I feel that I haven't spent much on myspace this year. And thank you so much for those of you who gave me kind message and comments while I was away. I hope the year 2008 has been a wonderful year for all of you.

     By the way, I had a chance to go to New York the other day and took some some photos of Christmas show windows. So I thought I would share them on myspace as my holiday greetings. 

      Well, I only visited 3 of them that were close to each other. But, it was worth walking around a bit to see all the beautiful displays that have their own themes.

Lord & Taylor Windows:
Very classy, traditional theme. But it was very very beautiful! I think someone has to do it.






Saks Fifth Avenue Windows:
This year, they did "Snow Flake Story" theme. I LOVED it! It was very creative and very very cute


Especially this window was so New York.
Snowflakes riding on swings. They look so happy



Macy's Windows:
This year, they did some kind of Factory theme (according to the TV show, I only glanced it, so I don't know the details.) But, very innovative. I LOVED it too!!


I especially loved this "Christmas Diva Tinsel" window.
You may not be able to see it, But it says, "Glitter Extractor" It seems Tinsel Divas are extracting glitters which you can see the front of the window. 


"Behold the Christmas diva, Tinsel"

"It's Christmas magic. Believe in it!" How cute
And let me finish with the lighted gigantic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.
 
This year, I honestly felt "wow" all over again. That's one gigantic gorgeous tree, indeed.

Though I wanted to see more, by the time I arrived at Rockefeller Center, I was already tired. So, just like the my childhood hero that I found on the street, I decided to go home too.

Tired Micky.
He looked very tired. He must have worked very hard that day.
Anyway....

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas! May the new year be a happy, prosperous year for all of you!  
Love, Yoshika

Hello, everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

By the way, as you may already know, where I live is not far from New York City. And during this holiday season, I made a few trips to the city and took some snap shots of the people in New York. Actually, I didn't have much memories of Christmas Eve in New York until now, so on my way to do some last minute Christmas shopping (I had only a little left), I thought it might be fun  doing some sight seeing & people watching as well!  And it turned out to be so much fun!! Hope you enjoy too:-)

On Christmas Eve in New York

Times Square. I was sight seeing just like you!



Times Square -- This is what looks like a good sight-seeing picture!!



And this is not. Times Square's trash



People were working and working on Christmas Eve!

People were eating on the street of New York. They do that a lot actually. Look! They even use trash box as a table!



I found a strange Santa at Times Square.



I found another strange Santa on Fifth Ave.



In front of NBC studio.
I don't think they were Santas. But they all waved at me. Shrek looked so shrunk....



I don't think the man in front of me was Santa either.



I found a cute reindeer!



Sorry for the bad picture. But I think I found Santa's car!



Two good looking male models walking through Times Square.
They don't look it on my bad picture, but I bet they both were.
Both of their faces looked like manikins. (compliment?)
You see many celebrities on the street of New York, but this was my first time seeing male models walking on the street of New York.



This is a young happy couple hugging each other. Do you want to know what just happened to them?



This is a moment before the picture above!
Now can you guess?



 
Yes, the young man proposed to his girlfriend on a skate link in front of Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve!
What a romantic plan!
Since Japanese book store I stopped by was just a block away, I just thought I was gonna stop by to see the gigantic Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Center. And then somehow I happened to witness the happiest moment of this young couple!!
Everybody around went like.. "Oh....(sigh)" and the girl was crying Congratulations!!



Yep, I was just going to peek at this. The light was lit on the tree. But, unfortunately, the day light was so bright that it just looked like a gigantic tree. It's ok. I've seen the lit ones many times before.
But it really is one gigantic tree. I hear they always go through so much trouble transporting this tree from the mountain.



Since it was Christmas Eve, I also stopped by St. Patrick Cathedral on Fifth Ave. They were already doing some ceremony, (I wondered if it was also a Christmas Mass??) Anyway, the ceremony ended soon and I,on the other hand, did a candle offering and prayed a little with them. There were many tourists taking pictures inside...(including me. sorry....)


This is just a part of stained glass of St. Patrick Cathedral. It is beautiful.


This was my favorite section, the virgin Mary. (I hope I'm right)
There are many different sections in this church, but since there were so many people, I just could looked around from the main hall.

Followings are taken on 18th.

Mail Man Collecting Mails


Policeman doing traffic


Smoking lady waiting for the bus. There are many people smoking on the street of New York...


Public Telephone still in need!!


People walking in front of Macy's 1


People walking in front of Macy's 2



Another traffic Police man .


