Let’s continue our walk down memory lane, and review the second half of a spectacular 2011.

Sebastiano Serafini and I were guests at Luisaviaroma, an event that brings fashion’s most influential bloggers together. Events included tea with Mulberry, a grand dinner surrounded by animal bones, and haute couture photoshoots in the streets of Florence!

It’s hard not to love Italy. The food, the people, the fashion and architecture… If you missed it, here are all my Europe posts.

A few more milestones… I appeared in Bust Magazine, and on the cover of Alt Noir. I’m on another magazine cover in 2012; can’t wait to spill the beans.

Later that summer, a dream came true: I have a travel TV show on Huffington Post/AOL! In “Coolhunting Wisconsin,” I discover hip, weird, crazy attractions in and around Milwaukee — such as a spy-themed bar and retro love hotel. Watch the videos online.

In July, I jetted back to Tokyo to host and arrange the Japan episode of Fuel TV / Discovery’s Strangers in Danger. The BMX stars got saline donuts in their heads, among other daring tasks. (Are you exhausted from my constant traveling yet?)

The following month, the pretty-boy and I were Guests of Honor at Ani-Jam convention. It was fun to meet all of you who came. I also had a Hello Kitty birthday party at Hollywood club Mr Black, which was featured in LA Weekly.

Back to Tokyo again, to host/arrange episodes of Food Network’s “World’s Weirdest Restaurants,” and appear on NHK Kawaii TV.

I spent Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mazatlan, Mexico – hosting a series about the dark arts and culture. All my Mexican coverage is here, and videos are coming soon.

I haven’t even mentioned the various stops in LA and Vancouver, and my impending return to Italy in January for Firenze4Ever blogger conference…

All in all, it’s been my best year yet! I’m happy with how my work and travels have grown, as well as improvements to the site (loading time, photo quality and styling, etc). And it’s only going to keep getting better. Yarrr.

What are your proudest accomplishments from the past year? Favorite memories? What did you learn, or experience for the first time?

Album of the Day: The Birthday Massacre – Pins and Needles

Muahah! I love my work as a TV host, especially when it involves travel and my frightening friends. I’ve compiled my clips from the past two years in a new pop culture and travel hosting reel.

Watch my presenting above and on YouTube. I hope the video makes you smile.

The TV work is going well… As you know, I’m currently hosting and arranging a Huffington Post Travel TV series on Coolhunting Weird Wisconsin.

My Norway TV gig (above) was quite the adventure. The video includes moments on Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods for Travel Channel, Canal + France, Discovery/Fuel, Today Show, NHK, CNN and more.

There’s much more to come, including my NHK Kawaii TV episode, which airs in January.

You can see full clips and info on my bio page. If you’re looking for a host and fixer (arranger), please keep the Pirates in mind – info about my company’s services here.

What’s your favorite moment in my TV host demo reel? Which TV shows or networks would you like to see me on next?

Song of the Day: Ken Laszlo – Tonight (that’s the instrumental playing in my new video)

Shhh… the latest installment of my Huffington Post / AOL travel TV show is out. I snuck into Safe House, a hidden Milwaukee restaurant/bar for spies.

Please take 1 second to support by clicking the Like button below or on Huff Post Travel.

My disguise consisted of…
Sunglasses: Wanderling Red Queen, gifted from Lumete.
Dress: h.NAOTO, from Closet Child (my favorite Tokyo secondhand store)
Pirate scarf: an old thing
Cut-out boots: Leche by Yosuke, from Marui One Shinjuku’s “shoe heaven” floor
Black floppy sunhat: from Hong Kong

I can’t divulge all the secrets of Milwaukee’s Safe House. Intelligence would have me terminated. Or, at least, the owners would be miffed.

I can tell you it’s a refuge for secret agents, disguised as a restaurant and bar. (Or is it the other way around?) I knew the address (779 North Front Street, Milwaukee Wis.), but struggled to find the hidden alleyway door.

