There's one perfect fit and sugar this one is it...

Hanging with Molly & Andrew has been the best evs.  Being downstairs neighbors is super fun and also extremely convenient.  There doesn't have to be a lot of plan making when any of us can pop up or down for a 20 minute cruise through facebook and glass of wine.

Its also been super crazy nice for Ed and I to let go of the reigns a little and be led around a city.  We have a lot of months of research and planning under our belts, and a lot to come.  But for these few weeks, its great to have someone else say "here are some cool options for today."

So, quicky overviews of radical neighborhoods we probably would have missed without our hostess with the mostestest.

Shimokitazawa - the 4 of us had humongous burgers accompanied by humongous beers and meandered the streets our first weekend here.  Every ilk of food nerd seems to have a staked a claim in this hood, so Ed felt among kin-folk.  There's the artisanal egg people, the insane-o barista guy, the organic donut folks...  Plus a ton of great vintage stores, design shops and boutiques, and one thousand fab looking restaurants nestled in a warren of windy, pretty streets.  When we go back on our own we will definitely be lost, but we're looking forward to it.

Naka-meguro - Molly took us here one hung over Sunday afternoon and we ended up having a "snack" (you guys know with Ed there's really no such thing) and wondering along the Meguro river until after dark.  High-end independent shops and twinkly cafes are sprinkled along the river, which is apparently the happs during cherry blossom season.  Seemingly every time Ed and I go on a long walk we run into Naka-meguro.  Which I wouldn't mind at all, except that the stores there are like kryptonite.  One boutique, in particular, hocks high end denim and one-of-a-kind, hand trimmed, quilted jackets lined with shearling.  I refrained from crying on them only so I could stay in the store and keep touching.  You know, I'm trying to be fulfilled without material things these days, just enjoying my tech weave.  Which is really working out great.

Koenji - Just yesterday, the 3 of us headed to Koenji for lunch and wandering.  Koenji may be the neighborhood where punk rock is at its most relevant; there is no shortage of live music clubs, hard rock bars, and the requisite stores selling stretchy plaid pants and studded things.  The good townsfolk seemingly try to counterbalance the scene by piping bouncy music sung by children into the streets through speakers mounted on the lamp posts.

Since Ed and I hadn't yet experienced the taco rice phenomenon, Molly took us to the twee-est, cutest of tree houses to enjoy it.  Taco rice comes on a large plate and is composed of the following layers (bottom to top): rice, ground beef, shredded cabbage, scrambled egg, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, mayo, avocado, heart attack, deliciousness.  There's green stuff, so it was counted as salad to justify the stop we made at the independent donut shop in post.  We ate one dipped in burnt caramel that was so mind-blowing I momentarily thought about burning my Mister Donut frequent fatty card.  Alas, cooler heads prevailed.  Koenji's motto should be: your diet isn't welcome here.  Or: We love the Clash. 

Kichijōji - aka kookygeorgey, because I can't remember the name ever.  This area has all the hipsterosity of the others but also a huge, beautiful park, and obscenely good lighting.  There's a big lake with swan boats, a couple of temples, a scary clown making balloon animals, and a LOT of cute dogs for me to harass.  We also hit a roof bar there around sun set, a rare phenomenon in a place where people haven't really latched on to the outdoor bar concept. 

The time is absolutely flying, but we're having a blast.  We both are so excited 'cuz we're reunited hey-hey.

Spiders & Snakes & Garbage, Ome

I've been chipping away at my fear of snakes to ready/steady myself for our months in SE Asia.  We're going to be in jungles and we all know what lives there; I'm just going to have to man up and get in touch with my reptilian brain.  Thus far, the only milestone reached is to not shriek and change the channel when there is a snake on TV (see: Modern Family).  I figure if I can handle watching one on TV, my crippling terror when confronted with a giant dangerous live one in Cambodia will be a non-issue.  Right?

