This Belongs here.

Probably more than anything else i've ever written about. This kid lives a pop lock life in Nagoya, Japan. Every night, he and his friends hang out in front of an office building and just dance. all night. dancing. he seemed like he was adding on a little extra for my camera, though...

Robes, Son!

Water, snacks and a white-gloved driver greeted us as we loaded into the van for the long drive to Kyoto. I fought off sleep as hard as I could...i was like a little kid that didn't want to miss a moment of her favorite program that doesn't come on until midnight. But the seduction of sleep was too overwhelming...i succumbed after only seeing 10 minutes or so of Osaka at night. The adrenaline rush returned once we disembarked at our hotel, Kyoto Tokyu.



I suddenly felt wide awake again. The hotel was beautiful and classy and everyone greeted us with deep bows and smiling faces...irrashaimashite! they said, sincerely. (welcome, in English). Since i didn't know how to bow properly, i just did my head nod thing said 'arigato' (thank you) profusely.

Meanwhile, Yumi bounced over to the front desk, got us checked in and instructed the bellman where to take our luggage. The rooms were beautiful...simple and elegant. Plush robes and slippers awaited us, as well as soft earth tones of beige, brown and tan. The far window had a sliding, rice paper shade...we all ran back and forth between rooms to check if they were the same...i had to take a photo of this one funny sign in the bathroom tho...


After we got settled in, 3 of us decided to take a short walk outside just to see what was around. (Stef stayed behind cuz she was too tired) It was dark and late and we were hungry so we ended up at the Royal Host restaurant across the street. Royal Host was pretty much like an IHOP type of place..real low key with soft booths. it kinda felt like home. The most appealing about it was the HUGE photos of desserts all over the walls, parfaits, sundaes, cakes, tarts...we were like YEAH! so anyway, we walk up in there and hold up 3 fingers to the hostess who quickly ran (i mean really ran) over to greet us.

The place was full of young people and they all turned to look at us 3 black women walking up in there...it was weird. so we sit down and look at our menus with superhuge pictures and no descriptions that we could understand. i guess the waitress saw as all confused and ran over again with the two words that would save us multiple times on this trip:

"English menu?"

"Hai!" we yelled back.

so after going over all the menu items, which ran the gamut from steaks to bowls of noodles to sausages, we settled on tacos and dessert. yeah i was kinda ashamed that my very first meal in Japan was tacos...good lord. but they were good as hell...perfectly crunchy shell, great fillings....but my favorite thing about Royal Host: no tipping! in fact, that's everywhere in Japan. you don't tip anyone ever. They don't need that incentive in order to do a good job for you. They have such pride in their work and such a high work ethic that i was truly inspired...

As we left the restaurant, i got a chance to show off another phrase that i'd learned:

Gochiso sama deshita! (it was a real feast)

ok it wasn't a real feast but the hostess was surprised and appreciated my compliment. or she was just being appropriately polite and was thinking that i was a stupid, wretched gaijin who needs to go the hell home. I guess i'll never know.

On Seeing Japan for the First Time

When we broke thru the clouds after 14 hours, my heart was beating so fast. Queena and I kept saying to each other "oh my god! We're actually going to Japan!"... i mean there it was right outside the window. it was real. a real place. not just on the news or in a magazine. or a sweepstakes. or an idea. or an itinerary. or a map. it was FOR REAL. Just thinking of how as little girls, we would sometimes drink sugar water and pretend it was juice or soda or something else we couldn't afford...and now we're on a plane to Japan, a place that most people in world never get to visit.

If i ever make an album it's gonna be called "From Sugar Water to Sake"

ok so anyway, we're standing around clueless in a foreign country, signs everywhere that we couldn't read. of course some were in English but still..."Follow the crowd" was my advice, so we did. Immigration was easy...there weren't many foreigners on the flight so our lines were short. We got our bags then made our way to the main area to look for a guy holding a sign with my name on it. As we were coming down the elevator, we spotted our driver. My heart lept when i saw my name on the card...as i got closer, i noticed it said "Veronico"...we all busted out laughing. Close enough, i guess.



the airport looked more like a shopping mall. it was NOT CUTE. all one floor and long as hell


