Thursday, June 30, 2011

Photopalooza from Fukuoka! Or: The Search for Starbucks

When we left off yesterday--which for Tara was already the tomorrow that we’re having today so she was bummed that there was no morning blog to read but then she realized that’s because she was all Back to the Future there in Fukuoka, having a morning that hadn’t happened here yet--our travelers had not yet arrived in Fukuoka. And BTW have I mentioned how hard that whole 14-time-zones-of-separation thing is for me to comprehend? (yes, but Imma mention it again in 3...2....1....) The mental gymnastics required for me to figure it out even WITH a clock always end in disaster because I can’t do gymnastics of any kind and thus it turns my mind all pretzel-y and then of course I want actualfax pretzels and then I find myself trolling for twitpics from Japan while I’m munching and then all of a sudden it really is tomorrow and there’s still no blog and now no pretzels either.

So now I’m starving again but not for twitpics because lovely Tara sent me a treasure trove last night / this afternoon / at some point in the Mobius strip that is our lives / and so yay! No trolling required! And now we can pick up our story where we left off about three pretzel bags ago ... (do other people measure time in food? No? Just me? All righty then.)

Oh and just FYI I had to write this whole post in Word which is like using a stone tablet and a chisel, because at EXACTLY the moment the pics arrived from Japan, Blogger had some kind of total nervous breakdown and spent a number of hours huddled in an obscure corner of the Internet, refusing to answer repeated knocks and, when pressed, finally shoving a wrinkled piece of notebook paper under the door upon which it had simply scrawled this cryptic message: “HTTP 400 Bad Request.” Which, as we all know, is Blogger-speak for FUCK YOU. AND YOUR BLOG POST TOO.

But I won. I waited it out and coaxed and prodded and offered it the last of my pretzels, and FINALLY it grudgingly allowed me to access MY OWN EFFING BLOG FFS and post all these fab pics.

And thank you, Tara, whenever you are--I really, really appreciate your taking time out of your impossibly busy schedule to send all these. :)

(Note: All dates and times given are from Tara’s BlackBerry but IDK what time zone it might be set to so some of these pics might not actually have happened yet. Here, have a pretzel.)



06/28/2011 1:27 pm.
IDEK what to say about this other than that
I think he’s on the flight to Tokyo, he’s still reading
The Russian Affair--although here it’s serving as more of a desk--
and I love that there’s Pooh Bear.


06/29/2011 6:11 pm.
Tara and Johnny became friends
with these three awesome Marines at the Tokyo airport
while they were waiting to get on the flight to Fukuoka.
During their encounter, Tara says, "The guy in the middle
discovered that his tattoo says 'Heartbreaker' instead of 'Born to Kill,'
because a nice old Japanese man translated it for him ..."
And then belly-laughing all around ensued.


06/29/2011 9:56 pm.
In Fukuoka at last! And fans are thrilled
to see Johnny, the mysterious hooded figure
to the far right holding the enormous bouquet
of gorgeous pink roses.


06/29/2011 and it's still 9:56 pm.
Because time kinda stands still when you see Johnny.
BTW those flowers are gorgeous!



We interrupt this series of pics to bring you a few from another angle where the hooded ensemble seems a little less "hi-I-just-teleported-here-from-the-Dark-Ages-with-my-Yankees-cap." These next three are twitpics from @yukiajuly.


There we go. LOVE that he’s loaded down with gifts already!


When she posted this one, @yukiajuly apologized
for the slight blurriness, writing, "I'm sorry to shake."

It’s OK, BB. It happens to everybody when they see him. :)


.



OK! It's now 06/30/2011 9:18 am.
Which, as I’m writing this, isn’t yet. My head hurts.
Johnny on the bus headed to morning rehearsal.


06/30/2011 9:19 am.
OK, that’s enough reading for now. 
Let’s enjoy the sights of Fukuoka.


06/30/2011 9:20 am.
And here begins the search for Starbucks.
Because he’s dyyyyyyyiiiiiiinnnnnngggggg.
So Tara explains, "At the hotel’s front desk that morning,
Johnny asked for directions to Starbucks.
So they gave him ... "


"... this map ..."


"... and THIS map ..."


"... and also THIS map ..."


"... and then THIS map ..."


"... He just kept pulling these maps out of his bag.
And then we realized that Starbucks wasn’t even open yet."


06/30/2011 9:41 am.
Tara says, "I found a grasshopper!
I thought you would like him. He was outside the practice
waiting to get Johnny’s autograph. Very patient fan."


06/30/2011 12:07 pm.
The beautiful countryside of Fukuoka as seen from the bus
on the way back from practice.


06/30/2011 1:31 pm.
On the break between rehearsals
they went shopping for wedding gowns ...


... and Tara says Johnny found one he loved.
They didn’t have a chance to try anything on, though.


06/30/2011 2 pm.
Sightseeing outside the Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome.
(Is it just me or does Yahoo! seem completely out of place
in that name?)


