HONG KONG NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY, TSIM SHA TSUI SYMPHONY OF LIGHTS SHOW. COOLHUNTING DIGITAL BOOK, COOLHUNTERS.
Hong Kong at night. There’s no place like it.
Photos can’t convey the flicker of neon signs, the Cantonese chatter, the smells — good and bad — from food stands. You must visit this Asian metropolis and experience it for yourself.
Seba and I enjoy walking around Hong Kong after dark. The weather’s less humid; the streets glow neon. Every night at 8pm, there’s a Symphony of Lights show in Tsum Sha Tsui, where the skyline performs a laser light disco dance.
What are the people like in Hong Kong? The opposite of polite, reserved Japan: they’re up-front, quirky. The old ladies are not afraid to wear hot-pants and push you aside!
Hong Kong currently has many “tomboys”: lesbians, or women who like to dress and identify on the masculine side. Tomboy life/style is quite overt, and socially acceptable here — interesting, isn’t it?
Personally, I’m sticking to kawaii. This top is by Hyoma, a cute character brand that originated in Japan, but is now Hong Kong based. Photos from their shop coming soon.
Seba’s wearing a Hyoma top as well. The round cat-face reminds me of my Basil Farrow. How many boys make you carry their can of hairspray, and stop to do touch-ups throughout the night?
Do you think Bill Clinton truly dined at the “Vietnamse” restaurant?
Hello Kitty is as popular here as in Japan. Food stalls and funny toys abound.
Puppy!
After a long detour, we ended up at this fountain. Seba lay down for a second… and an old lady began yelling: “Hey, you can’t sleep there! You bum, go away!”
Hong Kong. Nothing like it.
A quick press round-up. Thank you to Fashion Questions for interviewing me about my work in style blogging, designing and travel TV. You can read it here; below is an excerpt.
5. Where is your favorite place in the whole world, and why?
I love Tokyo’s spooky scene. You’ll always find me and my friends at Shinjuku’s Club Marz, home to the city’s longest-running Goth Industrial party, Midnight Mess. I also spend too much time in the Japanese alt Lolita Punk second hand store, Closet Child.
6. What is your favorite food?
Around Halloween, you can find pumpkin-flavored anything in Japan. Ice cream, soup, you name it. My absolute favorite snack is kabocha (pumpkin) pizza from the Sunpierrot bakery in Shinjuku Station. Only 200 yen ($2) a slice!
Thank you also to AA Risings, a website for Asian Pacific Americans in entertainment, for profiling me. A teaser:
Have you ever experienced writers block? How did you get out of it?
Never. Ever. I’m overloaded with material from my travel and TV adventures. Often, I have photos and stories from months ago, waiting to be posted. I’m currently making my way though the recent Hong Kong and Italy content, with no end in sight.
Most interesting fan encounter experience.
On the hentai side… there have been some unspeakable moments. But on the positive side, I’ve had people tell me that my blog brightened up their day, or inspired / helped them in some way. Many first-time visitors to Tokyo have found my Goth Lolita Japan shopping guide to be very helpful. Hearing from readers makes me feel my work is worthwhile.
And I’m featured in a Spanish book, Coolhunting Digital, which is getting rave reviews. Got my copy in the mail today, and it’s a visual feast.
The book starts out with an interview with yours truly! I discuss how I got into coolhunting with First Mate Naomi, and our unique philosophy and research methods. (You know we run a coolhunting and TV arranging company, right? If you haven’t seen our Pirates website — well, you must!)
Look who else is in the book: Evil Queen Yukiro. This is an example of a “mood board”, or photo-heavy collage, that we show clients to get our ideas across (this is Black Veil Ball in Osaka). It’s wonderful to be able to work with friends, have a great time, and do something — dare I say — cool.
Do you enjoy taking “night-walks”? What type of people and places have you encountered in your explorations? It’s one of my favorite ways to get inspired.
Song of the Day: Machine – Infinity (Sexy track from the Visual Kei band, live in 1999)
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LA CARMINA
47 Comments
You’re amazing. The end. ha.
hahaha !
Pls keep up this good work ❤ <<) ❤ ❤
<3 <2
Keep up the good work on this amazing blog. I’m not too big of a night owl but I’ll admit late nights in cities like New York would be amazing.
Many hugs and thanks for your encouragement!
^_^” This is so cool! I can’t wait until you visit Tokyo, I want to see pics of what the city looks like as of late. :D
Yeahhhhh me too! I’ll be there in late July, lots of things planned already^^
wow you got a cool life
I’m one of the readers whom your blog has helped tremendously but silly me kept forgetting to leave a comment to say a big THANK YOU, till now. So yes, thank you very much! You have no idea how much better my times in Japan have been because of you!
