Tokyo Blog

For Tokyo, I think these are the first. I came across an Ume-Matsuri the other day in Hongo. Ume is Japanese Plum, so these are the blossoms of the Japanese Plum tree. The Matsuri was taking place in Yushima Tenmangu Shrine, and as I walked past Shinto priests were getting out of a new-style VW Beetle. I walked up and took some pictures of the blossoms and played around with the settings on my camera, to ill effect. There’s not really enough to make it worth uploading them to flickr, but they might appear in a future photoset.

If you like interactive stuff, especially stuff that looks amazing, you can check out any of the Flash work by Yugo Nakamura. My favourite is his stuff for Uniqlo. Namely Uniqlock, Uniqlo Paper and Uniqlo Grid (he also did their other websites for UK, Japan and the US - I think). There are various other interactive ‘pieces’ on his website - a la John Maeda, but before this he also created the jaw dropping ECOTONOHA. There are other people in Japan creating amazing Flash content too; look at Desio, a site for the Japanese 3 storey house brand Sekisuiheim. The production team behind this one is very mysterious. It was won by Mitsue, but I think they outsourced it. You have to try and tolerate the music on that last one. It’s like you just walked into a Japanese branch of Muji or something.

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.

Today got up to 18 deg C! I went running again, through the streets towards Hongo this time, and biked to the local supermarket, Hanamasa, to get some supplies. This shift towards t-shirt weather is a great thing, because now I can grab some T’s from Design T-shirts Store Graniph. There’s some great designs in there, and it just so happens there’s one up the road in Ueno. I feel the cold, so I’ve been waiting for an improvement in the weather, I just didn’t expect it to come so soon!

There are so many films out in Japan right now. Many that will never get a UK or a US release, so I felt privileged to be able to go and see one of these films at the cinema, in Tokyo! However, this is a Japanese film being shown in Japan, so there were no subtitles. I was certain that I was not going to be able to understand anything that was going on in the film, but actually, I totally grasped the plot, and I even understood some of the dialogue! I’ve found that if you listen for key words in a sentence, and then think of them in context, you can guess what it is they are most likely to be saying. There are times when really simple speech is used, and that’s no problem to understand. The thing that made this film so good though, is that it was set in Tokyo, and some of the typical kinds of people found in the city were in the film. You had the young no-hoper addicted to Pachinko, the salaryman, the yakuza gangsters, the homeless guys you see in the many parks of the city (noted for their ingenious cardboard bivouacs and distinctive blue tarpaulin tents), the traditional Japanese comedian, the Akihabara otaku J-pop fanboys, and of course their pop idol, a cutesy female singer having not very much success. When you blend all of this with the famous Tokyo locations, some great cinematography, and a good story, you get just what was needed to further increase your enthusiasm for Tokyo.

The Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line is due to start June 14 this year, and the advertising campaign to alert underground passengers in Tokyo has started. The posters I’ve seen so far have been pretty minimal, and inspiration definitely seems to have come from the London Underground identity. More info on the line here. Is it just me though, or is there something rude looking about the combination of iconography, typography and colour in the top left corner of the above poster?

Now that the weather is improving (15 deg C today), and because of the Shibuya allnighters I’ve been doing, and partly due to the nature of the work I do (a lot of sitting and not much else), I’ve decided to buy some trainers and go running in Ueno Park. I really struggled to get trainers in my size (I’m only a 10, but sizes rarely go up as far as a UK 9 over here), and so I ended up buying the more expensive ones at about ¥8800. They do look pretty cool though! And also, check out the free blue trainer bag I got with them in the pic.

I’ve probably only ridden my bike about a dozen times, but I’ve been stopped by the police twice already in the space of about 2 weeks! They pull you over and talk politely before radioing in your bicycle’s registration number (most bikes have registration marks over here, just like cars do). Both times I was stopped by a policeman on foot, they carry their radio equipment around their necks. To begin with I thought this was due to a prejudice towards foreigners, stemming from an alledged culture of belief in Japan that they are responsible for much of the crime in the country, but having thought about it, the first time I was stopped I don’t think the policeman had had a very good look at me, because he addressed me very much like a native with a torrent of polite but colloquial Japanese. I suppose with my dark hair which has grown pretty long now, I can kind of blend in. From a distance. At night. If I’m kneeling down.

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’ve been indoors working a lot recently, so I decided I would take time out to visit another of the places on my list: the shopping and art complex, Tokyo Midtown. I’d already heard about the place before, so I kind of knew what to expect. The idea behind Tokyo Midtown seems to be sophisticated shopping with an emphasis on art and design. The art and design angle is represented throughout the site, but mainly by 21_21 Design Sight, and the Suntory Museum of Art. I visited 21_21 Design Sight which is an amazing building designed by architect Tadao Ando. I put some photos up to look at on flickr for Tokyo Midtown and just a few for 21_21 Design Sight (photography was not allowed in the building, and although I tried to shoot a few sneaky ones, they came out all blurred).

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!

This has been all over Tokyo TV recently - it’s the new bullet train by JR rail called ‘Nozomi’. The advertisement only mentions the route between Tokyo and Osaka, but maybe it runs on other routes as well. Whatever, it looks cool.

I’ve found something new that Tokyo is good for: hair cuts. I got a cut yesterday in up-market Ginza at a Tony & Guy owned salon, and I was blown away by what the guy did for my barnet. Normally, it’s a bit uncontrollable, and so heavily doused in hair gunk, but after Torisu-san finished sorting it out for me, it was totally different to how it had ever been before. All the haircuts I’ve ever had in the UK have been no good, and I always thought it was because my hair was naturally bad and hard to cut, but it was just because they were crap at hairdressing! Nice one, Torisu.

This is bound to be a total disappointment when it finally comes out in 2009, but Warner Brothers have made it official; They will make a live action version of Akira, and they’re going to adapt it from the original manga graphic novel, not from the anime. Actually they’re going to span the story over two films, but production starts right away. The reason I’m not as positive as I could be about this news is the appointment of a fledgeling filmmaker and a debuting screenwriter. The director will be Ruairi Robinson who’s most recent short film you can watch on YouTube or on his website. Personally, I wasn’t keen on the short film. I’m measuring it by the Chris Cunningham yardstick, so this may be a harsh review, but see for yourself. The other very worrying rumour that’s flying about, is that the film might be set in America in a so-called ‘New Manhattan’ instead of the infinitely cooler ‘Neo-Tokyo’. Say it aint so! I hope the film proves me wrong because it would be a great thing to see at the cinema in 2009.

If you want to drink any beer you can think of, watch English Premiership Football, and spend all your yen, get down to the world’s most stocked, and most expensive beer bar. It’s in Ebisu, opposite the Yoshinoya outside the metro station in the direction of Daikanyama. I had a great laugh with a Japanese couple in there, and met some guy from Bristol, with whom I went down the road to Unit, to catch N-dub and High Contrast live sets at Drum n’ Bass Dubstep Wars. This is a new series of music events I think, with more to come from DJ Die and some other dubstep selector next month. Won’t be going to that one though, I’m all spent out for this months r’n'r budget.