Korea - Lotte world lights

Many months in a row, I found myself making the long commute to Lotte World. From Hwajeong to Jamsil station it would take roughly an hour and 20 minutes, sometimes longer if the weather was bad, trains were being decommissioned (as I often found to be the case as I was running late to work already) or other issues arose. Often times the train would be packed, a steamy airtight tube full of grouchy people rubbing elbows, day or night. The commute was, perhaps understandably enough, not my favorite aspect to working at the Lotte World location- getting to and from work took up a significant portion of my day, and often hampered me from wanting to go out and explore because of the amount of time it would still take for me to get home afterward. This, of course, was a shame because there is so much good food and so many beautiful places to find throughout the city of Seoul! Take these beautiful illuminations, for example.   

Lotte World is incorporated into Jamsil station and a shopping mall, often mingling beyond their own divided borders throughout the space. It was exceptionally confusing on my first day, and my coworker provided a very detailed photographic guide for me to find him that first run, and even so, it was fraught with issues. For one thing, telling me to meet him at Lotte Burger sounded good in theory, until I found a secondary location hidden in a corridor where my coworker had little reason to explore (and therefore no prior knowledge of). You can grab a quick bite at any number of restaurants, from the multiplicity of Lotte Burgers to sit-down cold noodles and sushi, bibimbap or kimbap a-plenty (from small stalls or major fast food chains). There are SO many different places selling clothes- from the mall proper at one end of the complex, to the underground market on the other end full of affordable tweenage styles and fast fashion, so you can get your newest styles after a day of fun at Lotte World- and if that's not enough you could even grab your groceries in the large subterranean market! The main point I'm getting at, albeit slowly and a bit convolutedly, is that you could get most of your needs taken care of or tended to while safely inside in the confines of the Jamsil station/Lotte World shopping mega-complex. There's little to no need for any visitor to step outdoors... unless, of course, you really wanted to explore the area and maybe take in the Olympic Park after a scenic walk. I would step out to vape when I could find a quiet, isolated area, or I'd enjoy my lunch out in the grassy area near a micro-convenience store hidden inside the building's outer periphery. It was on one of these outings that I discovered these illuminations, seeking a brief solace from the crowds inside before braving the long (and often crowded) commute back home. 

Certainly not the worst of surprises, huh? 

So let this be a reminder to you to stop and enjoy the little things, deviate from the norm, at least every once in awhile. 

Vegas: Summer nights and nostalgia part 5

Late at night at some slumped shouldered corner in a bar somewhere in Vegas, definitely off-strip but not more than 15 or 20 minutes away from the epicenter of the city, you're quite likely to hear a cynical and begrudging local ranting about how this city is a black-hole: for money, your soul, your life. I've certainly been guilty of it myself from time to time, as the constant churn of consumption and rejection can wear on even the most resilient of psyches. There's a magnetism to Las Vegas, a certain sort of gravitational pull that seems to get its hooks into people and become exponentially more difficult to detach from as time goes on. Like the imagery of the charming devil at the crossroads, sliding his silky red hands tight around your most prized possession and coercing you into surrendering it before you knew what hit you. 

And then, the time starts to fly by. In the endless twilight of the casinos, day and night blur into a blanket of fuzzy edges, the poorly defined vignettes of interaction bleeding one into another.  The longer you linger, the harder you have to fight to crawl your way out of the desert sands and sin that threaten to engulf you in their ever warm, alcohol-numbed embrace. If you're one for indulgence, it's even easier to get lost and wind up just another hollowed out shell, baked into bitter acquiescence by the unrelenting sun. Not only do the casinos themselves offer near-bottomless booze to all players, there's a glut of dispensaries and free-lance substance slingers hawking their wares eagerly on the streets to satisfy any craving. Anything to take the edge off, to thrill and entice. Adventure and excitement are always on offer here. This is Las Vegas, after all, the entertainment mecca of the Mojave desert, and we'll be damned if we don't enthrall. Those fat American dollars (along with all currencies, readily exchanged) are needed to keep resources pumping into our little slice of oasis.  

Things keep moving, though. Ever-changing. Fluid. 

The only constant in life is change, after all, and the city of Sin can't ever let itself become too stale. 

All photos in this post were taken by Antho Jay!

Vegas: Summer Nights and nostalgia part 2

 Black and white photos always tend to have a nostalgic sort of feel to them,don't they? Given our technological advancements and high-def camera phones occupying most of our pockets, it's good to remember that we've come quite a long way in the field of photography. Now we have fancy high-definition cameras capable of recreating nostalgic, old-timey portraits through filters and various back-end settings and enhancements! Back in the early days, your ONLY option was to stand in one place grimacing and hoping that you didn't blink and ruin your grainy capture. Given that these months mark the final few we intend to reside here in Las Vegas, Antho's choice to shoot in black and white seems especially fitting given its nostalgic connations. As much as I opine and lament the heat and consumption that rule this city, it will always hold some special sort of place in my heart because it was my home for so much of my life. I was even born here, in this city, one hot fetid night riding the coat-tails at the end of summer. Over the years I've watched the city grow and evolve, and I'm ready to close the book on it. 

