THE HORROR... THE HORROR

No man should be dragged so low that he is made to drive the Kitty bus... ever.

Job, I don't tell you often enough that how much I appreciate you.

Phots: Max Dolberg

Location:Asakusa, Japan

STRENGTH

This is what the final piece on our Australian mate for all of you that have been asking.

peasant dress and clogs

I just know I will wear these Clogs a lot!!
Initially I wanted to wear something else today, I was thinking about my cut-off jeans, a mini dress or playsuit but somehow I woke up more body conscious then normal and just wanted to wear something really plain,easy and comfi (and oh yeah, and covering) and ended up in this H&M dress, I def knew I was going to stroll around in my new Su-Shi Clogs no matter what, no concessions there :)

BLACK OPS

Once again across the Pacific working full black.

Black Op: a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly clandestine and, often, outside of standard protocol.Although the part is small and ends with an untimely death, (skinned-a-)live ika plays an important role in this extended adventure.

Photo: Max Dolberg

Location:Asakusa, Japan

THROUGH THE LENS

Here is a recent piece on our friend and repeat client Richie from Australia...

Perfect Clogs

I don't think I have ever waited this anxiously for shoes to arrive!! So when the doorbell rang and it were my awaited Clogs it totally made my day!! The Su-Shi clogs are handmade, the platform is made out of wood and the patterned engraved leather is in a perfect nude color, the detailing is stunningly perfect!!

A SONS LOVE

Here is another one from the Archives of a client who wanted to get a piece for his Pops..

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Here is one from the Archives..

THE WAY OF LIFE

Here is a ruff sketch on a client who came down from Australia, look out for the finished piece..

Kaffe, Coffee, Mocca, Java, kohi

Back home in Copenhagen we either make our own great coffee at the shop where we got the coffee monster that Wookie has been kind enough to let us have or if we are home we go to Sort Kaffe & Vinyl ...mmmm best!! So this post is dedicated to our lifesavers at SK&V... This is the coffee we drink here in Japan.

mmm...BOSS...hot or cold from vendingmachine!
This is our favorite one out of many kinds!

Hourly fix from Seveneleven.

Following is the instruction on how to make drip coffee in the comfort of your own home.

More coffee later.

"Strong Willed Woman"

from: Jaime S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 2:21 PM
subject: So I got a tattoo...

Hey guys, my name's Mari. I've always been a fan of the blog, and I was wondering if you could verify my tattoo's meaning.

I'm a foreign language major, and I've studied both Mandarin and Japanese in the past. I decided to translate the meaning of "strong willed woman" into 英気女 (eiki onna). So... is this correct? I sure hope so!

I sent you a pic, too. Thanks a lot.

At the very least the characters are written correctly as if it was supposed to be Japanese.

Unfortunately, 英気女 does not mean "strong-willed woman" in Japanese.

It is more like "brilliant woman" or "woman of excellent ability" if they were to translate it literally. But even this is not a proper translation because 英気女 is not grammatically correct in Japanese.

It lacks the proper grammatical bits and such, so it sounds very brusque and looks sort of "faux Chinese" to a Japanese person. To be proper, they would need to be written 英気に富んだ女性 [eiki ni tonda josei] if "brilliant woman" was intended.

But it cannot be proper Chinese because the simplified character form 気 is used only in Japanese. In Chinese, only the character forms 氣 (traditional) or 气 (simplified) are used.

Another problem is that it seems quite inappropriately boastful and prideful for someone to tattoo themselves with "brilliant woman" in a Japanese context. One would only say this sort of thing about someone else, or as a goal to strive for, and not as a label on your own body. The most common usage of 英気 in Japanese is in the phrase 英気を養う [eiki wo yashinau] which means roughly to "rest up to be able to demonstrate one's full ability."

Certainly there are other, much better, ways of saying "strong-willed woman" in Japanese. One might be 意志の強い女性 [ishi no tsuyoi josei].

Better luck next time,

Alan & Tian

Eiffel Tower's Official Site

http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

For a country which has its own government agency to ensure linguistic purity & accuracy, one would think France would have same standard for other languages as well.

Apparently not so, as seen here at the official website for Eiffel Tower.

The button for Japanese [日本語] is missing first character.

(Thanks Ulas for the tip)

Fringe, Lace and Boots

I'm totally obsessing over Fringe! I pulled out my Vintage suede fringe jacket to wear over the lace dress (Ebay) but most of the time it ended up being too hot.. and no platforms today, I went with my All Saints boots! I still think when it comes to boots All Saints, Frye and Vintage are the best to go with!

Really lusting after the TopShop Lace leotards/bodies btw, to wear with cut-off jeans but I can't figure out what kind of bra or top to wear under it to make it kind of decent??!! hmmm.....

Sailor J Kitty

Today we went to Shinjuku to hang out and relax. our first plan was to go to a temple but since it was sunday and the weather was sooooo nice we figured that it would be too crowded. So we went to another crowded place instead.
I did get to take a bunch of pictures for the "Japanese People" thing I got going. I havn't even wanted to put the pictures from the last many trips on the computer yet because I kinda wanna wait till I am all done. Still more days to take pictures of random Japanese folks.

Here is a few more tattoos done on this trip. I actually did them like a week ago or something but just havn't gotten around to post them.

I actually started this first one last spring when we were here. Due to money and Navy duty we didn't get to finish it then as planed. But now it is done and done!




We have been doing soooo many things and there is sooooo much to tell and even more to show but other thing needs to be done. I promise there will be posts about it all sooner or later. Tomorrow is my last day off before two days of work and then my last session on this trip with Shige. Ugh!!!

OK Mata Neeeee

SOUL SUNDAY

The Moments - Not on the Outside

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

METRO PCS

Here are a couple fliks of the hand done canvas done out in San Fran...

Layering Grays

Some easy and comfi layering for today and almost everything is from the H&M,
I just wear an old light blue/gray leggings with an light blue/gray top which I layered with an old slouchy cardigan and over it a vintage oriental silver/gray jacket blouse, jersey gray scarf, PiperTree Necklace, Vintage fringe suede bag and TopShop wedges..

and this reminds me that I haven't been to the H&M in ages!! I so need to peek in to see if they have any good stuff going on!!

Foxy Lady (someone had to say it)

Yesterday we went to Yokohama and Shige again but this time I was off the hook! This time it wasn't me who had to be nervous about getting tattooed. Yesterday was the day that my brave wife got her thigh (and then some) tattooed by Shige. You should go see her new fox and some more of my pictures on her blog.

While she was getting tattooed I got a chance to sneak out for a moment and enjoy the weather for a bit. I wanted to take some more pictures for my (in progress) series of Japanese people but old people in Ichikawacho is angry looking. Every time I as much as thought in my head that I would sneak a picture I looked at them and they would look angry back at me. So not a lot of picture here. I did take a few on the street anyway.
Soon after I went back to make sure that the wife was alive and well and that was the end of the nice weather.
Today it is raining like hell!! Tomorrow will be the same! Good thing is that I have finished a bunch of drawings for my upcoming project. More about that later.

Not exactly a political correct sign. On a bar called Party Animals.

YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Lucky from the NYC came through for his first tattoo.. He wanted to get a dragon and his Mother and Daughters names on his back.