Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Samurai Blue

Someone should have told me that the World Cup only happens once every four years... Oops. Now I finally get what the big deal is! Watched a disappointing game on Tuesday night in Roppongi - But wow it was a good one, and Japan sure put up a great fight!!! Really sad it's over since now that both the US and Japan are out I have no personal ties to any team (which means I won't be watching). I guess I'll have to look forward to 2014!!! Catch some of the madness below...

Pre-game @ Legends in Roppongi - The place was PACKED.









Miki: "It's too crowded, let's just hop through the window." So we did.

Konbini run: Ukon and zero calorie grapefruit chu-hais @ the break before PK...


The crowd

Also... If you watch the video - you see like this older Japanese guy behind us... He was super rowdy, kept cheering real loud - So we kind of made friends with him. When Miki & I went to get a drink we were casually like, "You need something?" (since it was jam packed and impossible to get service). He goes "ohh ohh hai hai get me bottle wine" shows me the wine bottle- gives me ichi-man yen (equiv to USD100) and goes "keep the change". So we bought another wine for our table as well plus a tip. :)

Friday, June 25, 2010

手巻き寿司!!!

Tonight we had a temaki sushi (hand roll - that's what the funky characters above say) party at Rina's house. I ate like the fat kid I am - Oh and by the way, I am the champion sushi roller>>see pictures below.

Rina's baby - Kira-chan (the prettiest baby ever) and Midori-chan. Midori-chan is one of my favorite people in the office - She is our COO's secretary. She always plays with my hair and French braids it for me sometimes at lunch!

THE SPREAD

The close up -Maguro, salmon, tai, egg, hamachi, cucumber, daikon sprouts - In addition there was also unagi, uni, ikura, mentaiko, tako, katsu, kimchee, tsukemono, tako, natto... OMG so much food! And then cherries for dessert :)

Roll #1: Natto, cucumber and kimchee!

Roll #2: Shiso and fish

Roll #3 - MY PRIDE and JOY! Looks professional - salmon, cucumber, shiso

I LOVE MONTYYYYYYYYYY - action shot of him eating his bone

Roll #4: I started to get crazy creative - ham, egg and natto - wasn't too good...

Roll #5: Rina loves ham and kept shoving ham in my rolls! (>.<) - Ham, daikon sprouts, fish, shiso
Roll #6: Saved the best for LAST! Maguro natto - my favorite!!!

Also - Rina invited Jimucho-san who was the Admin Manager before the current one now. He is the sweetest little old man! I sat next to him, practiced my Japanese (I never understand why Rina makes me sit next to the nihonjin when she knows I don't speak - maybe to force me to practice so I guess that's good). During dinner, he was drinking sake in a glass but had a small carafe near him- So I was pouring his sake for him to be polite (Respect your elders, you know!) - As a result, the whole night everyone kept cracking jokes telling me I'm #1 Hostess in Ginza... I am seriously always that little sister who constantly gets teased by all my coworkers!!!

GOOD NITE!!! MY TV COMES TOMORROW WOOOOOOOOO

Two Rooms - Cocktail Party


Thursday - Another work event - This time a cocktail party hosted by Mergermarket at Two Rooms in Aoyama. Gorgeous venue. Check out these pictures! Which really doesn't do the place justice - It's got an outside patio as well.


Photo credits: Verita Cafe

Networked a bit - Hung out with my boss and attorneys - I was still zonked from the 9 hours of sleep I had got within 2 days... Can't believe I made it through the week. And the fact that I am blogging right now - ridiculous. I have problems. My boss - Rina told me she only sleeps like 2-3 hours every night. Her mentality "I'll have lots of sleep when I'm dead." True - but I still think she's a bit crazy. If I ever sleep that little on a regular basis - I'll have to change my name ... Cause I just won't be Alanna anymore.

Wacky Wednesdays

Wednesday we had a big dinner - 10 of us - Marketing, HR + our COO and her secretary to celebrate the close of FY10. We went to an Okinawan restaurant in Akasaka near our office.



This is the biggest pitcher of beer I've ever seen in my life - And then check out the tiny glasses they serve with it.

Course 1: Mimiga (pig's ear), umibodou (literally means sea grapes in English), onions

A close up - The pig's ear was not bad - Yes I ATE IT!!! I was proud of myself - And it was kinda good actually! Tasted like jellyfish. The umibudou was a bit salty though...

Course 2: Okinawan potato croquette

Course 3: Kushiage (deep-fried skewers) - Shrimp, tsukune-stuffed shiitake, renkon, fishcake, etc.

Course 4: Goya champuru (bitter melon, pork, bean sprouts) - A standard Okinawan dish - This was so yummy!

Course 5: Beef and daikon with karashi mustard

Before course 7 (dessert) there was a course 6 - noodles in a broth! It tasted like saimin! I was so happy I forgot to take a picture... So now we jump to dessert - andagi donut with green tea ice cream!

My boss. Haha.



SNAKE ALCOHOL!

