Nov 5, 2009
The Latest on Shimokitazawa
Global Voices features a great piece on the fate of Shimokitazawa, and the whole deal with the redevelopment plans, which includes splitting the area with an expressway.
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 is January 11.
PLAY is a series I've started, in which I spin some virtual discs in a casual setting at Cafe Pause. Vol. 02 happens this Saturday (December 12), 21:00-23:00. See the setlist for previous editions here.
Arcade Mania is currently on sale through Amazon Japan and Amazon US.
Tokyolife: Art and Design covers Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
I'm also a proud member of the Pecha Kucha Night family, working on various projects, including updating Pecha Kucha Daily, a blog that highlights the creativity coming out of PKN events worldwide.
I serve as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.
Thanks for sharing this. My wife is Japanese so I have travelled to visit Tokyo (where her parents live) 3 times now and we will be visiting again this New Years. One of my wife’s best friends lives in Shimokitazawa not too far from the train station (walking distance). I cannot tell you how saw I was to read this, but I’m glad I at least know what’s going on. Thanks Jean for passing this along. I think it would be sad indeed if anything happened to that area immediately surround the train station. It stands a landmark within Tokyo if not a national landmark. It is not like any other neighborhood and in my mind it is the most unique and exotic, heck I’ll say it “Japanese” area in Tokyo I have seen so far. And it would be a crime against the culture to tear it up, and redevelop it in a Western style grid with wide streets like Ginza.
It’s a sad situation indeed, and one that every Tokyo resident I know simply can’t understand (or accept).