Category: General

The latest edition of REALTOKYO editor Ozaki Tetsuya’s OUT OF TOKYO column takes us on a tour of a developing bookshop and book cafe culture in Tokyo, and takes a look at the new PAPER SKY produced BOOK246 shop. If Tokyo is to have wars, then let them be book/cafe wars! Shortly after the “golden…

Looks like Godzilla is going out with a bang. The 28th film in the series will pit Godzilla against 10 other monsters, wrecking Sydney, New York, Paris, Shanghai and much of Japan in the process, said a spokesman for production company Toei. But this won’t really be the last film in the series. Godzilla is…

Erochica Bamboo is a Japanese burlesque dancer who often performs at the Amaranth Lounge (I just found out about her after she left a comment in a post I had written about the Amaranth). Do yourself a favor and check out her site. Here’s some bio info: Hailing from Tokyo Japan, the lovely Miss Erochica…

Just a quick note to mention that Jeremy Goldkorn’s great blog covering media and advertising in China, Danwei, is back (with a bit of a new look also). He had run into problems after the Chinese government started blocking all TypePad sites (which is still the case).

Ten students have been arrested for disrupting classes on March 12 by occupying the broadcasting room of their junior high school in Ota Ward, playing the soundrack of the movie “Battle Royale,” in which junior high school students kill each other, and attacking five teachers who tried to put a stop to the ruckus. Police…

TV and the Internet are eroding reading skills and cell phone babble is replacing rational speech. Writer Saiichi Maruya, saying the Japanese language is being reduced to chaos. (Bungei?Shunju)

All you North American fans of the Japanese horror film JUON (and I know there’s a lot of you since it’s always one of the top searches that leads here) will be very happy to hear that before the American remake, THE GRUDGE, starring Buffy, huh, Sarah Michelle Gellar gets released, Lion’s Gate will be…

I know it doesn’t have much to do with what I usually cover on this site, but I want to take a moment to point out this great little interview that is now online at the CBC’s ZeD site (something I’d never heard of) on one of my very good hometown friend’s, Mario Doucette. The…

Weekly town magazine OZ has started a new series of special issues called “My Happy Town,” and the first issue covers Ikebukuro. I picked it up today on my way back from work (they had a big display at one of the bookshops), and after leafing through it I think I might have found a…

SAMURAI CHAMPLOO, the new series by COWBOY BEBOP director Watanabe Shinichiro, has finally launched and, oh my, it’s sizzling. From what I could see in the first episode, we’re getting a samurai story, but told in a modern way (like with the dialogue), and with a very strong hip-hop influence. Watanabe has not only managed…