A blog about culture and technology in South-East Asia
Reasons Montreal is awesome:
I found this flyer in the park. This ad for a lost cat reads:
LOST CAT
Seen last time in the alley way between La Roche and Christophe Colomb. Answers to the name “a bunch of Russian writing”.
If you find him, join his struggle.
Hey everyone, ]
[Gen pointed out that this post was lost in the page, so I’m reposting it here so it stays on top]
I’m moving goeastyoungwoman to its own domain and host. So I won’t be updating anymore here, you can now find all my new posts at (and all the old posts you know and love):
Thanks for reading and hope you continue to enjoy this blog!
Prompted by an excess of logic in my life, a desire to be repeatedly addressed as “Madam” like I was the female owner of a brothel, and the fact that my hair dryer broke, tonight I decided to gaze into the abyss which is shopping in a big Thai department store.
Thailand is never really a big contender for any event in the logic Olympics, but it’s particularly bad at information design. Huge luxury malls regularly have maps with no “you are here” on them, or floor plans with helpful internal designations like “AT-45” instead of store names for the different stores. It might be Boots, it might be a puppy mill run by ladyboys, who knows?
I searched for a new hairdryer at Siam Paragon, only to find that appliances were organized by BRAND, not by type. So Panasonic hairdryers were with Panasonic stuff, whereas Foo brand dryers were with Foo stuff 10 rows down. Coz that’s how people shop, right? You leave the house thinking “I want to buy something, ANYTHING from Panasonic, I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s from Panasonic”.
Asking where were the other brands just got me a lot of “MADAM, this is a very good brand” and lots of 100$ hairdryers with lots of random features “NOW WITH IONIC GLOW!” pushed on me. Last time, I tried to shop for a pillow, it was the same, all 150$ pillows, when all I want is a normal pillow. They have them, they just pretend they don’t. Maybe I’m just too poor to shop in these places, or maybe I just look way richer than I am, but I don’t understand who buys this expensive crap. Thailand has the kind of rich kids in Ferraris who decide to run over a bunch of poor people waiting for the bus because THEY’RE IN THE WAY, I kind of picture them shopping for these kinds of ridiculous items on their way to eat shark fin soup.
I still don’t have a hair dryer.
Hey everyone,
I’m moving goeastyoungwoman to its own domain and host. So I won’t be updating anymore here, you can now find all my new posts at (and all the old posts you know and love):
Thanks for reading and hope you continue to enjoy this blog!
(Cute turquoise and pink girl: (Apparently the slightly crooked teeth she has is considered a super cute beauty feature is Japan! It is kind of cute, isn’t it?)
One interesting Japanese fashion that has caught on amongst young people in Thailand is cosplay. Cosplay is where people dress up like their favorite characters from anime or manga, or just archetypal characters like schoolgirls and cat maids. Siam Paragon recently had a cosplay festival. I was really amazed at all the great costumes and models that were there. It was really a visual feast for photographers!
I miss Tokyo.
I want it to be Tokyo summer and to step out into this garden, a pair of outside slippers waiting to be worn:
I want to buy these sugar bunny rabbits and eat every last one of them!
I want to see some crazy fashions!
In the evening falling, the little stalls all lit up with lights, so inviting:
They say that Tokyo is the “City of Electric Night”:
I want to fall asleep in a bed that looks like this:
I guess it’s my dream to live in Tokyo. What is your dream city to live in?
“Shacho-san!, shacho-san!” (Mr. Company President!, Mr. Company President!), cry the girls in Soi Thaniya, tugging at the sleeves of Japanese businessmen as they pass by. Of course it’s not true, most of them are not president, says my Japanese teacher, but this imagined rank makes the men feel good and perhaps more likely to favor this girl and her club.
The male teacher demonstrates for us walking with a chest all puffed up with pride.
(Here is a “Beckoning lady” money charm used by many Thai businesses. It’s the Thai version of the Japanese “mani necko” beckoning money cat. This one is interesting and unusual in that the woman is fat, instead of slim like the traditional version, and also depicted in Chinese dress instead of the Thai sarong, but she still does a good job of conveying the feeling of wanting your money, doesn’t she?)
A few days ago I took some nighttime pictures in Soi Thaniya, a Bangkok street popular with Japanese people and especially Japanese men.
Takoyaki, interrupted:
Thai people can really sleep anywhere:
A store for people who like to play dress-up:
A man says a small prayer before work:
There was an entirely pink store full of Hello Kitty gear (or just “Ki-teeee”, as they call her here in Thailand). The best was this Hello Kitty keyboard:
A cute Thai girl with her boyfriend rocks the Japanese gyaru style:
Does your city have an interesting street where you like taking pictures?
Beautiful video of archery festival for young Japanese just turning 20. (Longer story on cnngo). What I love the most is seeing the archer’s faces, their look of a small uncertainty, yet trying to be confident and also concentration. What lies in their future? What will they achieve? Will they hit their mark?
There are so many stories in ordinary people’s faces!
(Image by Finbar O’Reilly)
Congo is a nation torn apart by war and suffering. Yet instead of making the usual documentary about “oh how sad, look at these poor suffering people”, Finbar O’Reilly did a beautiful series about Congo women’s original hairstyles!
Go East, Young Woman 