Happy new year...its been a heavy one...

Man...its been a crazy year...I swear this one has passed like a flash...I cannot believe it has been a year since I was in inhouse with my friends having a blast...

So much seems to have happened, so many things I can`t explain, so many things I would like to say but cant find the words to do so.

Since my time started in taiwan last year I have seen so much of myself, of other people and have been given the opportunity to explore my life and what and who I really am and want to be. To be given the opportunity to exist in different societies in asia has been incredible, there is so much passion, culture clash and excitement here...I can`t explain it. I am just so thankful that I have been given the chance to feel it in this life time.

I have travelled to Taiwan, HK, Malaysia and Japan, all majorly different countries in regards to their economys and societies however their cultures are strangely similar.

I have seen people leave my side who have been so influential to me and in their place I have met more people who have influenced me further, I have breathed a life which I never would have imagined, and I have felt alive in a way which has given me such hope for the future.

This time in Asia won`t end this year but in the next...for now I would like to say thank you again to all my friends both here in Asia and in the uk, and most importantly to me ever supporting family, I love you all!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

I hope you all have a great one and good luck for the coming year!!!!!

Baby Milo store...

Baby Milo store stairs...imagine this on both sides of the walls and loud foot soldier stamping sound effects all around you...the ULTIMATE cool!

Bape cafe...welcome to Bape paradise...

Inside Bape cafe...nigo and the teriyaki boyz...cool man...

Inside bape cafe...the Kimpsons by Kaws...

Bape cafe bape meal...i wanted to nick the glass but it was a no can do with michiyo...awww....

bape xclsuive with footsoldier upstairs..,pure bape heaven!

Land of bape...

So yes I am in the land of the completely overhyped bape...yes yes I won`t get into the full blown arguements that surround this clothing label, lets just say we (bape and I) have a happy marriage for now...hahahaha...

So being in the land of bape I have visited the five most important places...bape harajuku where everything first started, the baby milo store (the best of the bape stores in my opinion) bape cafe (yes thats right they have a coffee shop), bape xclusive (holds the exclusive stuff duh!) and footsoldier (holds bascially all bape stas ever made).

Well after much searching for bape harajuku we, well anthony found it hiding below the icecream/bbc store (thats a whole nother story that place!) so we headed inside. i have to admit i was a bit disappointed, not cause they were outta stock but the general design of the place, which in japanese fashion now is more important than the clothes it seems. After random poking of clothing, anthony tuting at the price of stuff and me shaking my head at the terrible new milo tops being grabbed by loud speaking hk people, I got my teriyaki boys cd (i can finally shut up now) from the fully clad bape bloke.

the baby milo store was the one i have been dying to go to for ages, much has been said about the store abd yes it lived up to the hype. upon entering the automatic fonht dooe you are confronted with a set of stairs with mini milos running all the wasy down the sides and the sound of an army marching. when you hit the bottom of the stairs your eyes first notice the gigantic and i mean huge merry go round in the middle of the store with milo riding around on a horse (seriously, i kid you not!). it was quite captivating as it keeps on turning...the products were not that good, but the store and design were great...bless you wonderwall bless you!!!

Bape cafe was an experience...almost like a dream come true. I went there with my darling and it was not that difficult to find surprisingly. We both had burger type things whilst sitting near a huge KIMPSONS poster thing (has to be seen to be believed) and another room with nigo and the teriyaki boyz (again has to be seen to be believed). The staff were all dressed in bape but with bape aprons (david needs!) and i was trying to nick everything in sight with michiyo tutting heavily at me! hahahhaha...def a worthwhile experience to go and plus you can smoke there now...anthony we gotta go sometime! sorry for not going in with you before!

Bape xclusive was a different type of affair...crazy stuff that is well expensive and cannot be seen in reseller shops or normal bws...i even saw a nigo return of the ape sounds pack...crazy stuff...the front of the store had cd posts where one could listen to all the artists under ape sounds...

...foot soldier was upstairs...that place was amazing...they even had the daft punk bape stas there...heavy! the carpet ws amazing, all squares and multi coloured... i loved the new marvel bape stas thats were going round in the conveyor belt, way cool man.

so yeah...bape is not dead in japan, people still line up for it, but its mostly kids and hk people there though. alot of the gold stuff of bape is no longer in their stores but in other ones...the vintage days of bape has ended. I still got love for it though, the old school stuff like collabs with futura...heavy man!

[special note* yes the bbc/icecream store was way cool in design...but boy does the clothing blow...such a shame...]

Icecream store...this ones for you kevin!!

BBC store...there was this giat astronaut inside...pharrell headz heaven...you were there in spirit Kevin!!!

Kyoto...

