Sfera: A drink like you

All the glassware is gorgeous, too.

Expert bartender Hihara-san at Sfera Bar Satonaka will of course make you any kind of cocktail you like. But he most likes to make drinks for customers after spending some time talking and then creating something based on his "image" of them. This is where drinking becomes communication, he says. He spent some time in Kentucky, and he has some ideas about American women. He made me a bright red Scarlet O'Hara. "American women are very strong and beautiful," he said as he was assembling the ingredients. The drink wasn't something I'd have chosen for myself. I like bitter or herbal flavors, and this was more of a boozy cherry popsicle. Sweet and packs a punch, though? I'll take it as a compliment.


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Shichimi man

The seventh spice

Because Twitter has chopped my brain up into little squirmy fragments, I'm going to put up my Kyoto trip in bits and pieces.
This bit is the guy who blends your shichimi spice mix on demand, grinding the sesame seeds, nori, chili, sansho, shiso and ... two others (anyone?) into the "seven flavors" of the name.
He's set up near Kitanomangu, and he has apparently been there forever.

Hotel Mume

The exact opposite of a capsule hotel. You know how sometimes life is incredibly unfair and you get overcharged for something subpar? This is also the exact opposite of that.

9 hours

Sleep in capsule hotel - check. (In style, no less.)

Snokyo!

We got snow on Monday in Tokyo, lots of it. Lots for here, anyway. It came down all day in fat, wet flakes pushed around by gusty winds. It was a national holiday: Coming of Age Day. This meant a big decrease in potentially stranded commuters and an infinite increase in beautiful pictures of young people in the snow in kimonos.
And snowmen! I didn't venture outside until dark, and the sidewalk was lined with a full day's worth of abandoned knee-high snowmen. They reminded me of a question I have every year: Is Japan the only country where the default snowman is made of two spheres? I asked on Twitter, and quickly found out that two is common in Ireland and England. Lest you think this is by decree of her Majesty, three is the norm in Australia and Canada. Or so says Twitter. What say you?

Junichi Arai himself at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery

Arai explains how Praxis was created for this show.

Everyone else was taking pictures, so I did too. (Turns out they were press or something. As the staff woman wasted no time in telling me.) I admit I didn't know his name but recognized his fabrics as soon as I saw them. Arai is the man behind Issey Miyake's pleats, for the most obvious example. The exhibit has sheets of fabric laid out gorgeously in a dark room with gently pulsing lights that bring out different shades and glimmers. There are a few videos showing how some of the dying is done and a few cuts of cloth tacked to the wall to satisfy the almost overwhelming urge to touch. They don't do much to quench the urge to wrap yourself up in them and prance down a red carpet, though.
At ¥1000 yen, the show is probably a little steep if you aren't super into textiles. My friend Angie is super into textiles and was communing with the fabrics on another level, though, long after I'd wandered off to see the nature paintings upstairs.
TimeOut Tokyo has all the pertinent location and admission info.