One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 17 – Origami Birthday Card

I got another order from Fiverr for a simple origami/kirigami Birthday card for a little girl.
It was actually quite fun, especially away from the boring writing work I have (>_<) If you'd like to see some of my Fiverr gigs, please do so!

I made two samples for the customer to choose from and here’s the one that was chosen:

This was the other one that’s an extra for someone else:

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 16 – Hayabusa

In Japan, there are many people who love trains…..and when the trains become their obsession, they are referred to as otaku.

Soon we will have a new bullet train called the Hayabusa, which is actually very cool design and seems to have to most luxurious seats that I’ve ever seen:

Also, in typical Japan style, they had to have a toy representation of the train (they are all mini legos by the way):

It took me quite a while to snap this simple photo since there were mounds of otaku taking shot after shot with their professional cameras (with massive lenses) on tripods. Oh dear….. just reinforcing the camera stereotype yet again.

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 15 – Our Bird Sanctuary

Ever since we started leaving a little food on the balcony, we’re getting more birds, including six cute little sparrows. I decided to make a little bird area with food tray, little bowl of water for a bath and a bamboo “seating area” for ultimate comfort.

I hope they enjoy it!

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 14 – Funny Little Girl

I came across this picture in one of the train stations and thought it was quite funny, especially the little girl:

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 13 – Winter Blend Tea

One thing that constantly changes in Japan (more than anything else) are the drink selections in vending machines and combini (Japanese convenience stores). I like to try most of the new drinks out….except for the ones that really seem unappealing to me.

One of my favorites for this season is a lovely “winter blend” tea -not just the flavor but the great packaging as well!

and here are the main ingredients:

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 12 – Not Another Tokyo Fashion Guide

I feel so excited!

For the past several months I’ve been quite anxious about my book. While I initially had a concept of a Fashion Guide from Tokyo, it never quite rang out so perfectly as I thought it would, but last night I realized the path this book should take…… not as a “Tokyo Fashion Guide”….. but along the lines of “Not Another Tokyo Fashion Guide!”.

I have many details swimming in my head, so details for the moment will be minimal until I sort them all out, but essentially, this will not be a typical guide just showing you the trends and fashion from the already famous areas of the city -this book will become more personal and opinionated than that *^_~*

This has certainly put me in great spirits and I can’t wait to get organized!

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 11 – Happy Birthday Tata! & Iron Chef Michiba

Today is my Father’s Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tata!

I sent him some goodies from Japan….. like an instant curry from Iron Chef (Japanese/Better Iron Chef Show) Rokusaburo Michiba! We used to watch the show on TV together all the time and always loved his cooking and presentation style, so when I found the curry, I just had to send it over!

By far, my favorite chefs from the show were Rokusaburo Michiba (Japanese specialty) and Hiroyuki Sakai (French specialty). So far, (thanks to my wonderful boyfriend<3) I’ve been to one of Sakai San’s restaurants La Rochelle in Shibuya. What a stunning restaurant and dining experience indeed!

Sakai San in in Red and Michiba San in Blue

Click to go to La Rochelle Website

Read Michiba San’s Bio.

Read Sakai San’s Bio.

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 10 – Kompeito *Japanese Candies*

Today we received these adorable Japanese candies called Kompeito.  Basically, they’re balls of sugar infused with many lovely flavours like the Matcha (Japanese ceremonial green tea) and cream-coloured ginger type.

My favourite by far is Matcha -yum, yum.

One Good Thing A Day – Project Day 9 – Gachapin Craft Project

Gachapin.  He’s tall, green, has one tooth and looks like he’s stoned.

Gachapin is an odd character

This Japanese character is quite famous and well-loved by many -including many otaku, or hard-core enthusiasts.

Here’s a car I passed by that freaked me out but also gave me a great project idea just for fun.

This car owner could be an Otaku...

I decided to gather a few materials from my “leftovers” pile to see if I can get the right colours for a cut out collage type of artwork…..

… and I remembered that I had a few shikishi boards (decorative calligraphy boards) from Daiso (¥100 shop) a long time ago.

It was pure luck that I had one with a green fade on it!

I went online to see images of Gachapin and see if I can make a nice cut out. I started with the main body and arms, followed by his tummy area, which was just layered pink cardboard paper over peach magazine paper.

Find the right colours anywhere

The eyes were basically black cardboard paper and some white paper from the magazine.

I also had leftover faux chiyogami from a ¥100 shop, so I decided to cut out the groups of flowers from the page and leave the rest for the next project.

I placed everything on the shikishi and this is how it turned out:

Seems like a mini Gachapin shrine for the real otaku!

Potato + Cheese + Bacon + Vending Machine =

That’s right, potato and cheese potage.  Along with many other selections of soups and even sometimes *Oden , everything is available in random vending manchines in Japan.

*Oden is a popular cold weather soup that includes simmering tofu, fish cakes, daikon (radish) and many other ingredients.  Very easy to find in convenience stores all across Japan.