Of course, one of the best things about books is that you can always revisit them, and if you're the author or someone who's opinion holds some sort of merit pertinent to the material, you can always add an epilogue, too. I've absolutely no doubts we'll be visiting this place again in the future when the city has evolved further in its endless quest for relevancy and temptation and surprises us with all new growths and developments. One out of the multitudes of reasons why I look to leave this city is this endless pursuit of growth- it's like an amoeba, expanding its feverish flagella into the expanse of desert surrounding it, consuming remorselessly from the fleeting resources nearby. Nevada and surrounding desert communities are already growing perilously close to the edge of our water-reserves, which could lead to pronounced difficulties going forward as the city keeps growing, and growing, and growing. Cost of living is going to soar as more people move from California to support their team (we're getting the Raiders, in case you haven't heard) and the population booms in directly inverse proportions to the resources available...this seems an inherently bad idea, to me. 

But, I digress. I'm no city planner, and as the city grows and expands, so too perhaps will its financial resources and the ability to spread it's tendrils farther to secure its future resources. I don't particularly care to stay and ride out the storm, though, as I expect it won't be easy. Like countless generations before my own, I'm striving out in search of the American dream, opportunity, and better weather.

So, this nostalgia seems fitting. I'm grateful for Antho's foresight to utilise the black and white setting on my camera to capture these, and I hope you enjoy.

Cheers. 

Vegas: Downtown Alley Sprawl

It's absolutely fascinating, to me, how you can walk a few short minutes away from the center of action and find yourself almost entirely alone. Downtown Las Vegas and especially Fremont Street, and the area directly around the Fremont Street Experience, are the hub of activity in this area. Once you find yourself on the numbered streets (like 6th or 7th) beyond Las Vegas boulevard to the East, you're far less likely to have to worry about finding any space on the sidewalk to navigate through. Crowds here are sparse unless there's a special event, and the later the evening gets the more sparse the traffic becomes. The raucous sounds of laughter, live music, fist fights and other drunken shenanigans fades into the distance as you walk. Murals start to proliferate the walls with a nearly manic frequency, though I'm not sure whether it's to disguise the decay or try to fight off urban depression. There's a lot of homeless people in the area, pushed out of the busier tourist areas by the ever-present security guards and police presence,  forced to congregate in more residential corners. I've stopped and given a girl my leftover food not far from here, after she cowered in fear as I walked by and her instinctual cowering tugged my heart strings. It's not just homeless people or night-owl locals you'll encounter here, though- sometimes you'll see a party bus or limousine roll by, or a rickshaw being pedaled by a dinosaur. Given that Las Vegas is home to many Burning Man aficionados (aka "Burners") , you shouldn't be surprised to encounter brightly lit bicycles or strange sculptures and vehicles at random, either. These things tend to happen here. It's Vegas, and it's weird here. Something about a city that thrives on sin, hedonism, and debauchery attracts artists and creatives, and yes, the just plain weird. Random sequins on the side of the road, too, are not so uncommon as you might expect or hope. 

Vegas: Downtown business district at night

Downtown Vegas, near Fremont, is its own sort of world. It's different from "The Strip", where all the newer buildings congregate in their huddled glistening masses and tourists tend to be densely packed. Fremont Street itself and the Fremont Street Experience  plus the Zipline help attract tourists, who may even opt to stay in one of their older hotels for the novelty, but once you start heading east you'll quickly find the pedestrian traffic thins out. There are still hotels and motels popping up from block to block, and even an RV park too, but this isn't where the majority of the action tends to happen. It's plenty interesting for us locals, as we get some of our own events in the area, like Zappos Fandom Friday or the recent Intergalactic Art Car Festival hosted by Lyft and the Mantis from Downtown Container Park. I'm sure some lucky tourists find their way to the Fandom Friday event but it's mostly locals and, not surprisingly given its location at Zappos headquarters, a good amount of Zappos employees in particular.  

The prominent downtown area, nearest to Fremont, is populated with multiple office and municipal buildings that classed up the area with fresh new pavements and glossy new exteriors. There's been a lot of new restaurants cropping up in the area as well, catering to the worker bees who need their smoothies before work and a cocktail after hours. This all translated into there being a lot more for locals to do than one might expect, especially off the traditional touristy track. On this particular evening Antho and I had gone to see Deadpool at the Eclipse Theater in Downtown, which was quite an experience. It's a luxury theater with in-show service, meaning you can press a small button and have someone bring you a beer and sliders while you watch your movie. Pretty legit! We walked to the movie and walked home as it's not that far from us and we're always looking for an excuse to stretch our legs, anyway.  I hope you enjoy this glimpse into a side of Vegas not many people might get to see. Cheers! 

