As fast as April passed by, May took twice as long. The fact that I'm just starting this blog post in the middle of June should already give you a hint of what an eternity it has been. To be quite frank, I either was following up with plans from April, or I was sleeping. The jet lag, was really one of my worst cases, probably since the first time I came back from Japan. I guess staying for over three months really changed me quite a bit. Most of my friends have said I've gotten a little less vulgar with my casual choice of words and somewhat more polite/proper. Kind of a backhanded compliment, no?
Either way, here's a quick recap of the first few weeks of May that I was able to get photographic evidence to share.
Can't promise you much about June since - I'll tell you now, that I haven't really done anything this past couple of weeks. All I'm really looking forward to and passing the time with are side gigs and sleeping until it's time to board that one-way flight to Tokyo in July.
Outfit
May 4, 2018
Last month, I bought this top on a whim because I needed something a bit more summery while I was in Tokyo. It's a bit girlier than usual, but it's quite easy to wear. Square neck tops are slowly growing on me too.
I've been looking forward to dining at Florilege for a very long time now. It wasn't technically on our actual anniversary date, but the boyfriend managed a reservation this day for a lunch. We were blown away by the thoughtfulness of the whole restaurant and every single dishes. As someone who is heavily invested in sustainable fashion, it was so cool to see how it was portrayed through food, and fine dining at that.
As April passes, it now feels appropriate to start exclaiming how fast the year is going by while everyone eases from "oh beautiful Spring" to "omg can it be Fall already?". But really, it doesn't even feel like May -- and for some reason, I've been telling everyone I'm 25 already but my birthday isn't until August.
Springtime in Japan was honestly the blossomest Spring I've ever experienced in my life. I don't remember the last time I've seen this many different flowers, and being excited about it, if anything, is what was honestly shocking about all this. Somehow, I feel like I've lost all sense of time and its relevance to me. I'm growing up and slowing down while letting go of any control I ever had of life altogether. Just like that, the cherry blossoms trees all sprouted leaves and turned completely lush green even before the second week of April. Rapeseed turned wild fields golden yellow for a short period of time until they faded like the nemophila covering the hills at Hitachi Seaside Park too. For once, someone as uninterested in the circle of life as much as I was intrigued, by the nature of it all, looping me wherever I am, 365 days, at a time.
This month, I really feel like I've gotten to know Tokyo a little better. I managed to make a couple of friends and visited a few prefectures that even my Japanese boyfriend has never been to before. Of course, there were ups and down, as I was already mentally prepared for while moving to a completely foreign country, and still, I managed to pull it together for at least 50% of the month. With the weather warming up, I'm starting to run out of outfit options since there really isn't anything that exciting about sweaters and pants/skirt (so please bear with me for now). Promise it'll start to look up in May (but don't hold me too harshly against this since chances are, you'll see me wearing the same top at least five times on my Instagram stories).
If you ever visit Tokyo on a limited time constraint and really wants to see Kyoto or the traditional vibe of Japan, I highly recommend spending a half day or a whole day in Sawara, Chiba. It's actually on the Narita train line so it's perfect if you have a layover in Japan or something too.
The specialty here is eel (unagi), so make sure to get it for lunch or dinner when you visit. If you walk around, there's even a shop that sells soy sauce gelato (which in my personal opinion tastes like salted caramel).
Having a lot of time and a quiet neighborhood gave me no excuses to slack on honing my self-timer skill. Most days, even if I'm my usual bummy self, I'll try and get a shot or two just to keep myself busy. As usual, repurposing my boyfriend's sweater.
Travel / Ibaraki Prefecture, Tokyo / Hitachi Seaside Park
April 15, 2018
Hitachi Seaside Park has been on my list of places to see after stumbling across photos of the hills covered in Kochia bushes in the fall. I was pretty bummed to have missed it last November when I was in Japan, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that other beautiful things bloom here all throughout the year. For example, in the Spring, about 4.5 million nemophila (who's responsible for counting anyway) cover the same hills to pretty much paint the ground blue, making it pretty much one with the sky.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I came on a gloomy day and there weren't nearly as many tourists. The skies were grey, but honestly, it was one of the prettiest sights I've seen so far in Tokyo.