So we (me, anthony, michiyo and her sister) headed to kyoto for a couple of days. Kyoto for all of you who dont know is one of the oldest remaining places left in japan that was not effected during ww2 hence the temples there remain beautifully intact attracting millions of tourists like me. For anthony it was a call home of course...back to the land of the samurai...hahahhaa.

Anyways going to kyoto meant anthony and i getting up vbery early (bad idea) but we made it onto the shingansen train ok which was cool and we even sat in the smoking carriage which is seriously kick ass. the train goes way fast but in the end we were still late by an hour due to snow...

upon arrival we were pretty lost as the station was big and there is no help anywhere whatsoever. we finally found the english tourist department located in the department store and for once the english of the helpers was top notch!

That evening anthony and i went for a wander around the area of our hotel and stumbled upon a cool bar called the hub..british of course! after a drink there we headed to the station to pick up mi-chan and her mei mei however we were stopped on the street by a very distraught young woman called melinda or something. melinda was from california (where else) and had just bought the wrong train ticket and spent 9 hours on a train from tokyo and now was completley lost in kyoto and could not find her hotel! the shingansen only takes 2.5 hours! dang...she burst into tears and was like...thank you so much for your help! so of cvourse we healped her even though anthony and i had only 7 hours of knowledge about kyoto ourselves...the place she was living in was so well hidden it took us over an hour to find inbetween asking a guy on a moped and 3 policemen. she hugged us and said her many thanks...who said we aren`t good samaritans!

Crazy cool painting on the wall of the subway station at Tukiji fish market...

Everyone debating over which way Tukiji fish market is in the subway station...

Anchi, anthony and carrisa debating about which direction to head in...I was also voicing my opinion but was being completely ignored so took pictures instead...so sad...

Anthony and anchi following carrisa aka mrs luo through the narrow streets of tukiji fish market...

This was one huge fillet of fish...lets just say if i was out swimming out at sea i would not want to meet this fishy!

Huge ass pieces of ice at tukiji fish market...

I have no idea what these are, looked well scary...

This was all just randomly lying there on the floor in the middle of the market...had to take a picture.

David has no idea what this is...I am probably very stupid but still...I have no idea what this is! hahaha

Bloke zooming around at tukiji fish market...well dangerous man!

"Its thata way!"...cool woman telling us which way to good tasting sushi bar...

Anthony, carrisa and anchi patiently waiting to get into the sashimi bar...I was not so patient so was constantly taking pictures...never again!

David`s sashimi set which cost 1500 yen (about 15 quid)...no more sashimi for me for 5 years!

Anthony and carrisa at the sashimi bar...carrisa took about a billion photos of herself eating fish...hahahaha!!

Tukiji fish market...lots of fishy things!

So we visited one of the biggest if not the biggest fish market in the world located in Tokyo for random wandering and of course sashimi.

Many local residents arrive at the place at around 6-7am to buy the freshest sea food and rare expensive fish but we (me, anthony, carissa and anchi) arrived at around 11.30am however the market thankfully was still open although a little empty. Carissa was desperate to find the places that ayumi and peter had been to for sashimi so we wandered round the narrow wet cobbled streets of the market taking pictures of stuff we had never seen before in our lives. I could feel that on a normal morning the place would be completely packed with people and would be potentially a really dangerous place as these blokes bomb around on their mini cars...gotta watch out for that! One other cool thing is they all wrap towels around their heads...i was trying to convince anthony to do so however i guess it was not coll with him!! hahaha...

After asking a woman in broken japanese how to get to the mini restraunt she led the way and we ended up lining up for about an hour to get into the place as the lines were huge. The food was good, lots of sashimi had by myself...lets say i did not want any after the meal for at least 5 years!

Unknown shop in Harajuku with Ipods in the window...you can just stand there and listen to them!

Andre graphitti in Harajuku.

Recon shop in Harajuku...I do enjoy the Nosferatu in the window!

Cool lamp post covered in stickers in Harajuku...

Random...I have no idea what this is...but found it in Harajuku...

The most random pair of jeans I have ever seen...in Harajuku of course!

Beams T Harajuku...one of the coolest clothing shops in the world...this is the rotating conveyor belt of T shirts...

Graphitti...including some more Andre!

Harajuku...

Well after years of waiting and speculating I have made it to Harajuku and I have to admit it failed to disappoint, infact on many levels it has exceeded my expectations if that is at all possible.

True not everyone would be as intrested as myelf in the place although the designs and ideas behined each shop is incredible. I have never seen so many modern chic hairdressers in one place...and the concept shops they have here...amazing! I have never seen an R Newbold shop before and it was pretty cool with a nintendo control deck in the window where one could?play super mario bros. There was one shop which had ipods hanging from the window which customers could?listen to..there was not much in the shop..just some clothes...well random. Seeing the likes of evisu on home soil is intresting as it feels so much more organice when compared to the sales marketing ploy back in Europe. Its funny seeing the likes of earl jeans and chanel next to some of these shops...it just goes to show how times have changed. who would have imagined it in the times when bape first started that they were opening in an area that would later explode on this scale.

