7 posts tagged “custom”

CHINATOWN, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

MOTOMACHI, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN A BATHING APE: BAPE STORE YOKOHAMA COOL CAR...This looks like the tofu delivery car (Toyota Trueno) from the popular anime Initial D. This is NOT the actual car. This is a different model from the actual car model. This was the figure infront of the Precious Moments store. I just HAD TO take a picture. So cute! And that's me...trying to give a high-five. WEST YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

A little glimpse of DAIKANYAMA...

Some more of Harajyuku. This is mainly the "Urahara" area, which is the neighborhood behind Omotesando street & the Omotesando Hills shopping center. There are also a few pics of Omotesando street... As you can see...I love Japanese architecture. The buildings are so unique and amazing; and since there are less strict construction and land laws/restrictions/codes, the architects have more creative freedom to create even more beautiful, crazy designs.

CHINATOWN and its surrounding areas

MOTOMACHI BAPE STORE YOKOHAMA (by A Bathing Ape)

Konnichiwa! It's me again! I'm back...and I'm ready to tell you all about our day in Daikanyama. Ok, so not a lot of travelers head to Daikanyama...mainly because it is not a widely known district, nor is it extremely popular like Harajyuku or Shinjyuku...but it's a great place to just relax and get away from all the busy crowds. Daikanyama is a newly marked place for some good boutique shopping, and there are plenty of good sidewalk cafes you can pop into for a cup of coffee and a small pastry or a satisfying set lunch.

Jian and I love to head to Daikanyama because it's mostly a suburban neighborhood with quiet streets filled with interesting boutique stores and fun sidewalk cafes. Also, one of our most favorite denim boutiques, Evisu, is located in Daikanyama. We went to the store today, but they were closed. Apparently, they are closed on Mondays. Who knew? Well, anyway...this place is really great if you want a custom pair of jeans...and I mean really C-U-S-T-O-M (but be prepared to shell out some serious moola if you want very high-grade quality). Last year, Jian came to this store on a mission to snap up a pair of high quality jeans. The Evisu store is the foremost place to find quality denim. They've got lots of different types of denim in various denim colors (i.e. black, white, blue), lots of waist sizes, and a variety of cut styles (e.g. bootleg, skinny, straight-leg). However, the catch is that all jeans come in one length size only. But wait!!! This is where the customization process begins. Here are the basics on getting your own pair of custom Evisu jeans...

• First, you pick whatever basic pair of jeans you want in whatever style and/or color/wash you want.
• Next, you pick your waist size (sorry...the length of all pants will always be 34". no exceptions.)
• Then, after purchasing your fresh pair of jeans, you take your jeans to the "an Evisu Tailor" store.
• At the "an Evisu Tailor" store, the tailors their can cut your jeans to whatever size/shape you want.
• You can even have a custom design or custom Evisu logo stitched onto your jeans. (but you can only choose a design from their catalog.)

 

Tada! That was easy and painless, right? Er...except on your wallet. Joke! Seriously speaking though...all jokes aside, Daikanyama is a really relaxing place to visit when you want to just wind down for a bit. It's a mostly suburban place with nice, quiet streets, but a good getaway place from all of those distracting neon lights and buzzing hordes of people.

And after visiting Daikanyama...we headed back to Harajyuku with 2 friends for some seriously FANTASTIC chicken. I'm not kidding. There's a great specialty chicken restaurant in Tokyo called Toriyoshi. There are approximately a dozen locations scattered around Tokyo, and the one that we visited is hidden among all of the urban boutiques in Ura-hara. Toriyoshi is a restaurant that specializes in chicken and home made tofu. When we went there, we each ordered the 9-course set meal. Yes...I said NINE course meal. On top of that...for an extra $10 bucks per person, you can add on an "all you can drink for an hour" set to your meal. So, it's safe to say that we pounded 4 PITCHERS of beer in an hour's time. And just for reference, this is what our 9-course meal consisted of:

