GOLDEN WEEK EDITION! #juststuff6
DIG DONG! It's me! It's May! Do you remember ME?!
OK…April was hectic to say the least. I wanted to ‘rebrand’ my Substack, make a portfolio, take portrait photos…essentially create a ‘professional look’ to my writing careerーto my à la freelance career too. None of it happened because LIFE! and you know what? I’m not angry at myself or frustrated about it at all. The work lifestyle I have now is already a hustle culture one, I’m dead-beat at the end of the day, I don’t find it necessary to stress myself even more to things that can be done later. Paying Bills? Rent? These things can’t be done later honey, you better work. (This will go in today’s edition of recommendations but there’s a new show I watched from
TV recs, and there’s an episode called “Jesus loves a hustler” That’s the theme for May.Period.)To my Japanese readers, HAPYY GOLDEN WEEK! It’s a long weekend for some of you lots, and I have been watching, reading, listening some great things as always and I think Golden Week is the best time to do all of these things to just binge and relax. This is the #juststuff6 edition but for a longer weekend version so there will be some long form content that I would love to share with you all!
Reads 📕💻
A super character-driven YA novel. The main character who’s a Turkish American girl, super awkward, funny, smart and insecure meets someone at uni that is pretty unavailable emotionally (*RED FLAG RUN). People say it’s one of the funniest book the’y’ve read. Didn’t get that part but it was a good read.
She has a Substack as well,
and I love the sketches and the narrative that goes with it. It's basically a manga form? reading it from a Japanese perspective but it reminds you that visual support is SO helpful.Um, Ok.. new Substack alert that I’m obsessed!!!! with.
is a style newsletter where she helps you find secondhand, vintage finds, and sometimes new clothes but showing us alternatives of where you can buy something very similar for cheeper and secondhand. I heard it from this episode of Shameless, which honestly they give some good recs on a weekly basis, if you are not interested in celebrity news at all, it’s worth just listening to the first 15 minutes of the shows for their banter and recs imo. This one is filled with vintage finds and she even lists the ‘search words’ in how to find the things you want to find on Etsyーsomething Japan can get on board, stop buying new shit.-The 100 best restaurants in NYC by the New York Times
I completely enjoyed this kind of best XX to some extent but I LOVED the format? It was so cute. A delightful eye candy. This made me *curious*, how many Japanese restaurants are in here and behold, there were a couple. In top7, there’s a sushi place called Sushi Yoshino . $500 for an Omakase. Well, I get it now why foreigners will go above and beyond for a $300-400 Sushi in Ginza. The Japanese quality ingredients and the freshness with this price? Yea, can’t beat that.
-My taste is basic, so what? By Smantha Irby
I knew of her Substack 'bitches gotta eat'
but I never actually read any of her stuff. I also had no idea she wrote "Shrill" too (which I LOVED!) but there was a podcast I listened to and was completely into her immediately.A complete rabbit hole, but also a part of work research, Japanese prisons are insane. There are ONLY? 51,000 people incarcerated in Japan. Also this website? So user friendly for …what reason??
-Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by Shiho Fukuda
Shiho Fukuda is a Japanese investigated journalist and photographer but my god, this is such an interesting look into Japan and its elderly pov.
-Revealed: The best (and worst) tourist attractions in the world
Time out released such a shit ranking of best and worst tourist attractions in the world and Japan has ranked in for Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. So bonkers. It is not the ‘worst’ place lol if they wanted to do this, they should have just said ‘The most crowded tourism attractions in the world' or something like that, because Fushimi is beautiful. Period. The worst???? The No1 was Hollywood Walk of Fame lol It’s beyond ridiculous to line up places like Taj Mahal ,Fushimi, The Great Wall of China along with Hollywood walk of Fame. I’m sorry but it’s such a dumb list.
-My Beauty Uniform: Monica Heisey
I was interested in Monica’s book once I read this review by
, "Really good, Actually" and I came across this beautiful interview on cup of joe. Love anything when a friend is the superhero of a story.Podcasts 🎤
I’m not going to lie… I listened to all of Alison Roman's (a newsletter)podcast appearances so it’s going to be unhingly a lot about her. But obviously my favorite ones were from the Armchair and from Talk Easy. I must say, her work ethic is something I really really fucking admire and is something that I relate to a lot now. You are shit in the beginning of whatever you are doing, giving it time and believe in yourself that you want to be good at it, and that can be all the reasons of taking yourself to places that you have never imagined. This one by Taste is great and this one with Substack…I’m not sure but I feel like it was a bit off. lol but still a stan so I listened to all of it. (Why did I feel like each comment made by Hamish Mckenzie was a bit stand off ish?)
-Anna Kendrick on Armchair Expert
Armchair Expert does some good ass interviews and this was one of them. My god. Such a vulnerable and honest conversation about female shame when none of it was under her control and it wasn’t even her fault. A really good interview.
-Literary Friction on Book covers
I occasionally rec this episode but if you need a book related podcast, this one is the only one I rec. A new thing I learned is a French publication called “Les Editions De Minuit” has only ONE version of a cover for all their books. A light blue rectangle around the book and their star logo. Their website is as shit as it can get but an interesting new thing to learn.
Are you ready for a 3 hour long podcast? Well, I wasn’t but I went for it because fuck, aren’t you curious how LVMH, Bernard Arnault, a luxury goods company can be the richest company in the entire world??? Disregarding Amazon, Apple and Elon Musk and all the other tech shit???? Well he just kept on buying brands and he had an eye for design…I guess?? It took me 4 days to finish it but I recommend this highly if you are into fashion and the WHY a luxury brand???
TV-shows📺
Happy valley
A BBC-iplayer classic. Aired in 2014, A Yorkshire based crime drama. Such a good storyline. I love British CRIME DRAMA! Also following Scott Bryan on Twitter, I highly rec. He’s a TV critic and I fully trust anything he says now. lol
Rain Dogs
Honestly, it’s kind of bleak but a mum who works in sex work and just trying to live the day one by one. A lot of rape-y, assault scenes that are casually depicted, purposely of course because that’s what women’t lives are likeーit just happens?? It’s a good binge watch and this one was recd by
Succession
I mean must I say more? While your at it, you can read this cover story on Rupert Murdoch and the fam. My god!!!!! This season is ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN and I’m too horny for Kendall and Shiv.
Movies 🎞️ (Running out of space, so if I must choose ONE movie)
Fire of Love
One of the most beautiful documentaries I’ve watched in a minute. The love for each other but more over, you realize the love for something you can each bond with is something so special. Not many of us can share that with our partners but these two in particular…shared it through volcanos. Watch the trailer.
🥣Whip up something yum!!!!!!🥣
cooked a bunch as well. Like this quick and easy ragu with… Alison (yeah I’m obsessed) , Yung Chun Mian by Saveur, these beautiful crispy potatoes and garlicky yogurt , an inspo of a lazy salsa verde vide with tons of greens, peas!!! and gnocci from mob, this sumac shrimp scampi crunch asparagus by Mehreen Karim (such a delightful website). To top it off, the internet’s famous “The Cookie” by Alison.
I hope you find all of these things as fun, wholesome and deliciously indulging as much as it was for me. Thank you all for reading and until next week!! And this time I promise, I’ll keep up the work here to deliver to you all, since you guys just love my taste so much!!!! bisou x Megumi