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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

This Week at Gridskipper

Character Expo 2005

This week’s posts at Gridskipper:

And here’s a direct link to all the posts by me.

Racing with the Hot Brothers

Racing with the Hot Brothers

While I anxiously await to see what crazy stunt Takeshi Okamura will perform during his annual year-end TV special (last year was pretty damn classic), I guess I can start trying to best his MARIO KART DS times.

Japanese comedians Takeshi Okamura and Hiroyuki Yabe not content to be Mario and Luigi in commercials have taken to the DS to continue their antics. The Hot Mario Bros have been practicing their Mario Kart DS skills to take on all comers. Starting Dec. 27, gamers in Japan can download the Mario Bros ghost data from a Nintendo WiFi kiosk and try to best their times. (Kotaku)

Polypunk OK

Polypunk OK

Digiki has just posted his fifth Polypunk podcast, this time calling it POLYPUNK OK. As he explains:

I wanted to do something different for the last 2005 show, and that’s the reason why it’s called Polypunk OK and not Polypunk 005 (confusing, I know). The theme for this fifth show is the work (and sound environment) of Oyamada Keigo aka Cornelius. I wanted to have a mix of Cornelius sounds and non-Cornelius material connected together, and I hope you’ll like the result.

Get it while it’s hot!

Midnight Eye Update

Midnight Eye

Midnight Eye has just updated with some new articles/reviews. Nevermind that it’s almost Christmas, they’ve gone all horror on us: an interview with Norio Tsuruta (RING 0), a feature pondering the death of J-Horror, frightful reviews aplenty, including RAMPO NOIR, THE RAVAGED HOUSE, KOKKURI, even a book review (THE RING COMPANION).

GAS Vs. Rocket

The Rocket Gallery makes a comeback, sort of, with the next show scheduled at GAS’ Traveling Shop in-store gallery, “Hello Gas Gallery Exhibition Rocket Is Still On, ‘How Are You Been?’” It takes place January 14-19, with more details here (in Japanese).

HDTV Vs. Hi-Vision

I was checking out the TVs yesterday at Bic Camera, a bit curious to see what HDTV-enabled sets go for these days. I didn’t notice anything that mentioned HDTV specifically, but what looked like high-definition sets were always referred to as Hi-Vision. Are these one and the same? Is High-Vision simply the way HDTV gets branded in Japan, or is it something else altogether?

Mikimoto Ginza 2

Mikimoto Ginza 2

Snapped this pic today (early evening) of the new Toyo Ito-designed Mikimoto Ginza 2 building.

Atelier Muji

Atelier Muji

I did my monthly Ginza/Yurakucho tour today, and this was the scene at Atelier Muji, inside the Muji Yurakucho flagship store. Oh, and if you get the chance, you really should try to see the “Eco Bags Save the Earth” charity event at Creation Gallery G8. I can’t say that I was very excited by the Ginza Graphic Gallery‘s “Swiss Poster Art: 100 Years of Creation” exhibition though. I would have been much happier seeing a Muller-Brockmann-only show. Today (Thursday) is your last chance to see both shows.

Retired Weapons Christmas Desktops

The Retired Weapons Art Project has some special Christmas desktops for download: 1024×768 and 1280×1024.

Christmas at Cafe Pause

Christmas at Cafe Pause

Christmas at Cafe Pause

Christmas at Cafe Pause

Christmas at Cafe Pause

Last Friday I wrote a post at Gridskipper about the Christmas-themed things that are going on at Cafe Pause, and I figured I’d take a few pics to give you and idea of how it looks. I supplied the Christmas tunes, as well as the Bass/Rankin TV specials for the projector.

Illegal Christmas Compilation 2005

Illegal Christmas Compilation 2005

As a festive treat, Jesper is sharing the Next Century Modern Illegal Christmas Compilation 2005.

Thomas Heatherwick

Thomas Heatherwick

PingMag has an interview with Thomas Heatherwick regarding his upcoming project in Japan.

Where’s the Dragon?

Microsoft’s pulling out the big guns! Just now, in the span of a few minutes, twice I saw a commercial that shows Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the FINAL FANTASY series, sitting in front of a computer with Akira Toriyama (with Toriyama’s face hidden, of course), and he says something like, “Toriyama, you really are great!” This is followed by a few cut scenes from the Xbox 360-only RPG they’re both working on, BLUE DRAGON, which will come out “sometime” in 2006 (the TV ad just says “2006″).

This Week in Magazines

Casa BrutusBrutusDesigners' Workshop

  • The latest issue of PEN (167) takes a look at souvenirs from around the world, spotlighting things to get from various cities.
  • This month’s RELAX (107) sports a cover claiming “2006 Onsen Happy Days,” with most of the interior taken up by everything relating to hot springs, from international picks to the best in Japan. Nothing against onsen, but I can’t say that it’s something that I’m particularly interested in reading about in style/culture magazines (a recent issue of BRUTUS was also devoted to the same topic). Also, RELAX has now switched (or possibly last month, since I missed that issue) to the Japanese traditional way of back-to-front reading, and we also see the return of a newspaper-like supplement. Honestly, the most fascinating thing about RELAX these days revolves around what the magazine is going to look like (content/layout) from month to month.
  • The latest DESIGNERS’ WORKSHOP (Vol. 22 No. 144) features a report on “The Graphic Designers on the Rise,” as well as a look at the Jun Aoki-designed Aomori Museum of Art. I particularly liked this bit from the feature, talking about Tetsushi Kawamura, art director for TITLE: “While most men’s culture and fashion magazines try for a hyper-masculine look even as their actual contents stress stylishness and good looks, Title’s design doesn’t go in over-the-top masculinity. Rather, Kawamura interprets the editor’s suggestion to ‘make a magazine that women also want to pick up’ in his signature light, flexible style.” Although they state on their website that the magazine is bilingual, there’s really only a 2-3 page summary of some of the articles in English (where that quote was taken).
  • ECIFFO (Vol. 47) is a bilingual “Magazine About the Office,” with this latest issue featuring “The Next Step in Office Innovation.” Even though I’ve never worked in an office, I can’t help but be attracted by stylish/creative office spaces.
  • This month’s CASA BRUTUS (70) features (take a deep breath) “The Great Journey of Japanese Local Food and Architecture,” which is basically just an excuse to list spots to see (and where to eat) around Japan. There’s also an article sharing the magazine’s best architecture and design picks of 2005.
  • The latest BRUTUS (585) devotes most of the issue to souvenirs/gifts from around Japan, a follow-up to an article they did a few months ago.

Wallpaper* Loves Japan

Wallpaper

The latest issue of WALLPAPER* (December/January) is certainly heavy on the Japanese content — mostly written by their Tokyo correspondent, Fiona Wilson — including pieces on Wonderwall, the current popularity of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) in Japan, the work of Ubushina, the new Kisho Kurokawa-designed National Art Center in Roppongi Hills (to open in January 2007), Yoko Matsumura’s Atelier Sheep Pen, and the D&Department new brand of relaunched/repackaged classics, 60 Vision.

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 June 4.

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.

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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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