I’ve made it a habit of kicking off the new year with a post that tries to address what I’m looking at in terms of the coming year, and I’ve used it over the past couple of years to announce some personal projects — both the launch of SNOW Magazine in 2010, and then the closure of the site in 2011. This year I don’t really have anything specific to announce yet, so this is going to be a short list of things that I have on my mind and wishes for 2012 — a state of my union, if you will.

The biggest change I think that I’ve experienced over the past year is that I’ve fully transitioned into working full-time on PechaKucha. My role as Executive Director sees me doing so many interesting things in relation to the PK community and network, and it’s one that I relish — I so enjoy the fact that I’m constantly in contact with people from all over the world who are producing PechaKucha Nights in our 460+ cities. 2012 is going to be an even bigger year for PK, with lots of cool things already in the works, and I can’t wait to share them with you all.

Something that also relates to PK is that I have it in my mind to organize something that would be gaming-related — to quench my thirst for doing something in that world, since it’s been quite a while since my days as a writer for Wired‘s Game|Life and the Arcade Mania book. I’m hoping to team up with some friends on this, and we’ll see how it goes. Expect it in the second half of the year though.

And speaking of Arcade Mania, there may be some developments with that this year, but nothing that I can talk about or promise for now — stay tuned.

On the SNOW Magazine front, when I closed the site I said that it was actually going on “hiatus,” and by that I meant that I would still love do something with that again, but that I just don’t feel like a regularly updated website works. I’d love to maybe do it as an irregular magazine on iPad, but since I want to keep this all indie and not have to depend on anyone (and can’t pay anyone), that means me trying to do it myself, which is a lot of work — the release of Mag+ for singles did give me hope that it might be doable. 

Codex, my music podcast, has been back for a few weeks now, and I look forward to getting back on a regular schedule with it this year, now that I’ve found a setup that works for me (for recording a show live while using Spotify as my music source). Over the next few days (maybe even today), I’ll release two episodes with my favorite music of the past year. And my other obsession, magazines, will continue to be covered over at The Magaziner. I wasn’t able to do a magazine-related event like I did in 2010 (the SNOW Magazine Cafe), but I hope that this year I can produce or participate in some cool new magazine projects.

PauseTalk also continues its run — 2012 will see it celebrate a 6th anniversary — and I have a few PT-related developments in mind as well, but I’d rather have them more concrete before I share them.

This past year has also seen more active — in a physical sense — than ever, both in terms of cycling (with the occasional bike commute to go work at the Klein Dytham architecture office in Ebisu) and with me and my wife’s mountain trekking lifestyle. On the bike front, I’ve slowed down a bit with the cold weather, and also because I’m really hankering to get a regular sized bike (not the foldable BD-1 that I’ve been using). As far as the mountains go, we’ve been adding bits and pieces to our equipment every month (since we can’t afford to spend much), and next up on our want list are sleeping bags and a tent. I also need to post photos from the last two snow treks we did over the past couple of week in Nagano.

The last thing that I’d like to see happen this year (at least for now) is that I would like to try and write some longer pieces, something a bit more thought-out than my regular posts. I don’t quite know what I’d like to write about — and hey, maybe I could try fiction for a change — but it’s something that I certainly have on my wishlist of things I want to do in 2012.

So there you have it, a few reflections as we transition from one year to another — here’s to an amazing 2012!

The last time I went to Mount Tanigawa, during the summer, I got the worst sunburn I’ve had since I was a kid, but this time it was all about the snow. Me and my wife went yesterday and were greeted by quite a bit of snow — no worries though, as that’s what we were expecting. Although we had a tiny trail of hardened snow to walk on — thanks to other hikers — if you walked off it you would literally have both legs completely buried in snow. Some bits were slippery too, but we had our ice spikes on, so we were fine. In this post I’m including a few photos I shared on Instagram, and I’ll put up a few more sometime this week.

This is what it looks like when you’re sitting on the very first train of the day, at 5:02, leaving on the Saikyo line at Ikebukuro Station. To be fair, there were actually quite a few people who were catching the first train to get back home after a night of partying (this was Sunday morning).

We took the cable car to go up to one part of the mountain, and then hiked the rest, just like we did on our last visit. I believe it is possible to climb from the very bottom, but it would take a very long time (you would need more than a day), and some parts are quite dangerous.

There are two peaks, both are close by, and this is the post on one of them, which indicates an elevation of 1963m (the other peak is higher by a few meters).

Nothing like having your lunch when you’re on the top.

Maybe “Tightening the Belt” is not really the best way to describe what I’ve been doing of late, but I am on a trajectory to make my online presence a bit leaner (and maybe even a bit meaner). As I announced a week ago, I’ve put SNOW Magazine on indefinite hiatus, and I’ve done the same with my little GAME site. 

