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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

A Rainy Day in Aoyama

So, as planned, yesterday I went out to Aoyama, even though it was rainy day (thankfully the sun is out again today). I had made a mistake, and it wasn’t TOKYO SCENE that we were supposed to distribute, but rather Exposure. We didn’t end up doing that (issues weren’t ready yet) and instead started out by having coffee at a nice cafe called Dragonfly. The music was good, and I look forward to going there again on a nice day when we can take advange of the outdoor seating on the terrace. Then it was off to the Rocket Gallery for the Milky Hips exhibit (see pictures in the previous entry), which was much smaller than I thought. It was still interesting to see huge versions of the pics. I find it interesting that all the models used are supposedly just people that the photographer approached on the street. We then checked out a few shops in the area (including the excellent Aoyama Book Center) before Jason had to leave for work (he’s a copy editor at THE JAPAN TIMES). I then walked to the Tower Records in Shibuya to pick up the latest issue of the English version of Shonen Jump, which I’ve really been enjoying lately.

As mentioned, today is turning out really nice, so I’m soon going to go out and wander around Ikebukuro. I think I might also go see the latest James Bond film, DIE ANOTHER DAY. I’ve seen every James Bond film since OCTOPUSSY in 1983 at the theatre, so it’s sort of tradition that I plan on keeping (even though I’ve already seen the new movie from a downloaded AVI file).

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PauseTalk

PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition happens on Sunday, May 13, as part of the Magazine Library 10 exhibition in Daikanyama.

We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.

Codex is a weekly music podcast hosted by Jean Snow, recorded in Tokyo. Playlists for all episodes are posted on the site, and you can subscribe to RSS feeds of posts and episodes.

Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
PechaKucha

Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.

A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.

 

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The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.

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