Well, it’s about time. Kotaku reports that Sony is planning on expanding the number of PlayStation Spots — where you can download and play demos of games for your PSP — to 150 in Tokyo. I don’t know how many they have now, but I’ve only seen one at the Sony Building in Ginza.

I’ve never been to a branch of the Ajisen ramen chain, but a reader just sent me word that they’ve opened a shop in Toronto, and they even have TV commercials airing on the local Asian channels. Ramen lovers of the world unite!

Pictured in this post is their Chaashuumen, that goes for 800 yen.

I’ve mentioned GENEVEtokyo’s art director Ani Watanabe’s photolog, Fotografia, in the past, but hadn’t checked it out in a while. I still have trouble believing that all the pictures in the “Intentional Twins” gallery are real!

Update
As a reader points out, these pictures are indeed manipulated (look at the creases in the clothes).

I was asked to write a review for the Canned Coffee site, and that’s just what I did. The result, a review of Bourbon’s Caferi, is now up.

Just a reminder that my monthly “On Design” column will be in tomorrow’s (Tuesday) edition of THE JAPAN TIMES. In it, I cover Naoto Fukasawa’s new Neon mobile phone (and I promise that I will take a break from mentioning anything by Fukasawa for at least a few months), the Monacca calculator, the Omron electronic thermometer, and I say farewell to the late QRIO.

Nao Suzuki has an upcoming exhibition, “3+5+6+8,” featuring works from her published series no. 3, 5, 6, and 8. It takes place at Gallery Omotesando, March 6-11 (open 12:00-19:00 daily). More info here (in Japanese).

• The new TITLE (73) is an absolutely terrific issue that considers “Design for Air Travel.” It’s air travel porn, basically, with a look at graphics, uniforms, airports, waiting lounges, and pretty much anything else you could associate with air travel, all from a design perspective. A must-buy for anyone with an interest in this sort of thing.
• They didn’t have it yet at Junkudo, but the new issue of AXIS (120) is supposedly out, with the Campana brothers on the cover, and a feature that looks at the design of disaster countermeasures. This issue’s “Creators’ Works” section is also to include a spotlight on one of my Canadian Style participants, designer Sonia Chow.

A picture I took a while back at the Spiral exhibition I talk about in the first episode of my Tokyo Boy podcast (and if you listened to the podcast in iTunes or on a color-screen iPod you saw this image as a chapter marker).

Catch a trailer (aired yesterday on a Japanese TV show) for Studio Ghibli’s upcoming film (out in July), TALES FROM EARTHSEA (GEDO SENKI). The video was found here (in French).

BusinessWeek says the iPod is taking Japan by storm, but faces competition from cell phones (especially AU).

• Junk Coffee
• Aoyama Book Center

You can read all of my Gridskipper posts here (or even subscribe to a feed).

We finally get a peek at Momus’ upcoming album, OCKY MILK, with the release online of a video he shot himself yesterday in Kyoto for the track “Frilly Military.”

Marxy and U.T. get down and dirty with a brand spankin’ new episode of Radio MXUT!

Direct link to the show, or subscribe to the feed.

For those who still don’t know what Mixi is all about, PingMag is there to help out (and offer suggestions on how to improve the site).

It seems that the FeedBurner feed to the site had gone down after my update of WordPress (I think it had to do with the setting I used to redirect the feed produced by WP to the FeedBurner one). It’s back up now, and I do hope that you continue to use it as it lets me keep a better count of how many subscribers I have.