Things I Love In Tokyo

Hey y’all, I am just brimming with new ideas for this blog and I’m kicking off a new one today: Things I Love In Tokyo*.

Every other Thursday, I’ll post news about what’s hot in Tokyo for women. I know there are many Jap-mad gals out there and there’s just so much stuff going on here in the Big Mikan (an affectionate pet name for Tokyo; means big orange — go figure).

+ ‘Tis the rainy season so rain-resistant rubber boots are all the rage. I always associated them with construction workers and little kiddies, but Japanese women sure make them look ultra-chic and cute.

+ A new after-hours café in Shibuya gives out product samples for women. From 12am – 4.30am, gals can hang out and feel comfortable with women’s magazines and touch with hand mirrors. How does it all work? If you buy a drink or snack, you’ll get tokens and you can swap them for samples. I can feel it in my bones that it will definitely be new cosmetics and beauty products galore.

Aren’t those crazy hours to be trying on lip-gloss? Well, most people here take the train and if you miss your last train (usually around midnight to 1am), taking a taxi is not an option because of the astronomical rates (a 45-minute ride costs 20,000JPY or USD200), so what’s a girl to do?

Some check into a karaoke room as they are 24-hour places; or if there’s a boy involved, a love hotel is a cheap way to spend the night (8,000JPY; USD80); and now a sample product café. Cool.

+ Coca-cola released a new drink: green tea infused diet Coke. Not that I’m a fan of any kind of caffeine or soda pop, but it’s amazing how huge companies are targeting women all the time in product campaigns. I heard that the biggest market to tap on is the cash-rich oba-sans (mature women) who splurge on their adult daughters and themselves to designer bags and expensive cosmetics.

Photo credit: here

*Edit: I changed the title of this column to Things I Love In Tokyo because a) I truly admire Gala Darling’s Things I Love Thursday — she shows me how to appreciate the little things in life, fashion, and her TiLT posts make my soul overflow with creativity and passion b) show what’s great about Tokyo and continue to love it myself while sharing nuggets of info with others who do, too c) It’s really a better title than the clinical “Tokyo Trendspotting”. Writing in the blog universe lets you improve and change at the conjure of a click in our post-modernist times. We patch together what we encounter in the past and make it our future. Hope you enjoy my upcoming installments.

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