I heart museums in New York.

NEW YORK vs. TOKYO

ただいま！！I'm back from New York!!! The entire way home, I was trying to think of ways to get myself to the LADY GAGA concert in Yokohama but no matter what method I considered, even taking my suitcase and baggage straight from narita to yokohama..no matter what, I would have been so late and probably would have missed half of it which would have not been worth it for me! Now everyone's talking about it and I wish I should have just WENT! gah. Anyhow, I think I caught a cold last night and popped a few pills of Tylenol Cold and passed out on the plane.. and am still feeling really shitty.

Anyhow, so this was my first time to NEW YORK. I have to say I have mixed feelings!!! It's so important for the first time to anywhere to be the best one, hence when friends or people I attend come thru Tokyo, I always make sure that they have the best time of their life. I try hard every time to take care of people 120% when they come thru here, good friends or not.. so then why is it that I seem to always end up in disappointment when I travel to 'their' town?!

I will however say big thanks to YSA, ALEX FROM TOKYO, PHIL from Streetpeeper and Marc Walkow. You guys saved my almost disasterous first experience. Thank you so much for making time for me and introducing me to your wonderful friends. Maybe next time after I get to shop and tour the town properly...I can possibly fall in love with New York, possibly.

Of course this trip was for work, for me to cover the It's My Time photo shoot .. I met amazing people there and made new friends too.. but my free time, as little as it was, was reallly important too and one free day was completely wasted for reasons that I hope to forget forever. Thank you to Anel for trying to make up for that.

This week is so busy...so I guess it's best if i go back to bed.

Good Night Tokyo. I love you.

ほよよ〜

IT'S:MY:TIME. PHOTO SHOOT @ INDUSTRIA SUPER STUDIO, 4.16.2010 NEW YORK

bloggers circle (L->R) : Nels Frye (stylites from beijing), Jamie (jamie's blog), Manuel (lbosquejo), Jackie Dixon (show me your wardrobe), and Montaigne Street (comme de garcon wearing triplets in the back). I felt like being amongst this blogger circle was like being with a mixi community as some of them referred to each other by their blog names. This was fascinating to me. Hello, I'm maisassygirl from tokyo.

Nels made this!

so this is where we play...i mean... work.

there was SOOO much food..

Jackie (show me your wardrobe) was a total professional. I was envious.

the italian benetton team who took very good care of us.

Montaigne Street from Paris

I interviewed Francis. He was my first, so I was super nervous..lol I didn't know how to approach him so I offered him some wasabi kitkat. I will admit, I'm not an experienced journalist which is why I was so nervous to approach any of the winners. Anyway, for some reason, Francis's profile really stood out to me..I think he reminded me of someone..or he just has that hapa look that is familiar to me since he looked like most of the half models in tokyo. yea that must be it..apparently he is an aspiring musician who is trying to make music and wants to participate in the Red Bull Academy. Good Luck!

I interviewed KIKO next. OMG kiko is AWESOME! I think out of all the winners that I spoke to, I feel the most connected with him. Maybe because he is closer to my age!? He is very spiritual and was a member on SURVIVOR! He seems like such a free spirit and it was very easy to talk to him.

I called these accessories and he got offended and said they are NOT accessories..and he never takes them off as they were gifts from people and each piece represents something. すごくない？！

He then pulled out this huge book that is his diary. He was very open about it and wanted us to read it. This is what he wrote in while he was stuck on the island during SURVIVOR. WOW.

I was happy to see this..he stuck this label of glaceau vitamin water's FOCUS. He loved the copywrite. I love it too. YAH, glaceau vitamin water for LIFE! hehe

My next interviewee was Sarah D. The youngest of the bunch. She is only 14! A very young soul. I'm hoping that winning this competition doesn't change her and that she will continue to be pure and friendly to everyone.

Tereza and Patricia. These 2 were like best friends. I didn't interview but watched them enjoy themselves in their Benetton clothes.
David 'Asian Pride!' Sheldrick. David's shoot reminded me of something that you would see in Warp Magazine in Tokyo or something very similar to the group Big Bang. He was very energetic and seemed like he was having a lot of fun. The least camera shy of the 19 contestants I would say. The only thing I didn't like was the 'asian pride' in his name!! We don't say that anymore right?!

Melanie Alexander x Abdoul
Unfortunately, I didn't speak much to these 2. Was I too shy!? A huge regret!

Mr. Benetton came tooo

Josh Olins at work

shoes..

shoes!!

more shoes!!!

ooh..what's this?

how do you wear it?!

like this?! hehe

these 2 were unseparable!

impossible to diet!

My favorite: Magali

Magali was on hi demand by everyone. She was sooo busy so it was difficult to get some time with her...and by the time I did..it was MY TURN to do an interview. For the little time we had to speak tho, I felt Magali was really down to earth. She's living in Paris and has a vietnamese mother...and we also have a mutual friend who was also in the It's My Time competition.

the man who took sneaky photos us.
Chris Saunders.

Meet Ben.

He reminded me a little bit of Ross from Friends. Kinda funny and sweet at the same time. I didn't get to speak to him much either....but I guess you can see he is a Lady's man.

Gizela x Ben x Natalchou

Maki x Shon were the fastest stylists ever!

susie bubble x the infamous Glenn O'brien x me ( i was super nervous)

Lorenzo aka Fantastic is Plastic

I started to feel like Magali had a sofia coppola aura..

she was my favorite....

the contestants were sooo happy

they were the entire time..doing facebook! LOL

thank you for everything!!!!!!!!

Janelle-absolutely GORGEOUS.

Soraya-got some pretty cool hair done

and as more food and sweets came out..I had to leave.. (>.<)

I wanna say お疲れさまでした to everyone!!!!!!!!!!! I wish that I was more interactive, especially since I was really looking forward to meeting all of you. I learned so much from this NY trip and know now what I need to do to be a better journalist from here on out. Experiencing this experience with you was amazing and I hope that we will run into each other sometime in the near future. I'm excited to see the new catalogue and to follow what you will all do after this. To see more official photos from this NY experience with the It's My Time winners, please CLICK HERE: LIVE FROM NY

ほよよ〜