Devil's in the Details / Nakano

Today it is snowing, but not in a nice way - just icky, icy stuff - and there's also been a very very small "tsunami advisory" issued for the entire east coast of Japan (nothing to worry about, it might just mean some train lines are stopped), so I'm taking that as an excuse to stay inside, get some blogging done and watch some bizarre Japanese tv. This is the outfit I wore the other day to Nakano! It's a suuuuper cute suburb, the most dense in Tokyo in fact - there are 20,000 people living in each square kilometre, although you wouldn't be able to tell on the Monday afternoon that we were there - with hundreds of both adorable and slightly grungy side-streets to explore, which at night are full of 80s-themed bars, great Izakaya and delicious places to eat. wearing t-shirt - Thank You Mart necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy skirt - c/o Sheinside tights - c/o My Tights shoes - Shoe store in Koenji headband - Accessory store in Harajuku belt - Vintage And as a quick science fact today, here's a picture of me in an installation at the Trick Art Museum we visited while in Odaiba the other day. This is an optical illusion known as the Ames Room. Here's a video of the fantastic neuroscientist Ramachandran explaining the Ames Room, and this google search shows some awesome pictures of it at work. The room didn't duplicate me by the way - as there was only my boyfriend and me to take photos, we could only go in one at a time, so I just merged the photos of me standing at both sides of the room, haha. The ames room works by tricking the observer into thinking they are glancing into a normal, rectangular sized room. In reality, the room is an irregular shape with the floor slanted upwards as you get bigger and bigger (there's a good diagram of the room on the wikipedia page too). I hope you're all super well! Much love,

Harajuku & The Uncanny Valley

Aren't these just the best shoes that have ever been conceived of?? I was pretty sure that Japanese shoes didn't fit me - last time I was here, even their Extra-Large was just a smidgeon too small - however this time I seem to be getting really lucky - all the X-Large sizes fit my giant western feet! These tights (sent to me by My Tights) go so perfectly with the shoes as well, because the stripes match up and make my legs look super cool from behind, haha. They're also perfect for Valentines day and I'll be wearing them again come February 14th - they're cheesy, but kind of perfect. In these photos I'm posing in a side-street just off the main shopping street (Takeshita dori) in Harajuku. I decided purple hair was appropriate for a Sunday afternoon in this suburb, and I was glad I got all dressed up because "dressing-up" over-the-top in Harajuku is the norm. It has not been cold here AT ALL, more like autumn weather in fact, and I haven't even needed my coat in the daytime. wearing dress - c/o Sheinside boots - from a store in Koenji tights - c/o My Tights cardigan - Forever 21 Continuing with my Japanese-themed science posts, today I'm going to talk about the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon. Uncanny Valley was proposed by a Japanese robotics professor named Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, but has become more relevant today now that we have started to create life-like animations and robots that look like humans. The Uncanny Valley Humans react most positively to the sight of other humans. When we see animations and robots that have human characteristics, our reaction towards them is more and more postive the closer to humans they become - until a point. When the robots/CGI start to look almost identical to humans but just not quite, our reaction to them is quite severe. They make us shudder. They make us cringe. We don't like them one bit. For example, this is a robot called CreepyGirl. You kind of just want to punch that robot in the face, don't you? But a robot like this, that doesn't try to look too realistic, we find likeable and even cute. This video explains the uncanny phenomenon really well and I recommend you watch it! It explains why even though CGI has become really quite advanced, all the animated films that we see still feature very cartoon-like characters. Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday!