• some sort of complimentary appetizer natto dish (not included in the 9-course set meal)
• fried chicken wings topped with sesame seeds
• grilled chicken w/ green onion stalks on skewers
• cherry tomatoes wrapped in black forrest bacon on skewers
• soy sauce flavored, soft-boiled quail eggs
• steam bento box with black forrest bacon, thinly sliced daikon radish, cabbage & thinly sliced carrots
• house made tofu with sesame oil & 2 kinds of salt
• more chicken on skewers (which I think was either gizzard or heart...I forgot)
• cold soumen noodles
• dessert tofu covered in matcha powder with a sweet sauce drizzled on top

 

After such a kick ass chicken dinner...everyone was pretty much buzzed from all the beer. So we decided to sing some karaoke. Oh yes....drunken karaoke is always appropriate at a time like this! We headed back to Shinjyuku so we wouldn't have to mind the last call at the train station. and went to Big Echo...which is like a chain store of karaoke bars. We sang for approximately 3 hours before heading back to our hotel rooms in a drunken stupor. So, I'd say we had a pretty relaxing day overall.

This was one crazy...drunk...karaoke night at Big Echo. And I must say...Big Echo is the BEST karaoke joint! Room Service, food & alcohol, and a song selection you wouldn't believe. I mean, they had the Coldplay song "Viva La Vida" 2 weeks after it hit the radio station airwaves, and they had the music video version....not some crappy bootleg ripped version!!! They had a H-U-G-E English song selection...and they even had older songs from artists like Johnny Cash & Bad Religion...wow!

Until tomorrow! We're heading back to my dad's hometown...YOKOHAMA! And we're going to be visiting a close friend of ours..............Later!

Hello. Welcome to Odaiba!!! We have now traveled to the lovely island for some fun in the sun...and some major video game action! Today we visited Sega Joypolis, Aquacity and most importantly..........RAMEN STADIUM!!! In case you guys don't know about Ramen Stadium...it's an aisle in the food plaza of the Aquacity shopping mall, where the best ramen chefs in Japan host their ramen restaurants to compete to see who is the best ramen chef of the year. Also, we had ramen made by the only female chef in the whole Ramen Stadium.

 

So anyway...we're here at Odaiba...and what is Odaiba usually famous for??? GAMES AND RIDES! I gotta tell you...for those of you out there who love to play video games...this place is a really great place to visit. The Sega Joypolis hosts some of the most interesting games and rides you'll ever imagine. For example...Jian played the Initial D Stage 4 car racing video game....and this isn't your average ordinary video game. You don't just sit in a seat and press the gas pedal. This video game is set in a REAL car! No joke. The Initial D Stage 4 video game is unlike any other virtual reality game where the seat just vibrates and wiggles around. In this game, you actually get to sit in a real car with fully functional gagues (i.e. speedometer) etc. Except that the gear stick is replaced with a video game joystick. Other games include a haunted house full of creepy dolls, a small rollercoaster ride where you get to wear virtual reality goggles, and a skateboarding ride where you get strapped on to a swinging skateboard-style platform and swing side-to-side as though you were on a skateboarding halfpipe ramp. Those are just a few of the fun rides and games available at Sega Joypolis.

 

There were plenty of other fun attractions to visit in Odaiba...such as the Fuji Terebi building...but the most visited attraction would be Aquacity. Aquacity is most widely known for hosting the Ramen Stadium (which is explained at the top of this post). Other than the Ramen Stadium, this place is like any other shopping mall in Japan, but with a lot of American brand names such as: Gap, Stussy, Brooks Brothers, Aeropostale etc.

 

 

I think in total, Jian and I spent half the day at Odaiba...and the other half of the day was spent in Shibuya. Now, I know that Shibuya might be the last place on Earth that Jian would want to visit on purpose...since most of the stores are geared towards high school girls...but there are a few choice gems scattered about Shibuya that perks up Jian's interests. One of the main reasons for visiting Shibuya is that there's a new Bathing Ape store that just recently opened excatly across from the PARCO department stores. However, we didn't get a chance to take a peek inside because there was a line in front of the store, and we were NOT about to queue in a line in the blazing hot weather.