The reason I bring up the snake phobia is because this week, despite having read of slithery encounters along the trail, I put on my big girl pants and we went hiking in Ome, a bedroom community in far-west Tokyo.  As is tradition, we got lost in the woods because we didn't bring the GPS.  Like clockwork, seriously.  We had an awesome picnic lunch.  Then the gravelly 2 mile rolling loop we tried to follow (based on a hand drawn Japanese map) to see some temples and a view of Mt. Fuji turned into 3 hours of leisurely wandering followed by 1 hour of back hacking.

As is the case everywhere in Tokyo, post-picnic there was not a gd trash bin for miles.  Its as if these folks are allergic to disposal.  En route from picnic table to trail we passed playgrounds, parking areas and a ball field, and not one bin to toss our bento remains.  As Sue said after carrying an empty paper cup halfway across the city last week, 'I didn't know my coffee came with a side of albatross.'  We've since started calling it garbatross and unless we prepare ourselves to re-enact the stations of the cross in the woods, next time we'll eat before we get on the train.

It was with annoyance and mirin on my shorts that I began the descent through the woods with the trash caribined to my bag.  The first 1/4 of the trail was wide and well trodden.  But as we got lower, the trail got narrower and darker and veered off into the woods.  At which time the movie-prop sized spiderwebs were no longer scenery along the path, but tolls to be paid every 4 feet.

Ed feels similarly about spiders as I do about snakes (though he isn't a big fat baby about it), so I took the lead.  I selected a large branch/small felled tree from the ground and waved it out front as we hiked down.  The grass got tall and I got nervous, but the garbatross slapping against my leg made enough noise to scare an anaconda.  And thus we descended.
 

We walked through here as the sun was setting, defeated the spiders, and avoided the reptiles. 

And, when we got back into town, still had enough day light to see the spooky/best painted vintage movie posters sprinkled throughout the town.  Our team won this day.

 

 

 

 

Sent by Mom...

My Mom sent this to me while we were in China.  But, since we were in China, we couldn't access YouTube.  Which is a damn shame, because the Chinese people who haven't seen this shit in live action should really have the opportunity to view it online at the very least.  Its kind of mind boggling and one of the few instances in which I've watched "ballet" and actually been nervous.  As the music builds, you do get the feeling that something is coming that probably should, but definitely won't, involve some safety measures.

I'd be interested to know what percentage of women in China are also contortionists because it seems like maybe the ratio is about 1 in 5. 

Enjoie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMc-p19FIk

Again treading on Ed's usual stomping ground...

Since we're travelling by air quite a bit between countries, I've done a ton of research on search engines, etc.  The two that are the most useful for budget carriers over here are the confusingly named Momondo & Mobbisimo.  They both pull flights from the smaller intra-regional carriers, which are often as cheap as ground transportation; Molly suggests a quick check of safety records before purchase.  Having now done this, I'm less than plussed to know that not 2 but 3 of the flights we've taken were on major airlines that rank in the bottom 5 for safety (oh hai, China?  plz to stay in the air all the way to destination, kay?).  Incidentally, we're here, so 10 points.

Oh, but the reason for my post.  Has everyone already heard of the site (which seriously sounds like it should have appeared first on the Simpsons) CHEAPOAIR.COM?  Seemingly undercuts the other major sites by a not-laughable number of dollars.  We enjoy this.

Tokyo Calling

Being in Tokyo sort of feels like a vacation from our trip.  We've both spent time here before, its insanely comfortable and completely safe and, most importantly, Molly & Andrew are here!

Molly and I have finally been able to fulfill our lifelong dream of living in the same building.  The cherry on our friendship sundae is that Sue was here for the first few days, and the 3 of us had time for the girlish shenanigans of yore.

All these months, Ed has endured when asked for comment on such pressing topics as: bob haircuts, Lady Gaga's "Alejandro," and ab workouts.  Without fail, he stays engaged and holds eye contact even as his brain shuts down and a small part of his soul withers and dies.  So, I think we were both happy and relieved to turn the estrogen-related responsibilities back over to the professionals.

At a wrestling-themed bar in Golden Gai.  This is prior to robot-hands McCaffrey getting me into a half nelson.  We illustrated a valuable lesson this evening: when caffeinated tea is used as a mixer, everyone stays out later.

