KEEPING UP WITH PROJECT RUNWAY

MUST OF YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW THE WINNER OF PROJECT RUNWAY

BUT FOR THOSE STILL KEEPING UP WITH THE CURRENT SHOWS, WE MUST SAY THAT MONDO IS DEFINITELY A BIG CONTENDER AND IM SURE HE WILL MAKE IT TO MERCEDES BENZ FASHION SHOW.

HE MAY VERY WELL BE A WINNER

KEEP ON ROCKING "MONDO"

Tobacco as Collectors Items

My good friend Taro saw my blog post about his buying loads of cigarettes before the huge price hikes so he sent me photographs of his "collection."

Taro used to smoke two packs a day, but over these last few years, he has begun to conserve and now a pack will last him about a day and a half.

If you look at his two shipments from the last two days (he had to order ten boxes from one shop and ten from another in order to get delivery before today; the price hike day) then you realize that he has enough cigarettes for about one year.

Japan has very humid summers and so cigarettes won't last long in that weather. In the winter, on the other hand, it is very dry and so they will keep quite well.

I wonder if the Japanese government takes that into consideration whenever they raise cigarette taxes... It seems that tobacco taxes are raised only in October.

This is one set that any smoker would like to "collect them all" in his collection!

Latest Gadget

HypnosEye iPhone Portable Projector

This amazing palm size projector is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and any digital camera with adjustable screen brightness. With easy operation you will enjoy slideshows of your photos and moves. No power source or connecting cable is required because it uses only the light source of your portable device.

Other Details

Projection Range:

projects from17 to 45-inch image over a distance of 0.5 to 2 meters

Focus adjustment:

(slide-) adjustable

Image size capture opening:

10 to 25mm, LCD display size: max.: 50 * 70mm

Weight (body only):

Weight

Japanese Street Fashion...

..is perhaps one of the most bold, outrageous and fearless we can ever encounter. The unique touch this individuals ad to their everyday street wear is by far a show stopper. 

Japan began to emulate Western fashion during the middle of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 21st century it had altered into what is known today as 'street fashion'. The term 'street fashion' is used to describe fashion where the wearer customizes outfits by adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends. Such clothes are generally home-made with the use of material purchased at stores.

At present there are many styles of dress in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some of these styles are extreme and avant-garde, similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks. The rise and fall of many of these trends has been chronicled by Shoichi Aoki since 1997 in the fashion magazine FRUiTS, which is a notable magazine for the promotion of street fashion in Japan.

More recently, Japanese hip-hop, which has long been present among underground Tokyo's club scene, has influenced the mainstream fashion industry. The popularity of the music is so influential that Tokyo's youth are imitating their favorite hip hop stars from the way they dress with over-sized clothes to darkening their skin with ultraviolet rays, usually done by tanning. Many Japanese youth believe that tanning or being darker is a freedom of expression they are unable to experience in their circumscribed social role as 'Japanese'. The idea of darkening one's skin to more closely resemble an American hip-hop star or ethnic group may seem like a fad, but this subculture, the black facers, do not particularly set themselves apart from many other sub cultures that have emerged as a result of hip hop.

     

              

Lindsay Lohan -- Rehabbin' at Betty Ford

 Lindsay Lohan is undergoing treatment at the famous Betty Ford Center, a legendary and respected alcohol and drug rehabilitation clinic in Rancho Mirage, California.

Lohan,24,in the news because she's a celebrity drug addict. 

Truly I wish the girl the best and hope that she can for once and for all get it together 

and focus on her talent. 

Meanwhile

 Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matthew Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27,Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew Johnson 21, Zachary Fisher 24, Brandon King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, and SheldonTate 27 are all Marines who gave their lives this week, no media mention.

Vintage Japanese Antique Postcards

I love old vintage art. There is a site on the Internet that specializes in collecting called Collect At. Collect.at. Collect.at proudly states on their webpage that it is: 

Austria' s oldest and largest online mall for Antique Collectibles
collect.at offers many kinds of unique Antiques and vintage Collectibles such as Oriental Antiquities, Autographs, vintage Postcards, old Graphics, antique Photos, History Documents, Stamps, Philately Collectibles and much more.  

