It's a pretty cool kitchen & bar close to Meguro, with a unique design and surprisingly surprising food - have you ever tried a cabbage ceasar salad ? Interesting... But the main interest is definitely the decoration. Well done Mr. Yusaku Kaneshiro...

Summer happens only once in the year! Tokyo has no beach, but you just need to take a train and you're set.

Two-hours ride from Tokyo by local train : Atami Beach

Not the best beach landscape ever, but there are wonderful fireworks at night on the waterfront ! Easy access from Shinjuku by Odakyu-line util Odawara, then Tokaido-line to Atami.

(credit photo: C. Mathon)

Bientôt nouveau logie, nouvelle vie !

C'est le moment de me séparer de quelques meubles:

- Sofa-bed (Sofa: 170 cm large x 75 cm deep x 85 cm high / Side bench: 100 cm large x 50 cm deep)

- Table basse (120 cm long x 60 cm large)

- Four / micro-ondes / gril (48cm large x 27cm high x 43cm deep)

- Frigo-freezer (110cm high x 48cm large x 43 cm deep)

Be a mangaka !!

J'avais bien besoin d'un coup de fraîcheur pour survivre à la moiteur de l'été japonais - lequel, rappellons-le, ne constitue pas franchement ma saison préférée dans l'archipel. Grâce à Justine et Nola, je respire de nouveau !

Aaaah, qu'est-ce qu'on ne ferait pas par amour de Jappyland. Des balades sucrées-susurrées, des reprises de Max Boublil...

Be a mangaka, Say sayonara, Be your Megumi-chan...

Allez les filles, le rêve est tout proche ! N'oubliez pas d'écumer les listes des programmes de l'Ambassade pour partir au Japon, il y en a pour les lycéens, les étudiants, les jeunes diplômés... Sans compter les étés comme jeune fille au pair, les homestays et toutes les autres possibilités ! Ganbatte ne !

Aoyama, the blue mountain in the heart of Tokyo. Shinjuku's skyscrappers shining on the horizon. A very high building with a balcony. And the first hanabi of the season for me.

Watching hanabi ("flowers of fire" in Japanese) is a major summer must-do in Japan, just as hanami in spring. Everybody wants to watch the same thing at the same time from the same places. Lucky me I have friends who have friends with amazing terrace apartments.

It starts with an empty sky...

Then, it gets red

green

white

pink

purple

golden

Here it is !! My Japanese adaptation of a French comic song "J'aime les moches", by Max Boublil, finally recorded and youtubized ! Please have a look and share !

I think that the song perfectly matches the current Japanese social situation : three months ago, a respected economist called Takuro Morinaga very seriously proposed to settle a new tax - a quite heavy one - to be paid by hansome men only, in order to prevent them to become in the same time hot AND rich, attracting to them the favors of all the ladies who are looking for a husband. Because that's the problem : the Japanese ladies now want to get married with rich and sexy partners, or they don't get married at all. And so Japan is full of single guys craving for a slave a nice wife at home while wealthy playboys have several girlfriends. According to him, such a tax would balance the society between common/ugly rich guys and hansome poor guys. So ladies, it would be time to make a serious choice.

To "classify" men into the right category, a jury of 5 women, randomely picked up, would judge the hotness of every man and determine forever if the poor guy will be a working-class hotty or a rich big fish. Like, seriously.

Japan is the only country where people have such ideas. Of course it doesn't mean that the people are massively following the principle or that the proposition will ever be considered on the legal plan. But still... helloooow ?

Anyway : I'm not for this tax, really. But if the situation is so terrible, why not promoting ugly guys instead of punishing the hansome ones ? That's the purpose of Dasai Danshi ! have fun !

One needs to get back to her roots sometimes ! Catch-up with family and old friends, eat a lot of bread and fruits... perform administrative tasks... whatever. My mother-country welcomed me with the brightest sun ever, which is almost a miracle according to my Paris-stuck friends - rain had been falling on their heads for weeks. At least, noone can call me ame-onna, as I just brought the summer wind with me !

 FRANCE !

FAMILY !

FRIENDS !

FOOD !

Fabulous French holidays.

Thank you dear everyone, and see you soon under the French sun ! Love from Japan !

Free champagne at the French Institute of Tokyo : Vive la France.

The Ambassador's speech : the friendship between France and Japan is getting deeper and deeper... Understand : we have been signing many business contracts lately...

Me, Olivier and Olivier. No joke.

I never win any lucky game, but this time I was the only one to guess right : the Pachon bag containing two bottles of wine, two cakes and a box of cassoulet was exactly 5.2kg ! So I won the prize ! Thank you Pachon...

I feel like it's Christmas : I got free tickets to "Nihon no Omokage" (日本の面影, Vestige of Japan, translated as "Out of the East" in English), an amazing play written by Taichi Yamada about the life of Koizumi Yakumo, aka Lafcadio Hearn, my hero, my idole ! Remember how excited I was to visit Lafcadio's square in Shin-Okubo this winter ? Just imagine me tonight !

The play was absolutely fantastic, with great actors (Masao Kusakari and Misako Konno playing Hearn and his Japanese wife), the most beautiful backgrounds, sounds, lights... and English subtitles, for me not to lose one drop of the action ! It was humoristic, poetic, nostalgic, mixing Lafcadio's bio and glimpses of the Japanese folk tales he made so famous. Ghosts stories, Meiji atmosphere, very moving comments about the fast-paced transformation of Japan at the end of XIXth Century, the necessity for the country to get stronger on the international scene to avoid being colonized, and at the same time to protect its soul and spirit... Very convincing psychologic portrait of Hearn, traumatized by his familial story, the misery of his Greek mother in industrial, over-rational UK; his parents who ran away from him, letting him craving for roots, a family, somewhere and someone to belong with... Oh, my. Every second of this play was precious !

The play will be performed from 12 to 25 July 2012, at Haiyuza Gekijo, Roppongi (English subs on 18, 19, 20) at 7pm. Entry 7000yen, but honestly, it's worth it (says the one who was invited, but anyway).

Lafcadio, dear, as soon as I die, you're on my top list of the paradise's tenants I need to meet. So many things to tell you !