Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Lil Manhattan in Tokyo!
Yes there is a Little Manhattan in Tokyo. Inside of Shinjuku station there is a galleria, whose theme is Manhattan. The are several resturants. This Particular night we ended up eatin at the Manhattan Grill.
PICS:
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
NWA FLIGHT written 1/7/09
This is something I wrote while on my way to tokyo. I forgot all about it
Jan.7, 2009
Im in mid air in floating and typing at the same time. Yea this is possible. I’m just joshing ya. I’m on flight 11 on my way to Tokyo, Japan. Yea that’s right TOKYO. A place where technology meets fashion/ Lu Lu Bichon. That’s me, the new me anyway. I no longer identify myself as Shigurl or Lucci Babi. Im on a mission discover who I really am
Anyways I was going through some old files/songs and I discovered that I am very talented. I didn’t realize I was that creative. Some of these things are three years old and still sound amazing. All im trying to say is that I would like to get back to that. The good ol days. I can remember the first time I actually began writing. It was a poem I was like in the second grade. Ms. Skan was my teacher. I have a great memory by the way. But anywho I feel like I am a forced to be reckoned with lyrically. I got a mean writing game, a spitin image of my pop and my mom and Louise, thats my granny-ma. I got a lot of Mike and Cathy in me mindset and all so basically im bout mines at the end of the day. I really have to get on my music i'm getting old out here. Need to get back to being a ninja of my kraft.
Making Hits in Tokyo
Inspiration surrounds me here in tokyo, verbal vomit. I'm doing my own recording mixing and beatz, feeling real untouchable right now. real untouchable. check the myspace.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Free HUGGGGS!!!
Friday night in SHIBUYA ppl out gave free huggs yes FREE HUGGSSS aka love, which we need a lot more of.
I made sure I got mine it was FREE. WHo don't like FREE stuff.
Have you ever felt inspired?
Im pretty sure the answer for many of you all is yes as it is for me too, but today was an inspiration like nothing O experienced before.
Let me ask you another question. Do you yearn for something so badly that it starts to eat away at you? Do you have sleepless nights thinking about what seems so unattainable?
Even in the coldest of hearts, we all yearn for something. In my case, this yearning led to change. I wanted to find myself. I wanted to know what my true capabilities were. I wanted to be STRONG, CONFIDENT, and most importantly see JAPAN FOR MYSELF.
This past summer I spent a lot of my time focusing on my goals and my overall well being. I picked up a couple books and familiarized myself with some terms of endearment.
In my twenty years of being here on this earth, I realize that we all go through changes. In the midst of those changes, we can either lose friends or gain them, make mistakes and learn from them or in a in worst case scenario stay the same.
Today I was inspired by a video on youtube with this young girl, who went through some trials and tribulations of her own, which she explains in her video. Her CONFIDENCE and STRENGTH reeks (in a good way) through out the video and by me still being on my journey to finding myself I saw this as being very inspirational and encouraging. Everything she said solidified what I have been reading and how I feel.
One of the highlights for me was when she touched on the subject of going natural. Which was something that has always been in the back of my mind and something I'm definately going to pursue now. For me this signifies BOLDNESS because so many black women talk about doing it for years and never do it.
Having Relaxed hair perpetuates the beauty myth, which if you all didn't know is conforming to society's standards of beauty. These standard's include (straight hair, blonde hair, being skinny, etc) I could go on and on. A woman's hair is an attachment, and very hard to let go no matter what length it is. Going Natural often times requires one to cut all their hair off. This process is better known as the Big Chop.
MY POINT is that for the first time today I felt that my attempt to change is well worth it and everything I've been yearning for is attainable. It's right in my grasps. I can see it and almost touch it.
Feeling Inspired I took a walk in my neighborhood of Ontakesean, where I'm staying while I'm here in Japan. Take a look at the video.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Most Beatuiful Day in Tokyo
The weather today is sooo nice not too cold or not too warm. The beginning of spring I must say.
Transitions
I took these pictures at a school fashion held in Tokyo. I was able to capture these moments and put together a piece I'd like to call "TRANSITIONS", LOL. Im only laughing cus i think i sound like one of those artisty characters who get overly indulged in their work.
Anywho photography's not my niche but i took at stab at it. Hope you all enjoy.
