When it's sunny in Paris, people have lunch outside and wait for their friends on the steps of the Opera, looking for the shadows of the buildings... We are not that used to hard sunshine in this region !
いい天気の時、パリ人はいつも外で昼ご飯を食べて、外で友達を待って、本当に多様を浴びたいです！

It's a very old castle full of priceless Italian paintings, Egyptian sculptures, Greek statues and French Kings' ghosts. It's a mythic museum, a touristic spot and a gathering place. There is always a smell of mystery in the air when you enter it and see the pyramid. As if the aliens were invading the old castle.

When it's warm like this, you can't prevent yourself to look for the water, even when you're walking in the less natural-looking area of Paris. Thanks God, the Seine River is always here for you !
パリは現在、蒸し暑いです。それでいつも川の近くに歩いてみます。

If you like typical French-style gardens, you will love the Tuileries.
(I tried to teach a Japanese how to say this word properly. Mission impossible. If you are Japanese and you read this post, it's a challenge for you...)
Under the sun, it looks like a giant fry pan (I was there, trust me), but this is the kind of place which was born to show the royal power to the world, and five centuries later, it still smells like the perfume of Catherine de Medicis.

この公園、知っていますか。カタカナで書き方が分かりませんが、スタイルがとてもフランスぽいです。今日パリには本当に暑かったですがこの場所の歴史は興味深いですから素敵な散歩ができました。

Sandals are not sexy. Sandals are not glamour. But sandals are funny. And how can you make sandals even less sexy, less glamour but definitely funnier ? Adding unexpected accessories, of course.

Hotflops for Laforet Harajuku

Golf is obviously popular...


Martini and olives, champagne and bubbles, tennis balls, grape and ananas...
there were some more, but I have been asked not to take pictures anymore...

("J'aime la sensation de la mayonnaise qui me nappe les orteils"
"Dariaaaa ! Ce que tu dis est abominable !")

One year as Alice in Wonderland
Not only Tim Burton's Alice was released this year; but the thematic of Alice in Wonderland has been in the air since I moved to Japan. I have been fighting to understand what people say and think, and I had the feeling that everybody around was crazy. I followed smiling cats on the street, and I couldn't resist to all this unknown food saying "eat me". I ran after time like after a white rabbit. A friend even called me "white rabbit". Japan sincerely looks like Lewis Carroll's Wonderland.

アリス・イン・ワンダーランドのように、今年知らなかった世界に来て、分からない話を聞いて、時々変な国の感じがありました。「私を食べて」というお菓子を始めて食べて、白いウサギのようによく走って、道でニコニコしてる猫二会って、すばらしくて意味がない一年間でした。

Mirror reflection

Tik-tok on the clock

Through the looking-glass, and what I found there

Getting the keys

Welcome to Wonderland

Singing flowers

Drink me

Too big

Too small

The way to go... somewhere

Tea-party

Wonderlandized

Superflat Cheshire Cat

The Queen of Hearts

Final Escape

I will be back in Wonderland soon...

Who said that market studies were boring ? Last week, to learn more about the French-style bakeries in Japan, I went to the far-away Hadano (one hour by train from Shinjuku by Odakyu line, until Tokaidaigaku-mae station) in order to interview Jinbo-san, the owner of the bakery "Le Lourdes". Me and my colleague have been treated like family, and it was great to listen to the Japanese "pan-ya-san", to learn about his story and his bread, to understand how different the market is between France and Japan.
After tasting the best "pain de mie" ever (without sugar, without oil... only an original making process to transform the flour into the nicest bread), we had a walk into the close fields. Jinbo-san works with local bio-cultivators focusing on organic and natural products. We talked a lot about the French consumption, the Japanese one, the trends, the needs... How couldn't we be touched by these talkative guys, who carry the French flag in their truck ? I give you the image of mutual interest.

最近東京の郊外のパン屋に行きました。日本のパン屋について市場分析をしていますので、オナーに色々聞きたかったです。パン屋さんはとても優しくて、興味深い説明をもらいました。パン屋の後で麦畑を見に行きました。ビオの野菜や麦など見られたし、農耕者とよく話したし、面白い写真を取れました。とても楽しくて、色々な勉強できました。

Tokyo is full of confidential resources... At the end of Omotesando, behind Prada, there is a an oasis called Nezu Museum. Not only you can enjoy artworks and exhibitions there, not only you can have a nice bowl of macha but you can also have the most restful, peaceful walk after your frantic Harajuku shopping... Judge by yourself.

Tokyo is a poetic city. No matter what the shrine-addict and golden-age nostalgic people can say. Its true that Tokyo doesn't look like a European city: there are multiple centers, which means no real center to balance the city map; you can't find old stones on the streets, and you can't imagine that these are the walls where the poets of the past centuries stood right by, because everything is new in this megapole. No harmony of the architecture, no respect of the perspective, no esthetic rules... But Tokyo is the most poetic city I know. Because, when you have a look at it by night and you watch the insanely high buildings, and all this light in the darkness, you can see the Phoenix in the urban landscape. Tokyo has been destroyed by earthquakes, fires and bombs, hundred of times, but always reappeared because it's pure energy. Tokyo will be destroyed again, and will come back again, because it's made of people and will, not of stones.