Fashion
Anouki
It's been a while since I've gotten fascinated with a brand/designer. Anouki is a brand that I recently came to learn about while acquainting myself with Pinterest (I am so late to the game, I know). Taking a step back from much of the mainstream fashion icons/brands/designers/labels that are pretty much plastered all over the majority of well-recognized Instagram handles - I've pretty much been seeking out what else is new and interesting out there - and my eyes hyper zoned into Tbilisi-based designers/labels.
In Anouki's case, I'm obsessed by Anouki Kaladze's eccentric use of silver sequins in every wardrobe's stables like trenches, button-ups and even undershirt garments which of course only elevated her latest collections of asymmetrically cut white dresses and layered able tops and skirts. Let's also not take her line of footwear lightly too.
Outfit
April 24, 2018
Moving to a new country was rough enough but finding work and dealing with starting over in a sense have been giving me quite the anxiety. Even so, I know that things will work out because it definitely isn't my first time being in this position. At the end of the day, I would rather prefer to dress up like I have a 9-5 than actually work a 9-5. Speaking of working - can't wait to show you more photos of a quick photoshoot that I did with WYETH Eyewear. Full outfit post was published earlier here.
I've been all about fresh whites and beige tones for Spring and into Summer. It helps that PVC and transparent pieces are now prominent in a lot of brands' collections and I'm more and more intrigued by clear accessories and small bags.
If you've been keeping up with fashion, then you've already seen the brand Cecilie Bahnsen floating around although it's only been showing for a few seasons previously. It makes me even more sure that you'll be seeing more of this brand popping up for coming fashion cycles. I came across this brand through Copenhagen Fashion Week for their Fall/Winter 2018 collection and was instantly drawn to pretty much all of the pieces featured on the runway (which is rare for me).
Cecilie Bahnsen's take on volume and texture is what I admire most about her collections since I strongly believe these are two aspects that really makes it difficult for adapting wearability for the everyday fashion enthusiastic (including myself). But hand me a random dress or skirt from her line and I can easily throw a sweater on with sneakers or boots for pretty much any occasion.
Wearing
All Pieces In This Post
And that's a wrap for April. Looking forward to what May has in stored.
By now, I've gotten used to openly admitting that I'm definitely not the hardest worker in any room. My work ethic is like a roller coaster, mostly since my attention span's tendencies mimic that of a squirrel.
The first time I came to Tokyo, one of the imagery that stuck out the most to me was a school of businessmen stuffing one another into packed train carts early in the morning. Of course, people go to work every day, but Tokyo's is quite unique. From the outside, Tokyo is pretty much a magical land of perfectionism and uniformness that once you witness it, it will only exceed all your expectations.
From varying shades of black and blues (and sometimes grey) the only thing that I can spot within my range of vision that differentiates these men from one another was probably how full their head of hair was.
Coming from a place like New York, such affinity sparked my interest in people's identity here and possibly everywhere else in the world...
In all realness, what I really wanted to get to was how much studies have been done on the way of life of the Japanese people here. How "hard" everyone seems to work is a point of idolization and criticizing at the same time, for the rest of us. Yet, in some way, the standard validation of how we should be living.
Some people work to have a purpose, while some people's purpose is fulfilled by the work that they do. Some also work for money, while others are privileged with working for fun. As I'm taking a step back from the reality of life these past few weeks - I'm starting to realize that maybe I just need to redefine the word 'work' completely.
In that sense, I'm trying to put myself more in other people's shoes and channeling the typical salarymen look in Japan which I obviously took way too literally with my boyfriend's suit jacket. I did consider using an oversized slashed boyfriend blazer as it's something that's been trending for the past 6 months or so - but most of them seemed quite overpriced for something that you can easily grab from your grandpa, your dad, brother, and/or boyfriend's closet.
