travel | Electric Heated Toilet Seats - All That's Needed To Be Said

So besides having the Japanese marvel of keeping your tush warm while doing the number two, Tokyo is rising rapidly in my rankings of "Fav. Cities" (Don't worry Manhattan my heart will always be with you). Bottom line: Japan has good taste. The people are well dressed without being loud; the architecture is minimalist yet grand; the palate is refined and delicate.

Everyone, read my lips, everyone has a raised level of aesthetic standards. The hole in the wall restaurant serves a mean katsudon and even the old men are outstandingly dapper with their form fitting trench coats, tartan scarves, and polished wingtips.

And, with good taste comes an amazing shopping experience. O-M-G, the stores! Despite the off-sounding English names, Japanese vendors United Arrows, Tomorrowland, Urban Research, Rugged Museum, Beams, Recency of Mine Abahouse all carry impeccable, well-fitting merchandise. Luckily, Japanese men's clothing isn't a Lolita-Harjuku-goth explosion; it has acquired a heavy Anglo-American feel and sometimes it's even hard to distinguish if you're in Brooklyn or in Toyko. Flanel, military, vintage are all things present in Japanese men's wardrobe; yet, everything seems to be much more suited for us skinny-Asian folk.

BUT, everything is so goddamn expensive. Sigh.

Much more updates to come (and with pictures as well; I left my camera cord at home. Sad.)!

film | Sean Penn: Milk-ing It For Everything It's Worth

So I'm back in the sprawling 'burbs. Not to be an urban elitist, but let's just say it's an entire different world of Guess jeans and horrendous Express printed tees. Yet, it is home and the quaint town of Allendale, New Jersey does offer its home-y amenities: snow-filled landscapes, classic New Jersey diners, endless roads to drive your beat-up sedan, and most importantly, cable (to watch all the Top Chef you missed over the semester).

And, thank God for movie theaters -- an oasis in the barren cultural desert. I saw Milk last night and needless to say, it was amazing.

Even though Sean Penn has been ingrained in my mind as the mentally challenged father in I Am Sam and even though he will always sound a little mentally deficient, he was able to break out of the tightly-made parental mold. Sean Penn was charming, charismatic, and dare I say, adorable (?); hands-down, it is his best role yet, him capturing the essence of Harvey Milk.

And James Franco, though not giving a Oscar-worthy performance, was memorable, not to mention constantly exuding hotness -- one of the few that can pull off a mustache and look downright, banging.

Emile Hirsch, the lovable boy next store, also deserves a shout out as the cute, snarky, hipster-glassed political activist.

Gus Van Sant artistically combined historical footage and modern re-creation. It is an effective mix of documentary and entertainment that conveys the historical significance of Milk's victory as the first openly gay politician and the hardships that the gay community faced in the past. Eerily, the parallels to Proposition 8 and the current fight to endow gay Americans with full rights of citizenships are striking: the political milieu and jargon of middle, evangelical America, calling to preserve "the family" and "traditional values." Van Sant comedically portrayed Anita Bryant, Floridian politician and ex-Citrus advertisement model, as the 70's version of the modern Sarah Palin. Bryant proposed a series of referendums that picked up momentum across the country and that struck down gay discrimination laws in various states. During the 1970's, Proposition 6 in California proposed to kick out all openly gay teachers and their "supporters" in public schools because they were infiltrating our youth.

It is a movie that touches on personal stories and mass movements: the Minnesota boy who was going to commit suicide because his parents wanted to "fix" him, the Castro riots against police brutality, the series of Milk's speeches which called on America to not denounce homosexuality as a "sickness." Honestly, even as a person who rarely tears up at movies (minus the dry-eyes), I felt a few rogue droplets; the movie hit on the universal and personal feeling of estrangement and exclusion right on the head.

Any ways, bottom line, you should all see it.

I leave for Japan, soon. So, a search for the good in the Orient? I think, yes.

beginnings | How Platonic of You

God knows how criminal it is to incorporate the phrase "life is" in any sentence that bears a command of the English language, but so much about life is finding good. Now several thoughts all beginning with a languished sigh of "Oh, God" might pop into your mind:

1) Oh, God. Not another aimless, angst-ridden adolescent musing about his thoughts on "life."

2) Oh, God. Another moral-searching, God-preaching sermon.

3) Oh, God. Do we really another Dr. Phil?

But my inspiration for this blog is about finding the good things in life. Good food, good people, good writing, and good thoughts. Just downright wholesome Epicurean satisfaction.

Having lived and gone to school in New York for about a year and half, it's quite jarring: there is just so much out there. The sea of New Yorkers, holding their Marc Jacobs bag on their arms and their $2 Old Navy sandals on their feet, reading their New York Posts on the subway with a New Yorker tucked away for later, moving from chicken and rice street vendor to $500 Masa Omakases, never ceases to amaze. And despite the myth of being alone in a city where any one New Yorker could give less of a damn about you, there are good people too. Now, a good person in New York isn't someone that necessarily holds your hand and tells you you're pretty. It's the hobo outside Starbucks that stops you for change and tells you about his past, the asshole who takes your seat on the subway and then stares at you with indignation, the Mexican who always gives you a little extra meat on your deli sandwich. These people, these things, this city will change your life.

Yet, it's so easy to get jaded, to feel lost and engulfed and lacking (God knows that my soul steeped in that New York cynicism). But even for a sarcastic world-weary soul like me, I know that there is always something new out there. There is just so much dynamite in this city, waiting to be unearthed and exploded; the good things are out there - the high-brow and the low-brow, the refined and the kitschy, the Ivy-league intellectual and the streetcorner crazy -and I intend to find them.