A few months ago, when I was stuck at home with both food poisoning and an injured ankle and knee, my friend Erek visited with home-made applesauce and a get-well goomba (like a get-well bear but you know, awesomer). I had been searching for a giant goomba for nearly a year, everywhere from ebay to my favorite Nakano and Akihabara specialty stores. I had been searching for a goomba because goombas seem so… stompable, and I’ve always wanted to try stomping on a goomba myself. I had pretty much given up and was contemplating making one by hand from felt.
So, now that I’ve tried it, are goombas actually stompable? Yes, very much so! I have plans to photograph my friends stomping on a goomba at each of their favorite places in Tokyo– a Tokyo-wide goomba stomping fest!
I have maybe more than one favorite place in Tokyo but I knew exactly where I wanted to stomp on a goomba– in front of a very Mario-esque mural in Nakano. I tried to vaguely dress the part too, without being costume-y.
So, hopefully there will be more of these! And since it’s sort of a street snap (FRUITS, dropsnap.jp, etc.) parody, next time there will be less talking and just this:
still life from found objects (well, found in my room).
3D glasses, hot pink nail polish, ice cream zippered pouch
nike hightops, mint-scented bubbles
I have so much random stuff. I’m often thinking that X kitchen utensil would look nice with Z pair of earrings, and other odd groupings. Unless both things are clothing items, I usually don’t have an excuse to pair them together. Now I do. Group portraits.
What’s in it for you, the reader? Voyeuristic satisfaction of seeing the random things I have in my room? Pretty color combos? I dunno, sure!
Yogyakarta is a big city but also somehow has the feeling of a small town. We visited the batik market, the former bathing house for the king’s consorts, and a temple that had been buried underground for centuries.
i love walking around with nothing but a camera and a few coins to buy a tea or milkshake. it makes for a very inexpensive and entertaining afternoon. i do this so often that i have folders and folders of pictures that i haven’t uploaded. here are a few from a rainy monday in harajuku last year. can you tell i am restless? i want super self-healing powers so that i can do this again soon.
Today was White Day and Pi Day, but I didn’t eat white chocolates or pie. Instead I was waiting in line for day-of tickets for the otherwise sold out POLYSICS show at the Budokan (which can seat 14000 people). I really wanted to see this show because I keep missing chances to see them live, and because Kayo is my favorite member, and it would be her last concert with them.
It was SO worth the wait. Being in line seemed like no issue because the crowd was amazing. Almost everyone was wearing some kind of orange- tights, shoes, hats, or in the case of the girl right next to me, perfectly normally dressed but with orange nail polish with perfectly painted stylized black “P”s on a few random fingers. And of course, orange boiler suits. There were mini (5 years old) and micro (baby) POLYSICS in orange boiler suits. Kids in Japan are always SO cute and make me feel like making babies soon, but these children were BEYOND just normal cute. Gah! And as for boiler suits on adults, it would be a lie if I said that they don’t do a thing or two for me.
The concert itself was incredible. I’ve been to my share of concerts but no one I’ve seen has ever put on a show in the way that POLYSICS did. The energy was contagious and endless- I was screaming and jumping up and down and dancing but just got more excited over time rather than tired. The lighting and effects were perfect (psychedelic background animations, explosions of glitter and balloons). Even the few of their songs that I wasn’t so fond of became amazing live. I read in an interview that they’ve never played in such a large venue just by themselves, but I wouldn’t have guessed it. They had such good chemistry with the whole crowd– the interaction was so natural and easy.
Kayo was so freaking cute. She led the crowd in little hand dances, played the recorder and the keytar, and at one point she broke out golden pom poms. Hiro was INSANE in a great way.
It was bittersweet at the end. There were 3 rounds of encores. Kayo announced “Thank you for everything up until now. I love POLYSICS,” in a robot voice. Everyone was screaming her name, and the group gave her a bouquet of flowers, and she bowed so properly. Even though I’ve only been a fan for about a year, I almost felt teary about all of it.
What a day! Best wishes Kayo, we love you, and you will be so missed!
Stands at a diminutive 10cm tall. Lives in Daikanyama, Tokyo, Japan. Computer Scientist/Electrical Engineer. Her Katamari is covered in cups of rooibos tea, aged gouda cheese, bows, glitter, cute electronics, cartridges of retro pixely videogames, robots, cupcakes, and 4B drawing pencils.
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