フランスにはハロウィーンはあまり人気がないので、全然パーティをしません。でも今年日本にいるので私たちも楽しみました。最初にクリストン喫茶店で食事をして、それからクラーブで踊りに行きました。みな面白いコスプレーを着ていました。楽しかった！

「小公女セイラ」と言うドラマ知っていますか。この話が大好き。

I dreamt of it, Japan did it.
My childhood' favorite novel, A Little Princess by Frances Burnett, has been adapted into drama for TBS (every Saturday, 21:00). By the way, the European public generally discovered the story thanks to the Japanese TV which created an anime in the 80's called "Princesse Sarah" in the French version. Because of the prononciation, Sara became Seira for the Japanese title, Shokojo Seira.

Shokojo Seira

Why do I basically love the story ?
Because Sara is the best character ever, despite her young age. Her main gifts ? She's an amazing story-teller, and she's fluent in French. She believes that one can save himself from the misery by the power of imagination. She fights loneliness first and then poverty with nothing else but imagination. Of course, she is also a humanist, and she considers that all the girls, wealthy or not, gifted or not, are princesses, just as she is.  It was enough for me to be in love with this character.
In the old anime as well as the drama, the japanese seem to have a very genuine vision of the protagonist, but actually she has a very strong personnality. She dares to tell the truth in any circumstances and she is a deep rebel. Let's say that the Japanese interpretation didn't emphasize these points. For more information just read Burnett's book : A Little Princess, 1904.

What is extraordinary with the drama : the scene takes place in Europe (that's logic, the story of the novel refered to London), so the protagonists talk in euro currency (that's NOT London... and that's a bit too modern...). The school is very traditionnal, with maid suits for the servants and old-fashioned discipline, but the protagonists wear modern sportshoes. In the school, teachers and students are all Japanese, but some protagonists have a Western-style name. As a result, it's difficult to know where and when the story take place.
Another point is : male characters. In the novel, the only male character is Sara's father, who quickly disappears, and the three men of the Large Family - M. Carrisford, Ram Dass, the Father of the Large Family - who play a minor role at the end of the story. But for the largest part, it is a girly-girly-GIRLY atmosphere. In the drama, the old French teacher became an handsome young man - with an awful prononciation of the language of Moliere - and there is also a boy who helps in the kitchen (actually, the little maid Becky has been replaced by this guy, who lives under the roof next to Seira).

Even if the drama is far from my vision of the book, I enjoy it a lot first because of the actress, absolutly cute (she played in many drama including "15sai no haha", a 15 years old mother) and because the Director is perfectly mean, the girls are perfectly girly, Seira is an angel and me, I am an easy-going public.

As I broke my camera just wo days before, the following images are the result of the expert eyes of Francesco and Jean-François... Merci, messieurs.

It's in Tokyo, it's an ice-bar when you can drink colorful vodka-coktails in heavy ice-glasses. As you have to wear the coat and gloves distributed at the entrance, you quickly look like a mix of drunk Santa and fashion spaceman - not so far from the truth, after all...
As we were quite numerous, we could get price reduction and open-bar, which makes the experience really more interesting than in the normal conditions : 3500yen, for one single drink. With nomehoudai, life is more beautiful... And when you get out, your blood suddenly warmed up and realize that you definitely drank too much...

More pictures in the ETP album !

Uniqlo, the fashion brand which doen't know the crisis, is also a nice buzz-maker. Actually, Uniqlock is not a very fresh news, but I havn't heard of it until our advertising courses...

The idea is simple : make people dance in Uniqlo simple clothes. You can watch the auditions and original video on their Youtube chain, uncluding a CM with the four dancers that the French public discovered on "C'est la vie", by Martin Solveig.

Uniqlo: Uniqlock Site 24/7 MODE

Uniqlo: Uniqlock Site HOURLY SPECIAL

 

４5００円以下の新しいルーク

The coat : The gallery you can reach from Nakano (Tozai line, 2 stops from Waseda) is full of shops more or less belonging to the same chain, and proposing last-year clothes for very little prices, mostly from 1000 yen to 2000 yen. I found this light coat, confortable and pratical with two larges pockets and hidden button to keep it nicely closed, among many others offering different designs but same price. For daily, seasonal clothes, it is a good adress. Except if you are afraid of messy second-salers shops.

The scarf : Amazingly long and worm, for only 500 yen, at the Chinese shop which is in the bottom of the little street on the right side, at the beginning of Takeshita-dori, Harajuku - just next to the purikura-hall. Many colors exixting, but black is eternal...

The tights : You can find robust, deep-black and long-enough tights in any 100 yen shop for 110 yen, which means around 80 eurocents - in France, I pay it almost 5 euros and it's never sure that they will pass the day. A huge source of useless stress, gone.

The shoes : It is not so common is Japan to find long enough, wide enough shoes, but I have been lucky with these ones. And their design fits perfectly the coat... For 2100 yen, I have new confortable shoes which can also transform into higher, just grey snickers.