Yes, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I just can’t handle all of the things that I’d like to be doing online, at least in terms of my personal projects (i.e. the stuff that doesn’t bring in income). It was getting to the point where I’d feel guilty about not updating these various sites, and I finally figured that enough was enough.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, expect me to stick to just The Magaziner, new episodes of the Codex, the monthly editions of PauseTalk, and the odd scribblings here — there’s another podcast project that I’d like to get off the ground too. 

As for the day job — I’m Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization — things have never been more exciting, and we have a lot of very cool things in the works. It’s also been a pleasure to be working more closely with my good friend Ian Lynam, who has taken on the big task of refreshing our visual identity and online presence.

As you’ll notice if you visit SNOW Magazine right now, I’ve decided to put the site on indefinite hiatus. I’ve been quite embarrassed by the lack of updates to the site over the last few months, and I think it’s just better to have it go on leave for a while, instead of the lame life support I’ve had it on.

Why the lack of love for the site? I just haven’t really had the time to focus on it like I’d want, and to be fair, I’ve been much more passionate about what I’m covering on The Magaziner — and the Codex podcast — and I think it’s best that I just let myself embrace those things, instead of continually feeling like I should try to come up with something to write about on SNOW, and feeling stressed about it. In the end, it’ll be for the better for everyone, as it frees me up to do more casual writing here, and to continue my exploration of how the magazine landscape is shaping up as it embraces new digital platforms.

As for SNOW Magazine, I’ll just say that it’s going away for now, with no definite plans on when it will be back, or even in what form. I don’t think I was ever really able to do what I wanted to do with SNOW, and I think — and I’m hoping — that what I’m doing over at The Magaziner will eventually inform what the next stage will be. And yes, I’m already thinking — and it’s what, in the end, I’ve really wanted to do — that this next stage or new form will be more publication-like, as in regularly released packages of curated ideas and stories (some people call these magazines).

Oh, and I will eventually reinstate access to the archives.

As I mentioned when I wrote about it at SNOW Magazine, this past Friday night I headed out to Koenji to catch the reception of Antonin Gaultier’s “2005-2010: Collected Archives” show. It was held at Alin Huma’s F de C Tokyo multi-purpose space, and it was my first visit there. I had a really nice time, and the crowd was great — was good to finally meet Alex of so+ba, although I hope I didn’t freak him out too much with my Uwe Boll stories — but what made the evening even better is that I decided to go there by bicycle, from Ikebukuro. I’ll say that the ride back when it suddently got really cold with high winds wasn’t as fun as the way there, but it still felt good (I haven’t really been cycling regularly of late).

The photo above popped up on Facebook, and was taken by Yann Le Goec. That’s me in the space, with my back to the camera, talking to Alin.

Last night I decided to put together a quick and dirty website for Codex — as you’ll probably notice, it’s a simple mod of the SNOW Magazine site. Should make it easier to keep up with what’s going on with the show, instead of having to search for appropriate posts here.

Also, I already have my playlist decided for the next episode (03), but trying to be patient and wait a week before recording it.

I hope you saw the article recently on SNOW Magazine about the upcoming launch of TOO MUCH magazine, and if you didn’t, get to it. It’s the new magazine by Editions OK FRED — yes, OK FRED magazine is no more, but they have still been publishing one-off projects, and with TOO MUCH they return to the world of magazines.

And just as a reminder, the official launch happens this Friday (November 19) at HAPPA gallery in Kami-Meguro (pretty much between Yutenji and Nakameguro), and it’s also followed by a weekend event they’re calling the “Romantic Geography Biannual” — you’ll find more details here. One of the activities during the festival is a showing of Mike Mills’ Does Your Soul Have a Cold? on Saturday (November 20) at the Llove Theater in Daikanyama.

I don’t have an iPad — YET — but big thanks to Paul Baron for sending in this screenshot of how SNOW Magazine looks like on the iPad. Although I didn’t think there’d be any problems — since it works fine on iPhone — it’s alway good to have confirmation. Now to start thinking about whatever else SNOW-related I can get on the iPhone/iPad…

After I tweeted that I got some business cards made for SNOW Magazine, a few people asked to see what it looks like, and so here goes. Big thanks again to my fellow GOOD Inc. compatriot Luis Mendo for the image on the front, and font suggestion for my name on the back — it’s the font off which the SNOW logo was created, Los Niches.

Looking for something to read this weekend? You could definitely do worse than catching up on this week’s new articles on SNOW Magazine — yes, despite my trip to Boston, I kept updates to the site timely. I don’t usually post anything during the weekend, but I’ve just added the first column by Sophie Knight, “My Yamanote Romance,” a long essay on a cycling tour of the famous train line.

To stay up to date, subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow the magazine on Twitter or Facebook.

Time again for a round-up of recent articles to appear on SNOW Magazine, and also to welcome Alastair Townsend (BAKOKO) as a new contributor to the site — I’m now posting the terrific “A Few Things” series of posts he’s been doing on his blog, about contrasting housing-related issues between Japan and the West.

