This wonderfully obnoxiously pink cafe called Razzleberry (yeah they play that music inside too, haha) is the only place that I’ve found in Tokyo to serve tart frozen yogurt.  As if they Barbie decor weren’t enough, the sizes come in “cute”, “sexy”, and “glamourous” instead of S, M, and L, and all the toppings are named after jewels (!!!!) like rubies for raspberries and emerald for kiwis.  There are a nice variety of toppings by the way, mostly fruits, some cereals, and mochi.  It’s such a ridiculous place– I love it!  Haha.

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:

Name: Amy
Shirt: Hanjiro
Dress: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Converse
Headband: shoelace
Favorite Mario Character: Toad

(Photos by Erek.  More pictures and outtakes here. )

And I’ll leave you with this gypsy-jazz Mario music:

Bali has many different beaches, each with a very different atmosphere.  Some have white sand, some have black sand.  Some are famous as places where you can do water sports, others are famous for dolphin-watching.  We went to Dreamland Beach- an aptly named lesser-known beach that is gorgeous, and less crowded, and apparently perfect for surfing (i.e. quite large waves).  We tried bodyboarding, but mostly for me this meant getting swept under and getting salt water up my nose.  We brought my grandma’s mangoes to eat at the beach– the best idea ever.  Afterwards, we had a lunch of Bali’s specialty foods at Warung Made, a famous Bali restaurant.  Novi took the task of finding good food very seriously– having a book for each town specifically for that purpose.  Every single meal was delicious.

guess what’s my favorite flower?

Meiji Jingu shrine had an iris festival going on for all of June.

Bali is so green.  And tropical fruits are so cheap.  It’s a paradise.

more pictures from indonesia to sort through.  but in the meantime, this is what i wear when i’m lazy– mens’ tshirts (or in this case, little boys’) and jeans.

- i broke my only headband, and since i’m picky about headbands, i have started to use this grey, uh, shoestring as a headband.  tied headbands hardly ever stay on, but, since it’s a shoestring it stays tied all day.

- i love this shirt.  it’s so comfy.  i bought it used.  i bet it belonged to a chubby pizza-loving little boy.

- it is popsicle weather.  i bribe myself with popsicles to finish sections of code, or clean my room, or take out my garbage.  my favorite popsicles are shirokuma– milk based with red bean, pineapple, and orange bits.

- donuts!  from a bakery in semarang.  i have far too many food photos, and so from now on i’ll put up a matching food picture with clothing pictures because, why not.

- happy tanabata!

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 little touches of red.  Lips, shoes, mini strawberries.

The best breakfast I’ve had in a while: buckwheat pancakes, last strawberries of the season, unsweetened hand-whipped whipped cream, banana-honey milkshake.

To set the mood properly: The Breeders- Off You

On our 3rd day, Novi, my aunt and uncle, Yu and I went to Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and one of the 7 wonders of the world (on some lists of wonders of the world anyway.)  Each level represents a level of enlightenment.  It felt so old and somehow sacred, and the grounds were beautiful too.

Funny things happened there.  Admission was about $3.  My aunt got us tickets, and all of a sudden we were stopped.  They asked Yu and I for ID and on finding out that we have foreign passports, they charge us $18 instead.  And throw in 2 water bottles.  Novi and I couldn’t stop laughing at the ridiculous difference in charge and treatment.

It’s so famous so there are lots of little kids there on field trips.  Lots of them point at me, stare, and some even yell at me “Bule!” which basically like yelling out “Whitey!”.  Hilarious.  It’s particuarly hilarious because in Japan, I am always mistaken for Japanese, to the point where if I am using really bad grammar in a store (it’s often, my grammar is terrible) the clerk will look at me like I was raised in a cave, and then finally say “oh, you’re not Japanese are you!”  But yet in the country where I was born, I stick out like an American tourist on a Tokyo subway.

It gets better!  These little school kids keep whispering, around me, as I’m ascending the temple stairs with my cousin.  Finally my cousin talks to them and they shyly admit that their class wants their picture taken with me.  I look that foreign apparently.  I’m completely amused so of course I say sure.  After their teacher takes some snaps, I ask them, “Dari mana?”  “Where are you from?”  They’re a little surprised and say “Dari Pekalongan”  Haha.  That’s actually my dad’s home town.  I tell them that.  They gasp and then say “So we’re the same?”  Some of them tapped me on the shoulder later to ask for individual pictures with me.  And the same thing happened a few minutes later with a high school class.  These kids were so funny and so gorgeous.  Indonesians are SO gorgeous– their perfect, latte-colored skin, wavy black hair.  I can say that without vanity because I don’t look like one at all!

my outfi that day:
cheap used dress from kinji (i tore out the shoulderpads and slit the sleeves)
earring: spank!