Something sweet

Anyone ever heard of the "Picasso of Pastry," Pierre Hermé?  Well, I hadn't until recently.  But apparently most Japanese people have heard of him, and he has a shop in Tokyo.

And on Monday afternoon, Hiroko and I got to go to the press reception for the unveiling of his new line of sweets, at the unbelievably fabulous New Otani Hotel.  Seriously, this place is amazing!  And it has one of the most fantastically gorgeous Japanese gardens I have ever seen. Ever.

Oh yeah, and the sweets were nothing to sneeze at either ;-P  It was basically like a big, free dessert buffet. I have no idea how much food they must have made for it. (To give you a slight idea, there was an open-to-the-public party version of the event that evening--basically the same deal, only they charged about $140 a head).
Fancy banquet room

And the parade of sweets

And finally, the man himself:

It was a really fantastic event. Hiroko and I were suffering from major sugar shock afterward (>_<)  It was also kind of weird, cause the chef was speaking in French, and then his translator put it in Japanese--so I was kind of half listening to each language  ;-P  Reminded me how sad it is that I really can't speak French anymore.   I end up saying things like "le francais ga wakarimasu."  .... yeah.
At any rate, "yum!"

Other stuff

Metropolis Issue 756

My first restaurant review! Cha-coo-la. Check it out.

Also the terebi blurb about the Pochitama press conference that I went to, though that's nothing really special.

Other good things:

I got another free CD at work today! First album by my new favorite band since yesterday: NICO Touches the Walls. Saw the cd when I was going through Dan's mail yesterday, decided to go home and look them up, listened to one song, decided I would become obsessed with them liked their music, downloaded all of their songs to date, and at work today asked Dan if I could possibly have their cd cause I'm a really big fan.

I tend to do this a lot.

But at any rate, I got the CD! Seriously, though, they do have this one song "The Bungy" that is one of the most fantastic things I have ever heard. I really want to put it up as video of the week, but there isn't a good-quality version of the PV up anywhere. The video quality of this one is pretty good (click "watch in high quality") but the audio is slightly out of sync. Still, WATCH IT and tell me it's not the best song ever. (and if it's not, then I'll know you, at least, have more of a life than me).

Also... here's the promised photo from the 252生存者あり press conference.

That's Hideaki Ito in the middle, with the kind of awful fake tan.

Cole Haan 80th Anniversary Party

Thursday night.

We got to go to...well, you see it up there in the title.  It was a really ridiculously cool party, very fashiony (read: lots of champagne, next to nothing to eat) at the Aoyama Geihinkan which is a crazy roman-style colonnaded building near my office. Apparently it gets used for weddings and stuff a lot. 

When you walked in, they gave everybody a bag full of US pennies...which was really weird until we realized that there were blackjack and baccarat tables set up and that the pennies were for betting at the games.  Sort of reminded me of Yale Casino Night, only with more expensive clothes, and celebrities.  Beni Arashiro was there, and so was Kazuhiro Nishijima, which is really funny because our arts editor Dan just interviewed him, and we're about to put him on the cover of Metropolis!  lol.  He was really popular with the press--everybody wanted to ask him about his recent engagement to former Takarazuka star Miki Maya.  0.o

Some pics from the event: 

These candles sell for upwards of $1000 in Harajuku.    

Tents full of fashionable people.   

More candles, by the pool.     

Shoes and bags display by the entrance.      

The blackjack tables.   

It was a pretty swanky party.  There was also a jazz band playing most of the night.  They were really good!  Dan said it wasa guy called Jose James--he's playing at Billboard Live Tokyo this weekend.

ugh, tired

I was at work until 8:30 tonight *cries* And I'm gonna have to try and get there right at 9:30am tomorrow morning, too.

Not all bad, but--the reason I had to stay so late tonight was cause I got behind on the listings, which have to be turned in Wed morning (hah--that's not gonna happen).

But the reason I was behind on listings is cause 1) it was a 3-day weekend so we had Monday off (yay!) and 2) I spent all morning today at a press conference (more yay!).  

It was a Japanese movie conference this time, for a film that comes out this December, called 252 生存者あり (Survivors Found!).  It's basically your average disaster flick, about a ginormous typhoon destroying Tokyo. And the 252 thing is apparently the "code" in rescue-squad language, meaning that you've found survivors, like in a collapsed building or something. Anyway, it looks kind of cool, and has some actors that I like in it--like Hideaki Ito, who it turns out in real life is the most ridiculous space case ever.  He was sooo not paying attention during the conference and kept having to ask the MC to repeat the question.  Seriously, he did it like 3 times.  (>_<)

Anyway, I got to take some pictures yet again, and it's eventually gonna be a Movie News--not anytime soon tho, cause the film doesn't open until 12/6, so we'll probably run the article closer to then. 

PV update--we're going old school!

This song was pretty much the theme song for my HIF class, resulting in many failed attempts to sing it at karaoke.

懐かしい～！  \^o^/

free lunch (and dinner, and another dinner...)

i really need to start doing more of the whole one quick post every night thing, or something.  cause if i don't, then it gets to like now, where I have a million things to write about, but no energy to do it.  >_<

oh well.

most important news first--I finally got my work visa!  and yes, i know you're going "but hasn't she been working for over a month already?"  to which I say: sshhhhh!

got to go to a couple more restaurant openings this past week (three, to be exact.  god i love my job).  really, there's nothing that tops a delicious free dinner.  especially when you're living on my budget.

Sunday night was dinner at Console, a restaurant/wime bar in Roppongi.  had a really good recommendation from the sommelier, a Chilean red called Montes Alpha that I liked a lot.  

Monday night I went to the opening party for a new restaurant near Yokohama station.  This one was more of a press thing, so it was crazy crowded and really hot, but the food was pretty good. 

Tuesday I got to go to a press conference for this TV Tokyo show called Pochitama, all about pets or something.  Anyway, I'm kind of a fan of one of the hosts of the show--and am currently subbing one of his dramas (hehe)--so I finagled my way into going.  I mean whatever, I turned it into a terebi blurb, so it's not like it was completely pointless.

Wednesday night was yum!  Went with the rest of the eds to the opening of a new macrobiotic restaurant in Ark Hills, called Chaya.  Apparently there's one in LA or something?  Anyway, it was incredibly good food, I was stuffed.  Plus there were several Japanese celebs that came, which was kind of cool.  None of my personal favorites, sadly, but several people I reconized, one of whom was Fujiwara Norika, a crazy famous actress/model/former Miss Japan.  I swear, I see her on at least 3 billboards/TV commercials a day.  

Thursday I got to go to a restaurant for lunch, to do a review!  ^_^  Haven't quite finished writing the review yet, but it's scheduled to go in 756, which pubs in like, 2 weeks or so.

Speaking of reviews, some of you already know this, but check out the Metropolis site cause this week I have TWO articles in--my bar review of Gala Dear, and the Star Struck piece about Jodie Foster (look under Faces & Places).