Dirty Dozen +1 (Around the world...)

[mizanation]

it's a d.a.r.e. t-shirt from the states. however, i found it in a used clothing store in okinawa a couple years ago.

[sybaritical]

One time in a Tokyu Hands in Kanagawa, I found an entire section selling Jellyfish. Jellyfish. All I wanted to do was turn the lights off, break out the UV and neck some shrooms.

[tweeds]

Tokyu Hands is awesome in so many different ways. and miz-diddy combo = priceless!!

[mizanation]

way too tired tonight. will post pics when i get up! good night...

[mizanation]

ok, sorry for the delay. been very busy!

yesterday, after running errands, we went to the bamboo cafe. it's a jamaican restaurant on park avenue run by a lady everyone calls, mama-san.

it's a cool, dark place with a nice selection of contemporary reggae playing.

mama-san.

their specialty is jerk chicken, especially in the form of their jerk chicken burger. coming from new york, i was highly skeptical that they could make a decent jerk chicken. i was pleasantly surprised, it was pretty good! the red stripe made things taste even better, of course.

jerk-chicken on japanese white rice with festival and salad. interesting twist... ima see if they have rice and peas next time.

for dessert, i had a jerk chicken burger.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

what is up with that blue in green NYC shirt?

red stripe!

[mizanation]

afterwards, our friend isamu "ism" nakanishi came by our apartment. he is okinawa's premier pinstripe artist. he's a very interesting guy and an amazing artist. he was a motorcycle racer for 10 years, then he started his own art and design company. you can check out his website at: www.ism-artworks.com.

here are some examples of his work...

pinstripe okinawan lion-dog (shisa) on a wallet:

pinstripe lion head on a motorcycle:

he also airbrushed these jeans:

anyways, if anyone reading this is into kustom kulture art, especially pinstriping, isamu will be at the kustom kulture gallery in baldwin, long island this weekend. there, they are having the 5th annual "brushes, burnouts and needles" show. if you see him, tell him that mizanation sent you!

more information at: http://www.kustomkulturegallery.com/

[mizanation]

what is up with that blue in green NYC shirt?

red stripe!

shout out to gordon.

guess what, he's BiG in japan!

kuniyoshi-san, the guy who makes denim in okinawa knew about him from a magazine article.

[mizanation]

today, we went to visit yuki's folks. outside her folks' house there are lots of fruit tropical fruit trees.

whenever i visit, i play their vintage electone organ. yuki's folks said i can take this to our apartment!

yuki's dad is a music lover. he was taking a nap so i couldn't get a pic of him.

check out the old-school karaoke machine!

this is the view from their roof.

later we went to the post office where yuki's friend works.

[mizanation]

next, we went for a drive. we stopped to admire the scenery...

this is a road that's next to a golf course. it has a mesh covering so balls don't hit you while you're driving. i think it looks pretty cool though.

[beatle]

P1AeCsIKq8g

Had to quote it...just in case u guys missed it the first time around..

[beatle]

And MIZ..rock'nroll..keep it up !!!

[mizanation]

we went to the nakagusuku castle ruins. it used to be the castle of lord gosamaru 600 years ago. it's made entirely out of limestones.

while we were there we joined a group of okinawan middle school girls who were taking a tour of the ruins. it was funny, they were cracking sarcastic jokes the whole time and generally making fun of everything. the guy on the right was our tour guide.

the stones on the left are the original stones that have been there for hundreds of years. they have been worn down and polished by many generations of people walking over them. the stones on the right are brand new stones so they are still rough.

welcome to my crib!!!

this is a close up of the castle wall. this castle is the only castle in the world with pentagonal, hexagonal and octagonal stones. and back then, they didn't use cement. i bet they would have kicked ass at jenga.

this is a gun hole. they had primitive rifles that they imported from the chinese.

[mizanation]

this is my favorite part of the castle. it's the moon viewing platform. back in the day, before HBO, cats would watch the moon and the stars. this castle has a long wall where lord gosamaru would have moon viewing parties. must have been fun to drink, eat, listen to some live music and watch the stars.

apparently, at these parties, they ate a lot of seafood. people here are digging up old clam shells that people threw away here a long time ago.

