Paris, c'est joli

So if you wonder what's going on with the blog, here's the story. I just spent 3 weeks in France (where we leave in caves so we don't have internet) and meanwhile back in Tokyo, someone is pretending to work 15 hours a day. So I guess no one was around to update what's going on in our fascinating lives. Here's what happened...





some people turned Japanese
Some people turned. We're still not sure actually....

some people turned, hum, 30...

some people sang Karaoke all night

some people tried to bring back cute kittens in Japan

some people got married

some people walked around pretending to be tourists

some people just sat on the sun all day

yes, all day.

some people took pictures of le Louvre but didn't went inside

and some people went to some fancy place to eat macarons for breakfast and thought they were back in New York for a minute...

no this is not the new way of building houses to save space in Tokyo. It's some random Ferris wheel but with little houses. Kind of weird, we'll have to try.

Asakusa is pretty

Today we went to Asakusa, there's a very beautiful temple from 1649, the "Sensoji Temple". Think of the neighborhood as an old downtown. Small houses and shops, pretty much what you think Tokyo could have been before the skyscraper era.

I'm a big fish nerd

So here in Tokyo there are a lot of fish stores (not the one you eat silly, the one you lock in a small see through tank and stare at). Usually you find them on the top floor of department stores, or in obscure underground galleries. They have much cooler exotic fish then we do (I guess there are less regulations on what you can sell). Here are one very cool eel (hum, I think it's an eel). Pictures are a bit blurry because instead of pausing she kept trying to attack through the glass. I don't think she liked me.

sept07

And last but not least a little video. So I'm still tryin g to figure how to post a video directly on the blog, if it's not working just click on the image and you should be ok

gold fish are for real

So I've always wondered why gold fish were called gold fish. I mean they are usually red right? Well good thing I've traveled all the way to Japan to discover a gold fish that is actually GOLD. So why are they call gold fish? Why don't you check wikipedia yourself if you want to know.

"The first recorded instance [of swallowing a gold fish] was in 1939 at Harvard University." There are so many things going through my mind right now that I think I just won't say any...

En anglais on appelle les poissons rouges "gold fish" (les poissons dores). Je me suis toujours demande pourquoi les poissons qui sont rouges aux USA comme les notres (vous me suivez?) sont appeles poissons dores. Et bien parce que a l'origine ils etaient plutot dores que rouges (explication complete en anglais du pourquoi du comment ici). Et au Japon on trouve des poissons dores! Maintenant je me demande bien comment on appelle les poissons dores en francais. Des poissons rouges?

On japanese アナヒセ (I think that means Anais but I wouldn't bet my savings on it)

So I've started Japanese classes again (fine, one so far). And I've decided that not only I should try to speak it but I should also try to read and write it (might as well right?). For those of you who don't remember what the Japanese "alphabet" is from your high school years, here's a extremely short, probably not that accurate explanation.

- A long long time ago Japanese wasn't really a written language

- With all that trading going on between China and Japan, the Japanese decided to adopt the Chinese character system, the Kanji (kanji is the fun one, each 教 represent something, so think you need to know as many as there are things in the Universe (also that's not true, let's say you have the symbol for the door and then you had the symbol for "open" or "close" see what I mean? If not, feel free to get on msn and I'll tell you all about it.

- There was also the Man’yōgana in the 5th century (think Chinese characters but used for the pronunciation, not the meaning), this ended up being simplified and turned into the hiragana. Because Japan was a great advanced country like many others, education wasn't really for women and they did not have access to Kanji. So women started writing in hiragana.

- From the Man'yōgana also came the Katakana. But I'm still trying to figure this one out...

- Anyway it all ended up being mixed up and tied together to confuse me.

So to make things clear: In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write parts of the language such as nouns, adjective stems and verb stems, while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings (okurigana), particles, native Japanese words, and words where the kanji is too difficult to read or remember. Katakana is used for representing onomatopoeia and non-Japanese loanwords (this is from wikipedia, for the scholars amoung us, click here for the full article

Fun facts:
- You have to learn 1006 kanji when you're in elementary school
- 1945+939 kanji in junior high and high school

Ok, so what's my point? Well my point is that on top of already looking pretty complicated, you need to know how to draw to write this language. And if there's one thing I absolutely can't do it's drawings. Practicing my ただ越え来れば made me remember of elementary school (or whatever school you learn your letters). Lines and lines of AAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBB ccccccc ddddd. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.

So here I am almost 30, back in school and sucking at it. Nothing ever really change I guess. That's it for today, you'll be thrilled to know that I have finally replaced the battery of my camera. So you'll get fresh pictures soon.

Meanwhile, here's the best thing ever from Muji (for our American friends who don't know Muji take a look here or be patient, I know they are about to open one in NYC)




Glasses of rose in a can, Genius. Merci Muji.

I'm back

No I didn't move to Malaysia, or even extended my stay. I've just been terrible about updating this thing. Call it the post Malaysia trauma! (well, really call it laziness). Anyway, first thing first, here are the pics from Malaysia, which will only interest you if you like monkeys or if you know my family (and NO the two are not related). click here.

