Sydney's Job as a Model for Combi Mini

Sydney's modeling debut is finally in print! Back in September a modeling agency called and asked her to audition for Combi Mini...it's a clothing company here in Japan. They've gotten calls before, but either didn't get selected, we weren't available, or in Keanna's case, she had lost a tooth (or two, or three, or four). American kids attached to the bases here get called for stuff like this, so it's nothing out of the ordinary to those of us living here. The pictures from the shoot were taken on September 15th of last year. I was allowed to take pictures and video while it was going on, but couldn't post them anywhere until after the catalog came out. My friend, Sarah, was visiting from Hawaii so she came along too! Her husband served on board USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) with Bob.

She got a new hair style with each outfit...so about six or seven. I took some video of the shoot too, and it was so fun! She had her own "pit crew" that made adjustments to her clothes, hair and makeup; they also had staff there to entertain the kids (balloons, stuffed animals, etc) and keep them happy. It was amazing, truly amazing, and everyone was so kind to us! We were fed breakfast and lunch and were there from 8:45 am until about 1 pm.

If you'd like to see her pictures in the online catalog click here. About halfway down you'll see four catalog covers, click the one on the far right, Ribbon Casket (the cover is light yellow). A new window will open up and all you'll need to do is hit the arrow on the right to advance pages.

-Sydney is on the second page (with the map) above "Hollywood" and you can click to zoom in.
-On page 4, "Have a Fantastic Trip" she's on the left, and on the following she's sitting on the airplane.
-Page 7 she's standing in front of the Eiffel Tower holding the lunch box.
-Page 10 her "mom" is giving her bunny ears. This girl was 17 and European...Poland I believe. She was very nice and Sydney loved her.
-Page 11, top of the page, she's the second kid from the left.
-Page 21, picture on the top.
-Page 27, boxing gloves and holding the bus. They were throwing a balloon around for her to punch.

The campaign on the website has some pictures of her too...they can be seen here, and I've included a video I took with my little camera, so if you get this in your email you'll need to click here to see it.

Takin' a Ride on the Kaiten-zushi Sushi Train

I have a new favorite restaurant in Japan! On Friday Sydney and I met up with my friend, Corayls, in Yokohama. Thanks for being such a good sport and letting me record you, Coralys! We went shopping, she took me to a great Kaiten-zushi (sushi train or sushi-go-round) restaurant and then we went shopping some more. I was like a kid in a candy store...this place was so neat! We've been to Kaiten-zushi restaurants before, but have never seen anything like this. With a lot of these types restaurants if you want to order something you can by speaking onto the box above the table and then it's delivered by the waiter or waitress. This place is different. The ordering process is by touch screen and then it's delivered on a motorized car on a track above the conveyor belt. Corayls explains it in the first video below and in the second you can see the process in action!

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After you're done eating you slide the plates down the ramp and under the conveyor belt. This immediately reminded me of the TV game show "Scrabble" (from the mid 1980s) where the contestants picked a tile that corresponded to a letter and then dropped it in a slot in front of them. Anyways, the plates float underneath and into the kitchen. For every five plates deposited a game comes up on the screen that's interactive. One game was a sumo match and you pick the opponent, another was fishing and picking the lure and the third was slot machine sushi. We had 16 plates so we were able to play three games. There's a clear box above the touch screen and it's filled with little prizes like pins/buttons, cell phone charms, etc; when you win one slides down. If you want to find out whether or not we won you'll have to watch this video. It's about four minutes long so you can skip ahead if you like, or watch it to see us playing the games.

Parking is limited and under the building, and if you're not there by opening time (11 am) you'll be waiting in line to park; Coralys said it's even worse at dinner. The reason it gets so packed is because it's a ¥100 Kaiten-zushi. That means each plate costs ¥100 no matter the color. Sydney and I are anxious to go back...with Bob and Keanna this time!

To those of you that subscribe to this via email, you'll need to click here to watch the three videos.

Japan's "New Moon" DVD Premium Box Set

It's coming out on March 26th here in Japan and there will only be 10,000 of them. I am willing to bet the footage from the fan meeting I attended in Tokyo back in November will be included too! I know the fan meeting from "Twilight" was on a bonus disc and my Twilight Singapore friends were on it!

Amazon Japan is selling it for the cheapest I've been able to find (¥4662), and believe it or not, on a lot of things they sell they offer same day delivery.

They did the same premium box set for "Twilight," and that can be seen here.