The value of this space

I started writing about my adventures in a notebook I picked up in Sweden 10 years ago in effort to be able to look back at what I experienced through more than just pics on Instagram or in my photo gallery... when I lost that notebook (temporarily), it dawned on me that I needed to find another way to keep track of my antics, and so I bought this silly domain name and began transferring everything out of that book. 

This space wasn't for me to become popular or make money, it was a fun place to tell my stories in a way that captures my weird perspective on things. Its now filled with ridiculous photoshops, random thoughts, that time I wrote a book (and that time I wrote a book of poems that is 100% never going to be put on here but at least I did it), and nearly all of my little adventures - but most of all - it is me. 

Life throws you some ups and downs sometimes, the kind of things that can really make you lose yourself. What I didn't know through the years of making this blog was the power it had to bring me back to who I am. I could have easily lost that notebook a decade ago and let it be, but that's not how it played out.  I'm sitting here reflecting on a challenging last 2 years being thankful for my past self to make this space for me - it is a reminder of who I am, how far I've come, how fucking cool my life has been, and how I have always had the capacity to live the dreams I set out for myself. There is power in this space. 

Do I sometimes think "man, my future husband is going to see all the weird photos I made of myself as Carry Bradshaw and think I really love that TV show" ....yes. (I've not seen it). or "could this blog offer a psychiatrist the opportunity to diagnose me with a mental illness?" also yes. But at the end of the day, you get what you get. This is me and I'm proud of that. 

Whether you're sitting there in Hong Kong or Brazil reading about my life, I encourage you to find a way to do something like this for yourself - make something that can bring you back to you. I'm a huge fan of getting lost in the world, I'm not a huge fan of getting lost from yourself. 

TBH did expect Australia to be #2....

Okinawa

 OKINAWA - ONE WAY 

Surely I have seen kill Bill 100 times, I have such a ridiculous obsession with this film for no obvious reason and every time I finish this film I am stuck with the scene of Uma Thurman saying "Okinawa one way".

                         

Anybody who has been following my blog for any amount of time knows that I love going on adventures in order to satisfy movie quotes,  song lyrics, or just some random part of pop culture that I wanna be able to live a little bit. So on the tail end of my wonderful adventure through Japan I’m sitting down with my mate and I’m telling them I’m kicking myself that I didn’t make time to go to Okinawa to do this movie line. I only had a week left here and I’m really bummed because I don’t know when I’m gonna come back. They looked me in the eyes and said quite plainly why don’t you just go? 

1 paragraph in and already on my bullshit

I don’t know what it is about me forgetting sometimes that I have complete autonomy as an adult to just go do things but that was the little kick in the ass that I needed to get myself on a plane to Okinawa. I'll skip over all the comparisons to Hawaii but call out that it has the proper above-ground transport system you never got lol... Suck it HNL

              

I fucking love it here. The weather was amazing. The water was beautiful. The food was incredible. The people were delightful. Everything about me has a vibe for islands, I just really connect with them. Japan itself is already an island nation so to shrink it down to small tropical island form and still have all the best parts in Japan there... you better believe this was paradise to me! and the hotel for no reason was straight out of Laguna Beach!

                                                      

socks on cause yall are pervs

okay some blurry toe cause you're my good boy

seriously reminds me of Walfor Astoria Monarch Beach 

Not into churches but this would be a fuckin tits greenhouse. 

Was it cold? Yes. Did I swim anyway? Duh 

I didn’t need much. It was me and the beach just having our vibe. The following day I treked back into the city to check out all the things that are good. True to form for Japan there was an incredible amount of shopping packed into some really wonderful spaces. But what got me the most and also pretty true to the form of Japan were the temple and green spaces. There is an incredible garden called Fukusyuen Garden. That place was absolutely magical. I spent about three hours wandering around this garden through all the little wandering paths, taking time to stop, relax, and observe.  There was a really lovely energy that just made you feel balanced - like you took a shit tonne of lithium.

I've been taking pics around the world for over a decade now and still LOL this the best you get. 

Art skewl drop out

important

                        I chased around a lot of butterflies on this trip lol 

flowers cause people never see flowers anywhere

I had such a lovely day when I got back to the hotel,  I decided to treat myself to a very special dinner to honour it. Now the quality of this hotel meant even the “” cheap restaurant was a bit of a wallet breaker. So when I sat down at the fancy restaurant, I knew I was going to need a loan to finish this meal. And while the hotel staff didn’t speak much English, we had a really lovely time navigating explaining the courses of the meal with my limited Japanese and their English. It was smiles all around and just a really wonderful way to end the day.

