Journalism Hui

in a completly un-fashion related post -Ive had a cultural Renaissance this past week, on a journey all the way to west Auckland for a journalism Hui (meeting) with my new graduate diploma in journalism class. we spent 72 hours on a marae in west Auckland listening to endless speakers who included, the head of the human rights commission, editors from the western leader, spacifx magazine, mana magazine, the Fiji times, Maori television etc. the final highlight of the day was speaker pita sharples , head of the Maori party , minister of Maori affairs and a few other things. hes hugely inspirational , and yes i have enough sense not to trust a politician outright but to be fair hes extremely honest , very down to earth, not annoyingly PC, and can laugh at himself. We were lucky In that this was probaly one of teh best times to talk to him given the uproar over the national government deciding not to make three Maori seats on the new Auckland supercity council.
he was pissed to say the least. we also got the inside scoop on another hui with all of Auckland's Maori tribes on Wednesday which will discuss the decision. politics aside pita's work with the very marae we sat in and the te reo school next door was incredible. he told us how in the 80's when he planned the marae , which was meant for all Auckland tribes to use and for school education ( groups like ourselves) he was constantly told it could work. but that he put the money up himself for buildings and teachers salaries until he finally convinced the council to support him. The complex wa sthe first of its kind in auckland - a marae for all people.

Harajukus grease boy=HOT

IM IN LOVE- with the grease style boys at HARUJUKU they are everywhere- probably keeping the gel companies in business single handed- I must say its refreshing for boys to be making an effort- Ive come to the conclusion that KIWI boys are just lazy when it comes to fashion!

TOKYO

three days in a city like TOKYO and this New Zealand Girl is feeling mighty boring in her standard black- matching and un-themed outfits, i have never before suffered from plain jane syndrome so severely. Tokyo is like the vending machines it loves so much, bright, sparkling with lights, and with many many options, in short its madness! here's just a snippet of a variety of different shops from the cities busiest centres shiboya and harujuku. on the minimalist side is cult Japanese convenience style shop MUJI (which FYI is also widely available inHong Kong).
on the bright and wacky side of things is this shop in Harujuku whose name I cannot tell you asI speak not a word of Japanese, heres the catch though, what looks like a costume shop is not- its actually clothes people wear on the streets of harajuku. In shaboya -the hippest shopping area- it has THAT infamous intersection (as seen in lost in translation) which sees the most people in the world crossing it every hour - high fashion stores like COACH sit alongside CONDOMMANIA- no joke its a boutique condom store !- only in japan!