More photos below.

Seoul: Dongdaemun underground at night

Dongdaemun is an absolute hub of business for Seoul, with immense buildings and alleys packed to the brim with an incredible array of goods- from an eye-melting mass of ribbon edging spooled onto massive holders pouring from one storefront to finished dresses with quaint details and quirky English phrases pressed into the fabric at another. There's something for everyone, and while much of the market is active into the late hours of the day, many of the smaller shops will shutter as their owners head home for the night. This can lead to a disorienting change in the volume of traffic as you turn from one street onto another, going from the well-lit crowded corners of Dongdaemun Culture and History park to the lesser-trafficked alleys. This is going to be true of most cities, of course- not every street in Vegas is going to be a non-stop flurry of activity, after all. As someone who walked about the city fairly frequently, though, I was surprised by the quiet, shabbier corners I found. There are less-well-to-do areas in Jogno that I'd passed through before, but this was distinctly more industrial in feel. 

This post will focus on the underground corridors I wandered this evening. I liked to explore a little after work when I was off early enough to be able to take a bit of time for it, and this was one such evening. Rather than walk the familiar route towards Gwangjang market area, I went the opposite direction and found myself in this expansive underground shopping complex after it's prime hours of operation. Being such a populated area, there were precautions in place for the potential of attack, given that Seoul is really quite close to the North Korean border and the terrifying attacks of cults in crowded areas like these in the past...I've noticed these little preparedness centers in the past, and they still leave me with a sense of disquieting surrealness. It doesn't feel real, more like stepping into a Fallout game, but this is life in the modern world, where terror attacks happen. Better to be prepared than not, I suppose, though I don't like the shadow cast on the collective consciousness by having these objects hovering in the peripheral.  

Art: Downtown Location Scouting

Unfortunately for the two of us, this year got off on a bit of a rough start. Both Antho and I have fallen sick with different ailments affecting different bodily functions or areas at different times throughout the first few weeks of January, meaning one of us has generally been under the weather for the majority of this year so far... whether that means projectile vomiting from the stomach flu or wheezing and gasping for air with a chest cold, it's been an arduous chunk of time. Even so, we've still managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get out on the town and squeeze in some scouting for locations that we could potentially use as a background to photograph our tie-dye because I'm a relentless perfectionist. It can be rather tricky doing product photography like this as you want to highlight the item itself that's up for bid while also creating an interesting and visually striking image, one that stands out from the competition and communicates the vision and personality of your brand. It's been a long, curvaceous and informative road since we started our Etsy shop back in late 2015 but even with all that we've learned and improved over  time there's always ample of room for growth and improvement left yet. On this trip we spent our time downtown looking for locations with decent lighting and interesting features that photographs well. These were some of the winners this round through. Vegas is quite fortunate in that the last few years has seen a wide-scale embracing of murals and public art throughout downtown and the arts corridor along with some surprising spots in the city, leading to some incredible usages of architectural space to create beautiful designs. There's no shortage of stunning murals to choose from, along with all the intensively designed exteriors (and interiors) of the casinos abundant throughout the city. On this particular outing we also happened upon a demolition in progress, so those photos will be included as well because I don't know about you but I personally find the construction and deconstruction of buildings fascinating, especially the megalithic casinos that perpetuate and profligate throughout Las Vegas like an incurable form of herpes that brings in buttloads of money. 

Kyoto Day 2- Part 6 - Gion

After refilling my tank with a robust and delicious meal, I still had some energy to burn so I decided to continue exploring the city by night. For a minute, though, I stopped in at yet another kissaten, or small coffee shop, for a quick cup of the beany brew before hopping back atop the bike and venturing onwards. I managed to find my way to Gion, a district of Kyoto with a bustling night life and beautiful streets, where Geisha wander the alleys and exorbitantly priced and likely equivalently incredible restaurants jostle for advertising space in the narrow passageways. Every area of Kyoto that I explored had it's own appeal while still maintaining an overall essentially Kyoto-esque aesthetic... it's a bit hard to put into words what exactly that is, though. There's a classic minimalism and simplicity with meticulous attention to detail that elevates the mundane to the luxurious, from the creation of humble tofu curds to the lacquer adorning the wood... being somewhat distant to the seas compared to much of Japan, there's more of an earthy feel to Kyoto, especially when compared to the bustling neon megatropolis that is Tokyo. People seem more reserved, to move more slowly and with more consideration, here. There's a quiet pride and contentedness in the precision and continuation of traditions carried on into modern chambers. Old meets new, without forgetting where it came from. and relishing in that history. It's a place that really resonated with me, and one that I very much look forward to visiting again someday. 