I went to the site and found dozens of beautiful antique Japanese postcards there. I hope you enjoy the tour!

Raphael Kirchner Art Nouveau postcard depicting an older Chinese gentleman accompanied by a Geisha. Sent as postcard from New York to Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Old, tinted, Japanese postcard, depicting pretty young ladies in front of an impressive folding screen. One of the girls is playing a lute.

Japanese vintage postcard with view at a war ship with Emperor Hirohito and his men, inspecting the fleet. The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes. It was the third largest navy in the world by 1920 behind the Royal Navy and United States Navy.

Imperial Japan: Lithographed colour postcard after a painting, depicting Samurai fighting. Attached is a 2 Sen fiscal stamp tied by a postal cancellation.

Japan, Kyoto: Japanese vintage postcard, made from a color woodblock print for the use as advertising postcard. Depicted is the entrance to the Hotel Kyoyamato in Kyoto.

"The Street, of Ueno Tokyo“. View from bird’s eye view at street with streetcar and wheel barrows.

Interesting, decorative Japanese woodblock print ( Kitagawa Utamaro ) as postcard, from 1910. It shows 2 ladies in attractive Kimono and a baby. One lady preparing giving mother's milk to the baby

Decorative, old, Japanese Postcard as advertising for Nagoya Hotel. Lithographed background and photos of hotel and dining room, restaurant.

1906, December 29th: The Japanese Crown Prince sitting in a cart, driving through a street of Tokyo, masses along the street. Mint, fine condition, issued by Hilger in Berlin.

Old postcard from Osaka. Attached are a ½ Sen Earthquake stamp tied by a clear violet Osaka strike and a 10 Sen Chrysenthamum. The postcard has been sent to Vienna. It comes from the Ignaz Winkler philately collection which specialized in Japanese and Chinese postal history.

Japanese cruiser, capturing a Russian merchant ship.

Japan, China: Very decorative, Japanese propaganda postcard for China Revolution Dept - campaign. The postcard shows a Chinese boy and silhouettes of workers and soldiers.

1911: Japanese panorama postcard with view at a place in Tokyo, a Shinto temple for fallen soldiers , an army museum and the statue of a Vice-admiral.

3 parts as one postcard. Text in German ( by a Japanese ), sent in an envelope.

Hibiya Park at Tokyo. A group of charming young ladies in this park. Stamped with a 1/2 Sen Japanese Post in China stamp. Sent to Styria in Austria. CTO cancellation, sent in an envelope.

Old Japanese Photo-Postcard, depicting a Zeppelin-airship over a Japanese village.

Old, tinted, Japanese postcard, depicting pretty young ladies in colorful Kimono, playing. The postcard has been sent to Italy, Naples. Attached is a 4 Sen stamp

Old Japan: b/w vintage postcard with soldiers of the seventh army with guns ready, posted in the streets.

Old color-postcard "The Japanese army crossing the Ihoriver." Artist-signed postcard, used 1904 in Hungary. 

Decorative vintage postcard as advertising: Nagayo Hotel. Lithographed and photographed views of the Hotel. 4 Sen stamp with clear Nagoya and Yokohama cancellations. Sent to Cincinnatti, Ohio.

Cochinchine - Saigon - Artiste Japonaise - Premier Role.

b/w vintage postcard depicting a female Japanese actress in traditional theatre robe.

To see many more vintage postcards from old Japan, go to Collect At.

DISCOVER WHY PUERTO RICO DOES IT BETTER

WWW.SEEPUERTORICO.COM

Japanese guys stocking up on cigarettes

As everyone in Japan knows, the price of a pack of cigarettes is about to jump 20% in a few days. That will bring the price of a pack of regular cigarettes to about ¥410 (about $4.80 USD pack). I'm sure glad that I quit smoking a few years ago. 

