art or porn?

i found this vagina water fountain sculpture in a mall in futako tamagawa.

The gay boyfriend's birthday

real boyfriends are easy to make happy on their birthdays; you get waxed, make him a meatball sammich, and throw in some afternoon delight and he's a generally happy guy. Gay boyfriends are tough. i actually had to think and plan our day out (even still, he had to have it all done his way, no surprises, cuz mine is a communist). we started out with Lunch at Cafe Studio in Harajuku. unfortunately, we both liked the decor and ambiance better than the food:



so i took him to the wine bar down the street so we could drown our insufficient burger woes (i think this was his favorite part of the day):


and on to lovely cakes! it's NOT a brithday without cake:


the gay BF's lovely husband got in touch so we could surprise him on his actual birthday with a VERY fancy breakfast at the Grand Hyatt in the pong. getting there was a bitch but the food was soooooo good. dined at the French Kitchen:


so cute! they were happy boys:


YUM! probably one of the best breakfasts i've ever had:

Tsukiji-jishi Festival

made my way out to Tsukiji to check out the lion head festival. saw some lamps:


a couple shots of Namiyoke-Inari Shrine:



festival dog!



Festival food!




festival games!




taking a much needed break:


and on to the lion heads! these were all different. there were five pairs of shishi-gashira:




this is a pair of kin-shishi:



this is the biggest one. they had a blessing ceremony for it and the people:


th priests offer big ass rice cakes:


prayers are conducted:



this is the ojishi (male lion head) weighing about 1 ton:


this is the mejishi (female lion head) weighing about 700 kg:


the band:



i see ass cheeks:



and the parade continues:



there were tons of people out here carrying that big ol' lion head throughout the streets:




festival season rocks!

13:31 Birthday Week 2009

June 12th: a late start to my birthday week. it began with a trip out to Ginza for a fancy lunch with S at Vietnam Alice:



sooooo tasty! and finished off with a very nice vietmanese coffee:


ROWR!! Godzilla attacks tokyo!


had a short walk over to Marvelous Cream (a new ColdStone knock off) with their gazillion flavors and bright pink interior:


YUM!


afterwards, went across the street where they had set up a fake park in the middle of the city complete with artwork inside these cargo freight boxes serving as makeshift patios:


this was some very nice (and surprisingly grass-like) astroturf:



June 13th: actual birthday. started out with lunch at my favorite curry udon joint in Ike and went to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine where there was supposed to be a an iris festival:


which turned out to be much smaller than i expected. still pretty though:


prayers for a better year:


there was something going on with some tour buses but i didn't know what it was:


with Sally and Gillian at the shrine:


afterwards we went to the new bread factory (potential clients of Sal's) where we had some really nice refreshments:


such a cute place:


and on to birthday dinner! we went to the Firehouse for gourmet burgers:


sooooooooooooo good:


a small dinner with the urban family:




E takes a big bite!


and we ended the evening playing guitar hero. so much fun. i still suck:


June 14th: family birthday dinner at my favorite japanese restaurant: uojin




the fam got me a cake! how cute!!!


and the restaurant people gave me some flowers:


my favorite finish! a rille rice ball in a light broth:


and homemade ice cream to top it all off!


birthday schwag this year. havianas from nani:


self beautifying products from S&A and Jess:


heaps of canadian candy from Cheech and a dairy milk from S&A:


home office supplies from E:


a great new book from D:


and a complete papa lazarou outfit from the fam in the states. if you don't know what i'm talking about, watch this. my sister and i laugh our asses off about this all the time:


had so much to eat the night before that i saved my birthday cake for the next night (i left half with my uncle and granddad so they could also partake:



thanks to everyone who helped make it a fantastic birthday!