Probably the girliest you have seen me in months - but it's pretty hard to resist Spring blossoms in Tokyo and a dress that blends me right in (thanks Keepsake).
Excited to start something new in Tokyo and to be closer to Australia (which means the Aussie brands are so much closer to me now). Hope these images make you want to come to Tokyo for these cherry blossoms next year (because I definitely need to catch them more properly the second time around).
Dress: Keepsake The Label / FSHNBNKR (c/o) Shoes: Acne Studios Jensen Boots (25% off on Shopbop) Bag: J.W Anderson Velvet Pierce Mini (new season) Earrings: Faeber Studios
A lot happened in March - now that I look back and review it all. I finally said 'see you later, New York' after the past few years losing sight of what I was meant to do there. Don't get me wrong, New York will always be home - but for now, I needed a new space to grow.
I don't know how it all came together within two weeks, but as you know from the previous post, everything that took place during NYFW was the final trigger for me to move on.
Looking for an apartment in Tokyo was quite stressful for a foreigner, but luckily I had a Japanese boyfriend and that made the whole process so much easier than I imagined. Moving into my very own place felt surreal, to say the least - and I was that much more excited to be in the same place with my longtime boyfriend again after 2 and a half years of long distance. We'll see how it goes-- (he's neater and I'm a mess).
Making the decision to drop everything and moving to a new country sounds thrilling for some people, it did too, for me - until I was about to hop on the plane. After seeing and speaking to some friends who encouraged me that this was an exciting time in my life - I still couldn't help but feel like it wasn't okay for me to be anxious despite literally not sleeping and packing until the very last minute. Speaking of packing - I'm usually pretty good at stuffing a bunch of things into my suitcases, but this time - I struggled so hard.
Either way - I'm here now and I'm excited for all there is to come.
It’s thrilling to be young.
To be stuck and free all at once.
To be surrounded by friends to cheer you on and to find
parts of yourself you never knew existed when on your own.
To hold on and let go of people and places that provoke your emotions.
To miss things only when it’s gone.
To afford the luxury of making mistakes. And to have, really,
nothing to lose.
— Some thoughts I jotted down while itching to sit still on the flight to Tokyo.
Outfit
March 19, 2018
Second day in Japan, and we went to get the keys to our temporary apartment for the next 3 months or so! I was stoked, but also wore the same thing I wore on the plane since I was too lazy to unpack... But even throughout the month, this is an outfit that I wore at least 10 other times, typical.
I was actually pretty excited to be in Tokyo during cherry blossoms season this year - but instead, Shun and I made a trip to Hoi An, Vietnam during the week of full blooms. I could say I was bummed about it but honestly, I've also waited forever to visit this place and cherry blossoms will bloom again next year!
To be quite frank, I was pretty nervous about taking Shun to Vietnam as he's always been the one leading me along in Japan and showing me around, so I felt like I was pressured to know a lot of things in case he had questions (like how I always have a million of them, haha).
But, with all my worries aside, it was such a good trip because it was our first trip with 2 cameras. It was really fun to go back on each of our film rolls and see what we each took photos of (see them on my photo diary).
Outfit
March 25, 2018
The weekend after we got back to Vietnam, both Shun and I came down with some pretty annoying health related issues (him, food poisining - mine, wisdom teeth infection). Because of that, we couldn't do anything but lay in bed all weekend and ultimately missed out on seeing the beautiful cherry blossoms that were holding on just for us.
If you got to this point somehow, thank you so much for staying in touch with me and keeping up. I know this format is quite a heavy one and a lot of your time and attention has to commit to it. But just know that I really appreciate having this space to share my thoughts with whoever that's reading out there...
I hope that April will come with a lot more stories as I get even more settled into Tokyo.
Ps. If you got the title reference to Lost In Translation - thank you.
