I finally saw Sofia Coppola’s LOST IN TRANSLATION, and what a treat it was. It’s a definite must-see for anyone with an interest in portrayals of modern Japan. I of course loved the setting, but the characters were great too, and I fell off my chair laughing at the MATTHEW’S BEST HIT TV sequence. And what a soundtrack! I mean, how can you not love a film that includes tracks by My Bloody Valentine! But the song that is now stuck in my head is Happy End’s “Kaze wo Atsumete.” Great, great track. I need to get my hands on one of their albums.

Talk about survival ramen! A new shop in Saitama called Ra Senba has 4 ramen cooks, each one offering an original taste, and the one with the lowest monthly sales is out of a job, replaced by a new cook. The full article from THE DAILY YOMIURI is online.

Robert enjoying his espresso at Jordi in Shibuya.

Today’s outing starts out in Ebisu. I meet Robert Duckworth, laptopper extraordinaire and member of Tog, at the station from where we head to the Tokyo Metropolitan Photography Museum to check out the LEVEL X exhibit. It’s a look at the history of Japanese videogaming, with a strong focus on the Nintendo Famicom console. The show is mostly composed of boxes of old games on display, but there are a few stations where you can play classic games, some of them projected on a huge screen. Playing PAC-MAN and DIG DUG on a 10 foot high screen is something indeed. Well worth going, especially at the bargain price of 250 yen. A good buy is the book for the show, which is bilingual and offers an historical perspective for every game on display. You can check Patrick Benny’s site for his report on the show, which is accompanied by a few pics (I’ll add my own later). After taking in the show, a ramen hunger strikes us, and we decide to track down a shop mentioned in Robert’s ramen guide. Misreading my Tokyo atlas, we take the subway to Hiroo, only to find that the ramen shop, Kyujukyu, is closer to Ebisu station. The shop’s speciality is cheese ramen. I make the mistake of getting shouyu ramen, which doesn’t include the cheese, but after tasting Robert’s serving, I think I might have done the right thing. Although very tasty, it is a rather heavy taste. Then it’s off to Shibuya to check out a cafe I’ve been wanting to visit for a while. Jordi is located on the same street as the Uplink Factory, opposite the big Journal Standard store. The inside is quite cozy, with interesting furniture and a nice second floor view. The music played while there are remixes of Fantastic Plastic Machine. After coffee, it’s off to Belgian beer specialist Belgo on the other side of the station. The selection of beers is overwhelming, but I settle on a nice dark brew (see my Tokyo Boy entry). We then head our seperate ways, and upon returning to Ikebukuro, I go to bookstore Libro to peruse a few magazines. While there, I pick up this very attractive and compact guide to Tokyo architecture, a steal at 600 yen. A good day.

A new-ish building at the corner of Omotesando and Aoyama street, with the address of One Omotesando (I figure it’s the address, but it could just be the name of the building). It houses a bunch of luxury brand shops.

An exhibit going under the name Harajuku Collaboration Apartment 2004 will be taking place at the Laforet Museum from January 1. I recently read an article in TOKYO WALKER that featured lots of pictures of the displays and it looked quite interesting. Here’s what REALTOKYO has to say:

“Artist collaborations are far more than plentiful these days, and turning empty rooms of apartment or any other buildings into exhibition space isn’t exactly new either. To top it off, the “apartments” these collaborations are shown in aren’t even real… I could go on carping, but there are a couple of things about this energetic project that intrigue me: One, that it kicks off on January 1, and two, the list of participating artists. Promising contributions include a work by Noda Nagi + Theatre Products, as well as the “The Shogatsu TV!” by Sootome Keiko + Hosokawa Toru. If you are planning a New Year visit to nearby Meiji Shrine, why not drop by.”

A reader sent me a link to Torisukoshiro, the site of Koshiro Torisu, a design artist living in Paris. Very nice and colorful imagery throughout.

The Vincent Gallo exhibit at Gallery Rocket.

I love Stop Motion Studies. The site is made up of “a series of experimental documentaries that chronicle [...] interaction with subway passengers in cities around the world.” The stop motion studies are a series of shots that are slightly animated, sort of like an animated gif. This is the Tokyo page. Link via Momus.

As you can see (and if you can’t, hit the refresh button in your browser), I’ve changed things some more. I’d probably call this latest change a skin more than anything else, as I’ve just made changes to the CSS (and the graphics) but haven’t touched the structure. I got tired of the green and orange (yeah, after only one month) and so this afternoon I sat down and decided to play around with things a bit. I’ve probably been influenced by the LDK blog I’ve been enjoying a lot lately, as well as the cover of the latest issue of +81 (the Helsinki one). I wanted something a bit more sparse with no heavy colors. I guess you could call this my winter theme for the site. And no worries if you don’t like it as I’ll probably get tired of this scheme in a month or two.

As I was walking around Aoyama the other day, I passed what looked like somekind of production studio, and they had these piles of tapes laying out in front of the door outside, probably waiting to get picked up.

For those looking for pics of street fashions in Japan, the following links were suggested by someone in a comment thread: Street Imagination, Street Mini Style, and Cazicazi.net.

Edit: And here’s another one.

Also at the Spiral Character exhibit, these figures are based on a legendary Russian animated film which is now playing in Tokyo. From REALTOKYO:

“Driven by her desire to have a dog, a little girl uses a woolen mitten instead to resemble a puppy… when suddenly the mitten begins to walk! Shown for the first time in Japanese movie theatres is this puppet animation from 1967 by Russian director Roman Kachanov, whose “Cheburashka” is extremely popular in Japan. With animators involved including the famed Norstein and others, “Mitten” enjoys a reputation as a “legendary” or “fantastic” title. A set that also includes “Letter ” (1970) and “Mama” (1972), this program of 30 minutes is sure to bring back memories of your childhood and its dreams, and I assure you that there’s nothing better than such a charming event to warm you up from the inside in this cold season.”

A nice site has also been created for the re-release of the film in Japan.

I was able to take 2 pics at Spiral’s Character exhibit before someone came up to me and told me to stop.

The Liquid Room is an infamous venue located on the 7th floor of a building in Kabukicho, and it’s closing at the end of the year. I’ve only been there once, and it was to see an Ian Brown gig. Here’s more info on the last event taking place there (from REALTOKYO):

“Still looking for a party to dance in the new year? Whether your answer is yes or no, please plan to drop by the Liquid Room. Not necessarily for the music or the fun, but because — as the dramatic title suggests — this will be your last chance to set foot on the dance floor of Shinjuku’s legendary club/live house. The sad truth is that the end of the year coincides with the closing of Liquid Room, and as a fan of Tokyo’s underground/club music, consider it your duty be at LR in its final hour. DJs are Tanaka Fumiya and Takkyu Ishino, with a visual feast by Ukawa Naohiro.”