BACK.
a.bert and company arrived today at O’Hare. Spending the last two months in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and several smaller cities in-between has broadened their horizons, taxed their sleep and left their wallets empty.
Supreme X Vans Mountain Edition Collabo.
This is one of China’s several elitist cigarettes. If you choose to cull your nicotine cravings with this pack you can expect to pay $20.00 USD, 1/4 of the average monthly income for people living in Kunming, China. Though it may not sound like a lot for our heavily taxed cancer sticks, it’s the equivalent of dropping $750.00 USD for a pack at your local gas station! The YunYan packaging reminds me a lot of an old Topps Stadium Refractor, distinguishing its upscale status with a shiny hologram wrapping.
This is a variation of a popular brand of chocolate found in nearly every grocery store/gas station/dentists office/waiting room in America. However these are coated with a creamy green tea flavored chocolate and are extremely rare to come by, even in Japan. The crew actually stumbled upon this when they were playing a Claw Machine game at the Taito station in Shinjuku. $30.00 later and with only 1 box of Green Tea KitKat box to show for, they left the station in search of their new relic at just about every local convenience store in Tokyo. They were nowhere to be found.
No trip in Asia is complete without perusing the surplus of knockoffs tucked away in the back doors of China. Don’t be mistaken, it’s no walk down 5th Street in SoHo. It’s a serious business and since it’s also a major offense in China, the vendors have no plans on getting caught. If a vendor is convinced that you’re not trying to call him out on his imitated goods, he’ll lead you down several back alleys in a frantic pace, checking behind him several times to make sure neither of you are being followed and usher you through a door to knockoff heaven. There are hundreds of “pop up” shops out there and each have their own variations of quality. This is a Gucci wallet, its construction is solid, the leather is real ,the seams are tight. One thing though…its not authentic Gucci.
