Tokyo Blog

Tommy Lee Jones has been appearing in adverts for Suntory’s Boss canned coffee for a while now, and his face is all over the city. Further more, he’s created ads for TV which are now available for viewing on YouTube! Please have a look:

Jones working at a host club
Jones at a gyudon restaurant
Jones working at a warehouse
Jones working at a supermarket
Jones working at a delivery company
Jones working at a delivery company II
Jones working at a karaoke club

Oh and by the way, Jones plays the part of an alien visiting Earth, which would explain a lot of the unusual abilities he has (teleportation, the ability to close his ears, etc.).

It’s Suntory time.

This is a pretty funny clip via Japan Probe, that shows a section from the Japanese show TV Champion, where mascots from all over Japan take part in a battle for supremacy. In this round, they go head to head in a soccer match to the death.

I find myself in Ikebukuro a lot more now that I live out on the Seibu line, so everyday on my way from the train I see this advert on the station platform and it makes me smile. On the one side of this ad, you have the guys, suited and ready for action in what appears to be an aircraft hangar. Then, on the other side of the same ad you have the girls, in cheerleader outfits. I’m not saying anything.

I made it down to Ginza Graphic Gallery on Saturday afternoon and it was a real treat. Although there were a few pieces that I felt didn’t warrant being there (specifically a few photographic ads for Shiseido and one for Jack Daniels which was just a photo of Mickey Rourke and little else), there was some really original stuff on display along with some stunning Japanese package design. On the way out I pondered buying a set of 3 prints by a Japanese designer I forget the name of now. They would have looked great on my wall, but since I move out in T-minus 3 days, I want to assess my new living space before I start decking it out (actually I’m staying somewhere on a temporary basis for a month before renting another apartment - pics will follow).

Also, I’m snowed at the moment, but I’ll soon be uploading some photos of the annual fireworks display in Asakusa from Saturday night which were awesome. I was dog-tired after Saturday though: tramping around Ginza, then doing the same in Asakusa. Strictly standing room only and no mistake.

TIME magazine’s blog has a post right now, that allows you to submit questions for a forthcoming Haruki Murakami interview. Readers send in their questions, and Murakami will pick 10 from the list to answer. This is part of TIME.com’s famous “10 Questions” feature. The problem is thinking of a question good enough to put to the man himself. If I can come up with one, I’ll do it myself too.

After welching on the ‘World in Miniature’ exhibition and regretting it, I don’t want to miss the 2008 ADC Exhibition. Looks like it will be a good way to get a broad overview of the last 12 months in Japan’s world of visual communication, and there’s bound to be some inspiring graphics to oogle. Catch it at Ginza Graphic Gallery until the end of the month. Via TAB

I have to admit, I don’t understand everything (anything) on the Japanese Television News. I also don’t find many of the stories very relevant. When it comes to keeping abreast of developments in science, technology and the media I always get it on my desktop. Due to the existence of the internet, I find buying newspapers a bit wasteful, both in terms of money and trees. So, when I want to read up on Apple, or recent developments on the web, I open up msnbc.com’s Spectra Visual Newsreader. I’m no fan of the msnbc network, but I can’t help liking the Spectra Newsreader. It looks beautiful, feels futuristic, and is fun to interact with, and you learn stuff to boot. It’s now the first thing I do in the morning when I switch on my laptop.

I don’t usually link to sites I find which I think are worth looking at, but I might start putting up a few links from now on. The site in question is a found photographs site called dog’S faint. Weird name? Wait until you see the snaps.

I found my favourite TV programme of the 90’s on YouTube. I used to watch Mirrorball religiously at Uni because it was about some of the best promo film directors of the time. The focus was on music videos, but back then there were many collaborations taking part between Chris Cunningham and a few leftfield artists, most notably Aphex Twin. Well, it’s all on there, the whole series, each one focussing on a different director. Quality isn’t great because they’ve been lifted from VHS!

Veterans of Japanophilia, Marxy and crew, bring you articles on Japanese culture. I found this one on how the Japanese writing system was almost reformed to phase out Kanji (Chinese Characters)! Lot’s of other interesting stuff on there, cleverly mixing low and high brow.

