Great interview on PingMag with landscape architect Hajime Ichikawa about his passion for Tokyo topography.

Ashley brings us another round-up of Tokyo art-related articles over at the Art Space Tokyo blog, this time covering September.

You may remember that Hiro and Shantell collaborated earlier this year during a live performance at Cafe Pause. They time they go digital, producing the piece “Summer.”

A big thanks to everyone who made it out to tonight’s launch party — and to Cheapyd for the lovely Chimay — it was indeed a blast! We pretty much sold every copy of the book we had for sale, and it was great to see so many people excited about it. As always, being the host and blabber mouth that I am, I didn’t get a chance to take any photos at all, so if anyone has shots they’d like to share please let me know.

OK, I promise, this is the last mention of tonight’s Arcade Mania party at Cafe Pause. Really. Promise. It’s tonight. 19:00-23:00. Looking forward to it!

Pictured, 6955 (Jason DeGroot), who took a break from Fez goings-on to prepare an awesome mix for tonight’s festivities.

If you’re in Tokyo, then there’s a little launch party I’d love to see you attend, but if you’re in Osaka, then I don’t think you can beat Digiki and company’s “Asobinite” club event at Namura Creative Center. More info on tonight’s event can be found at Tokyo Fun Party’s site.

And I’m back! After a 9-day journey that had me deep in Mao-era communist glory, I have to say it’s good to be back home. And of course, just in time for tomorrow night’s launch party for Arcade Mania at Cafe Pause. I’m really looking forward to having a good time, seeing lots of people, and yes, drinking lots of booze. It was a year-long process to get this book out, and it feels pretty damn good to have it on shelves, and to have people say such nice things about it.

Also, for those of you who would like to get your hands on the book now before it’s worldwide launch in January, but find Amazon Japan’s interface to be a bit intimidating, you can now order it directly from White Rabbit Press. The book will also be on sale at tomorrow night’s bash.

No, my monthly design column for The Japan Times has not disappeared. Last month’s “On Design” was just a shorter version because of space issues with other content on the Lifestyle page, and this month’s column appears next week instead of the usual 4th Tuesday because of this week’s holiday.

Also, this week’s Tokyo post for MoCo Loco will be up later today.

Patrick Macias reports on the Individual Fashion Expo IV, first in a series.

I’ve noticed recently that a lot of foreign magazines were not getting newer issues in a few bookstores, and now I know why (via Japan Probe). Because of the recent bankruptcy of distributor Yohan, no more magazines — they controlled about 95% of the market. So when I was trying to pick up the latest issue of Monocle recently, I could only find the issue that come out in June, now discounted. According to the Japan Times article, other distributors are picking up the slack, but looks like it will still take time.

One quick last post before I leave for my trip to China. I’ll be away until the 26th, back just in time for the book launch party. Expect things to be quiet here until then, although I may occasionally update if I’m feeling like it — it looks like we’ll have net access, but I’m not sure how dependable it will be.

The deluge of Arcade Mania news continues, this time to announce that the official book website is now up. Big thanks to Andrew Lee — the book’s art director — for his work on the site. Go on, and don’t forget to try and get one of those crane game prizes!

Before I leave for China (I take off tomorrow), I want to make sure to get the word out about the launch party we’ll be having for Arcade Mania. It takes place Saturday, September 27 (19:00-23:00) at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro. No free drinks unfortunately, but they will be cheap, and we’ll have lots of nice munchies to go around. Musical selection will be by Jason DeGroot (6955), and it will mark the start of an exhibition of photos taken by Yuki Nakano for the book (the show will run until October 5).

I think it’s going to be blast, and I hope to see a lot of you there. As you can probably tell from my recent postings, the release of this book is something I’m extremely proud of, and I can’t wait to celebrate with Brian, and everyone else who comes. Viva Arcade Mania!

Well look at this, copies of Arcade Mania at Kinokuniya in Umeda, Osaka. The photo was taken by Brian, who spotted. No book sightings for me yet, although admittedly I’ve only checked the Junkudo store in Ikebukuro.

Also, below, Robert from Sweden imported the book from Amazon Japan and displays it proudly!

Just the other day I was posting about a new Tokyo guide from Louis Vuitton, something I haven’t seen for myself, but one guide I have seen is one of the latest releases from Wallpaper‘s “City Guide” series, covering the city of Kyoto.

I picked up the Tokyo edition when the series was first launched, and have to say that I always found it to be a rather nice guide. Sure, it’s far from exhaustive, but it’s not meant to be. This is for someone who is coming into town for a few days or a weekend — pretty much the sort of trip I do when I go to other cities in Asia — and wants to have a primer on what is really worth seeing in terms of design-related spots. Sort of like a city article in Casa Brutus or PEN, but in book form.

So now comes the Kyoto guide, a city I myself am not particularly familiar with — I’ve done the temple tour, and that’s about it. What you get here is the same idea as what was done with the Tokyo guide: a curated look at Kyoto, the cool and stylish — you know, the sort of thing you’d see showcased in an issue of Wallpaper.

Having gone through this, I’m actually very much looking forward to my next trip to Kansai, and intend on spending a day or two in Kyoto, if only to at least check out some of the cafes, like Café Indépendants (pictured). I’ve heard that an Osaka guide is also in the planning stages, which I’ll definitely want as well.

What else do I like? The compact format, the fact that photography comes first — something you get in a lot of Japanese travel guides, which is definitely to my liking — and that they include some pages to take notes.