Japan Today has a piece (from Kyodo News) that looks at the challenges MUJI faces in trying to expand in the US (”the company […] is committed to opening 30 to 40 stores across the United States in the next five years”).

Earlier this week I went to the opening for the “Light Construction” exhibition at Center for Cosmic Wonder in Aoyama.

The show brings together Mike Mills, Elein Fleiss, Yoshimio, and Yukinori Maeda, and runs until June 30.

Hanging out inside this installation was quite nice.

I wanted to go and chat with Mike Mills — I quite like his work — but was too shy. I ended up having a good time with Liliyo though, OK Fredders Ay2 and Yoshi’s daughter.

NEW YORK - TOKYO posts more about UNIQLO’s latest manga t-shirt collection, including a look at the display they have up at the Soho Store.

Starting today (April 21) and running until May 6, Laforet in Harajuku is hosting the “KIKS TYO x YONE x AKI HOSHINO Sneaker Lover Pop-up Shop.” The shop will have exclusive collaborations with Champion, New Balance, and G-SHOCK, and will also be selling the limited edition tee (Hoshino photographed by Yone) seen below. Also, the first 300 people to buy over 10 000 yen merchandise (probably too late now) will get a KIKS TYO x MEDICOM TOY X AKI HOSHINO Kubrick.

Want to know what Nigo’s home looks like? The following is a report from BBC’s JAPANORAMA program. Via Imprint Talk.

Wonderwall updates with a few new projects, including galleries for the Bape Store Harajuku, Abbey, and Sea Sky lounge and guest rooms.

Regular readers will know that I often make sly comments about Bape, and the fact that their Tokyo stores are usually empty (at least when I go). In the comment thread to this post about the Bape Nintendo DS collaboration, a reader links to this video of people waiting in line on release day. I’m still having trouble believing it’s real, but if so, wow.

Also, notice how they’ve finally updated the Bape website, turning it into, well, an actual website. To access the previous site, you had to download a proprietary piece of software.

Wow! In order to promote the upcoming opening of their new store at Port Island in Kobe, IKEA has turned the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a showroom. Via Pink Tentacle.

We all knew that H&M were finally going to open their first Japan store in Tokyo later this year, but now comes news that the November launch will coincide with an exclusive line by Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garcons, covering menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, accessories, and a new unisex fragrance. Vogue has more details. Via Jesper.

Dezeen posts additional photos of Tokujin Yoshioka’s work on the new Swarovski Ginza store, that opened this week. Yoshioka will also be contributing to Swarovski’s installation at the Milano Salone later this month.

As reported by Anime News Network:

Read the rest of the article here.

Sure, that title doesn’t spell out anything new to anyone who has been to Roppongi Hills in the past couple of years, but as this article points out, next month marks the Hills’ 5 year anniversary, which means that quite a few leases are up, and most tenants are not renewing. (Thanks, Max.)

Tokujin Yoshioka designs the interior (an outdoor facade, pictured above) of the new Swarovski flagship store in Ginza, set to open at the end of the month. Via Dezeen, where you’ll find more images.

Remember Claska’s first-floor The Lobby? It’s now turned into a bookstore and cafe located in Osaka. I wonder if the original one will still be part of the new Claska, once it re-opens on March 29.

The latest TABlog entry runs down a few gallery relocations, including news that the main Nadiff bookstore will re-open in Ebisu, sharing a building with the Magical Artroom gallery.