How’s this for a first post of 2010, a photo of myself! It’s actually for my “top 5″ that was just posted at MoCo Loco. My selections are taken from all of the “This Week from Tokyo” posts I did in 2009, and are (in no particular order): Jo Nagasaka’s PACO, the Reading Lamp, the Yamagiwa lamp collection, D-BROS’ Kudamemo, and Nosigner’s AWA line.
Jan 2, 2010
A few weeks ago I wrote that my weekly Tokyo posts for MoCo Loco were going on hiatus, and mentioned that it was because of some upcoming changes to the site. Well, the new MoCo Loco has just launched — have a look!
Oct 17, 2009
Last week’s Tokyo post at MoCo Loco covered Riki Watabe’s new Riki Air Clock for Lemnos (above), Elecom‘s new keyboards with crystal clear keys, and Jo Nagasaka‘s Paco living unit.
Note: my weekly “This Week from Tokyo” series for MoCo Loco is going on hiatus for the month, as the site undergoes some major changes. I expect to be back in November with a slightly re-jiggered series.
Oct 4, 2009
This week’s Tokyo post at MoCo Loco is up, covering the new Iida phones (above, Naoto Fukasawa’s PRISMOID), Ryohei Yoshiyuki‘s “Time of the Sky” watch, and Nendo‘s Music Cage speaker.
Sep 17, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering the Eneloop 3-way flashlight (above), Hideo Kawamura’s Rezon Cutter Pendant, Nobuhiro Teshima’s Crank Trick #2 deak, and news of the DESIGNEAST event in Osaka.
Sep 10, 2009
My new Tokyo post is up at MoCo Loco, this time covering Kisa Kawakami’s Kisawings lamp (above), Hironori Inada’s Ceramic Pendant Lamp, and Spoon & Tamago’s round-up of 2010 calendars by D-BROS.
Sep 4, 2009
My latest Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, covering the following: Fumie Shibata’s Nagomi utensils (above), No Quiet’s Naname glasses, Naoto Fukasawa’s netbook for Samsung, Suikosha’s “Anything Collection” of desktop accessories, Jun Yasumoto’s Reading Lamp, and Ryohei Yoshiyuki’s ash tray.
Aug 27, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering Jun Yasumoto’s Phyto Purification Bathroom (above), Masanori Oji‘s “Baby in Table,” and Norihiko Inoue’s concept phone for Vertu.
Last week I covered the “Touch the Invisibles” installation, Muji’s collaboration with Thonet, and Jin’s Global Standard’s “Notable Creators” line of frames designed by architects.
Aug 13, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering Isamu Noguchi‘s AKARI lights, Tidy‘s Swippy broom and dustpan, and the “Japan Design in Milano Salone 2009″ exhibition.
Jul 23, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post is up on MoCo Loco, this time covering YUEN’TO and MoMA‘s Magnetic Clock, and a few new lamps from Yamagiwa.
Jul 16, 2009
This week’s Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering D-BROS‘ Hope Forever Blossoming flower vases, Harac’s Casta, I’mD’s Bew kitchen tray and mat, and a Sori Yanagi retrospective at the Yokohama Museum of Art.
Jul 10, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering D-BROS‘ Kudamemo (above), and Totonoe‘s File Stand and Dust Box.
Last week I covered Ideaco‘s Blur Vase (above) and Lilliput flower pots, DEROLL‘s cutlery by Makoto Yamaguchi, and Hirota‘s bamboo-inspired glasses and bowls.
Jul 2, 2009
In this week’s Tokyo post for MoCo Loco I cover Metaphys‘ Soh calculator (above), Terata Shunsuke’s clear wood plates, and an exhibition by Tonerico.
Jun 21, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering a couple of prototypes from Nosigner for KDDI’s iida line, a Muji and Rebita collaboration, and a color update to 100%’s Straw Vase.
Jun 11, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering Mikiya Kobayashi‘s Tate Otama (above), new lamp shades from Daisuke Hiraiwa, and DI CLASSE‘s Nude Lamp.
Jun 4, 2009
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 March 5.
We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.
Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.
A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.
He serves 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.
He also writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the last Tuesday of every month, in both the print edition and online.