I smoked from 1998 to May 2009. Yes, I am lame. I didn't smoke at all until I became over 40-years-old. Interestingly enough, I got hooked on cigarettes during a five-week hospital stay in 1998.

How does one get hooked on cigarettes while staying in the hospital? This is Japan, there are still lots of hospitals that have smoking sections inside the hospital. The one where I got hooked on cigarettes had a smoking lounge that seated at least 100 people. While I was staying there, there was not much to do - couldn't really go out (it was winter) so us guys would sit around in the lobby and smoke cigarettes...


That is so Japan...

Back then, a pack of cigarettes cost ¥240 yen (about $2.80). The price of cigarettes has been steadily increasing by about ¥30 a pack every two years or so.

I got fed up with that nonsense and quit when cigarettes hit ¥300 per pack (about $3.60). I wrote about that and how you too can quit easily here.

Now, with the price of cigarettes about to skyrocket, Japanese people are stocking up. I was in my favorite grocery store the other day and over-heard two register clerks saying that they were out of several brands of major cigarettes and that was in the morning just after opening.

Some people are buying hundreds of cartons and storing them like gold. 

Bloomberg reports:

Yusuke Sato says a man walked into his tobacco store in Atsugi, southwest of Tokyo, this month and bought 100 cartons of Mild Seven cigarettes. While they may not be good for his health, he may have saved $1,300.

The man is one of thousands of smokers across Japan stocking up before Oct. 1 to beat a record 40 percent tax increase on tobacco. Their hoarding may add as much as 1.4 percentage points to this quarter’s annualized economic growth rate, according to estimates from the Japan Research Institute.

“We were afraid we would run out of stock,” said Sato, who started taking reservations for cartons last month. “Thirty cartons has been the norm.” Next month, customers would pay 110,000 yen ($1,300) more for the same 20,000-cigarette order after the price of a pack of 20 jumps by a third, he said.  

The headline of the Bloomberg article talks about how the Japanese government is benefitting from this "cigarette rush" due to a jump in tax income from sales.

I'm sure the government needs the money too since the economy is so bad...

But how long will this last?

I asked my best friend, Taro Furukawa, about it. Taro is 38-years-old and has been smoking since he was 14. In the last few years, he's been conserving cigarettes and sometimes smoking the same cigarette twice (he takes a puff then puts it out gently and returns it to the pack to smoke later - they taste rancid that way, but at least you get a nicotine rush, I used to do that too!). Taro is a hard core smoker - like many Japanese his age. Taro says he will not quit smoking even if cigarettes hit ¥1,000 (about $11) per pack!

Taro Furukawa

Taro went to the store and bought several hundred dollars of cigarettes at once... The amazing part is that everywhere in Japan is sold out of cigarettes. Taro had to place an order and wait one week. He will get his cigarettes tomorrow he said.

Taro says he will never quit smoking no matter what the price of cigarettes. Why? Because he likes to smoke.

I quit smoking almost 2 years ago and do not want a cigarette anymore... But I can understand why a guy likes to smoke.

If it helps him to relax and enjoy himself, then why not let him do it?

Life can be difficult enough as it is, full of stress, without having a one minute simple pleasure taken away.

But, after some more prodding, Taro admitted that his wife was not happy at all that his weekly cigarette allowance went from $21 to over $600 in one shot.


Taro said, "I might have to quit smoking at this rate..." If Taro thinks this, then there must be millions of other Japanese guys who think the same thing. Maybe this one time burst of spending helps Japan's GDP but it's going to end and, besides a huge decrease in cigarette taxes, we might see a huge increase in irritated Japanese men.


I hope not.   

Plus Size Dresses

Elegant Dresses
Simple Dress Party
Simple and Beauty Dress
Luxury Dress
Elegant Dress for Party
All About Black Dress Model
Plus Size Wedding Dresses
Red Plus Size Dresses
Plus Size Dresses Fashion