[mizanation]

oh, and outside the castle, i saw this really big spider. those aren't flies caught in the web. they're bees!!!

[mizanation]

we got hungry so we went to mister donuts, pronounced "meestah dohnatsu."

outside the store, we heard a big sound in the sky.

it was a jet plane doing a test flight. props to the first person to correctly identify this bird.

[edmond]

f15 tomcats? wow nice pics again ryan!

[mizanation]

they have a nice selection of dohnatsu.

raspberry and cream cheese pie

custard creme filled chocolate donut

whipped creme filled french cruller

creme filled

yup.

[mizanation]

f15 tomcats? wow nice pics again ryan!

damn, ed. you're good.

[mizanation]

today, we went to the hardware store. my favorite part of the hardware store is the weapons section!

wooden hammers.

hammer time, biotch!

sickle time, biotch!

[salaami]

amazing pics miz!!! i havent been online in a minute, and this was a pleasant suprise. +rep if possible...

[mizanation]

later we went to visit kamida-san. the guy is so full of knowledge and insight, i love to just drop by and shoot the shit with him over beers.

he lent us a bunch of his interior decorating books so we can get some ideas on how to decorate yuki's boutique. one cool thing about the japanese is that they will study another country's culture and completely analyze it from inside out. then they put all the knowledge they've gained into these awesome picture books and magazines. right now in japan, old american country-style interior design is in. they have tons of books and magazines on how to capture the essence of this aesthetic.

here's a book on "junk style." basically, it's recreating the look and feel of old rusted metal furniture, worn-down paint and beat-up wood.

japanese interior decorating magazines.

we also discussed the design for the new wallet he is going to make for me. it's going to have a section with traditional okinawan woven fabric. also, he's going to incorporate some new original ideas for this wallet. i'm super excited, not just because i am finally going to get a new wallet, but also because this wallet will represent a new chapter in my life. stay tuned!

[mizanation]

all that wallet talk made me hungry.

we went to daruma restaurant, named after the famous buddhist monk daruma (a.k.a. bodhidharma) who brought buddhism to the far east.

in japan, it's a tradition to get a daruma doll whenever you want to make a wish. you fill in one eye and when your wish comes true, you fill in the other eye.

here's the menu of daruma specialties

in japan, some casual restaurants require you to pay for your meal at a vending machine. you put in your money...

and you get a ticket. you give this ticket to the wait staff and you sit down.

[mizanation]

some interesting posters on the wall. i guess there's gonna be a tournament soon.

this is a typical okinawan casual restaurant. you'll see construction workers, students, salarymen, and office ladies coming to restuarants like this to eat and read a manga comic book or the newspaper.

these are traditional okinawan chopsticks. they are red and yellow.

this is traditional okinawan hot sauce. it's awamori (okinawan liquor) infused with okinawan hot chili peppers. this stuff is very spicy! okinawans put this sauce in soups, but they especially like to put it in okinawan soba. just a few drops will do the trick. even though it has awamori in it, it's not advisable to take shots of this.

at famous restaurants, you will often see a wall covered in hand-written notes from celebrities and sports stars. it's kinda like seeing signed headshots from celebrities in a restaurant.

the decor of the restaurant is pretty eclectic.

here are little clay figurines of the different chinese zodiac signs.

some decorations.

and finally the food! this is okinawan miso soup with a side of chicken katsu. good stuff.

[mizanation]

ok, that's all for now. if i do anything interesting tomorrow, i will let you guys know.

[red]

today, we went to the hardware store. my favorite part of the hardware store is the weapons section!

haha. me too!

i like pretending im a ninja.

i cant wait to go back.

you should visit americaya next!

[mizanation]

haha. me too!

i like pretending im a ninja.

i cant wait to go back.

you should visit americaya next!

great idea, red. chatan, here we come.

when are you coming back?

[liewbaysea]

i liked the pic of the spider. shits a killer!

[I<3Bacon]

[cheep]

what is up with that blue in green NYC shirt?

red stripe!

its a collab with left field!