new moon

I'm quite resigned to the idea that New Moon will not be the best movie ever (since I didn't even really like the book), but I am still SUPER excited to get my Edward Cullen fix! Looking forward to spending Sunday afternoon staring deep into Edward's eyes. Any of you guys watching?

In the meantime, I'm kinda loving these pictures of Kristen & Rob from the current issue of Harper's Bazaar. From relative anonymity to the cover of Harper's Bazaar in a little more than a year? They've come a long way, baby.

leica m7 hermes edition

As if a plain old Leica camera wasn't covetable enough. Now they've gone and teamed up with Hermés to create the Leica M7 Hermés edition, which is really JUST. NOT. FAIR.

It's a super limited edition, of course, with only 200 pieces to be sold. As a camera, it's a standard M7 with a Leica SUMMILUX-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH. wide-angle lens, lens hood, and LEICAVIT M winder. The Hermés touch comes in the calfskin leather accents in either orange or etoupe (pictured here). I much prefer the discreet look of the etoupe to the loud Hermés orange—not that my opinion matters because I will never own this piece of gorgeousness. I mean, the Leica M7 Hermés only costs ₤8,550 (roughly $14,000). More droolworthy pictures below.

*sigh*

uniqlo + j

One of my regrets during the Japan trip was not being able to get something from the first collection designed by Jil Sander for Uniqlo. I tried, believe me, I did. But every other small boned Japanese lady seemed to have the same idea and I couldn't find the peacoats I liked in small sizes. The collection is supposedly in the Soho store too, but I swear to God, the sizes are smaller (and thus better for me) in Japan. I doubt I'll find the perfect fit here. So I'll just salivate ...

Uniqlo, you break my heart.

japanese burgers

Wouldn't you know it, of course Japanese burgers are really, really yummy too. These babies from Mo's Burger, in my humble opinion, give In-and-Out a run for they money. I like how these burgers aren't greasy, and it helps that the veggies tucked into the bun are super fresh. We also tried the shrimp burger, which of course, had actual pieces of tiny shrimps inside. Awesome. Later that day, we passed a Freshness Burger joint, which is apparently another one not to miss while in Japan. Not wanting to spoil our appetite for dinner, we shared a tofu burger. So simple, but so good. And that iced latte was pretty yummy too.

Oh you Japanese people you. God bless you for your uncontrollable need to perfect everything, from toilets to burgers. God bless you ...

yakiniku

My reward for being a good girl and sitting quietly all afternoon at the Mezz Cues factory in Tomiyoka City, Gunma Prefecture was an awesome yakiniku dinner. Yakiniku broadly refers to meat and offal cooked on a gridiron over charcoal. We started off with some delicious beef tongue. Because I didn't grow up in Japan where everything seems to be ridiculously fresh, I'm used to beef tongue with more of a chewy, gummy texture. This was so fresh that I actually asked, "What am I eating?" and was surprised when I was told it was beef tongue. The thin slices of tongue were super tender—not gummy at all. Very delicious.

And then we were asked the question, did we like raw meat? Hellz yeah! So we were served this:

Wikipedia tells me that this dish is called yukhoe, and stems from Korean cuisine. Essentially, this is beef sashimi. There are slices of tender rump steak flavored with soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil, scallion, ground garlic, sesame seed, black pepper and Asian pear juice, all topped off with a raw egg. Similar to a steak tartare and very yummy in my opinion.

And then, more meaty goodness. Not sure what cuts of meat these are since our host didn't really know, but I can tell you that they were awesome. I mean check out the marbling of fat on that meat ... a quick trip to the grill and we were in heaven.

Life, I've found, is not always a bed of roses. Sometimes it can really truly suck. But other times, if only for a few hours, it can be really, really good.