truck that waits literally directly below my apt. Dreamy Tokyo life.

You can see the video here.

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Love you Japan!

Oh! And have you guys signed up for Periscope yet? I'm 'Hello Sandwich' over there, obvs. And in the next little while I'm going to start streaming daily Tokyo Life over there! F U N !

xoxo

9 comments:

  1. Yay! Pictures of you... thank you. (btw, you look younger than I previously thought!)

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    1. Just one pic of me! The other one is my friend Nina! She is super cute!!!

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  2. Hello! OMIGOSH�� i stumbled onto your blog past the midnight hour and had to tell you I LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE ur blog!! When i was younger and without children I wanted to live in tokyo back in the 90's�� But now that i have found your blog i will experience japan vicariously through your pictures and writings. Congratulations on your new books�� and wishing you continued success from california��!

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    1. Hello Jo! Thank you so much for your sweet message! That's soooooo lovely of you! How awesome to have lived here in the 90s! Pics, please! Thank you so much for your kind words about the books, too! I want to come to CA soon! I've never been to America can you believe? 2016 for sure!!! xoxo

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  3. Despite hating summer it looks like you have had a great one in Tokyo! :) Congratulations on your beautiful recent publications which I've been majorly swooning over. Oh and we call them tall boys in Canada too! xo

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    1. Ha thanks Sarah! How are you going? Lovely to see you over here on my blog and also instagram. I need to get much better at updating Hello Sandwich more regularly. Ohhhh ha ha 'tall boys' I wonder where I got that from? I think maybe it was from my American friend? Or my Aussie friend? Ah, I can't remember! But now I call them 'tall boys' and I'm glad you do too! You know the teeny tiny Asahi ones? They are like a couple of mouth fulls. I was with a group of friends starving late one night in Harajuku and we bought those with a strange burrito style wrap from Family Mart and we called that 'Smash packs'. Ha ha. We are ALLLLLLL class! xoxo

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  4. Ahhh, I love it when you do life updates with photos... I always love your photos 😊
    I was in Tokyo around this time last year, and even in September it was pretty hot! I also dislike hot weather, so I understand your pain 😉

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    1. Thank you Ana! That's so lovely of you to say! I'm always updating over at instagram, but am guilty of not updating this blog enough. This will change!
      Yeah - Summer is the pits! Vomit emoji please! Almost over! YES! I want snow and heated train seats and hot wine!

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  5. Another japanophile here! How much I would love to have a cup of coffee right there next to cocoon tower! I've been obsessed with Japan for past four years, I guess. Could make it there yet, because I live so far and because I wouldn't go alone. Meanwhile I was reading your blog :)

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