Ahhh you make me smile! Thank YOU for being here with me!! I’ll work hard to get you great coverage from my upcoming Japan work trip. :)
Night walks are both a huge pass time for me and a cash sink because I wear out my boots so often I have forgone buying new ones just to get the old ones repaired. Constant walks tend to have two out comes over repeated walks
1. Running into old or new friends and building greater friendships from those.
2. The realization that anyone can spend their whole life exploring an entire metropolitan city on foot or travel the world and have pretty much the same amazing experiences.
That being said I am practically giddy (yes, giddy…) over the fact that I get to live in Tokyo for 6 months come October. It will be nothing but non-stop Japanese study, music, writing, and street walks.
If I’m lucky I might actually be able to find such places as club Marz and such. I’m bad with maps, and Japanese city planning is the absolute worst so I’ll just walk around Shinjuku for like ever being a giddy gaikokujin.
I love to walk around cities, it’s my favorite way to learn about people and places.
Oh I’m sure you’ll find the clubs! Follow the spooky kids, and you’ll find the way. ;)
And Halloween in Tokyo….. V-rock fest on Oct 23… you are coming at the right time!
Dear god…….I am woefully unprepared for such information. I need more money, lots more money. V-Rock fest, brain not processing.
Wait til you see the Venice pics I’m about to post!!
sounds so exotic! <3
I’m starting to see a lot of tomboys appear on the singing shows in Taiwan. I don’t know if it’s socially acceptable, considering that my relatives still get on my case for dressing like a guy at times, but these girls not afraid to hide their style anymore. Some are even as stylish as the J-pop boyband members (and I totally envy them for that).
Seba and I noticed that too!! We saw a poster of a Taiwanese girl band, all “tomboy” style. Super stylish, and fascinating how this has become trendy in conservative HK.
Wow, amazing post! I love the photos from Hong Kong!
Thank you so much dear!! I have more amazing HK nightlife pics coming up! ;)
Is it simply a fashion or lifestyle thing, or is it really identifying with masculinity?
My dad says some women (age 20s, 30s) realize they prefer the company of other women, and can work/be independent rather than follow the traditional dating/marriage path. So they take on this lifestyle. They’re not necessarily lesbians, but lean in this direction.
I see. It makes sense, why would you limit yourself if you have other choices?
Cool! Spanish book! can you read it? XP
I can read parts! But it’s all about the photos XD
I’m a transguy so I wonder if it’s a trend to take on that life style if you lean that way or if there is a gender difference there. Obviously, it’s on the individual. Many people would call transguys all butch lesbians but I end up in far more guys then girls so that obviously isn’t true for me.
PASSONISTA MARVOLOSA! XD
Beautiful
I love exploring places at night, except on those rare occasions when I meet the wrong kind of people :/ (my ex girlfriend and I were exploring a churchyard at night one time and a guy who we assumed was also exploring waved at us, so we waved back…Turned out the swingers in the area all met up in that churchyard at night and he was trying to invite us to an Orgy…Oooops!)
Oh my goodnes!!! hahaha!!!!! WOW.
So many “tomboys” in all of China! Expecially the bigger cities, they all seem to flock there. xD
Yeah!
Here in the UK a ‘tomboy’ just means a girl who enjoys traditionally male activities like technology, sports, etc and likes to dress in jeans/trainers rather than pretty girl clothes. They are often straight and sometimes dress girly, they identify as a female/girl just have interest in non-girly activities. I would count myself as a tomboy half the time under our definition, but never class myself as lesbian or transgender.
it’s interesting, “tomboys” are different in Asia. They typically have the short, butch haircuts and masculine/lesbian clothing – like dress shirts/pants/ties or polos/loose pants.
I’ve noticed a few cute girls that identify as “TB” on facebook.
Love it! People always called me a tomboy growing up, but it never felt right because I was secretly super effeminate… to this day I still wear boys’ underwear and paint my nails. @_@
That’s fab.
i miss hkkkk”
I love Hong Kong and I love taking strolls there at night, especially near the harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui. I also don’t mind the people. I think they’re generally nice, and the few grumpy ones aren’t as bad as the ones you’d encounter in my hometown.
Heheh I love their attitude. Hong Kong kung fu hustle style!!
<3 hongkong:D
sweet
Tomboys r soo hot~! (they inspire my hairstyles XD) Theres actually stores in HK specialized for tomboys. guy clothin for hot chics(tb’s)
Cool!
you are quite fantastic!
Welcome 2 HK!!! (^_−)−☆
We had SO much fun in HK!! Have you seen all the posts so far?
http://lacarmina.com/category/hong-kong-macau/