Another treasure hidden behind all of the hoopla and glitter of the Shibuya 109 crossing, behind the 109 department stores, behind the Seibu department store, behind the HMV music store...and tucked away from all of the crowded streets is the official Medicom toy store called Project 1/6. This store showcases many (if not all) of Medicom's finest creations including a few limited edition items. I was able to snag Jian a much sought after Project 1/6 with Choro-Q collaboration Bearbrick. This cute little bundle of joy only cost me $20 bucks...where as in the States, this little fella goes for $60 bucks minimum........MINIMUM! So, it's fair to say that I got a good bargain. Well...by then, our day was ending for the most part. We were hot, hungry and ready to head home early. So we ended up having an early dinner at an organic pasta restaurant (which Jian deemed to be too girly), and then we headed home.

 

These are some of the awesome toys at Medicom's Project 1/6 store in Shibuya...check out the 1:1 scale Saw doll...kowaii ne.

A few fun things we happened to catch in Shibuya. Sweet car. Funky computer mouse...shaped like boobs...and of course, the famous 109 crossing (a.k.a. Hachiko crossing).

Pictures from the organic restaurant we ate at in Shibuya. I forgot which street this was on, but it's in the basement of a building....located behind the Seibu Department store. Jian caught a picture of me right when I started to eat. The last picture is of Shibuya at night.

Tomorrow we're going to Daikanyama...for some relaxation (and quiet time). Later!

It's day two everyone!!! Yes, we were back to our old "stomping grounds" again. Harajyuku desu. It's always Ura-Hara and the quiet streets of Aoyama, the posh suburban district of the ever-bustling Tokyo.

Ah...I almost forgot one more thing!! We ALWAYS gotta make a trip to eat at the lovely BAPE Cafe!? (and yes, this restaurant's name has an exclamation mark and question mark in it...don't ask me why...it just does.) This cafe always showcases the Simpsons collaboration artwork drawn by the Original Fake artist KAWS (a.k.a. Brian Donnelley). This series of artwork is titled "the Kimpsons". Not only that...but the food is pretty good, and the prices are very affordable, even for kids on a tight budget. If you ever get a chance to go to Harajyuku and/or the Ura-hara side...you should definitely make a trip to BAPE Cafe!? . If not for the food, then for the incredible artwork....and pretty much everything's got a Bathing Ape print, logo or design on it...right down to the ice cubes.

Today we went to Tokyo Tower. The view from atop is so beautiful. Even though you're only looking down on all of the skyscrapers, it still is so eye-catching. It's like you're a world away....being so high up and it's very quiet. You can see all of the cars whizzing through the highways and you can see people walking all over the streets. From the top viewing deck, you can see so clearly, to as far as Odaiba (and the Odaiba ferris wheel)! If you use their viewing stands, you can almost clearly see Shibuya, Shinjyuku, Mount Fuji, Yokohama, to name a few. Things seem so different from the top view. You can see well-kept gardens and greenery atop business offices, and playgrounds and tennis courts atop school facilities. You can even see all the large Shrines and cemeteries from the view above. It seems very cheesy, but it's actually pretty cool. And it's a great escape from all the shopping and eating and busy districts.

Visiting Tokyo Tower was the most tourist-y thing we did throughout the entire trip. Although we had originally planned to visit the Imperial gardens at the Imperial Palace in Marunouchi and see the Meiji Jingu Shrine and all, we got side-tracked everyday and kind of pushed it off. So this was the only tourist trap we saw (besides the shrine right smack-dab in the middle of Harajyuku).