I’ll be debuting a few new columns this week too — expect Spoon & Tamago‘s Johnny Strategy first piece to go up later today. And here’s a reminder that you can subscribe to an RSS feed, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

• HARD Vol. 1
• Tokyo to Osaka on a Fixie
• Comploo
• MD.net Clinic AKASAKA
• Tokyo Art Beat iPhone App
• Tokyo Sanpo
• Teaser Trailer for The Borrowers
• Running the Yamanote Line
• Polyblack
• Karis
• Moji Salvage 20
• Suzuki Affice
• Kura Space
• Tire Fashion from Seal
• Pattern Pattern 18
• Design.nl Covers TDW
• Sacred Architecture: The Myojin Sento

Here’s another round-up of the last few days of articles to appear on SNOW Magazine. First I’d like to highlight the three guest columns that appeared this week: Bianca Beuttel returns to the package design series she used to contribute to PingMag (starting with Xylish gum packaging), Audrey Fondecave provides a second column to make sure everyone knows about Abake and their open studio sessions, and we ended the week with Hiyoko Imai’s first contribution in what she’s calling her “SNOW Characters” series.

Below, the news items from the last few days. Here’s also a reminder that you can subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, follow on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook.

• Groovisions Interviewed
• Tokyo Gallery Geography
• Green Marker
• Kilico
• Rainbow Church
• Takayuki Fukatsu’s Photo Apps Get Awarded
• Wonderwall 10th Anniversary Collaboration
• Corona by Nendo
• SWEETS ROOM
• Drainspotting Online
• TPUTH
• Madrix
• The Life and Times of Oswald Cooper in Idea Magazine
• Lodge
• Hammock
• Moon Otoko
• Izmojuki Machinaries
• Nonchan’s House
• Tamagawa Takashimaya S+C Marronnier Court
• Frisk Built QR Code
• Artalking #6: How Dead Is the Book?
• iPad Stencil for Omnigraffle
• A Few Things the West Could Teach Japan About Housing
• Bad Signs for Abercrombie & Fitch in Japan
• MicroWorks in Stockholm

So what’s the latest on SNOW? I guess two new developments art that I added a dedicated Twitter feed, and also created a Facebook fan page. The Twitter feed is mostly just automated with new articles from the site — because some people actually prefer that over RSS feeds these days — but I do keep an eye on it, and will reply to questions and comments. The Facebook page is just another way of putting the site out there, and should be a good way of informing members of SNOW-related events as they happen.

Regular content updates have also continued over the past week, with a few new guest columns and my regular news items. Here’s a list of what you may have missed over the past few days.

• One Coin Comics
• Wired’s Personalized QR Codes
• Annapurna Moonrise
• Lone Expression: Tommy Guerrero
• Asato Z
• COLORS
• Shinjuku Disco
• Labyrinth of Woods
• Koukotsu
• Japan Pan Am
• BQLSI STAR LASER
• Mountain House by Atelier Bow-Wow
• Measuring Tape Toilet Paper
• Kuri
• No Man’s Land
• The 69th Tokyo International Gift Show
• Memories of Island Life: Ogasawara, 1992
• A House Made of Two
• 24-Hour Subway in Tokyo
• Tiltshift Generator for iPad
• Hair Club for Men: Style #326
• Droog Town House
• G-Tokyo 2010
• First Trailer for Kitano’s Outrage
• JAGDA 2010 Calendar for iPhone

So here we are, almost a week since the launch of SNOW Magazine. How have things been? Well, it was a bit of a rough ride for the first couple of days, mostly because I wasn’t happy with the way I had set up the domain (a lot of people will recall that you could only see “http://snow-mag.com” in the URL bar no matter the post, because I was just using forwarding/masking), and so I struggled a bit with this, but I can’t thank enough the man who always comes to my rescue when it comes to web-related problems, Patrick Benny (he’s helped countless times on this site as well). Do check out Patrick’s first column for SNOW as well, covering the launch of Yasuharu Konishi’s new label, READYMADE V.I.C.

So I think things should be running relatively smoothly from here on out, although do continue sending feedback if you encounter weirdness. The feed should also be working fine, so please subscribe to make sure not to miss any new content.

Also, here’s a quick list of the recent posts that went up on the site, in case you missed anything.

• Painting the Holy Mountain: Kiyoto Maruyama
• Interview with Tokachi Tsuchiya
• Jalan’s Latest Commercial
• READYMADE V.I.C.
• iPad in Japan
• Lotta
• TAB Needs Your Help
• Better Luck Next Tie
• House in Obama
• 51 Japanese Characters for iPhone
• The Unlikely Restaurater

And we have ignition. SNOW Magazine is launched: snow-mag.com. I’ll post more later, but wanted to just put this out there, and invite everyone to take a look. Subscribe to the feed too!