Vintage Shopping in Koenji

wearing sweater - a store in Harajuku skirt - Vintage (from Koenji) ring - c/o Oasap necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - Ebay socks - Thank You Mart shoes - Rubi Shoes If I were to list my favourite suburbs in Japan, Koenji would be in the top five. The main shopping street features a ridiculous amount of cool vintage stores, both boutiques and the cheaper "used clothing" variety. Plus the whole area itself is super cute. I have a fantasy plan to come back and live here for a year before I start my science phd, and Koenji is where I'd most love to live. In the photo just above I'm standing in a super cute vintage store, holding a dress which I really wanted but didn't buy as it was just a bit too expensive... looking at it now though I'm wondering WHY I didn't buy it! From this same shop though, I bought the corduroy overall-style skirt I'm wearing in the top photos for only $10. Oh Koenji, you're so cute. I think I had a Kawaii-attack at every shop front that I passed. The attention to detail in all the stores is incredible and something that you don't find at all in Australia. I'm definitely going to live here one day. Hope you're all having a lovely Monday! p.s. I loved reading all the comments you guys left me on my blog post yesterday. You guys make me laugh so much, I'm so happy to have such lovely people reading my blog and leaving such thoughtful messages! :)

Boardwalk - Tokyo Bay and Odaiba

Sorry I haven't updated you guys for a few days on my trip, but I think I have a pretty good excuse, because this happened: (I'm trying to look sad and forlorn here in order to score some sympathy points, haha). So the "official" story is that my left foot got horribly and dramatically crushed by an entire circus that rode through town. Because that's a much more interesting story. (And I'm also looking forward to some comments from people have merely skimmed through this and think that's what actually happened.) However the real (and boring) story is that I have inflamed tendons and wasn't able to walk for a few days, due to me being over-enthusiastic about exploring all of Tokyo on my first day here. Although it's been a lot more slow-going, luckily it hasn't stopped us doing too many things and we've still had some great days hanging out at bath houses and riding ferries and exploring the Trick Art Museum at Decks in Odaiba. And shopping, of course. So I've made sure not to not mope around, and look at this whole slightly-crappy situation more like this: If you get what I mean. Anyway, I have a billion photos to share over the next few days of all the awesome places we've been exploring, so look out for them soon! wearing: sweater - Vintage scarf - Shibuya 109 necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - c/o Oasap shorts - c/o Wholesale socks - Vintage beanie - my boyfriend's shoes - Rubi Shoes Here's a few pretty shots from Odaiba. It's a crazy, weird and wonderful place - the whole area is built on top of an artificial island and half the buildings are department stores or amusement parks of some sort. Highlights are a replica 1980s game arcade, a "Trick Art" Museum and an Edo theme-park onsen. That's all from me today! Hope you're all well. Much love,

Day Two / Japanese Science & Internet Umbrellas

Ohayou! This is the outfit I wore yesterday for exploring some more of beautiful Tokyo! If you're ever going to Japan, you must make sure to check out Kichijoji. I spent the afternoon wandering the gorgeous Sun Road shopping street (see photos below). wearing sweater - Harajuku (and I forgot the name of the store) necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy coat - my mum's coat tights - Ebay socks - Vintage bag - Rubi Shoes skirt - Ice shoes - Asos I forgot to take photos of everything cool I saw yesterday, because I was too excited by it all... haha :) however here is a shot of one of my favourite chain stores in Japan - Momo by Wonder Rocket. (There's about 3 of these in Harajuku on Takeshita street alone. They have the cutest stuff.) Oh and hey! I'm not going to forget my science posts either while I'm abroad! Here's a little Tokyo-themed science story. My next few science posts are going to be Japan-themed, quite fittingly! The photo you see above (from this news story) is an "internet umbrella" called Pileus, which displays a Flickr stream and google maps underneath the canopy. It can even play Youtube videos. Created in 2007 by two Japanese graduate students at a research and design laboratory, it's a cute use of technology and science with the aim of "making rainy days more fun". While displaying social media and the like on one's umbrella will probably not catch on - and I can also imagine it would cause a lot of people to bump into each other - it is a step towards the world of augmented reality (which many science commentators have declared is going to take off in 2013). Augmented reality is the science of having the world around you "augmented" or "enhanced" with things that aren't actually there. An example of augmented reality is like being able to look at a restaurant through special glasses, or through your iphone camera, and having it tell you the number of people inside and if any of your friends from facebook are currently eating there (seriously, look up augmented reality, it's awesome). In fact, google have already begun developing augmented reality glasses. I hope that you're all very, very well! More from me soon,