hermes

go to the tate modern and see the 'crack' in the turbin hall (artist doris salcedo)

go to the british museum and see the temporary exhibit of terra cotta warriers from china but also the infamous elgin marbles from the parthenon in greece

victoria and albert museum, the saatchi gallery, the portrait gallery .......

go to the west end and see any number of shows, plays, musicals - you can get standby or last minute tickets on the cheap in leicester square

liberty, harvey nichols, selfridges, even, agast, harrods (well the food halls are impressive at least) are all interesting department stores

see the crown jewels at the tower of london

drink pints at a pub

go to an arsenal match at emirates stadium (or chelsea at stamford bridge ...... )

you could live in london and never see everything the city has to offer

i always stay at the hotel new otani (chiyodo-ku district)

it's one of those mega western-like hotels with thousands of rooms over several towers but it has lots of price points to cover all budgets, is right on one of the main subway lines and given it's central location, you can get everywhere quickly

and it is a designated earthquake evacuation centre (i know it sounds silly to consider this but hey, you never know)

http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo/index.html

i find prices in asia for luxury goods to be more expensive than north america and europe

even hong kong prices for luxury goods is more than what you pay at neiman marcus

three weeks ago i priced things out in the duty free shops in hong kong airport with my wife for certain items and the price was still less in north america or europe - there were a few exceptions but any of the leather goods were less in north america or europe than hong kong or tokyo

if you're going to shop, know your prices

generally they're supposed to be priced the same around the world but there is up to a 30% difference that i've found with all my shopping travels

i too was in hong kong about three weeks ago and also went to the take 5 store and found the staff to be accommodating and knowledgeable and helpful (the young lady with the long hair was really knowledgeable about everything and steered me away from certain models just by looking at me .... )

anyway, prices were good, not as cheap as tokyo but less than north america

but the store is a great one stop shop for japanese denim

just loved the front wall of hidden cubby hole display thing for the denim

i too got one of those discount cards for future purchases and frankly still don't understand how it works but was told it will work with internet / phone purchases as they'll ship overseas

they have a website

can't find it on google but will post it from their business card

they're not bad though mlproject

because they're slim to the body, it doesn't give that short fat effect that you're talking about, so they shouldn't be bad .......

mlproject, that's classic .....

typical retail though, no?

which such a major campaign, you'd think someone would know ......

too bad the tubes were display only

as for the pantone shirts, in tokyo they came in (for men) a crewneck, a v-neck, a u-neck, a tank top, a two tone crewneck (with contrasting collar and cuff), a 3/4 sleeve crewneck and a crewneck striped tee

there were different versions specifically for women as well

as for sizing, i've found the japanese versions smaller and slightly shorter in length than the american versions

i thought "UT" was in silver but i can't recall now, maybe it was gold ....

but in any event, i tried to buy one from one of the employees but they aren't allowed to sell them and they don't exist for retail purchase

oh well

one could always get one made on a pantone shirt

the shelves aren't real vending machines, they're actually called "reach in shelves" - you literally just reach in and grab a t-shirt - the shelving is quasi-vending machine like in look and inspiration as they have a LED text under each tube to identify the style number of shirt on that shelf, but that's it

there is no button to push, they don't fall down to a bottom collector like a food vending machine does or anything like that

it's still very cool way to do a display though

here are some photos from my visit last week to UT

UT Store exterior view

UT Store interior main floor

UT Store interior second floor pantone t-shirt display

UT Store packaging

i forgot to add, that if you're athletic, the brave soldier line has some very good athletic related products for active guys

try www.menessentials.com which has a skin care specific forum

baxter of california is a good line to start with

quality products

men's only line

inexpensive pricing

both urth and korres make some very good men's products as well

menscience is an excellent line expecially for really oily skinned guys

if you want a good anti-aging line, moreso if you're a bit older, skeen is a good bet (currently available only in france and denmark but can order online www.skeen.fr)

but as stated above, good skin is also a result of drinking a lot of water and eating well - also a sunscreen is an essential these days to avoid long term sun damage to your face

according the the UT Store in harajuku, the terry t-shirts were a limited run exclusive to the harajuku location and the japanese on-line store - two of the three are sold out with only the 'pig' photo shirt still available, but only available on the japanese on-line store

the pantone shirts as well are thus far limited to the harajuku store only