~*this entry is dedicated to my bf who made this korea trip possible*~



it aint a trip to asia unless u take purikura!




are we fobz or wut!?




they call him kebin sen-sei, he’s out to conquer korea!! wah chow now!!!



@ the world ceramic biennale in gwangju

where the hell are we??




K is for kebin…



O is for “oh my god, there’s someone in that sculpture!!!!



O is also for…O’m not crazy, cherie & teresa!! he really does make faces at me!!!
                                                                      


in this one, we left my camera on auto and ventured up a hill into no man’s land to get a shot with some glasses…
                                                                            


waitin for the bus 100-2…where the hell is it!?




waitin for the subway @ jong-no san stn…

by the way, korean subway stations have garbage cans!!!
                                                                                        




such an urban guy, just look at this bboy! he doesn’t stop there…



here he is at the seoul museum of art



what can i say, my bf is a goofy guy. here he is mimicking giordano models.

sweater vest anyone? anyone???
                                                                                                                    



WHA CHOW, BAE YONG JOON!!!



“put on this sack and try it out for yourself” read the sign…



be adventurous, try new foods!



be adventurous, eat 2 portions of bulgogi instead of 1!



this concludes the special kevin edition of my korea pictures.
hope u found them to be enjoyable, heartfelt, and funny.



and to kevin…thanks, babie! i u!!!

having been back from korea for a few days already, i still haven’t been able to figure out how to put up my pictures. we (me & kevin) were there from may 1-may 6, but really we only had 4 whole days for siteseeing. somehow i managed to fill up my 512mb sd card and use up 7 rolls of 120mm film in just 4 days.*fantastic*

                                     
                                                                  (eh… not the best picture..)

since i’m having trouble deciding what pictures to put up, i’ll just start with monkey’s pictures. for those of you who haven’t met monkey, his name is Ronkonkomo, and he’s from soho, ny. he’s quite the jetsetter, covering many asian countries such as taiwan, japan, thailand, and korea.

               

we had arrived at the airport nearly 3 hours before departure just in case anything went wrong with the travel agency, so that left monkey plenty of time to play around.

            

no matter how many planerides monkey’s been on, he always manages to have a fun time in the air. i have to keep an eye on him though cuz there was this kid that wanted to monkeynap him!!!

                        

we were goin for hostels, but came across these really nice guesthouses in seoul. for $35-$60 (for 2 people per nite), these were traditional-style houses that had beautifully crafted sliding wood doors, like this one monkey is peeking through, internet, and a stashed kitchen. not bad huh?

                               

the subway system in seoul wasn’t too bad, and was pretty clean too. wish i could say the same for bart or mta

                                     

for those who can’t figure out where to stand, there are these nifty lil blue feet that tell u exactly where to stand. monkey seemed to have found them helpful.

                                                  

inside the train, everything looked pretty much the same as other subway trains, but this didn’t keep monkey from playin in the handles.

                              

i guess monkey wasn’t the only stuffed animal vacationing in korea for golden week. look! it’s totoro!

                                                 

                                                     

the “hi seoul” festival featured a projection where images were projected onto the city hall building. it was quite the show. i’ll have more detailed shots of that up another day.

                                      

for those of u at home reading this might think i’m stupid for getting pho hoa while in korea but consider the fact that we haven’t had any pho since cali, so it’s been a loooong time. funny that we came across a pho hoa huh?
        (by the way, how much is a bowl nowadays?? it was like $7 for a small in seoul! did the prices go up?)

                                                               ~more korea pics to come~

 

last week, i started tutoring a new student, maho. she’s 7 yrs old and has such a great attitude towards learning english. for someone her age, she is really advanced. here she is wracking her brain, trying to remember how to spell “croquette”. -sorry these shots are kinda yellow…

                          croquette????
 

                                                                               
                                                                                ~ sometimes we forget that it’s not so easy being a kid either……

a few weeks ago, i was in Chiba for some teacher’s training. my group had to take purikura in memory of this grueling information-packed week. the pics are a bit light since we selected “so soft angel light”….here’s to chris, dominique & me, the newest additions to ALS

                                                                            Q: Can you find us?
  
                                                   

                                                                                          *

                                                                                          *

                                                                                          *

                                                                                          *

                                                                                          A:

                                             

 

 

i came home from pottery today pretty damn pissed cuz i messed up on my best plate. in short, i smudged my sakuras that i had spent over an hour painting, during the glaze process. today was only my second time putting glaze on stuff, so yeah.. i messed up. i’m naming that piece “disappointment”. the sky was a bit comforting during the drive home tho. it was this amazing shade of blue….

                  
                                         
                                   -which then turned into something like this when i got closer to home….
                                                                  (it looked better in person of course)

                  

                                                               (of course i wasn’t shooting while driving!! )

                  
  
                                                                      home sweet japan-home

                                                                               bye bye sakura….

                

                                                                                         HELLO…      
          
                                              

which shall it be?

                 

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                                                                                         f i s h
                                                                                        ~ or ~                                                                     
                                                                                    c h i c k e n ? 
                                                                              ( er… um … canary? )  
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sorry i’ve been mia these past few days. i’m actually out in chiba for some teacher’s training stuff. there’s no internet at the
guesthouse so yeah.. i don’t have very many internet opps. this is actually my first one so far.  

i’m sure u’ve all seen enuf sakura pics, so i’m not gonna bore u (except with my banner thing). instead i’ve decided to share
some shots of my most favorite people in japan 

        
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i can honestly see why the japanese love their sakura so much. they’re so ephemeral, only around for maybe two weeks,
but these tiny blossoms really make their presence known. i find myself not paying attention to the road when i’m
driving because my eyes are so drawn to the sakura. that’s prolly not a good thing, but damn, they’re so beautiful!!!
this past sunday, we gathered at the park near town hall for a hanami, flower watching… in other words, it’s a party under
the cherry trees where people bring tons of food and just relax, shoeless on their blue tarps. too bad there’s work (and rain)
this week. i’d have a hanami everyday until the last blossom fell if i could. they’re so much fun!  
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                                                       hanami at a nearby park with my buddies
                                            

                                                                          aren’t they so cool?
                                                                   
                                                           
           this guy is my favorite tho..          
                                                                 
                                           

just when i thought i was up, some idiot killed my inspiration.. way to go.

going to a hanami (lookin at flowers) tomorrow in town. mebe that’ll change things…

ueno park thru *holga vision*

(sorry some of the pics are kinda dark. in my haste i bought iso 50 film. woops…at least it creates some kewl silhouetting  )