Pink Lady Vintage Compact

See the words Pink Lady and anyone in Japan will immediately think of the massively popular female pop duo. The Pink Lady compacts are completely unrelated to the pop act, but were coincidentally popular around the same time, in the 1970s. They were the Japanese version of Stratton compacts, but it seems their products never went beyond domestic borders.

I experienced surprise upon surprise when I opened up this box. This bold Egyptian-inspired design was very unexpected, not to mention the anachronistic pairing of a compact and lighter. A Japanese website (sources not verified) notes that the set was most likely inspired by the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum in 1965, which was seen by nearly 1.3 million people.  

An even bigger surprise: the cigarette lighter turned out to be a playful take on the perfume bottle! The perfume itself was extremely light.

Another Pink Lady compact, unearthed from my mother's makeup drawer.

Vintage Stratton Compact

A vintage compact I found in my mother's desk, a souvenir most likely from England in the 1970s. I'd never heard of the company Stratton before, but back when compact sizes were the same all over the world, they were a big name. The company was established over 150 years ago, and in the 1940s, over half the compacts (and other "handbag accessories" such as lipstick cases) in Britain were supplied by Stratton. Today, they manufacture compacts with cotton covers.

It's not that women don't use compacts anymore -- they do -- but compact sizes are dictated by individual cosmetics companies, and are generally made of plastic. (A lot of compacts are theoretically reusable, but companies also seem to change their compact sizes fairly frequently, forcing the consumer to re-purchase a new compact ever time they buy any pressed-powder makeup.) I like the idea of a standardized compact size. They were probably popular gifts for women, and using a compact from abroad was a subtle way of signalling your uniqueness.

Before the Parade

Taken in Ginza on May 5th. For the past seven years, Ginza has held a Willow Festival on Nishi-Ginza Street on this day. The festival was originally launched to commemorate the planting of the willow trees that line the street (rather flimsy excuse, no?), but has no settled loosely on a "regional culture appreciation" theme.  

 

The festival kicked off with a parade at noon. Since I was at lunch in a nearby building, I missed the actual parade, but here you can see all the media journalists on the left, and the police cars readying themselves on the right. The crowds may look sparse in the photo, but there were over a million visitors last year, and judging by the 15 minutes it took to cross the street after my lunch, this year was no different.

Bird-Watching at Kasai Rinkai Park

Kasai Rinkai Park, the biggest park in the Tokyo 23 wards area. Separated by the Edogawa River and a portion of Tokyo Bay, it's hard to believe that Tokyo Disneyland is only one station away.

Unlike other large Tokyo parks, this one opened less than 25 years ago, in 1989. No surprise here: the area around the park (stretching all the way to Shin-Urayasu) is reclaimed land. Disneyland is visible in the background on the left, while the area of Shin-Urayasu can be seen in the central section of the background.

The large field with the Ferris Wheel is merely one section of the park; the much less crowded bird sanctuary and observation zones make up another. Kasai Rinkai Park is also famed for its aquarium, from which a brave penguin escaped in 2010 before being discovered alive in Tokyo Bay. The bird sanctuary zone (shown above) opened in 1994.

The posts seemed to be generally occupied by coromants. There wasn't much variety in terms of bird-watching, as winter is when birds from colder climates end up here.

The Ferris Wheel looming in the background makes the area look less relaxing to me.

Vintage Perfume Finds

Found while rooting around my mother's study: a miniature bottle of French perfumier Roger & Gallet's eau de toilette "Shendy", released in 1970. (They were distributed through Kao Corporation, the chemical and cosmetics giant, in Japan.) The line has been long discontinued and is therefore considered rare, but they seem to be selling for fairly cheap on the internet.

An ad for the perfume.

A very old bottle of Chanel No. 5, so old that the liquids have separated into layers. 

Fidji, by Guy Laroche. This one is still being sold, but considering a warning about chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) in the bottle, this bottle is from before 1985, when the export of CFCs were banned.