Transitions- The Continuous Changing Moments of Life
More Meaning Behind the Title
If you notice the subject starts out at one position (first pic) and ends at his last position (last pic). The subject can't get to his final pose with out the moments that occured in between. My meaning for this piece is more in depth than the pixels that you see displayed before you.
In life you start out at one point and end at another. However, it is the moments in between that get you from start to finish. Better yet, the moments in between are what make your life, LIFE.
Applying This To a Dream
The very first time that you realize that you want to make a dream a reality is when your moments in between are most precious. From here on, you have total control of your destiny. You'll transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly with the most beautiful wings one could ever see.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Birthday Celebration turned Birthday HELLebration!
Every day they have happy hour from 5-7 and the drinks are half off. You can order food for a pretty cheap price but the portions are very small...Here are some pics of the celebration.
The tab came up to 400+Yen...Yes that is equivalent to 400+Dollars. It wasnt that bad when you split up the bill.
The birthday boy wanted to go to karaoke it was 300 Yen ($3.00) for an half and hour per person plus the cost of beer. It had to be about 30 of us. Nearly half of the people in my dorm were there. We all were expecting to pay no more than 1500-2000 Yen ($15.00-$20.00) a piece. So every one partied in the karaoke room. It wasn't the traditional karaoke setting you'd think of. It looked more like a vip room. People were dancing on the tables, breaking tables and fogging up the windows.
Party in the Champagne room.
Some Karaoke Selections That I could Remember.
Usher
Fergie
Alicia Keys
Gwen Stefani
Hoobastank
TLC
Good Charlotte
Bohemian Rhapsody (first time I ever heard it)
Chris Brown
TI
I will be posting videos as well (HILARIOUS)
But YEa After an hour and half of Karaoke and a broken table the bill came up to bout 534o0 Yen (5oo+ dollars). YEs!!! About 10 people skipped out on the bill and our dormates who organized the event told us to put up 2000 Yen each (20 dollars) then they kept raising the price. So it was Chaotic. That's where the HELLebration part comes in.
Yelling, Swearing and Angry Faces :(. At least four people paid 15000 Yen out their pocket to cover people's bill who had left. They were HEATED! They were trying to make me and a few other people pay a whole lot more just because we had a Card, but I was not having it. I gave up 2000 Yen, which was first requested and kept it moving after sharing a couple of "NICE" words.
But There's nothing like MCDONALD'S to bring a smile
back to your face like it did it Sarah. I crushed my quarter pounder meal. Thanks Nanc 4 spotting me :).
Monday, February 9, 2009
5 Public spaces
The street, a pubic place for people to walk, skip, jump, drive and ride a bike.
A public area for smoking.
A public restroom.
Public parking for bikes.
A playground.
5 Private Spaces
A locked door. 
A private restroom once you close the door.
An empty hall, a few moments of privacy all too yourself.
Resident only parking.
Private Property. (house and car)Sunday, February 8, 2009
Akihabara aka Electric Town
Last night was a very windy evening in Tokyo. The first that I've ever experienced. It was like a miniature tornado ripped through the city. Enough with the weather, Akihabara is the place where you'll find all the electronics. Everything from videos, games, to audio and video equipment circuit breakers, walkies talkies and much much more. Any electric piece of equipment you can think of you will find. If you ever visit, expect to pay a hefty price.
I also saw some kool cars. The first was a black BMW with pink lips and a blue and pink emblem. Then I saw an actual Knigth Rider car. YES KKNIGT RIDER, The exact same car in the movie. I will be posting the video of that soon, courtesy of my good friend Rayez.
Artists Statement
This final project will be documentative of the many faces of DJ's in tokyo. With this project I want to be able to show how dynamic DJ's are in music. When my audience sees this work I want them to now to be able to walk away knowing that DJ's don't just spin records. I anticipate on highlighting the different roles that DJ's Play with interviews that I conduct and the b-roll that I capture. I plan to interview a scratch DJ, A Radio DJ, A Club DJ and a mixtape DJ. Each of my subjects will give a brief history of how they started, what influenced them and how its like to be one of those many faces in Tokyo.
This piece will be composed of video and audio and possibly pictures or still frames and here and there. I feel that video would be the most effective medium based off the simple fact that its better to show than to tell. I want my audience to see what it is that these DJ's do, as if it was a day in the life of each of my subjects. I want to illustrate how important DJ's are to music. Fans of music should appreciate the DJ's hard work just as much as they support the artists hard work.
