I finally decided to contribute to the Orisue blog, so I'm giving all you readers and fans some insight and feeling about who I am, I guess you can say a more personal experience.

For a long time, I've been intrigued by Japanese culture and I've dreamt about visiting Japan, so you can imagine how anxious I was while on a 2 hour standby before hopping onto another plane to my destination. What a freaken teaser, huh?

So why a trip to Japan right now? Well, I pretty much figured, “what a perfect idea it’d be to leave in the middle of design season (a season which I’m struggling to finish up Spring 2008 designs) and take a mini-vacation.” I know smart person I am huh? Oh, and on top of that, I also have a photo shoot to coordinate, but the guys at the office can manage.

Man, thinking back on my decision to go to Japan, I can totally tell it’s going to be a disaster. HAHA just kidding guys. Honestly, it was risky to take this vacation when I have so much work that needs to be done back home, but I truly needed this small break. I mean, despite the fact that it’s mostly for fun, I'll still be conducting business and building relationships with my fellow Japanese friends.

The national re-entry line... Wow!

Okay, I see symbols... Yes! It's so going to help because I can't speak or understand worth sh*t

This is my traveling partner, Theany Samreth

I was scared to drink anything native in Japan because I was worried about getting the you know what, but Theany reassured me that nothing was going to happen. Shoot, Japan is one of the cleanest countries, as far as preserving good health and personal hygiene... Heck the water is even softer/cleaner than in the states! Wait, maybe their toilet water is even cleaner than our drinking water... Puhahaha!

I told her to jump, but...

She said no, but totally insisted on me to jump instead

Well, its the easiest way to get around city...

My luggage is way bigger than Theany's, does that tell you guys something?

We paid $3,370 YEN, which is equivalent to $29 US, to take the Narita Express to Tokyo

Lack of sleep

Okay, I don't have photos during our transition from one train to the next, but lord, I felt like a tortoise racing a hare (okay, why didn't I use a turtle and a rabbit you ask? I don't know, haha) because everyone was walking so fast! I am sure that it was crazier than a quickstrike dropping at Supreme. People were pushing and pulling just to get onto their train and what was even worse for us was that we can't speak worth sh*t! And they can't understand english worth sh*t either!! So I just pointed out names of cities and they pointed back in direction. Nice foreign exchange, literally.

But we finally managed to get to our apartment and met with our Japanese friend.

We arrived during the busiest hours of Japan because everyone just got off work and one of their customs is that they go drink and eat every day after work... They know how to live it!

Look! Cracking! This restaurant was literally 360 sq. feet and it had like 25 people including the chef, booth, open oven, chairs, plants, advertisement signs, coat hangers... You get the point.

Theany and I tried numerous local Japanese restaurants to eat, but there weren't any menus in English and we didn't feel like gambling on stuff we don't know what we're ordering so we thought menus with photos was the best way to beat the night. We finally came to this place that had characteristics of McDonaldsb well, more of like a quick-stop-eat-and-go place. When I opened the door, they immediately greated us in Japanese rambling about something... Probably something like "oh great, here comes another dumb foreign visitor intruding our country" but I hope they would've said something like "... .. ... .. ..... .... .. .. ...."

But anyway, I asked for a menu and even drew an imaginary rectangle to indicate a menu... But the host said "No!" and pointed a machine behind me. To my surprise, I had to order using a machine before getting my food, so technically, the machine was my menu! Duh! Dummie! But how neat is that? How cool and economical huh? Instead of dealing with difficult and embarrassing moments at restaurants where you don't exactly know what you're ordering or if you don't know if you're ordering too much, letting the cashier think you're slighly overweight, you know. Now, you just put in the cash, click the food you want, and sit down and wait for the food to come out. Well, at least you'll only have to be confronted once when the chef puts down your food, hahaha! I'm most confident that if someone in the U.S. opened a restaurant like this, it would totally fly. Just the ordering food through machine was a brilliant idea. Welcome to Japan!

They even have slot machines in Japan!

I was bound to find a McDonalds. How can I not?

Auckland, famous for japanese vintage Levis denim. By the way, UNIQLO was everywhere!

Wow, organic hamburgers... Sorry guys, not McDonalds... but a small hole in the wall hamburger restaurant. Looked darn good! Too bad I was too full stuffing my stomach with Beef Hamburg Curry with Rice.

What? Yoshinoya? Why?

7-Eleven?

Ahem, I wonder what they are allllll reading...

Game house! Filled with young hipsters? No way, fully suitted up business men... Yep, you betcha!

24 hour department store and market! Yes!

I was craving for some fruit to help me with some vitamins... Because I haven't slept for 31 hours! Well, technically some fruits and a bag of Japanese "Flamin' Hot Cheetos" - Haha, almost healthy right?

They made me pack my own goods at packing station! The the states, the clerk's assistant would usually pack our stuff for us... But in Japanese you do it yourself... In a way, its faster because the lines don't stack up...

They really take care of their homeland... So waste is amonst one of the most important things they take care about. Here you see bins for plastics, paper and etc.

Japanese culture is very much different from the culture we have in the states. Its pretty cool and unique to see how they go about their daily lives. So far, so good... and I haven't disagreed with anything YET. During my 11 days stay in Japan, I want to experience everything! Sort of like the tutorials in "Hands-On-Training Photoshop CS2" since I suck so bad =/ Well thats it for today... Its nearly 2:00AM over here right now and I need to get some rest for tomorrow.

If you guys would like to contact me please email me at michael@orisue.com and I'll try my best to reply back as soon as possible... And yes I do have internet at the apartment. Peace out!