Japan: Tokyo day 6

Sorry for skipping a day but it gets a bit rough to keep up the blog daily with such full days...and nights!

Yesterday I met with Kieko who will be shooting with me this week as well as doing her best to get to Kyoto with us. She is fantastic and sweet. Our meeting got pushed to later in the afternoon so I skipped lunch and by the time we got together I had no food in my belly so the couple of beers we had went right to my head. I am sorry to not have pics of her yet but they are coming.
So we parted and I went back to the apartment to pick up Yasha and meet up with Minoka, who I got connected with through my buddy Teru in NYC. She is a sweet, young thing who kindly showed us a great time for which we are very appreciative.




She took us to a fantastic fish joint and we filled our bellies to the limit with fishes of all sorts, shell fish, sake and topped it off with noodles. A perfect meal..I was sooo happy to have finally have a taste of sashimi here in Japan.






After a quick stop at some "banker pick up yuppie" bar we hopped in a cab to a night club in Shibuya. Now, this is not really my cup of tea but when visiting, you just load up on the booze and dance! so We did...many drinks later we got a cab back to our station, got lost for 5 minutes and then found our way home... I stayed up with a few more beers and watch the USA loose their place to advance in the world cup..its all good, we dont deserve it...just yet!

sooo after a lot of water and a slow start to the next day, we got the place ready for the first shoot of the project.

Rie arrived with Teruyuki Hirabayashi:makeup artist

Takahiro:hubby,


Kaho Shusaku :stylist,


and Yuka:perfomance artist(who will be returning tomorrow to sit for a shoot!)









Here are a few sneak peeks of the lighting tests from the shoot.




I am very happy with the results. A good night. England shit the bed and Germany took them 4-1 in tonights game of the World Cup..


So we missed one day in preparation of this shoot and the evening meeting with our translator girl Minoka.
The evening started out with a very tired David - the World Cup is taking a toll on his sleep pattern but hardcore as he is he will hold on and
stay awake until the very last game - the occasional "yeay" "uuuhhh f-----"" go you Mother----" and "damn right DAMN RIGHT" keeps waking me
from peaceful slumber but at least this way I wake informed ;-)

We met Mino in Roppongi and she took us to a super special insider sushi place - where we realized that beer on tap means go and ask your personal beer robot to make you that perfect pint !



But it kept getting better - you can smoke in the restaurants which for me was hell after just quitting but heaven for David and Mino. She ordered food for us and it was the most amazing medley of huge sea snail, squid gut, flying fish, sashimi, crab tummy, oysters and fermented tofu. I know it sounds beyond the imaginable but it ALL tasted delicious.


Than we proceeded to TRUMP - at the moment Tokyo's hot underground night spot and without knowing how we ended up surrounded by plush and golden mirrors, chandeliers, stuffed animal heads




Drinks for $20 and DJ's that are worshiped by their crowd. It didn't take long and Hochbaum owned the dance floor while sipping on Shiso Leaf Sake on ice.




Yet after a techno remix of "Everybody Dance Now" I felt old and decided it was time for us to leave ;-) - of course not before David was crowned king of the night and adorned with one of the Fadsnap.com stickers indicated he was worthy and fashionable enough to be feature on this very special trend spotter site !! The hits just keep on coming hahahahha........


Tired and slightly lost in Tokyo we finally found our way home where we didn't get any rest as the game was on at 3.35 in the am - how i was experiencing it ...see above....! However I did not SMOKE not one cigarette !

The morning came and we had a whole day of cleaning and prepping the house for our first studio shoot ahead of us - improvisation is key and we also learned models do not come alone - they bring
artist friends and co - models
make up artist
husband
and
stylist




now you do the math all of that and a little studio on 42sqm ;-) !!! But nothing that a few beer and some sake in funny looking tetra packs can't fix as Hochbaum would say



- so there is no stopping us!! The days of shooting OBAKE stories have begun !!!

xoxoxox Yasha

PS: while on beer run I met a new furry friend ;-)

Japan: Tokyo day 5

No blog today...hungover.....
Photo shoot today. I will make up for it, I promise. I will be taking pics of Rie as Rokuro kubi.

Japan: Tokyo day 4

Last night we decided to make some pasta to switch up a little for the palette. Just a brief departure from the Japanese cuisine. Not too shabby when paired with a 5 dollar pear/apple type fruit for desert.





I could not sleep because the Japan-Denmark game was airing at 3:30 am and since I am a guest here, I had to see the game. It may have re started my jet lag but it was worth it to watch Japan destroy Denmark. Sorry to my pals out there!




Plus I got to see a fantastic sunrise.

After a whopping 4 hours of sleep, it was time to get up and have a slow start to the day. After a brief meeting with one of the gallery's new artists, we ventured through Shinjuku to locate some fabrics for the shoots.


We totally scored.



We then headed back to Harajuku to pick up some more kimonos for the shoots, grab some soup and dumplings and walk through the beautiful park with its Meiji-jingu(shrine).

We made a few prayers there and enjoyed the lovely weather and sights.


hey, whoa there..sorry, I cant help it.











We made our way home soon since I was oh so tired due to the lack of sleep.


We went to the grocery for the night dinner, soba noodles, some thin slices of beef, spring onion with ginger, tempura and baby sized beer for the lady and reg for myself.




We made some plans for Kyoto and decided to have an early night in and watch the Brazil game. Meeting with Kieko for lunch tomorrow to plan out her shoot. Im tired. Bye bye.-xoxoxDavid


oopps


What a long day - but no wonder. We were exhausted after having to stay up until 1.30am to even begin to watch the football games and whilst I passed out shortly after David was screaming and dancing and growling with all the Japanese fans out there. I had given all I had for Italy to beat the Slovenians _ my least favorite _ but alas we all know what happened.
After starting my day with a "Papple" - a $5 cross between a pear and an apple we ventured out to go meet with one of my artists Marmite Sue in Shinjuku.



I would consider Shinjuku like the fashion/fabric district in NYC. As David and I were looking for more white and black fabric for the shoot Marmite Sue was so sweet to guide us to the biggest fabric store in the neighborhood and I almost died.





I mean there was everything - stars. stripes, plaids, dots, Alice in wonderland and than some !!

And that was juts the first floor second floor was fully dedicated to eyelashes and top hats in all shapes and sizes third floor everything you need when it comes to feathers and than the fourth floor a button paradise and so much fun !!! We found what we needed and literally forced ourselves to leave the premise.

Than with dried black squid noodles - japan's replacement for pretzel sticks we went to the beautiful Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine.







The thing I love most about Shinto is that it has not founder no holy book not even the concept of religious conversion. Instead it values harmony with nature and virtues for example such as " Magokoro" - the sincere heart. David made me a beautiful present and bought me a wooden prayer plate on which we each wrote our wishes and placed them amongst the thousands of prayers or wishes that are put here everyday.



A monk showed me how to pay respect which starts with washing your hands and rinse your mouth before you bow and clap your hands in front of the main shrine.

After that we went home and on the way I found a beautiful raven feather.


Ravens are amazingly large here and their feathers beautiful blue black. It felt nice to find such a beautiful thing right after I had just send wishes to the sky at the shrine. Home bound we were and just before I went up to the apartment door I met some more doggy friends ;-)-Yasha



PS : after successfully passing tea ceremony David has been upgraded to red which means " TAKE ME NOW!!" hahahahaha