Hong Kong Livin'

The thing that I miss most about home is walking into our old apartment, flopping on the couch, and watching DVR'd TV.  I was never a TV addict and didn't watch so many hours a week but I liked having the option to completely zone, you know?  I know that if the thing lacking from our travels is excess ass-sitting, its not so bad, but the luxury of a living room really can't be overstated when you no longer have one.

Our friend Christina generously invited us to stay at her place in Hong Kong, and was leaving for a business trip the next morning.  Not only was our hostel there a dump (I'm talking to you Yesinn, see my review on hostelworld.com, dirtbags) but Christina's apartment is beautiful and felt like a home.  As we checked out, a couple of cockroaches saw us off and when I told the proprietor we'd be leaving early, he didn't even look up from his monitor, but grunted "there's a key box, drop 'em there."  So you can imagine that evening, having showered in a room where I didn't even consider wearing shoes, sitting on a big couch watching 'How I Met Your Mother' reruns and flipping through Vogue was nothing short of miraculous.

I wouldn't trade the experiences we're having on this trip...  The amount of world we've seen in 3 months floors me every time we tell a story or look back through some photos.  But once in a great while, a fluffy comforter and working remote control is paradise found.

Hong Kong, International or, WE LOVE FOOD!

Hey y'all.  Sorry its been a while without an update but we've actually been socializing like normal human beings for the last week or so.  I know, its been hard to believe for us, too; fortunately we still have friendship muscles to flex and people to work it out with.

We spent a too short 4.5 days in Hong Kong and totally dug it.  Not to be a giant nerdhole, but one of the things that makes it so amazingly amazingal is the transportation.  The octopus card is like a Metrocard on acid/steroids (more creative/powerful) and makes navigating the city and seeing a huge amount of crap in a short amount of time extremely easy.

The whole system is integrated (Mayor B, take note), so you can use it in stores and stuff but also on every single type of transportation.  For me and Ed this included: Airport Express train, subway, Tram down the Peak, ferries to and from Hong Kong Island, a bus to Stanley, and a street car across the island.  Just swipey swipey and you're cruising across the river in an old school boat for, like, thirty cents.

Our absolute most favorite aspect of Hong Kong, though, was the food.  Not just the local stuff, but the availability of high quality international food.  We've often remarked on this trip that its no wonder we grow tired of the food in a particular place when in New York we never cooked and the East Village was lousy with options.  We rarely ate from the same region twice in a week.  Since a typical week at home was: Indian, Burgers, Sushi, Thai, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Mexican, it was hard for us to make the transition to: Chinese (Szechuan), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Dumplings), McDonald's, Chinese (Szechuan), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Dumplings).  Hong Kong reminded us of home in a lot of ways, more than any in the luxury of choice.

Our first evening, we had Cantonese.  It was good quality and variety, but we both prefer the spicier flavors from Southern China.  On Friday we kicked off the day with Starbucks because we could finally have ice in our iced coffee (this makes a bigger difference than I ever would have thought, incidentally).  For lunch we went to a yuppie soup & sandwich place on the peak for brie & ham, and for dinner I had a lovely Italian meal with a former colleague and Ed hit a fancy Japanese-fusion joint.  The next day I was jonesing for American breakfast, so we went to the Flying Pan in Central.  The amount of food we ordered was nothing short of an abomination.  If I could have wrapped my Benedict in one of the pancakes, covered it in syrup and eaten it like a taco, I would have.  That's how delicious.  That afternoon we had Boddington's & Guiness in the harbor, and met a friend for Szechuan dinner.  On Sunday we started with famous/fantastic/local joint Dim Sum which was exponentially better than any of the dim sum we've had in NYC.  Also, it was super tight quarters and gave me the opportunity to spill hot tea all over myself, because we didn't stand out enough already.  That afternoon we headed to Stanley to see the market and the beach and the beautiful people.  We snacked on British-y chips with garlic mayo and white wine from New Zealand.  For dinner, Hong Kong's specialty roast meats, followed by top notch gelato.  Our final day went: Bagels, Indian, Mexican. 

We left Hong Kong happily rubbing our stomachs and promising to fast in Japan.  Its not really working out that well.  Shocker.