Another Year in Tokyo

And sometimes elsewhere.

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Quarantine in Style #2: White Shirt with Skirt, with Pants, or with Itself

See all its expressions in the color of sheer white.

Here, as promised, my excited self portrait with some new white shirts from Zara. Collar and collarless, linen and cotton, just-fit and oversized… so many options to explore. Too bad it is still under lockdown here in Tokyo, so all the photos are produced inside my apartment. Excuse the bed, the door, and the stand mirror!

Oversized shirt with skirt

I think this is completely a ZARA look. It is technically true, though, as both the shirt and the skirt are from my recent ZARA purchases and the floral skirt is really convenient to style up with.

Collar shirt to ease off some feminine accent from the skirt.

Or with pants, casual or a little bit suited up

Most of the days I am a pants person. I wear a lot of denims, and when it warms up, I like to wear wide pants that have an accent shape and suit pants that can show the body curve naturally.

I thought wide pants can be a challenge with oversized shirts; but it is actually quite nice. It can be called a “ゆるコーデ” in Japanese, which basically means “loosened up coordination” as a very common style here.

Ultimate conservative with collarless shirt.

I recently bought a pair of pants from Theory. I was lucky; it was on sale because of the lockdown, and I saw this one that has nice shape as Theory always does, and a dark yellow color which can be nice addition to my grey/navy usual suits from Theory.

Handsome look with collarless shirt.

As an single item of ultimate romance

When talking about items that are romantic, usually we think about long floral dresses, on a sunset beach, with a big hat perhaps. Actually I found withe shirts are quite a romantic single item, especially with oversized “boyfriend” style and basically any design if it is linen.

It can be a little too intimate, though. It has to be styled up with items that can bring out its character, such as a simple trench coat or a straight denim. Maybe I can try that combination sometimes.

White Shirt Mood of The Day

The most versatile, expressive, changing and yet the most constant, simple and mundane mood.

It was a moody Saturday, with changing shape of clouds and fading sunshine from time and time – perfect mood for some self -portrait photography experiment.

I have been having a serious crush on white shirt those days. It is such a versatile item, with its plain expression yet ever-changing shape of different fades and shadows to work perfectly in almost every setup. I prefer to think, it also has its own character; it is classic, and it brings in the depth and the contrast exactly the way you want to. You need nothing else 🙂

The ultimate conservative.
Or a few more colors with a different expression.
A little more intimate as a shirt dress.

I am bringing out a new series of how I style with basic white shirts recently… I love it, can’t wait to share here!

Restaurant review: The never ending summer, Bangkok, Thailand

Some party layout being arranged when we were leaving. Dec 2018.

By the end of last fall, I had become rather anxious. Yes I had landed my dream MBA program, and I had just returned from an exotic trip to Israel and Jordan, but something was missing; something that always drove me more than anything else – the great food experience in a foreign land. (No offense to Israel and Jordan; we will talk later. )

So my friend and I decided to take actions. We both needed a getaway from working in Japan (you know what I mean) for the past year, and especially for me – I wanted an advanced reward before starting the busy MBA year; so here we were, the land of smile – Thailand.

It would take so many words to talk about Thailand, and I don’t think it is fair to use just one post to record my experience with this magical country. So, I have decided to start a series; restaurant reviews, coffee shops and pubs, and perhaps something else. Although this is my first time there, I have a strong feeling that I will definitely go back again and again, every now and then. We will see.

Today, it is just about this one restaurant, a pleasant discovery in Bangkok.

To be honest, the name of it didn’t strike me as a quality restaurant, to begin with. The never ending summer. Hmm. You see too many fancy-slash-high end names for restaurants that cannot provide the food worth the name. Naturally, I hesitated when my friend suggested to go in the first place. I guess this also helped with the perception.

Anyhow, the first thing that I liked is the location. Of course it is. It is almost in the center of Bangkok – the old part, not Sukhumvit. It is nicely located in a quiet corner, very close to the river bank. It is very chic and very Bangkok; we actually spent a lot of time posing and taking pictures outside of it – I would say too much time since our ice tea almost became warm.

You can find many places to do your professional photo shooting in Bangkok, I am sure of that; but why not doing it time-efficiently with a location that is also accessible to a good restaurant. 🙂

OK, to get back to topic. The food.

Some would argue that you can never go wrong with any restaurant in Bangkok. Well, that might be true by large. But with limited amount of time we have as travelers, it is rather important to secure the very best ones on the list. And since most of them are good ones, why not going a little off-track and try something new-ish and stylish?

The never ending summer has all the typical Thai food options you would want to check off your list: Pad Thai, red/green curry, Tom Yum soup, and everything else. But they do it not only correctly, but also with a hint of raw creativity.

The very Thai spices combined with raw tropical leafs that make your flavor palette on fire and ice at the same time, and the hidden sweetness and sourness will comfort you in surprise; the scrambled eggs and rice noodles blended in with each other in harmony with the help of the rich flavors brought by the right amount of oil, fish sauce, and certainly all kinds of spices; the perfect for anything combination of salt and sugar, which almost tripled the sweetness of the most delicious watermelon I had ever had… I just wished I had nine stomaches, like a cow or something.

Overall, very decent place with great food and ambience, not to mention its access to the river bank and being in the central area of Bangkok. I am definitely going back again.

Like they said, you can never go too wrong with any restaurant in Bangkok; I totally stand by it. That is why, beyond the quality food, it is such a nice surprise what this place can offer which makes your impression of food in Bangkok just more colorful, and more chic.

Recommending 5 star (out of 5) 😉