Day Two

Spent today hanging out in Tokyo. First stop, visited a buddy of mine who works at this clothing shop in Shibuya called Peace Maker. High end t-shirts with tattoo-inspired designs. Really cool stuff but on the pricey side. They collaborate with a lot of Japanese artists and musicians, and the guys who work there are all big tattoo enthusiasts. They flipped out when I told them I got some ink from Grime. We showed off our new ink and took snapshots of each other's tattoos. He has a sleeve-in-progress being done by Genko in Nagoya.



One of the other guys who works there has sleeves-in-progress by Shige, another artist who I really want some work from. (But who also has a 2-3 year waitlist!) I didn't get a chance to snap any pics of his sleeves but next time I will. He has a cool Tibetan theme going on with his tats, including an image of the Dalai Lama!

Afterwards headed to Shinjuku to meet Akkin, who I've known now for over 13 years (damn!) We met while I was studying in Fukuoka back in '95-96.

While I was waiting I bought some snacks at Muji. Bittermelon chips and apple chips:


and washed them down with some plum-apple juice:


complete with a little pickled plum at the bottom:


Then Akkin treated me out to a really great vegan-friendly organic macrobiotic restaurant in Yoyogi-Uehara called Gaya. The meal was prepared beautifully and tasted amazing.

The tofu karaage tasted so much like the real thing (fried chicken) that it kinda freaked me out!


Renkon (lotus-root) steak was delicious:


Tofu skewers was also really yummy:


Finally, assorted desserts, since Akkin shares a love for sweets as well.
Strawberry parfait, chocolate cake, sesame soy ice cream and blueberry cheesecake, all vegan!


If only I could eat like this everyday!!!