Ultimately this project, will document the art of deejaying. After watching this my audience should appreciate DJ's and show them a little bit more respect. In the end this should be a great experience for myself as I this is something that i hold great interest in.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Strong Legs
Previous to leaving we met up with our dorm Manager AKI to get directions. It would take us bout a 30 minutes from school according to him. This was the route:
Tamachi (Jr line) to Tokyo station- Transfer at Oetmachi to the Tozai Subway Line and get off at Monzen Nakacho. From here we were post to be able to walk to the gym.
Well we made it, but it took MORE LIKE TWO HOURS PLUS. Neither one of us had the luxury of wearing walking shoes. OUCH! But our legs are now stronger than ever been. We were soooooo lost. We were walking every where and every which direction. Not to mention when we transfered stations, it involved extensive walking. Each person we asked it seemed like they were sending us in circles.
We eventually walked back to Monzen Nakacho trainstation one last time to the very next stop where we were directed to go. The language barrier was the worst but, we found that them pointing us in the direction was the better than trying to fully explain. Along our "mission" we came across a station manger, a mother, police officier, and a delivery man. At one point, we ended up circuling the block of our destination for a good 15 min.
We finally arrived at Shuki's HOUSE...OOPPPS. I Thought the address on his card WAS HIS GYM.
It wasn't a total lost cause, I just didn't feel comfortable showing up at someone's house. I thought that a business card was your business address....anyways.. Come to find out he didn't actually train anyone.
Thats doesn't credit his prestige though. I just misinterpreted what he actually did. He was a Match Maker. He basically scheduled fights for fighters all across the world.
He keeps his album of celebrity boxer with him at all times. He shook hands and took pictures with Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson and many more.
I ended up taking a picture with him. Overall he's a cool old dude.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Breaking Barriers
Today, I found myself breaking barriers in my sense of my character. A large part of me coming to Japan was to come out of my shell (for further info read my about me). Each day I work harder and harder at, there are new people, new ideas and a new place that are all foreign to me. Stepping out of my comfort zone has always been an issue for me and well, today was major progress for me.
What did I do today?
1) I ate lunch with two girls that I would never think I would have anything in common with. I would have never found that out if i didn't take the initiative to do lunch.
2) I had an assignment to do for class today in which myself and a partner, (Ryan) had to interview random people. At first I was nervous, thinking "I don't know, what to ask, I don't know how to interview ppl, I don't want to do this." In the end I carried out the interview. I just relaxed and let that uncomfortable aspect of my character fade and acted like I knew what I was doing. Sure enough my interviews turned out pretty good.
This may not seem something to serious but for me it is.
I realize that regrets eat away at you and the "what if" factor is just that "What IF" You'll never know, that's why it is important to just live. Im slowly taking this in as, I work on the better person I'm trying to be. The person that is better for my well being.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Today is Setsubun in japan.
Today, February third is the last day of Winter. The Japanese participate in a ceremony, where they throw beans at factitious demons. In doing so they alleviate all evil spirits as they bring in the new season SPRING!
The few people that were here today in the dorm participated in the ceremony with our dorm manager AKI. (He's the Best)
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Epitome of a Bad WEEKEND!
This three cheese japanese pizza got the best of me. That combined with to much partying.
Nights in tokyo require that you party from last train
@ 12:00 am to first train at 5 am. Some people leave before that, usually with 8pm being the earliest with their night ending at 5 am. TROOPERS. Its Been my 3rd night out for the weekend and i have yet to make it till 5am. Me and a couple other people always punk out and take a cab home, which can get very expensive once the train stops runnin.
..... Will I party till 5am next time?...The SAGA continues....
Grocery Shopping In Tokyo
When u go abroad you're post to be open to new things of course. It might be a little overwhelming thou when you walk into a local grocery store while. My advice: When in doubt go for what you know. Well lets just say I can show u better than I can tell you.
Posting Pics SOON!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
No Such thing as a Non-Smoking Zone
If you can't stand second hand smoke let alone the smell of it. Don't come here. The locals smoke every, arcades, resturants, clubs(of course), and any and everywhere public place you go to. If they could smoke on the trains or buses, Im pretty sure that they would. Yet ironically, the Japanese live long healthy lives.
HMMMMM maybe cigarettes aren't that bad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
