Christmas in New York!

an angel east of 30 Rock

Rockefeller Plaza's ice skating rink, Prometheus and the big tree

Saks Fifth Avenue

lobster stew at the Oyster Bar

Carolanne at The Pond in Bryant Park
(we didn't skate, it was too crowded and cold)

walking east on 42nd Street, looking at the Chrysler building

Grand Central Station

main concourse

Kurisumasu is coming

Limited Edition coffee cans celebrating Parco's 40th anniversary. (Parco is a shopping mall.) Read about the promotion here. Unfortunately I've left town and won't have a chance to play!

riding in style

this is the way back of a minivan taxi we hailed to school a couple weeks ago. seats recline!

Kiddyland xmas display

Spotted this Santa-C3PO on the same floor where you can buy Star Wars tenugui (among other collectibles)

road work

A construction crew blowtorches (seals?) the new surface of a left turn lane on Meiji dori.

It's a gas gas gas...

We don't have a car here, but occasionally I will be riding with a friend when they need to stop off at the petrol station (hanging out with Brits all the time has really screwed with my vocabulary) and I'm always impressed by the experience. When the attendant sees you coming he leaps into action, guiding you to the precise spot where he wants you to pull in. He grabs the dangling nozzle (pure genius, pumping fuel from overhead) and sticks it in, and while the tank is filling up, he cleans the windshields for you. It's always full service at 'Dr. Drive', baby! Almost makes me want to get my license. Almost.

autumn leaves are hanging on

what you see when you walk out the front entrance to my friend Sophie's apartment building in Shoto...

um... ho ho ho?

Roppongi Hills, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009

team work on Cat Street

Reaching for the C.C. Lemon, the third-most popular soft drink in Japan after Coke and Pepsi. A 500 ml bottle contains 70 lemons' worth of Vitamin C!

swine flu boy

When you turn up at the pediatrician's office here and say your child has a fever, and probably the flu, they immediately put a mask over his face. Our school makes you stay home for 5 days, minimum, following a fever (they must be fever free for 2 days before they can return) and the same goes for siblings, even healthy ones. Conor was perfectly happy to spend an inordinate number of hours playing his DS over the course of his brother's illness...
Here they are in Dr. Che's waiting room on Nov 21 (everybody's all better now). Dylan's Doraemon socks match the Doraemon office slippers.

hair bands

Shopping for my niece the other day at Kiddyland ("For the Human Smile"; "Serving Happiness since 1946") I discovered yet another department in that 7-story novelty mecca that I had previously overlooked: the one with all the hair clips, hair ties, combs, barrettes and scrunchies. There were fuzzy things, furry things, lacy and glittery things; plaids, animal prints, metallics and skulls-and-crossbones. I did not buy a fake hair braid but I kinda wanted to.
I could work this look...couldn't I?

fashion watch

'tis the season... for pink shoes...

hair clips for 2000 yen

The vending machine outside Toni & Guy in Harajuku where I get my hair cut sells cans of hot coffee, milk tea, and hair products!