And... some of the Christmas Window Pictures:

*~* Macy's *~*

Sorry....How bad is that? This is one of the windows of Macy's, the Santa's roller coaster one. Can you see the edge of the sled coming up toward you? I guess not.  I can't either. But, really, it was like an Ice world theme and seeing the minature roller coaster with santa and rein deer on it really moving was totally "WOW". Everything was so beautiful. I loved this window the best. Very catchy.


This picture shows the window slightly better. You can at least see the miniature world. This miniature world flips around and become completely upside down and the other side of world shows up just like you turn a roasted animal above the fire. On the show, they were worrying about how they make it work in this limited space considering all the weight, etc....But, everything was working naturally and flawlessly. Technology is amazing!!

*~* Saks Fifth Avenue *~*

This is the Christmas Windows of Saks Fifth Avenue. This year's theme was Snowman from Children's book. There was narration going on as you walk in front of the windows. People were making a long line!


This was my favorite window. And sorry about the bad picture again...why am I so bad at taking the Christmas Window???

I wanted to see the Barneys Christmas Windows, but I didn't have time.

I guess that's all for my mini-Manhattan Midtown tour 2007!
Sorry about my bad pictures, though....

Anyway, I hope the year 2007 has been a wonderful year for all of you and a new year would bring a lot more happiness & prosperity to you and your loved ones!!

Love to all,

Yoshika

     Since I mentioned this new world seven wonders on this blog many times, of course I have to announce the result too!

     Yesterday, 07.07.07, the new world seven wonders were announced in Lisbon, Portugal.

And, The New World Seven Wonders are:

*The Great Wall of China 
*Rome's Colosseum
*India Taji Mahal
*Peru's Machu Picchu
*Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer
*Mexico's Chichen Itza Pyramid
*Jordan's Petra

          
       

My votes were:
*Cambodia's Angkor
*Mexico's Chichen Itza Pyramid
*Brazil's Christ Redeemer
*Easter Island Statues
*Peru's Machu Picchu
*England's Stonehenge
*China's Great Wall

4 out of 7! I am happy with the result overall.
But, a little disappointed with that Stonehenge didn't make it :-(

One of my myspace friends Jana posted the blog showing the beautiful photos of those top contenders on the day before. Please visit  Jana's Blog too!

Love, Euphorian Chic

Last Update: April 17th
      I have added some more Japanese icon sites that I am using some free images from. As I explained before, they are all Japanese sites and some of those sites are made kind of complicated in order to avoid the wrong use. Although some people asked me how to get those Japanese icons, if you don't understand Japanese, it is impossible for me to guide you through to get the images that you want and I can not leave the message or send Emails to them to let them know how and where you use those icons instead of you in Japanese. So, what I recommend is, if you would like to find Japanese icons, you search the word, "Loyalty free Japanese Images, Japanese icons, Japanese photos." And you might find some of the sites that have English translations.
I have seen there are some Japanese icon sites that have English version.
I did find one here. This site offers traditional Japanese images. So, if you are interested, pleasae check it out.

http://www.aoiweb.com/aoi2/englishfra.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Hello. Today, I would like to introduce Japanese Icon Sites that offer free images. In Japan, just like here, there are companies that require registration to use those free images. And also there are many generous, talented artists who create their own site and offer free web images for personal use. But, they still keep all the rights and some of them ask users to place the link to their website, or just ask them to drop them a thank you note. How generous of them, really.

     I made my page about 2 weeks ago. And I'm actually having so much fun especially making "Japanese Tradition series". However, I have started to noticed that some of visitors seem to think that all of icons that I am using on my page are made by me. Which is totally not true! And I realized, since my page is basically about my art and Euphorian Chic, in order to avoid any confusions as well as to show my respect to those generous, talented Japanese artists, I thought I needed to state this clearly to my friends an visitors. Most of icons that I uses in my "Yellow Bird Introduces Japanese Traditions" are from these sites. They are not mine.

     So I would like to list those generous artists who made possible for me to create my silly Japanese Tradition Series! And, I have also added some of my favorites as well. Please enjoy!! (Forgive me, these sites are all in Japanese, and some of sites, they don't even display Japanese properly. But, just click around on their sites, you can see their images. They are soooo cuuute!)

Free Inu-sozai (mainly animal web materials)

Sozaiyassa (I am a huge fan!)

Poorly Poorly

Free Photos From Tokyo

Japanese Seasonal Icons

   Sushi Icons etc

   Somei-ya(Traditional Japanese Style)

   Mugenkatei(Traditional Japanese Style)

   Miho's House 

   Art Kaede

   SOZAI

   I am going to add more later. Please check back often!

Love, Yoshika