PSFK points to a blog that has one simple obsession: Ryuuichi Terada has been taking daily pictures of the same vending machine in Sapporo for the past 2 years. See the evolution here.

Dezeen covers a Tadao Ando-designed arts center in Venice.

City of Sound’s Dan visits the Tokyo Type Directors Club show at the UTS Gallery in Sydney. I have that Gelman poster!

Renderings for Shigeru Ban’s upcoming Metal Shutter Houses, to be built Manhattan’s West Chelsea. Via Tropolism.

I really like NHK’s mascot Domo-kun, and so does Mimibots it seems, according to this JoshSpear.com post.

Every book released so far from Chin Music Press has been a beautiful object, and the man responsible for that, designer Craig Mod, shows just how their latest release, GOODBYE MADAME BUTTERFLY, continues that trend.

My weekly Tokyo post is up at Moco Loco. I cover Kiichiro Ohde’s INOX kettle, a few products from Nosigner, and the Mr. Jones TENGU.

As mentioned previously, today I’m over at the Tokyo Game Show 2007, doing some coverage for Kotaku. Last year I wasn’t able to make it to the press/business days, and barely had a chance to try out games on the public days (the lines were a bit crazy), but this time I’m actually getting some hands-on for a bunch of stuff, and that’s great. Oh, and after the Halo 3 presentation I saw, my plans on holding off my purchase have gone out the window — I’m pre-ordering it tonight.

Previously only available on the Japanese site, The King of Games have now added a few tees for sale to the English site, including the two you see here.

If you tend to follow the links for PauseTalk participants when I post them, then you may have clicked on Philomena Keet’s name last month, and already know about her TOKYO LOOK BOOK. A new release from Kodansha International, it’s an image-heavy look at Tokyo fashion, with great photography throughout. THE JAPAN TIMES recently covered the book — reviewed by Donald Richie no less — and it should give you a good idea of why you’ll want to pick this up (here it is on Amazon, Amazon Japan, and the Kodansha International site).

A launch party will be held this Friday (September 21) at Cafe Pause, from 19:00 to 21:00, so drop by to meet the writer and the photographer (Yuri Manabe). Images from the book will be projected during the evening, and I’m sure copies of the book will be available for sale as well.

PingMag interviews artist Hiroki Tsukuda. You can currently catch two shows featuring his works, at Diesel Denim Gallery Aoyama and NANZUKA UNDERGROUND.

• Diesel Denim Gallery Aoyama
• Tokyo Game Show 2007

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

Picked up some chocolates from the 100% Chocolate Cafe in Marunouchi today. The package design is by Groovisions.

With most of the Kotaku editors in town for the Tokyo Game Show, it’s only natural that they’d organize some sort of Kotaku shindig. It happens tomorrow night (September 18) at Mother in Shimokitazawa. Here are more details:

• Assistant has designed some ties for Giraffe, and they will be presented in an exhibition at Gallery Mitate (inside Gallery Le Bain in Nishi-Azabu). The opening is tomorrow (September 18, 19:00-21:00), and the show runs until September 30.
• Tokyo Game Show 2007 is happening this week at the Makuhari Messe convention center, and is open to the public this weekend (September 22 and 23). I’ll be covering the event for Kotaku.