Well this is like a dream come true – never thought I’d get to see the legendary paintings that featured in Takeshi Kitano’s movie masterpiece Hanabi (Fireworks), but now it looks like it’s actually going to happen. With news of his exhibition in Tokyo opening 11th March being broadcast on TV and advertised on posters on the metro, this will be a fairly high profile showcase of his paintings at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Shinjuku.

It’s going to feature paintings such as this:

I don’t know if his painting entitled ‘Jisatsu’ (Suicide) will be on show, which is unfortunate as it’s one of my favourites, but this one, also from the movie Hanabi, will be:

Anyway, it all equates to a must-see, don’t-miss exhibition which runs until 2nd September.

Just a quick Japanese television commercial post as I’ve been loving this one just recently. Done in the style of a retro action TV series opening montage, it features Japanese women’s wrestling star Saori Yoshida as all 3 members of the Alsok Security Squadron! It may seem trivial to most, but this is one of the reasons I live in Japan. This style of advertising for a mainstream service like home security blows my mind!

There’s a new social networking site for sharing your photowalks called SANPO built by one man in Tokyo, Gueorgui Tcherednitchenko. Although I haven’t signed up myself yet, I’m planning to, and I’m very supportive of anyone trying to launch a web app off their own bat. I also think this site would be genuinely useful for me as a new way to share the photos I take and plot them geographically. I’ve totally abandoned flickr these days it seems, and I really don’t feel like uploading them to facebook, so I’d all but given up on sharing my photos, and this had caused me to stop taking my camera out as much as I used to. Sites like this give you an audience and that tends to give you impetus to upload. Take this site for example. I wouldn’t have visited half the places I have in Tokyo and I wouldn’t know half as much about it if I didn’t have this blog to encourage me to do so. The service is still evolving, but why not signup and upload some pictures? It’s not just limited to Tokyo!

To be honest it was about three weeks ago now, but I really wanted to mention it here because it was a really good trip: Snowboarding at Kandatsu resort in Joetsu, Niigata. Not only was it my first time snowboarding, but also it was my first time to visit any snowy mountainous area. It was pretty unbelievable coming out of the 15km tunnel that has been cut through an entire mountain. As you leave the mouth of the tunnel you basically enter a canyon of compact snow as high as the coach windows. There was 5 metres of the stuff the day we arrived. It had snowed heavily before and had stopped around dawn to leave clear sunny skies and no wind.

The two things that struck me most were how difficult snowboarding is and how beautiful the mountains in Japan are in Winter. These areas are inundated with snow and the communities there have adapted to deal with it. All the roads have walls of snow on either side and buildings strain under the weight of enormous mounds of it that form into rounded mushroom-tops. Huge icicles hang from the eaves of the traditional houses that are dotted around. There is also no shortage of ski resorts, they seemed to be everywhere. I can’t comment on the quality of the one I went to as I was a first-timer, but it seemed to have everything you’d want from a ski resort, and it was packed. There were a lot of good skiers and snowboarders out too.

One of the highlights for me was enjoying the view of the mountains from the ski-lift riding up and down. There’s a piste map below. I stuck strictly to the beginner slopes. Definitely not much transferable skill from skating or surfing unfortunately, but great exercise and a really good place for a trip. I’ll definitely do it again as you need more than one occasion to master the basics and I’ve been told that it’s more enjoyable once you can control the board.

I heard about this guy called Takanori Aiba through a reader of Tokyo Story and was totally blown away by his work. He creates sculptures and artworks-cum-architectural models partly inspired by the traditional Japanese art of Bonsai. He’s had a really varied career having graduated in traditional Japanese textile design and dyed clothing, then moving onto illustrating for fashion magazine POPEYE before starting his own company called Graphics & Designing. He has since expanded his creative endeavours from art director and concept designer for architectural spaces to exhibiting artist.

What strikes you about his work straight away is the incredible level of detail. Each one is a fantasy world based on reality which resemble real-world buildings and structures but in a quirky microcosm. Some of his works remind me of the worlds conjured up in Ghibli movies.

This is a new anime that I’ve been watching recently, and it’s hilarious. It’s about a guy in ancient Rome called Lucius who is an architect responsible for designing the empire’s public hot spa baths. He gets criticized by the emperor for having ran out of ideas and inspiration for how to develop the bathing culture further and reflects on this during a hot bath when suddenly he’s pulled underwater by a mysterious force. When he resurfaces he finds he has warped to present-day Japan and finds himself either in a Sento (public bath) or an Onsen (natural hot spring) or some other location particular to the Japanese bathing culture, depending on the episode.

During his short time there he picks up ideas and is routinely astounded at the technological advancements he sees. After warping back to Rome he employs the ideas in Roman baths and becomes the toast of the empire. For each episode, rinse and repeat!

NOTE: As of writing this post, you can watch episodes on Dailymotion.com.

There is a new bridge open in Tokyo as of yesterday. It’s called the Tokyo Gate Bridge and crosses Tokyo Bay linking Wakasu in Koto Ward with Jonanjima Seaside Park in Ota Ward. You can see Mt.Fuji and the New Tokyo Sky Tree (due to open on 22nd May this year) from the bridge, and like the rainbow bridge, I’m guessing it also offers a good view of the high-rise buildings and lights of the city. Construction began in 2003, so it’s taken a fairly long while to build. There’s also a walkway that crosses it too, so I’m planning to cycle over it in the near future, as it’s quite close to where I live.

Just wanted to quickly mention for chillwave and dreampop lovers out there, that Washed Out will be playing at Liquid Room in Ebisu tonight. It’s ¥5,500 in advance, but it looks like tickets on the door will be the same price. i was really thinking about going down myself, but I really am too busy to go. If you do have time, I heartily recommend you go and catch this – starts at 7:30. Full details can be found on Liquid Room’s page for the event.