Photos, of course, will proliferate beyond the cut.

Hong Kong Day 5- The Peak

Hong Kong is famous for a lot of things, but one of the most notable is the amazing views of the city's world class architecture. Whether you're viewing Victoria Harbor from Tsim Sha Tsui in Mongkok, the square in Wan Chai on the Hong Kong side, or from atop the highest peak in the city- named, unironically, The Peak, it's a beautiful city and exquisite evening light show spectacle to feast your eyes upon. 

Typically, for those eager to reach the Peak and view the city from on high, the cable cars are the option du jour. This also means that the line for the cable cars is extremely long and not everyone is guaranteed to make it to their destination prior to the light show. Being the impatient lout I am, I bypassed this method of gaining altitude in favor of taking a city bus. Not only was the bus much cheaper, but the experience of winding alongside the narrow mountain roads in a rickety old passenger van (seriously, it seemed like a basic cargo van converted to hold seats instead of equipment) that careens around corners precariously was something to be had. Not an experience I'd necessarily recommend for those with weaker stomachs, but I managed to survive the experience well enough despite having eaten ample of the culinary goodies available throughout the area. My stomach is a brute, to be fair, and I've stuffed some questionable things down my gullet to no ill effect. But I digress.  

Once you actually arrive to the mountain's summit, you'll find a large... mall. Typically I'm not especially enthused by shopping, especially in a mall environment, unless it's some grand outdoor market or something with cultural value (I mean, sorry to say but a mall is a mall is a mall, as far as I'm concerned, whether it be in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, L.A., Seoul, or Vegas...). Sure, there have been some outliers like the time Antho and I happened upon the Sherman Oaks Galleria, aka the mall where scenes from Terminator were filmed in L.A., but we didn't go shopping. Is it weird that as a female I don't find clothes shopping an especially thrilling activity? Perhaps because I'm tall and have a hard time finding attire that fits me well (either due to weight fluctuations or my broad shoulders & broad hips/big bum) shopping for clothes has always been riddled with difficulties and challenges to me sense of self. Leggings and tunics have been a life saver (as has Uniglo while living in Asia). So, suffice to say, I didn't spend an exorbitant amount of time perusing the shops prior to the light show. After the show, however, I did stumble upon a rose blush pleated skirt that I really loved and ended up taking home with me. I found a surprisingly large amount of clothes in Hong Kong that fit me well, perhaps because of their long time as an international hub and catering to giant westerners such as myself. 

There were also some anime exhibits around the mall that were fun to see, and a lovely tea shop that I popped into. Many souvenir shops were scattered about, naturally, given the tourist destination nature of the locale.  

More photos after the cut!

Japan: Maihama Sunset 2012-07-17 日本語も

Walking home from work many nights, I'd pass along Maihama station.

Maihama station is the official Disney resort station for the Tokyo Disney parks with busses and taxis available to take guests to their points of destination (be it the park or a nearby hotel), so it's usually quite the bustling hub of activity. I could catch one of the many busses that left the station for nearby neighborhoods but they were often crowded with a long queue as Maihama is also a popular residential area for young families. As someone who finds unwinding in quiet optimal for relaxing after a long day, the walks home were generally my preferred route. What better way to get to know my neighborhood and the little joys of life in Japan?

毎日仕事から帰りましたおさんぽする。舞浜駅はデズニーレソートーの一番となりだから人が多いです。バースとタクシーがあるでもおさんぽがいいね？ママチャリもいいね！「笑」

San Francisco: Walk up Fillmore street

After hoofing it to the bridge and back across, we stopped for some grub then headed up Fillmore to our hotel, Casa Loma. This was our last night staying there and after all the walking we were looking forward to stretching out with our feet up…but first, we had to get there!

En route we passed this cute little joint, Pizza Orgasmica; the original sin. Oh, those cheeky pizza people.

Seoul Trip: Day 3, Namdaemun market at night

     After leaving Namsan Seoul Tower by cable car, I walked through the neighborhood until I was able to find the market, which was mostly closed up for the evening due to the late hour. Not to be deterred, I took advantage of the somewhat solemn shadows and deserted corners for many photos. This is kind of a theme of mine. I love seeing cultural centers in their off-hours.

Warning! This post is going to be photo heavy!

This post focuses on photos of the market itself, if you're curious about what I ate while there read here!

Seoul Trip: 2014-03-05 Seoul Tower

After an afternoon recharge from Insadong, I headed out towards Seoul tower, which later led me to wander Namdaemun market.

This post, however, is specifically about Seoul tower. It really is a beautiful tower that offers stunning views, so click on through for the photos!