I was really upset that I had to miss last week’s Néojaponisme joint at the SO+BA gallery — it was to be my first DJ stint, dammit — but I am glad to hear that it turned out to be a great NJ lovefest. And now time to point you to the site today for a new podcast, as “Tobias Harris of Observing Japan and [Marxy] hit Showa Era-themed izakaya Hanbey for some Hoppy and discussion on Japan’s status as a liberal democracy.”

During his recent visit to Tokyo, Patrick Macias sat down with Marxy at a discount tonkatsu shop, and they then proceeded to record for Néojaponisme a talk on, among other things, the state of the Japanese recession and current yankii culture. I give you, The Tonkatsu Tapes.

Could Ikebukuro be getting its very own Chinatown?

What’s the problem?

Oh, and this:

I’m of course interested because I live in Ikebukuro. Read the rest of the piece here.

No, that’s not an idol video, or at least it’s not sold that way. The video is from a DVD series by record label Avex called Miteru Dake (Just Looking). As you can see, it features girls — pumped-up breasts and all — just, well, looking. The idea is that it’s for shy men, to practice looking girls in the eyes. Via Japan Probe, but read more at Clast.

Japan Probe has posted some disturbing news regarding the newly launched iPhone 3G in Japan. According to the terms on the Sofbank website: “If you have less than 15 months left on your visa, you wont be able to make a contract, but they’ll sell the phone to you without a plan forï¿¥80.000.”

What??? That’s absolutely ridiculous, and would mean that I can’t get one. Yes, my current 3-year visa expires next summer, as which point I will renew, like I’ve been doing for the past 8 years I’ve lived here. So this means you can only get a new phone when you’ve just renewed a visa?

Of course I can’t check for myself to see if they are really enforcing this rule, since I’ll only be back in Japan at the end of the month, but if this is true, then I am not going to be a happy camper.

UPDATE: Someone posted the following comment in the thread:

Tokyo guerilla gardening in action. Via Boing Boing.

Marxy over at Clast examines how a ridiculous survey report conned the media into believing that 94.3% of Japanese women in their twenties own a piece of Louis Vuitton.

Over at Clast, Marxy examines booms as a marketing strategy, and the end of an era. I’m just sorry I missed out on 1957, the year of the Calypso Style.

Neojaponisme hosts a video documentary by Ian Lynam on sexual assaults on Tokyo subways.

Over at the Clast blog, Marxy examines the relationship between Shibuya-kei and the newly-coined Akiba-kei.

PingMag covers a phenomenon any Tokyo resident is very much used to seeing: the desire by some to add green to the city in a variety of ways, but mostly by creating islands of flowerpots.

Japan Post has launched Japan’s first mobile post office in the form of the van pictured above. It includes an ATM, and is set to be used in the Aichi prefecture’s rural areas — last year’s privatization saw lots of closings of regional offices. Via Japan Today.

Do you remember 1974?

A reader sent me a link to this article, and I’m having trouble believing THE NEW YORK TIMES would publish something like this. Camouflage vending machine costumes? Come on, this is fodder for tabloids or even THE ONION.

My friend Lisa writes the feature for this week’s edition of METROPOLIS (673).