Style Muses #2: Jehnny Beth (Savages)

Image Source

Jehnny Beth is a goddess. I know this because the first time I saw them play live at this year's Laneway Festival, grown men shouted this from the audience and they were right, she was a goddess standing centre stage, bathed in light with a compelling intensity filling her dark eyes. 

Savages is a post punk band from the UK creating music that is both sexy and menacing. There is something unsettling lurking amongst the beats, something that is visceral and raw yet also sophisticated.

Image Source

There is an empowered femininity in Beth's androgynous style. Her cropped hair and sharp tailoring are understated and chic - she exudes a coolness that appears to stem from an indifference towards the world at large. She looks like she would take you home, teach you everything there is to know about love and throw you out in the morning.

Image Source

Her style is so simple and yet she makes it her own. The masculinity of her tailored clothing is juxtaposed against feminine heels and jewellery, and while this may equate to "appropriate work attire" on other women, she somehow makes it edgy.
 

Image Source

When Savages perform, Beth's delivery and sharp, deliberate movements are reminiscent of a female Ian Curtis. She is so utterly watchable, mesmeric even.

Image Source

I feel as though there is so much I could say about Jehnny Beth that can only be expressed in the most primitive terms - she is the person you want to be; so cool without knowing, without trying, without even wanting to be cool. Ugh, I just want to be her, ok?

Harajuku Hauling: Goods exchanged for currency in Japan

I swear on all that is holy that this is my last Japan post - I'm just trying to ease the pain of withdrawals. I wasn't expecting to do much shopping on this trip - not because there wasn't anything worth buying, but because there were too many things to do infinitely more exciting than shopping. Of course, there were uber cool shops aplenty but they all seemed above me on the hipness scale that every single piece of clothing appeared as though it belonged nowhere else but on the svelte body of Shibuya's heppest cats (cool language alert). Naturally, I did manage to find ways to spend those tasty yen...

Before we left I read a few lists of the most highly recommended Japanese beauty products and landed in Osaka with quite a lengthy list. I didn't get to pick up everything I had on my list but I was mightily impressed with the products I did manage to find. Obviously, you can't go to Japan and not pick up a few sheet masks and these pomegranate and potato moisture masks were One product in particular was astounding: Cure's Natural Aqua Gel was on every list I looked at and every review I found praised this exfoliator as, hands down, the best exfoliating product going. I approached this with a healthy skepticism, partly because you should never buy into beauty hype and partly because it looks like hand sanitiser, but this is the only thing I've ever put on my face and thought "WOW!" Guys, you can literally see the dead skin being buffed away - it's amazing. I have take a solemn oath to never be without this exfoliator again.

I also took the opportunity to pick up some duty-free bits. I took a sample of Estee Lauder's Advanced Nigh Repair with me and the morning after I used it I knew I had to get me some of that magic oil for keeps. MAC's colourful Toyland display lured me over and I decided I needed Red Balloon because, strangely, I was without a fuchsia lipstick. I also replaced my old orange lipstick, which had been with me since my uni days, with Morange, a bright true orange.

Ever since Lisa Eldridge's blog post on Keira Knightley's red carpet look using Chanel's Illusion d'ombre in New Moon, I've been counting down the days tip the release of Chanel's summer collection and stalking countless makeup counters until I made that cream eyeshadow mine. It is beautiful - a glittery pinky brown with a lovely texture and long-lasting formula. Ugh, it's everything...

As Japan is the land of cool trainers, I couldn't leave without finding a fly pair of kicks of my very own. Unfortunately, my size 39 feet must be large and ungainly in Japan because I had to go to four different shops to find these purple-red ombre shoes in my size because 38 seemed to be the largest size everyone carried. But I think you'll agree these street creed machines were worth it.

The most exciting souvenir of the trip was a surprise gift from Buckle, who stood next to me while I admired this little beauty at Miu Miu in Osaka and led me, without my knowing, to the Miu Miu store in Shibuya to pick out a cat print pouch of my very own. 

Love is not a strong enough word to describe my feelings about this clutch. It fits exactly what I need and nothing I don't and I want to take it everywhere with me. Sometimes, I just take it out of it's box and stare at it.

Apart from little typical souvenirs and a Totoro pin for my leather jacket, that's everything. But then, that's more than enough, isn't it?

Japanese Whispers: Part 3 - Tokyo - Super Potato and Samurai Pizza Cats

We spent the entire last week of our holiday in Tokyo and packed it with more pop culture than the  Buzzfeed homepage. Buckle took some pretty spectacular shots of the Tokyo skyline from the giant ferris wheel in Daida,re we also saw an enormous Gundam statue and an exceptionally squeally crowd awaiting the arrival of the winners of Korean Idol. Of course, we had to bear witness to the K-pop power of Infinite (I can't help but raise my fist every time I say their name) performing their latest single - you could have bottled the oestrogen in the air and sold it to post-menapusal women.

It just so happened that the Sumo tournament was in it's final week while we were in Tokyo so we lined up early one morning to secure the cheapest, worst tickets in the whole stadium and watch fat, sweaty men grapple with each other for honour or something. I think I've found my sport. I don't mean to brag but I feel as though I've become somewhat knowledgable on the subject of sumo wrestling - I reckon I can strategise with the best of them. Plus, all that rampant testosterone really brought out a new side in Buckle.

If you're searching for the highest concentration of pop culture, sex shops and video games in Tokyo - the world, even - then Akihabara is the place to be. We spent a good 12 hours trawling through the streets, stopping at Super Potato to play vintage arcade games (Buckle opted for Street Fighter while I was all over Wonder Boy) and relive our furtive youth by browsing racks upon racks of old Nintendo and Sega games.