There’s a TV programme in the UK called Skins. It’s shown on E4 and is pretty popular at the moment I think. Personally, I think it sucks. The acting is weak and the whole effect of the show is reminiscent of someone old trying to be cool (the screenwriter in this case maybe?). They get it so wrong all the way through. For example: in the episode where my ripped off t-shirt design appears (more about that later), the programme starts with a choreographed dance sequence to a fairly trite breaks tune, where three of the main characters dance in unison, very much in a west end/broadway vein. When they finish their excruciating display of their ‘urbanity’ they flop to the floor of the church they’re in, and exchange some ’street’ slang. All this is so unplausible, because all of the actors are well spoken, and ever so slightly wooden. So I had to sit through the dross that is Skins in order to find the scene where the offending article is displayed; the rip-off of the t-shirt that I designed last year.

I only made the t-shirt because I had the idea and wanted to wear the design. The smallest run I could get was 12 t-shirts, so I got 3 x small, 3 x medium, 3 x large, and 3 x XL. I thought it would be worth trying, then maybe I could make more in the future. Actually, I never got round to designing another. I took all the mediums for myself, and one small, and sold the rest on eBay. One buyer was a company in Bristol, can’t remember the name. They bought an XL, perhaps thinking that it would be hip-hop, frankly, they were the largest t-shirts I’d ever seen in my entire life, so the comment I got back was along the lines of ‘it’s a little bit big, isn’t it?’. I didn’t think anything else of it until recently when my friend, and then my girlfriend pointed out that the t-shirt was pretty similar. Actually, I don’t think it’s too similar, but it definitely seems a little bit suspect. Skins is set in Bristol, and produced by a television company based there! Personally, I prefer my design.

I was riding my bike to Asakusa the other day, when I passed the Japanese super-hero Ultraman and a large-scale Knocking Frog by Bandai on the side of the street. Needless to say, I pulled over and took a picture. I still don’t know what they were doing there.

I was gutted that the Playstation 3 seemed to be doing so badly, and that few developers where inclined to develop games for the system. For this reason, I was pretty sure I wasn’t ever going to buy one. I had my heart set on a Nintendo Wii. They’re cheaper, and it would be cool to have one round the flat for people to mess around on. It seems like a console that best fits the style of game found in Tokyo Video Arcades; lots of mini games with quirky graphics, focussed on group gameplay.

Tonight I saw an advert on TV that showed a new game just out in Japan: ‘Yakuza: Kenzan!’, and it looks like the kind of game I used to love playing on the Playstation 2. I used to have ‘Sword of the Samurai’ (UK title), known as ‘Kengo 2: Legacy of the Blade’ in Japan, which was totally sweet. This new game looks to be much the same, although I understood little of the voice over. It seems like a Samurai simulator with lots of head to head battles, but now taking advantage of the PS3’s advanced graphics capabilities. I won’t be getting a PS3 until they come down in price a bit more, but for my friends who already have one (Adam, you listening?), keep your eyes peeled for the UK release!

I live near Akihabara, I have a bike, I have the internet and all the geographical data that comes with it, but I still can’t find Super Potato! If you don’t know what it is: it’s the promised land for nostalgic children of the 80’s and video game freaks. 50,000 old titles for games consoles spanning 20 years. NEO-GEO, SEGA, Nintendo, etc. etc. Take a walk up to the top floor and I hear it has a video arcade full of all the most classic beat ‘em ups and other craziness. Looks like I’d better don my Fatal Fury Special and Street Fighter 2 cap! I won’t speak too much else about it, other than to say that I’m going to find it tomorrow or die trying.

UPDATE: I checked the maps again, and it’s a bit embarrassing because it’s so easy to find. I can see where I went wrong though; When I left the house without a print out but extremely confident in my ability to remember the location. Tomorrow - I’m there. Google also told me that Super Potato is a big interior design company based in Tokyo. They recently worked on the design of Caretta Shiodome entertainment complex, which also houses an advertising museum. So I added it to my list.