I got these forever ago, but they’re too wacky not to post! The mismatched socks are from Topshop and the shoes are Skechers Heartbreakers. I like the patchwork and how the design itself resembles the classic Mary Jane. I’m bound to get some pretty strange looks skipping around in such a busy combination, but I adore these! They remind me of the Sixth Doctor. *L* The Rainbow Storm hoodie is by Tokidoki and I bought it marked down from Giant Peach. Once it drops in price further, I’m going to buy THIS shirt to match.

I found the cutest picture of Hideo Tokoro (所英男) in an old livedoorSPORTS interview from May ’08 (prior to Dream 4). The interview doesn’t even mention his (then) upcoming fight with Darren Uyenoyama. Instead, it is all about Tokoro’s nostalgic or natsukashii (懐かしい) feelings for the children’s anime Kinnikuman. I’ve noticed that a lot of my favorite Japanese grapplers grew up on that anime; like Kazushi Sakuraba (桜庭和志), who actually dressed up as Kinnikuman during his PRIDE:CC ’05 weigh-in. But I digress, since this was supposed to be about Tokoro! wwww Basically, interviews like these have made me an even bigger Tokoro fan by exposing me to an almost nerdy side of him that I find, well… absolutely adorable! I like reading interviews with fighters that aren’t fight related because I can see what they are like outside of the ring. Occasionally I’m even surprised by what I see and develop a greater respect for a particular fighter.

The American MMA community however is entirely different. UFC promotes its fighters more through “trash talk” interviews, which seem undignified and silly to me after being exposed to the mutual respect and admiration more commonly exchanged between fighters in the Japanese community. English fansites like Sherdog also consider interviews that don’t discuss a fight or career to be too “pointless” to translate, which I find unfortunate. What a shame that two years after Zuffa/UFC purchased and killed PRIDE, MMA in the US is still not being promoted as a respectable competition of martial arts, but a freakish human version of caged dogfighting with very few human qualities among the contenders to respect or admire.

One of my girlfriends planned a “girl’s day out” with her mom, who was forced to cancel at the last minute. Since we both go to the same salon, she asked if I wanted to accompany her instead and use the appointment slot. I had my hair done back in June, but you have to set a reservation at this particular salon weeks in advance, so I figured that I would take her up on the offer. I just had my roots done and asked for a little bit more layering — nothing fancy. Can you tell the difference in my hair from the pictures though?