While in Akihabara I also took the opportunity to get my nails done at Ita Color Yellow, Tokyo's best nail salon specialising in anime and Japanese cartoon themed nail art. I knew exactly what I wanted on my nails...

Samurai Pizza Cats! Because it true what they say, "they've got more fur than any turtle ever had." Despite the language barrier (Buckle was not sticking around for 2 hours to act as translator) we got through it and the nail artist was the Michelangelo of nails.

I couldn't stop staring at my hands days afterwards.

Shibuya was without doubt the coolest place in Tokyo - Shibuya crossing was what I imagined the whole of Tokyo to be. Naturally, no trip to Japan would be complete without visiting a cat cafe; we stopped in at Happi Neko in Shibuya which was filled with lounges, armchairs, book and, of course, cats. I have to say that I was left a little disappointed with our visit; I left feeling as though we'd just payed $20 to be ignored by cats - I have a cat at home that ignores me for free. However, I couldn't fault the sheer adorableness of the cats and felt a little envious that I couldn't make a living out of people coming to feed me treats, wave feathers in my face and watch me nap.

On our last night in Japan we lined up with hundreds of others for Disney Sea, which is apparently infinitely superior to Tokyo Disneyland. I'm not a Disney buff in any sense of the word but the lights and whimsy drew me in like a Venus Fly Trap.

Mermaid's Lagoon particularly appealed to the five year-old mermaid inside of me.

I've been pining for Japan ever since we got back on Sunday - Australia is just not weird or polite enough for me anymore, but I soothe myself by remembering that London is a mere 4 months away.

Japanese Whispers: Part 2 - Miyajima, Koyosan, Kyoto

Continuing on from the last post with the theme of animal islands, on a particularly dreary day in Hiroshima we caught a ferry out to Miyajima. I was lured out with the promise of deer but other, less mad, people might recognise Miyajima as the island of temples festooned with the famous behemoth red gates erupting from the shallows on the shoreline...

... unless, of course, you accidentally visit at low tide, in which case the gates rise majestically from the mud and washed up coins visitors throw into the water. I weep at the number of Yoshinoya lunches I could have bought with those discarded coins. The temples and pagodas were adorned with characters whose significance, as an ignorant Westerner, I am unaware.

I think it's an especially wise fox. In robes.

En route, and yet very much out of the way of, Kyoto, we trekked up into the mountains for a monastery stay in Koyasan. The dreary weather and mountain mist perfectly offset the beauty of the rural village. If you ignore the hundreds of other wonderstruck tourists ambling down the streets, you do really feel as though you've discovered a little piece of ancient Japan.

Our first day in Kyoto was spent answering the many questions of dozens of Japanese school students with English homework at various temples and attractions. Buckle attempted to win the school kids over with jokes which he said wouldn't translate well in English, but didn't seem to translate too well in Japanese either, judging by the kids' reactions. Kinkaku-ji Temple was the most picturesque of the bunch with its towering Golden Pavilion glistening in the afternoon sun.

Come night we headed out to Gion to experience Kyoto's nightlife (a tame, in-bed-before-11pm sort of experience). The lights of the restaurants reflecting on the river made you want to swoon into the arms of the closest attractive man (I have a ring which ensures one is always readily at hand). The streets of Gion are so bright and alluring, welcoming but mysterious and alien.

One of the Transformer movies is playing as background noise as I write this so I have to end before Shia LeBeouf tolerance reaches maximum saturation, but my next post will be all about Tokyo and its many, many pop culture gems.

Japanese Whispers - Part 1 - Osaka, Hiroshima, Okunoshima

I have just returned from the land of ramen and polite bowing and I feel like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation without the overwhelming sense of loneliness and pervading sense of ennui. Buckle lived in Japan for two years almost ten years ago, and he's been eager to get back and who am I to stand in his way (provided I get to go along for the ride)? 

The first week of our trip was spent travelling around the south - Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto and we even made a stop in the mountains at Koyasan. We had been planning to visit the Ghibli Museum while in Tokyo the following week but as it turned out the museum was closing for maintenance the day after we arrived so we had to make a dash to Tokyo for the day to catch it before it closed for a few months.

The entire building was specially built to house all the whimsy that Ghilbi Studios can churn out - it was filled with spiralling staircases, tiny archways, illustrations and a giant Catbus. You weren't allowed to take photographs anywhere inside the museum so this was all we could manage but Buckle got a great shot of a woman walking her cat in a wheeled bag in the bag surrounding the museum.

Buckle's Japanese skills made it much easier to take photos of people's pets.

We spent a few days in Osaka visiting Osaka Jo (which I imagined to be a loud-smouthed American with connections in the black market but which turned out to be an enormous castle), and the Instant Ramen Museum.

Yes, an INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM.

Where you got to make your very own Cup Noodles.

By far my highlight of our time in Hiroshima was visiting Okunoshima. The Japanese govern t built a poison gas factory on the island in 1902 and produced gas for wars up until the end of the Second World War. When the factory was abandoned the island was overrun by the rabbits which were kept on the island to test the poison. 

When you step onto the island rabbits coming running from everywhere and climb all over you to get at whatever tasty morsels you have on or about your person. It's adorable in a hope-I-don't-catch-a-disease sort of way. The factory itself is incredibly eery and beautiful, and casts almost sculptural shadows on the landscape.

This post is so laden with photographs that I'm going to split the first week into two posts, but in the meantime enjoy the photographs and some wanderlust while I sit quietly and lament my return to the mundanities of everyday life.