Amy Richardson

Mini plastic food
I know I should've stopped buying toys a loooooong time ago, but how could I resist the Re-Ment Disney 1950s Cafe Set? Re-Ment makes collectable mini plastic food sets in blind boxed containers in hundreds of themes, from Family Diner to Airline Meals to Panda Kindergarten. In the Disney 1950s Cafe Set, options included the Mickey Mouse shaped fried eggs set, Mickey's Cafe club sandwich set, Mickey's Cafe donuts set, and so on, but I must admit I was holding out for the Mickey Mouse burger, fries and onion rings set, so how excited was I when I opened the box! I'm now religiously checking the Re-Ment website (www.re-ment.us) and Flickr Re-Ment Addicts photo pool for more mini plastic collectable cuteness.

Women-only train carriages
I jump on board one of these (often pink) subway carriages when I travel in the rush hour. There are pink signs on the platform to indicate where to board. They were introduced in Tokyo and Osaka in 2000 after a high level of complaints from women about being groped by chikan (male perverts) on crowded trains. Even though they're designated women-only at certain hours of the day, guys tend to avoid them the rest of the day anyway, and they're often less crowded than other carriages.

Macro mode on my camera
I will be eternally in debt to my always-in-the-technology-know friend Stef for recommending the Canon Powershot G9 when I was shopping for a new digi-cam. The macro mode is perfect for taking pictures of food and cute mini things, ideal for living in Japan. My BF and I have just discovered the stop-motion mode which allows you to make cool stop-motion videos easily. The G9 rocks!



Botchan by Soseki Natsume
I am trying to branch out into Japanese authors other than Haruki Murakami while I am living here. Since I am working in Japanese high schools teaching English, I found this book, about a college graduate who moves to the island of Shikoku to teach Maths to unruly high school boys, hilarious. It was written in 1904, so it's also an interesting way to learn about Japanese life during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Perfume - Love the World
If this isn't the catchiest J-Pop since Perfume's last hit, Chocolate Disco, then I didn't just buy a Hello Kitty tap decorator for my bathroom sink. (I totally did, and she waves her arms when the water runs. Did I mention how much I love Japan?)

Amy Richardson is always discovering bright and beautiful things. A former staffer on magazines such as Home Beautiful and Girlfriend, she's since landed in Japan to do everything from make umeshu plum wine, teach English, master capoeira and document every hyper-coloured piece of pop culture and eye-stunning bite of food there is. She took those awesome pics above and you can check out her other cool shots here.