Me revoila. Je sais ca fait longtemps. C'est la faute de la Malaisie. 10 jours sans rien faire ca vous donne envie de rien faire du tout. Et en plus il ne se passe pas grand chose. Pour les photos de la Malaisie cliquez ici.

club med....

So I'm off to Malaysia tomorrow. Well deserve vacation from all this hard work in Tokyo....
I'll be back on the 7th (or something). Meanwhile you can suggest new names for the blog because Max pointed out that "Lost in translation" was not that original and I kind of agree. So all suggestions are weclome (as long as it's decent).

I hope you're enjoying the summer.


Je pars en Malaisie demain jusqu'au 7 aout. Je veux changer le nom du blog (Max m'a fait remarque que "lost in translation" c'etait pas tres original. Bon ben on fait ce qu'on peut mais en meme temps je suis assez d'accord) donc si vous avez des suggestions vous etes les bienvenus.

J'espere que votre été se passe bien (oui je sais a Paris il fait un temps degueu, mais bon, ca va pas durer).

A plus.

Anais

Corbu and the fish / Corbu et les poissons

Nous sommes ensuite allés a Ronppongi Hills au Mori Art Museum pour voir une expo sur Le Corbusier (oui on se cultive le dimanche). C'était très intéressant surtout pour une ignorante comme moi qui pense que Le Corbusier n'a fait que des fauteuils. Par contre l'enregistrement qui nous expliquait le pourquoi du comment avait décide d'appeler Le Corbusier "Corbu" (Corbou avec l'accent anglais) et donc j'ai du écouter toutes les explications avec du CORBOU par ci CORBOU par la. A cote il y avait une expo d'aquarium avec pleins (de poissons) de façons différentes de rendre un aquarium original. Pas trop de photos parce qu'on avait pas le droit mais bon.


Sunday afternoon we went to Roppongi Hills to see an exhibit on Le Corbusier (for more info click here). Then we saw some sort of exhibit with aquariums. Not sure how to explain but it was beautiful (if you like fish). Click here for more details.

























This thing was my size, it was incredible (I've also got yelled out when I toke the pic).


Cet aquarium faisait ma taille, j'en veux un comme ca pour mettre dans mon salon.

Elvis japonais

We walked a little in Harajuku, that's where everyone meets up in costumes during the week end (and all the time I think). I'll go back and take more pictures but I couldn't resist showing you this, plus video below.


On a marché un peu dans Harajuku. C'est là ou tout les japonais qui se déguisent se retrouvent le week end. J'y retournerai pour prendre plus de photos parce que c'est incroyable. En attendant voile les Elvis japonais.

les elvis japonais.

dance

brunch is the same everywhere...

Yesterday we had our first brunch in Harajuku, we went to a place call Fujimamas where they have pretty much everything you can find on a brunch menu. It was pretty decent but nothing can replace the eggs benedict at the Flea Market (tear!)

Hier sommes allés bruncher (3 semaines sans oeufs bénédicts c'est dur). Voila le resultat.

Japanese egss benedict.


Max ordered something call "the Plate". The most enormous brunch plate I've ever seen (bigger than Denny's I think. Speaking of Denny's I think I've seen a bunch. I need to go check it out)

week end part deux

So Saturday we walked around Ginza (think lots of Chanel, Burberry, and Cartier). They close the main street the the cars so it's pretty cool to walk around.

Samedi nous sommes allés nous promener à Ginza ( genre Saint Honore en 50 fois plus grand). Comme ils interdisent l'accès de la rue principale aux voitures c'est assez agréable. Même si tu es 10 000 à marcher dans la rue, tu as un peu plus de place.




Elle est partout!












My new favorite store!

















This is seriously a real dog, watch video further down.

C'est pas une peluche c'est un vrai chien (video un peu plus bas).
So we found Dalloyau and I had to have a Macaron au cafe (they are my absolute favorite, so much better than Ladurée). Unfortunately there was no more battery in my camera when I wanted to take a picture. So that's what is left of it. We also bought tones of different breads there and everything was delicious. Between Dalloyau, Hediard, Fauchon and Maxim's you can pretty much eat French everyday.

Alors on est tombé par hasard sur Dalloyau, et "j'adore leurs macarons au café". Alors je voulais vous le montrer tout mignon dans son emballage individuel mais bon voila, plus de batterie dans l'appareil a ce moment la. Vous imaginez bien que je n 'aie pas attendu qu'il se recharge.... On a aussi acheté pleins de pains différents et nous avons fait un festin le soir.

I mean, he's so cute

dog

Week end part 1

So Saturday I had to escort Max to his office so he wouldn't spend the day there. He was only supposed to go there for a minute but we all know how that goes. So here's a tour.


Samedi nous sommes passés au bureau de Max pour récupérer un truc. Comme j'avais pas envie qu'il passe la journée la bas, j'y suis allée avec lui pour accélérer les choses. Du coup, une petite visite guidée de sa nouvelle maison.

No this is not a spaceship, it's Max's building.

with a BIG scary sculpture in the middle

The vue from Max's floor, I think there's some sort of net in case you decide to jump.

Our car...