Monday, September 28

Style snapshots: Coffee date

On Elle: glasses: Style Nanda sweater: JCrew pants: H&M shoes:small shop in Shibuya bag: Sephora freebie (shh!)


On Jay: jacket: Todd Snyder shirt: H&M watch: komono pants: GU shoes: sperry top siders

On a coffee date in Yeonnam-dong on a unusually cool day.

Japan: Week Two

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Could it get any hotter in Japan then our first week? Well, yes. We made our way to Tokyo for the first time! Flying into Haneda airport was one of the better decisions we made; compared to Narita airport (which we flew out of) it is a breeze to hop on a bus and get into the city.

One of the dilemmas a lot of people face while travelling is where to actually stay when you haven't been there before. You want to find some place convenient for your planned activities, ideally affordable, and hopefully an interesting neighborhood. After some quick research (ahem, Googled "hipster neighborhoods Tokyo") we settled on an AirBnb in Shimokitazawa. Easily the best decision in our entire trip; its streets are littered with cheap eats, thrifts shops, and hair salons.

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Wednesday, August 26

Japan: Week One

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I feel like we both grew up during a time of an obsession with Japan, probably all thanks to Toonami and Uwajimaya. When we went to the Kansai region last year we were excited but prepared for some disappointment for the sake of being realistic, yet somehow Japan lived up to all our 12-year-old dreams. We are lucky enough to be living such a short distance away that we can actually take quick weekend trips but decided to save up for 2 week stay in the hottest part of summer in Osaka and Tokyo.

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curry and takoyaki for days

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Wednesday, July 1

Keeping it simple

Madewell Ames Boots

Over the years I've figured out something that really makes shopping a whole lot easier: I am not a shoe person. If I had figured that out sooner I would have happily saved a lot of money and time; however, instead I searched and searched for the shoes that I thought would finally complete my outfit without realizing they didn't need to make a statement of their own. Truly I feel like I (and most people) can get away with about 6 pairs of shoes: tall boots, short boots, oxfords, flats, tennis/running shoes, and sandals. Of course in the middle of Seoul's humid summers I'm missing the last two. In the meanwhile here is what I have to fill the other slots:

Madewell Ames BootsMadewell Ames black ankle boots

Stilmoda Oxfords Stilmoda brown oxfords

Frye Regina Flats Frye Regina black-brown flats

Sam Edelman Foster Boots Sam Edelman Foster tan knee high boots

I find that if you want to keep a minimal shoe wardrobe it's best to keep to simple lines and neutral colors. I'm usually drawn to styles with some masculine inspiration and rich leathers (there are some great vegan leathers options available too). Something to keep in mind, the care of your shoes is key! I condition all of my shoes and make sure to wipe them clean as soon as they get wet, due to this I've noticed a marked improve in the life and wear of my shoes. Be sure to check our this post on reddit about leather care and this post on insoles (they'll save your feet and posture).

  Frye Regina Flats

Tuesday, June 23

days, months, years? part two.

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Let's do some math. 
977 days or 23448 hours or 1406880 minutes since our last update.

However, truthfully: 
1668 day or 40032 hours or 2401920 minutes since our last real entry.

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As a reminder from our first post:

This is jay. This is elle.
We have many things in common like:
We are the same age,
like cheesy sci-fi b-movies,
and think there is nothing better than a midday nap.

I can confidently say all these things are still true. One can easily argue that everything is almost the same as it was 1,668 days ago. Now we have hairline fractures on our faces, have had more haircuts then you can count on your fingers, but have settled on the same style repeatedly, and have our same little knickknacks just in another apartment. 

In between then and now we've celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary, traveled to some of our dream countries, and learned how to enjoy life in any situation. 


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Top: H&M, Shorts: H&M, Shoes: Sperry, Watch: Komono, Bracelet: ALand

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A mini timeline is as follows:

We finished our road trip all the way to Seattle! That was a bit of an abrupt ending to the blog…whoops.  We then spent the next 2 years living in a tiny house on Capitol hill and, in general, a bit unhappy with where our lives were going. We needed change!

In 2012 we made that change and moved to lovely Korea. We spent two years living in a wonderful “suburb” of Seoul called Bucheon. The funny thing about Korea is almost every town feels like a city as the standard buildings are high rise concrete apartments and living is as condensed as possible compared to the low-and-wide feeling in the United States.

Then our wanderlust took over us again resulting in a year long nomad lifestyle. We started off in Japan and fell in love with the Osaka area, moved on and WWOOFed on the big island of Hawaii, had a stint in Los Angeles, and finally visited family in Seattle and Austin. As exhausting as it was, I would never trade our experiences for anything.

As of the end of March 2015, we returned to Korea! This time we are in a quieter place outside of Seoul that offers a bit more nature and a country attitude but is only 20 minutes away from the lively city.

Now we, although mostly Elle, make a return to blogging because it makes us happy to look at our old pictures and read our memories.

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These pictures we taken in Daehak-ro or Ehwa mural village, close to Dongdaemun. It’s worth the walk since when it comes to street art in Seoul you really have to seek it out! This more traditional neighborhood was losing business and, in a (successful) effort to revitalize it, the government commissioned local artists to paint murals all around. We spent an afternoon with friends walking up the winding hills spotted with art, coffee shops, and ice cream novelties.

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Top: H&M, Skirt: Express, Hat: ASOS, Shoes: Frye

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