An Afternoon in Harajuku and Aoyama

Time for something I haven’t done in a while, a post describing an afternoon outing. I used to do these regularly, and then stopped because I felt like I was just repeating myself. I also ended up taking lots of pics (over 60), which I’ll post over the week.

So I started things out by getting off at Harajuku Station, and made my way to Lapnet Ship. The main exhibition, Toshiko Kimura’s “Nothing Happened in the Forest,” lets you sit down and watch two looping videos, as well as some other designs (like cushions and bags). I enjoyed the screening (with music), and then went to the adjacent Lapnet Club for “Studio Poco Photo Exhibition #002 – Oh! Delicious!” (here are two pics from their first exhibition back in May of this year). Then, I went to the KDDI Designing Studio to have a look at TokyoAlice‘s “Tokyo Alice Wonder Land!!!” show. After looking around, I was approached by TokyoAlice herself, and had a nice little chat, even inviting her to our “Mamma Gun” event and party — what can I say, I’m a mean, lean promotion machine!

I continued to traipse around Harajuku, going to Beams-T, where I got a The Wonderful! Design Works pin from a gacha-gacha machine, and also spotted a tee by Kiiiiiii. I walked in front of the new Bape Cafe, but didn’t go in. The building is quite attractive, and it’s nice to see a lot of outdoor seating, but I don’t like the chairs — damn ratan! It’s close to the Final Home shop, so I stopped by and picked up a t-shirt. I then cut through all of Ura-Hara, to get a good look at Tadao Ando’s Omotesando development (I took plenty of pics, which I’ll post later).

I then zigzagged a bit, going to hhstyle.com to drool over some interior goods (Tokujin Yoshioka, you can do no wrong), and then headed to Nadiff. They were hosting a Moleskine exhibition (I moblogged the one at Tower Records in Shibuya), as well as an installation by Sako Kojima called “Sakoo.” I bought two old Hiropon zines (issues 9 and 10), and a Kaikai Kiki clear file. Following that, it was off to Spiral for another edition of their Take Art event, “Take Art Collection 2005” (here’s a post about last year’s edition). I especially liked the graphic work by Nendo that decorated the space (and the event poster).

I was getting tired by now, and wanted to go to a cafe to rest up, but decided to drop by the ABC Book Center first, passing in front of the soon-to-open Xbox Lounge. Once at ABC, I saw my third Moleskine exhibition, and also picked up the latest issue of +81 (Vol. 29, “Movie and Motion Graphic Inspiration”). After I paid for the magazine and started walking out, the cashier caught up with me, and gave me a deck of +81 cards, the ones that had been released in conjunction with the Holland/Finland design issue (and that I had already bought). Oh well, now I have two sets!

I finally ended my day with a visit to the Plusminuszero shop, and had a latte at the cafe, where I read most of the +81 I had just bought.