On another random day we wandered into what is known as ura harajuku which is full of shops downstairs in basements, hidden upstairs or down random back alleys. I distinctly remember seeing a vivienne westwood orb that i have only seen in the vw exhibition in a shop there. Basically they are extremely rare and priceless, but incredible to look at...the orb itself is about the size of my palm...a mere 4000 pounds for a magical piece of history. hahahaha... I have to admit some shops when found look daunting just to go into as there is no real sign just a blank door and you litterally have to ring a bell or knock on the door. It is rumoured that if they dont like the look of you they wont even open the door! hahahaha...well cool man. Recon, bape, neighborhood, porter, bounty hunter, stussy...they are all there...well heavy man.

Takeshita street, also known as junk store hell is crazy, second hand cheap clothing everywhere, punk shops, hip hop shops...you name it, they pretty much have it. During the weekends the street gets so packed with goth/punk/hip hop kids its kinda scary.

If one is to truly experience the real youth culture or scene in tokyo then harajuku is a must which can be seen from the many bewildered tourists who go there looking fascinated and at times scared! It really is youth culture personified and is an incredible experience.

Lost in translation...

Yes i am in japan, yes its very cold and yes i am having the greatest time of my life. Imagine crazy technology I have not seen before, playing with ibos in the sony tower, going into the original bape store and every other concept store in harajuku, shibuya and aoyama, eating way too much sushi at the biggest fish market in the world...this place really is insane.

There exists a society here that i cannot explain. For a couple of days anthony and i were saying to each other that we did not feel like we were in japan. There is a european/hong kong/malaysian feel to the place, its difficult to describe. The people though are what I imagined them to be, very helpful and polite and wary of the rules.

Much of my time has been spent wandering in harajuku, now my second home away from homes. Anthony are planning to get a 0.5 ping place there cause thats all we can afford! seriously the more I wander around the place, the more I discover everytime. There is so much cutting edge design and thinking here in tokyo, its kinda scary.

In the begining I hung out with Anthony, Anchi and Carrisa...we all got nicknames which were only to bve used in japan...carrisa was mrs luo, i was bape leader for a while, anthony was beard leader and of course the ever lovely anchi was white leader...

Gooooooood morning Hong Kong!

Hong Kong...crazy signs everywhere!

Hong Kong city...

Anthony in nice coffee shop...good times!

David with apple juice in coffee shop...man I look like a zombie...hahahaha

Peter and Ayumi...the lovely couple!

Henry, fellow bbc bruv legend ordering the food...

Boon! The nicest guy in the world!!

Poor fishy...it was good though!!

The Brits...finally together again! Henry, Boon and David...outside bling restraunt.

Ayumi and Anthony...eating hard! Go go go!!

David, Peter and Ayumi...outside bling restraunt.

Peter...ahh yes the tiredness was finally showing!!!

Ayumi and Ikumi at random dark bar...

Hong Kong...

So the term ended and we all had to leave the country...so we picked Hong Kong as it was the nearest place and debatably the cheapest. Anthony and I went together as peter, Ayumi and Ikumi had gone a couple of days before.

Anthony crashed at KTV legend Henry's house and I crashed at a friends.

The flight there was an uneventful one however it rapidly became clear that Anthony and I at some point would have some huge ass showdown in HK as we were bugging each other already after only 3 hours...hahahaha...

The first day started off at KFC as I demanded an oily breakfast, anthony was late as he is a bum...being in HK after so long is strange, who can believe its been 12 years...

Anyways both Anthony and I had a 'special' moment with one of the female workers in KFC that morning. I had the first moment when i came out of the toilet and a brush she had leaned against the door fell onto the floor. I was like opppsss, picked the brus h up and looked at her. I have never seen a girl look at me like that before...SERIOUSLY it scared even me! For a couple of seconds the song that goes....

..."the look of love is in your eyes..." then it was ZZZZIIIITTT~~~ and I made a quick exit.

I told anthony about it and he was like ok...nbot much reaction but as we went to leave she gave anthony the same look again, and then me as I left after him...Anthony went into hysterics and lets say we never went there again...farewell KFC girl...

The rest of the day was spent around causeway bay checking out random random department stores...thats was Hong Kong is really...one buig shopping experience. However whilst looking for my shop Juice, we stumbled upon Anthony's home away from home, Anthony's sacred ground...a red magic shop, home of ci boys...lets say there was dribbling involved and an expression of "oh my god...!!!"

Hong Kong at dusk...

Hong Kong...

David above Hong Kong city...crazy stuff!

Anthony...on Kowloon side...

Anthony...gazing at Hong Kong...seems so peaceful from this side...