Bye bye Okinawan restaurant!

Post nomihoudai and a full 7-course meal we went karaoke... TILL 2 AM. Yes - I was out with my COO, boss, manager singing till 2 am. Yikes! What a night!!! But a fun one~ Sang three Japanese songs - Haha. I'm getting better!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Jewelry Junkie


My favorite jewelry stand! From F21 in Ginza!
From L to R: My spare key on an LV keychain, my favorite necklace of the moment from a French store in Roppongi Hills (two wooden hearts - Peace & Love), LV ring from mom.
Next to the birdie: Alex & Ani bangles
On the right branch: Vintage mini hoops and feather earrings from LF in NYC!
Bottom: Rings galore! Most are from Forever21 minus the two real gold ones from Daddy and my beloved sunrise shell :)

Yup. I'm a jewelry junkie.

Such Great Heights

On my way home from udon at Tsurutontan on Sunday, they had this huge German beer festival which I'm assuming is like Oktoberfest (except it's not October?!) at Roppongi Hills.

The Japanese are weird. They're like dancing and singing and know all the German drinking songs. I have no idea why. I am so judgmental sometimes :)


Since I couldn't run today (I was meeting Marie for dinner @ Soup Stock), I walked home. It only takes me 20 min! And look what I found on my way home!!! A capsule hotel!!! HAHA. This is one of those things that only work in Japan... Everyone sleeps in a small cylinder-like capsule. I think each little cell has a TV. It's supposed to be like a cheap way of staying somewhere overnight for salarymen. For the future~ if anyone visits me and wants to stay in one of these... I'll know exactly where to take you!

After dinner with Marie she suggested we check out the observance deck in Mori Building on the 52nd floor... I'd never been there before but since she works with Deutsche they get in for free! Apparently Deutsche either owns part of the museum or has some connection for all employees...

GORGEOUS. I think it's better than the view from Tokyo Tower and New York Grill in Shinjuku. May even be better than the view from The Ritz in Tokyo Midtown...

If you squint you can see Marie and I!

Tried to be all artsy with my ticket and the view!

So my new thing is postcards. I love postcards. They've got some real cool ones here. I think I'll start collecting these artsy ones everywhere I go (not the touristy photo type ones those just don't do it for me). I bought a few tonight at the Mori Art Museum stores. Most of them are stuck on my refrigerator for now... But I want to eventually do a huge wall collage of my collection!


Mai Miyake - "Dance Double Luck" (That's Mori Building under the girl) - I love her art. I also have another postcard by her of a girl with silver spoon.

Takeshi Murakami! - The last one! It was meant to be!

Designed by Yayoi Fujiwara - If you know me you know why I bought this. If not, FIO.

I got this one in Kyoto - Thought it was unusual because postcard folds! And I love the little rascal Kewpies...Super cute!

Random photo of the night~ I bought this little furikake to take to work so I can sprinkle it on my rice (I hate plain rice and sometimes they don't put enough furikake on my bentos!).

I hate sports.


I don't want to talk about Game 7. Ever. As a consolation, I thought I'd root for Japan in the World Cup game. They let me down too. Sports does not equal happiness so I'm convinced that I should just stick to shopping (which always equals happiness).

The speaker looks like Wall-E!!! The robot!!! He's hidingggg.


Me & Marie - We had a mini Word Cup party and our host, Will, loves tequila. Gross.


The girls!


Later that night... Pit-stop@ Club DIX


After DIX - Which is in my neighborhood - I had a stalker incident. ***Stop reading here if it's late at night and esp. if you live alone!!! As I was leaving (Miki took a cab back to Ebisu) I noticed this Middle Eastern guy walking in board shorts. Didn't think it was a big deal and went to the 7/11 to grab some tea. Then I noticed he was also in the 7/11. I was slightly paranoid (better to be safe then sorry) so I just consciously kept an eye out for where he was and tried to lose him by having him walk in front of me on the opposite side of the street. When he continued to linger behind I popped into our 24 hour supermarket thinking I'd get rid of him. Turned around and WHAM BAM he was right behind me. Shot him the dirtiest look I could give and then went the second floor thinking "Is he seriously following me?!" Returned downstairs and saw him outside the market loitering but waited around till I saw he was gone. Creepy. There's crazies everywhere. Made the mistake of telling my mom... Who told my dad... And now they're scared for me. Yeah not so bright of me! Gonna start carrying around a whistle I think haha.

On a flightier note - This is what I look like when I go to work! I break the rules- I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to expose shoulders. But it's too damn humid and I'm not used to covering up! I think they let me slide since I'm the youngest one on my floor by about 6 years...

Scarf: Chanel, top: vintage Diabless, skirt: vintage from mom, pumps: YSL, necklace: Betsey Johnson, bracelets: gifted Ferragamo and Hermes from mom
Was going for a nautical look here and brought a navy sweater with me as well. Still not a fan of the whole work outfit thing - But getting better at coordinating I think!