Dont know what it is, but man it was fucking tasty

a lobster stuffed with urchin or something

                           It was worth every yen and i could have eaten 10 of them

           I AM HAPPY

Sadly was a two-way trip lol and so was hers cause girl Bill was in Mexico

Tokyo 2

"I'm back on my bullshit, like Jordan, no Pippen....If this is my life then I'm Tokyo drifting"

I’m a huge car guy, I can’t tell you how many times I would read about an international car show and be kicking myself that I hadn’t gone and seen it firsthand...one side of car culture that I always see reported on through my favourite car blogs are the customising and tuning vendors of Japan. 

The absolute best place to take all of that in is the Tokyo auto saloon. This is just another example of divine timing and my amazing luck with everything in the world, but it just so happened that the Tokyo auto saloon was going on during my unplanned trip to Japan.

I’m sitting in in my mates house reading a car blog talking about the auto show and then it dawned on me, oh my gosh I can just fly up to Tokyo and go see that myself. So that’s what I did! 

It's a quick flight from Osaka to Tokyo so I didn’t plan on doing anything here that was gonna require an overnight stay. I just arrived early in the morning and made sure that I had a really late flight out. I chucked my day full of three things... Team labs museums, Tokyo auto saloon, and sittin' by the dock in the bay.

Tokyo bay that is ...mission 1 complete

TeamLabs had come up from all of my other mates who talk about Japan, and I had never fucking heard of it but here we are ...TeamLabs - of which there are two flavours: Borderless and Planets to choose from in Tokyo. Of course, I had to go because I had the time to live someone else's dream. 

One of them (Planets) was a bit more physical and the other one (Borderless) was more interactive art, of the two I connected more with the art side of things - it felt the more physical one was geared towards children and families. Nonetheless, I was able to squeeze both of them into the itinerary. I won't spoil it with a huge photo dump and even still, you can't grasp the movement and dynamic from a still photo but go see it for yourself!

Me in my natural habitat ....surrounded by balls

I am the art, the art is me

At times it felt like I'd taken a heroes dose of mushrooms and forgot about it

TL Planets was more interactive in terms of having to climb shit, slide down shit, or feel like you had to throw a child out of your way... so I didn't get a chance to take heaps of photos....imagine holding a phone and balancing on a bunch of broken rainbow steps. I digress, the wait time was worth it - but if I had to only do one, it would have been Borderless.

The main event for me was the Tokyo Auto Saloon. 

I cannot say enough. I fucking love minivans and supercars. Specifically adventure mini vans ....speaking directly to the Mitsubishi Delica here which was a very popular van to have customised in the show because it comes out the factory already kind of prepared for an off-road camping adventure. Was it weird for a grown man to run around a car venue sporting an 8" boner for all to see cause he can't hide his adventure-van love? No...not here anyway. Sport that van boner mate, this is a safe space!

UGHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

YEUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

OH MY GAUUUUUDDDDDDDDD

YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE DOIN TO ME GUY

*cums*

Bro, I am feeling AlphaHard  rn too 

Btw that is my favourite car name of all time....Alphahard. followed by StepWagon (Honda). ...Stepwagon, what are you doing???

And of course you had all of your showstoppers ...the latest Lexus supercar and latest Lexus minivan....

Slammed, how I'm tryin to be

....Project V...for Vandetta..

.. the coolest component of this show were obviously all of the tuner vehicles. Everything from Nissan to Rolls were here ....

I liked this far more in person than I had in magazines 

M'urica

I'm gonna give you my Initial-D 😏

There’s a really cool vibe to the whole event that makes you feel very connected to what each tuner is delivering.

For scale...you have like 5 rooms of this size just full of goodness

...and I picked up my first Daruma for my mate and I!

Special mention to this ramen spot btw!! If you wrap up your TeamLabs Borderless and want something tasty...

I am always happy eating. 

OHHHHH Buddy.  Of course, I had to  squeeze in my lyrical nonsense on my way out of here....do I now own a pair of lacy underware from Tokyo? You bet your Billie Eilish I do. 

Don't have to guess the color of your underwear
Already know what you've got goin' on down there
It's that lacy black pair with the little bows
The ones I picked out for you in Tokyo