Tara sighs, "It was a torrential downpour ...
I tried to remind him that there was a tsunami here,
and there’s monsoons, and we probably shouldn’t walk in the rain.
But he wanted his Starbucks ..."


"... Oh, and then I found these hand sculptures
so we stopped for a photo shoot."
(Note that Tara is clutching a Starbucks.)


And finally, still at the Dome, Tara says,
"The Japanese are very kind. They explain how to stand
and where to stand before going on super-high escalators!
So I put my feet in the footsteps ..."


"... while Johnny tested out the escalator 
to make sure we were doing it right."
Always a gentleman. :)
With Starbucks in hand.



And thus concludes the day’s adventures, whatever day that was, with or without pretzels but definitely with Starbucks, no matter how many rain-soaked maps it took to get there. And we hope that maybe more pics will be forthcoming as Fun in Fukuoka continues!!



Very, very special thanks to
Super Managtress Tara Modlin
for all these photos!!!!



Johnny's in Japan!
Best wishes to him and Tara for safe travels,
wonderful shows, and for a very happy
27th birthday with his Japanese fans!
Need to know when Johnny is?
Check the handy clock in the upper right part
of the blog for the current day and time in Fukuoka!



Please remember to vote vote vote
for Beauty Bear Eric Alt to win "Favorite Salon"
in New Jersey Life Health + Beauty Magazine's A-List awards!
You can vote for both salons at the same time:
Eric Alt Saddle River, and Eric Alt Wood Ridge.
You also can vote over and over in this one
without even having to clear your cache--
just press F5 to refresh the page! #winning



Yes! Johnny's dresses are now available
for purchase only on eDressMe.com!



At last: Pop Star On Ice is now available on DVD!
Order yours today from the Pop Star On Ice website!



Johnny tweeted recently:
"Buy my single,'Dirty Love' via iTunes.
Tell all your friends to as well. The more copies sold
takes me one step closer to making a video! №1!"
THE WORLD NEEDS THIS VIDEO
IN THE SAME WAY THAT IT NEEDS AIR.
You know what to do.
Please buy the song from Johnny's website,
or just click the "Buy" button on the player
at the top of the blog!



Hey, Welcome to My World also is available
as an eBook! More info on Johnny's website!


copyright 2011 / Binky and the Misfit Mimes / Lynn V. Ingogly / all rights reserved

6 comments:

Princess Johnny-Love ♥ said...

k, first of all: TARA WE LOVE U!!! arigato!

and arigato to Binky, too, for valiantly wrestling with Blogger for untold pretzel-hours. i've been checking the blog for the past few hours, waiting and wondering if we'd get to see the pics today. so glad it finally worked!

so, the pics were absolutely lovely, and oh my! is that a Chanel suitcase? i hope Ping got to ride in that one!

and haha! of course they found time to look at wedding dresses! so pretty, too!

glad they're having a good time. <(^_^)>

thank you again for the lovely photos!

xo

Robin

germansoulmate said...

Picture bliss, I love it.

I always get headaches when I read you figuring out what time it is at Johnny´s. LOL. I´m somewhere in between...Johnny in the future and you still in the past. It´s confusing. But I´m trying not to strain my poor brain and instead enjoy the pics for all it is worth.

Thanks to Tara for the pics, as always to Johnny for being who he is and to you for making me laugh even harder. Word artist, that you are.

aaaack said...

Thanks for all the pics and time zone-pretzel-moebius-strip tracking and server whispering/coaxing. That 400 message reminds me of the server version of the "blue screen of death" of the old Windows...instant high blood pressure.

Did a search for a site that could calculate Fukuoka time instantly and found: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fullscreen.html?n=492 Hope it works for you.

Julie'sAmazed56 said...

My first attempt at comment-leaving with the new method - seems simple enough so far. But I digress. Binky - thanks for being our channel into Johnny's world in Japan, whenever that is . . . and to Tara for providing the pics! So I can't believe that Tara didn't MAKE time to try on that dress that Johnny was looking at - GORGEOUS! So glad that they found the Starbucks; and BTW Tara, did you ever get that giftcard to Stephanie??? Glad to see that the trip is a good one so far, and looking forward to more pics - thanks again, MM!

Nancy Knisley said...

I can so appreciate the time zones making your brain all swirly.

When Johnny says something quotable--and when doesn't he?--in one of the countries which are a day ahead of us, and I cite the posting date on the article or video when I add it to The Quotable Johnny Weir, the blog entry will show that I'm posting a quote from the future.

So time-travely (as Johnny might say.)

WheresMyKoppy said...

Those wedding dresses are gorgeous! Thank you so much Tara for all the twitpics, thanks again to the Japanese fans, and thank you so much MM for putting this blog together and for your brilliant sense of humor! You made me laugh at one am, which for me isn't really late... Wait, is it really one am? Is it really Sunday morning? Let's see, what time is it in Japan? 506 pm! Aha! LOL!

And aaaack is right, timeanddate.com is great! I have used it several times for various things!