Later that day, we ate lunch at the cafeteria in Tokyo Tower's gift shop place. There were a lot of typical "food court" style restaurants (i.e. chinese food, McDonalds) but we found a really cool restaurant called Tokyo Curry Lab. This place is so awesome! Not only do they serve the best tasting curries, but their restaurant atmosphere also looked really cool. The whole restaurant looked like a cross between a science laboratory and a gourmet test kitchen. It was quite interesting. The seating area is like a bar-style. You sit at the counter and all the wait-staff service you from behind the counter. and in the middle, there's a walkway with an automatic door that leads to the kitchen. Which by the way, the kitchen is encased in glass, so you could see all the chefs cooking. Infront of each seat there's a small display screen that shows some sort of artsy-fartsy animation. Very futuristic I might add. Here is a rough sketch of what the restaurant's layout looks like. I'm not good at drawing, so this is my really lame excuse for a diagram:

 

This is a picture of the actual storefront.

After Tokyo Tower, we decided to go back and do some more damage to our wallets. It was time (again) for some serious toy shopping....and I don't mean just any kind of toys. I'm talking about serious collector's toys and custom toys and limited edition toys and stuff like that.

Have you ever heard of Mandarake? Maybe from the back of a hobby magazine or in an advertisement somewhere? Well, Mandarake is a toy store chain....kind of like Toys 'R' Us, but filled with designer toys and collector's items and comics galore! We only know of 2 locations, one in Shibuya and one in Nakano, but we never got a chance to visit the one in Shibuya, so guess where we went?! N-AK-A-N-O! Yay! We visited Nakano, and we saw a small religious group singing "It's A Small World" in Japanese right infront of the main gate at the train station. Anyways, to get back on topic, we visited a shopping center called "Nakano Broadway". This place s pretty large (4 floors worth of goods) and long, and the Mandarake shopping place is at the back of the entire building. It's 4 floors with nothing but toys, hobby supplies, comic books, anime, cds, cosplay costumes and the like. It was so awesome. And it's not as overwhelming as Akiba was. Mandarake Nakano really focused on custom/designer toys and lots of vintage toys from the 60s, 70s and 80s. So many shops had toys on display that really brought back a lot of fond memories of cartoons from our youth.

If you know Jian, then you'd know that he's a collector of toys. Not just any toys, but toys from his childhood, designer toys from famous artists, and limited edition toys designed by his favorite brand name. Let me tell you, this place had it all! The toys, I'd say, were reasonably priced, and by reasonably priced I mean that they were all listed at MSRP (Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price). Most places, especially online toy sites and stores that import toys from other countries purposely inflate their prices (to adjust to the import tax and shipping-handling fees). There are even some toy stores in Japan that sell their own toys at outrageous prices. Shopping at Mandarake Nakano was fun. This place isn't really famous, and it wasn't crowded. It had a very casual atmosphere, so you can shop in a more relaxed way. Some of the cool things at Mandarake Nakano were:

Some stores had clear display cases where people could showcase some of the items they wish to sell. How it works is first, you rent a space/display case. Then you can display the stuff you wish to sell in the rented space for a selected period of time. People can come and take a look at your stuff. If they wish to buy one of your items, then they fill out a ticket with the space # and the description of the item. The store will then contact you to let you know that someone has bought your item. It's becoming a trend now to sell your stuff this way. It's so much less of a hassel to do it this way then to do it on eBay. Because on eBay, people are always worried about legit buyers and sellers. Some sellers only take PayPal; some only take cash etc, etc. When you sell your stuff in these rented spaces, it's pretty much like consignment selling. You can set one price (there's no auction/bidding) and people just pay direct cash. You can also arrange to meet with the buyer, so you can see them face-to-face. This makes the whole transaction of monies more legit and safer.

There were also a few stores that sold doll parts and accessories. You could buy furniture and clothes for dolls, and you could buy specific doll parts, so that you could piece together your own customized doll....but these are for action figure type plastic dolls only. So, if you were looking for a specific piece, but didn't want to buy the entire set just for one piece, then you could buy them individually. It saves you money that way too.