I love the Haro ball appearing in this video by The Brilliant Green. It's a little character (toy?) from one of the Gundam series.

One of my favorite songs of all time: "Kiss Me Here"

ここでキスして。(koko de kiss shite./Kiss Me Here) by 椎名林檎(Shiina Ringo) is one of my favorite songs of all time. She apparently wrote this song when she was 18 or so. Her performance here as part of the band 東京事変 (Tokyo Jihen) is brilliant. It's such a far cry from the cookie cutter performances of the regular J-pop stars. I first caught the performance (available on Tokyo Jihen's live DVDs) on TV late at night and was entranced by the sheer power of Shiina's stage presence.

Lavshuca summer palettes

After reading about Lavshuca's summer palettes at Rouge Deluxe I was surprised to see them at Limone (cosmetics and sundries store) already. I swatched both palettes - quite shimmery and silky. Each palette is under 2000 yen. The square shadows are a little smaller than I was expecting, but perhaps the same size (or a little bigger) as shadows in Majolica Majorca MajoLook palettes.

The shadows are quite velvety and shimmery. The cool palette has some lovely blues, but I wouldn't use the sparkly silver highlighter much, even though it's quite pretty. Overall it was quite shimmery and most of the colors are light, which would be good for summer. I think I'm looking for deeper and less shimmery colors, however.

I liked the warm palette a bit better, as it has some darker colors. Overall quite shimmery though, so I don't know if I'll pick it up. I don't really need another brown palette.

english-speaking dentist in tokyo

Whew. It's all a little confusing, but a few of the embassies have lists of English-speaking dentists:

The American Embassy's list (longest list)
The British Embassy's list (in between in both formatting and length, but clearly notes when dentist accepts National Health Insurance)
The Australian Embassy's list (nicest formatting, shortest list)

Interestingly, all lists are different. You'd think they'd pool knowledge or something.

Cavalieri has a brilliant chef

CAVALIERI, a cafe in 幡ヶ谷 (Hatagaya) on the 京王新線 (Keio New Line), has great food. Saturday I tried the caesar salad for the first time. Delicious! I've already been hooked on their gnocchi and the desserts, but yum, I'll have to get the salads more ofen.

東京都渋谷区幡ヶ谷2-6-7 - MAP -
03-3320-7587
月～土 12:00～27:00 日・祝 12:00～24:00
無休?

One blogger posted about the cafe. The owner also appears to have a blog.


zukotto, my favorite dessert.

tech: oracle joins

Here's a good snippet on table joins using Oracle SQL.

mini review: Water in Lip Hokkaido limited edition lip balm by Shiseido

Summary: Not bad, but not moisturizing enough to buy again.

Pros: SPF15, easily available, cheap at 3g for about 300 yen or so. Pleasant light fragrance and faintly sweet. Stick balm format and attractive snowflake packaging.

Cons: So-so moisturizing. Not bad, but perhaps Vaseline would be a little more long lasting.

A few more mini reviews are here.

scones vs. biscuits vs. cookies

I was researching crumpets and scones and was amused by this section in Wikipedia regarding scones:

British scones closely resemble a North American biscuit (many recipes are actually identical) — itself not to be confused with the English biscuit, which equates to the American cookie. In the United States, there is a growing tendency to refer to sweet variations as "scones" (perhaps under influence from espresso bars, where they are popular fare), while those eaten as part of savoury meals are known as "biscuits". American "scones" are often baked to a dry and somewhat crumbly texture, and are typically large and rectangular; more like a cross between a cookie and a muffin than a biscuit. In Canada, both tend to be called "biscuits" or "tea biscuits".

Confusing much? Worse than soccer vs. football.

Anyway, British crumpets are the best. English muffins come in second. American scones are usually too hard and dry.

shibanuma awazuke soy sauce

Do they sell this soy sauce in the U.S.? It's great stuff, but I don't know if they export it.

If you visit japan...

Be sure to try Haagen-Dazs's Tiramisu ice cream. Excellent stuff.