Our van driver (who was wearing a suit, hat and white gloves!) held our bags while we exchanged our money. In Japan, you can't just walk up to the window, hand over your money and get yen. First you gotta fill out this form. Name, amount of money, where you're staying, the phone number...i was like damn! then after that, you take your money and form to the counter and they do the do. PLUS you don't just hand people money hand-to-hand...there's always a shallow tray (this is at all stores in Japan) ...you put the money in the tray, they take it, then put your change in the tray. I had a hard time remembering this teeny piece of etiquette throughout the trip. (among a couple others)

So after we got our money, we met up with Yumi. she informed us that the drive to Kyoto would take about 2 hours so we'd better go potty. (she ain't say like *that* but you get the jist). The bathrooms were fantasically clean and you didn't really have to touch anything. The handryers were dope. it was this open oven looking thing on the wall that you stick your hands into...once you do, it glows red and your feel this hot air on your hands till they "bake" dry. it was weird, creepy, fun and efficient all at once. But my favorite bathroom feature was this:




A Baby seat!!!! Yes ladies...you can take the baby in the stall and strap them in while you use the bathroom!! Brilliant! If you only knew how many times Marius crawled out from under the stall and away from me while i was trying to pee and there i am, pants down, trying to run out there and bring him back...it was crazy. they need these in the United States...stat!!!

ok. midnight. i'm turning into a pumpkin. but first, the 3 ladies have something to say about the airport bathrooms...

8 Million Stories

I guess we'll see if i can remember them all... A week ago, I returned from the trip of a lifetime. An experience I will never forget...i hope. So to ensure my lasting memory, i will attempt, over the next few weeks, to record as many memories as i possibly can. Here goes...



friend. cousin. me. sister. Detroit Metro airport. there's nothing to do there but shop and eat so we decided to eat. besides, we had 3 hours until our plane was leaving for Osaka..

remember that old Sesame Street segment where you'd see 3 kids jumping rope in 3 squares and one other kid on a pogo stick in another square? and then the song was like "1 of these things is not like the other, 1 of these kids ain't doin' the same..." or whatever the lyrics were. but anyway yeah...3 of us had salads and 1 of us (wasn't me) ate some chicken and fries. if i had only known what a harbinger this photo was...

we had good conversations tho...this was there first time meeting Stefanie but it didn't seem like it. she fit in well..in no time, her and Queena were busting on each other like old friends...the flight was good too. even tho our arm rests didn't work and we couldn't hear the movie and we couldn't turn on the light and the radio was broken..lol. But it was still fun. me and stef and queena (with the help of our awesome BLACK flight attendant, Michael) found some seats with working armrests so we could watch Dreamgirls. Michael was so cool with us by the end of the flight that he stole a bottle of champagne from first class and gave it to us.

the flight was long but i pretended that there was no time. and i looked out the window alot...


Alaska. wow. still can't believe I saw it...the mountains seemed to go on forever...

that looks like a road but it's not a road. i wish there was something on the ground to give a frame of reference but i'm willing to bet that gap is at least 1 mile wide. i'm still bugging out on how close those mountains look from 36,000 feet in the air...

ok, exhausted. 130am. bed. write more tomorrow.

1 Day Until Japan

Gion Higashi Kouta　祇園東小唄, originally uploaded by mboogiedown.

so much to do and so much will go undone....i will not sleep tonite which is fine becuz then that should make it easier to sleep on the plane.

I'm working on a photo journal of my final day of preparations for my trip. this is kinda fun... i should be posting it later tonite. i want to do some videoblogging too so i may work on that while i'm away.

here's some Japan culture trivia: the women in the above photo with the white powder on their faces are not all geisha; some are maiko. maiko are apprentice geisha. Once you become a full geisha, the white powder is no longer required. They can wear it during special performances, though. In Kyoto, geisha are referred to as "geiko"

Also notice that the singular and plural nouns in Japanese are one and the same. One would not say "geishas" or "maikos".

ok i'll be back later. class dismissed.

12 Days Until Japan

pestulent poser, originally uploaded by Mr. Mark.

I can't believe it's this soon. I'm ready but i'm not ready. It still doesn't seem real...

Winning this trip in a sweepstakes is definitely among the top three Most Surreal Things To Ever Happen to Me. With the other two being

-dancing onstage with Prince at Madison Square Garden

-holding a $64,000 check in my hand after appearing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

I have so much more to say about Japan but i need to get to sleep...