Once I located the entrance, I had to face Miss Moneypenny, who demanded a secret password. No clue. “You’ll have to do what I tell you for entry,” she said. Which, as you can see in the video, was rather embarrassing.

A bookcase slid open, and a passage led to a dining area sectioned internationally (Hong Kong, Eastern Europe etc.) Spy memorabilia covered the walls. Relics included a USSR jail door, a chunk of the Berlin wall and an Austin Powers guitar.

Co-owner Shauna Baldwin, who goes by the title “chief disinformation officer,” tipped me off to gags hidden throughout the restaurant. “Want to know if your boyfriend is playing the field?” she asked. The ladies’ room has a peephole offering a vantage point from which to watch his behavior at the bar.

Even the food has undercover names, such as Ze French Dip and Bond’s Bomb, a chocolate ball with a lit fuse (candle) that I couldn’t blow out. The video shows how my martini was thoroughly shaken, thanks to a retro-futuristic device.

Safe House takes the spy theme to the extreme. Baldwin custom-built a hidden revolving booth exit, and dreamed up a “Her Majesty’s Secret Service” act with a rising torture chair.

But these details are classified. Spies will have to don a disguise, and sneak in to see for themselves.

Thanks to Chief Disinformation Officer Shauna for the tour, to the film crew for their hard work, and to Huffington Post / AOL for the chance to do this travel show.

Please take a moment to view my travel video and article. My cat sends head-bonks for every Like, Share and Tweet! (The short-link is http://huff.to/vEoNrX)

What, what? You haven’t yet seen my travel video for Huffington Post, where I visit the world’s freakiest house? Sunday is perfect day to give it a view!

If Alex Jordan were alive today, he’d be on the TV show “Hoarders”.

The Wisconsin eccentric wasn’t happy with a single tea set. He had to own a dozen. Instead of two creepy dolls, he amassed two hundred. Three medical vials? Try three thousand. You get the picture.

Jordan’s knickknacks fill every inch of House on the Rock (5754 State Road 23, Spring Green WI, (608) 935-3639).

He supposedly built the 200-acre complex to show up Frank Lloyd Wright (who called him an incompetent architect). When Jordan finished the home in 1959, curiosity-seekers convinced him to turn it into a museum.

It’s a dizzying walk through the House’s three sections. This is not a trip for the weak-stomached. A few areas smell like a cross between rotten cheese and wet cat.

I slumped through mole-like passages that opened into monstrous displays. Such as, “Heritage of the Sea,” a 200-foot whale and squid locked in a battle to the death, wrapped by a staircase lined with sailboats. “Music of Yesterday,” coin-operated ghost orchestras that bang out circus songs. “World’s Largest Carousel,” hundreds of fairytale beasts spinning under the glow of chandeliers. “Hallway of Infinity,” a glass walkway jutting out high above a valley, with no supports underneath.

The sensory overload left me (and other visitors) battered. I was in awe of Jordan’s grandiose vision, the magic and wonder he created. At the same time, I wanted this claustrophobic flea-market nightmare to end. Wisconsin’s House on the Rock, you will haunt my dreams.

What’s the strangest museum you’ve ever encountered? Would you set foot in this one? See the wonder of House of the Rock in my Weird Wisconsin video.

And stay tuned for the next Coolhunting episode, where I visit a top secret restaurant/bar in Milwaukee.

PS: Absolute last chance to WIN Miyavi Halloween concert tickets for his What’s My Name tour! Tell your friends and enter here; it’s easy.

I previous reviewed his Neo-Samurai tour in this post.

PPS: I’m featured as subculture guide in the Japan episode of Australia’s travel TV show, Roam. It’s airing on National Geographic Adventure in October and November; here are upcoming showtimes.

Song of the Day: Whatever’s your favorite Miyavi song… if you tell me on Facebook, you can win the ticket giveaway!