TOTAL : 3710 yen...

In the frame of a contest organized by J-wave, a Japanese radio station, Hitoshi wrote a story about his grand-father taking him to go to fish when he was 3-years old, and preparing sashimi for the family with the fresh fish they had caught together. He won, and we were invited to have an amazing dinner-party sponsored by J-wave's gastronomy program. The event took place at Aoyama Ichome, in a kitchen-studio made to cook and to take pictures of the meals. I was the only non-Japanese. A French, in addition. So I finished surrounded not only by food but also curious Japanese (both contest winners and Chefs) asking everything about my fooding habits. It was funny, it was tasty, and it was free ! And we received a nice portable radio in addition. God bless the sashimi stories.

It is my second stay, but it seems that I love this city more and more every time. Hiroshima, peaceful and sunny city which doesn't even look at the scars of the past...
Welcome again at the Yamamoto family's place, I could enjoy delicious hand-made okonomiyaki, navigate between broken Japanese and local language, and feel the air of the survivor city.
Thanks again to Yukimi, her mother and brother for this great week-end.

先週末大好きな広島に行って、二回目だったけど本当にこの町に感心があるようになったと思います。いつも静かで明るい雰囲気ので、積極的な町の漢字があります。
も一度山本のところでホムステーをしてもらって、とても楽しかったです。うまいお好み焼きを食べて、広島の話し方を分かってみて、あの場所の一般的な力をもらえたと思います。
幸美ちゃん、お母さん、弟さん、春香ちゃん、ありがとうございました！

Hiroshima


Hiroshima Castle


Hiroshima Castle






Wedding ceremony



Shukkeien Gardens




















Almost a village




The University


Yamamoto's neighbourhood


Yummy okonomiyaki


Hiroshima friends

Tokyo is not Japan. We have been said this so many times, as if all the capitals of the world were not special, existing by themselves while embodying the whole country at the same time. Capitals are a world apart, and maybe, it's true, Tokyo especially differs from the rest of the Japan because of its international airport, because of its cosmopolitan population, because of its business-oriented lifestyle. But... surprise ! Two hours by Shinkansen later, you are in Kobe, more international, cosmopolitan and business-oriented than Tokyo. And a few kilometers away, you enter Kyoto, the old capital, which is paradoxically the symbole of "true", "deep" and "before-the-gaijin-forced-us-to-open-up-to-the-world-and-brought-us-plegs-such-as-imperialistic-desire-and-war-and-loss-of-bushido" Japanese thinking. Do the capitals have to die to represent correctly the national spirit, finally ?...

Whatever the answer, here are the faces of us, ETP guys, playing around in Kansai.

Through the typhun, bright colours remained eye-catching. Kobe and Kyoto are full of colors, so does Felissimo, the direct marketing and mailing company that we visited in Hyogo last week.
Dedicated to my mummy, addicted to natural chromotherapy...

KOBE COLORS
Bright colors for the trendy international city

FUSHIA

Kobe Bay from my hotel room

NEON

Kobe Bay

RED

Kobe Tower

GOLD

Hotel Sky lounge

TURQUOISE BLUE

Kobe Concert Hall

MAUVE

Kobe Bridge

INDIGO

Sexy Melon Cocktail


KYOTO COLORS
Season colors for the honorable old capital

PUMPKIN ORANGE

Maiko-san dance

SLATE GREY

Geikkekan Sake Factory

WOOD BROWN

Geikkekan Sake Factory

TRANSPARENT

Geikkekan Sake Factory


FELISSIMO RAINBOW


Felissimo Blue


Felissimo Green


Felissimo Pink


Felissimo Yellow


Felissimo Orange


Felissimo White


Felissimo Rainbow


Felissimo Rainbow

I am afraid that I am purikura-addict. The following samples are just a small part of my collection.

The word "purikura" comes from "print-colors" and it is used to talk about the little photos you can take with your friends in Japan. It costs 400 yen (around 2,90 euros), you can choose the size and the number and share it with friends using the sissors available in any good purikura-hall. Usually the photo-cabins are gathered in a narrow, over-lighted and over-filled with loud J-pop music place forbidden to boys if they come without girls - it's unfare, but that's the rule.
In the cabin, you can stand with 4 persons. A girly voice encourages you to make funny faces in front of the camera and you have to hurry up adjusting your image in the frame because each shooting takes 5 seconds only. The more numerous you are, the more expert in time-management you need to be. For each pic, you can choose a background (once again, in the limit of 15 seconds for 4 or 5 shoots) and after the shooting you go behind the cabin to ad messages, symbols, drawing or whatever you want on your pics. It's printed very quicky and you can enter your mobile adress to receive it on your phone for free.

It is so funny to do that you can't imagine until you experience it. And the magic of purikura is : your skin always looks gorgeous, your eyes are amazing - the picture of dream that automatically makes you beautiful. I can't believe that it doesn't exist in France...