Tokyo Blog

Whilst walking home the other night, I spotted this original piece of ‘bombing’. Someone had used marker pen to customize a small bear toy and left it on top of a crossing junction box. Underneath that was their tag, I’m guessing. I was lucky to notice it, I usually wouldn’t after working all day.

NOTE: The poor quality is due to the mobile phone camera I used to take the shot.

My Father is restoring a pre-war Riley Special, which is an British vintage car. He’s been doing this since before I was born, but this project is particularly special because he’s not just building one, he’s building five. This will be the first time my Dad’s process has ever been documented and will show you all the individual steps that are involved in taking the decomposed remains of a car dating back to the 1930’s and making it look like it just rolled out of the factory. Personally, I can’t wait to see the first one finished but you can read about it now and see the progress in ‘real time’ over at his Riley restoration diary blog.

I’m pretty excited about the new housing development about to open on schedule (of course) in Funabashi, Chiba (30 min from Tokyo). Muji Village is, as you’d expect, a housing development designed by Muji, the Japanese lifestyle ‘no-brand’ brand that embraces Japanese minimalist and practical product design to create extremely affordable and yet stylish clothes, furniture, stationery, and practically anything else you can think of. Personally, I can’t get enough of Muji, so I’ll be taking an architectural sightseeing trip to the site some time before Christmas. The chance of living in one is probably very remote at this present time as waiting lists will certainly have been filled.

The project is a collaboration between Muji and Mitsubishi Jisho real Estate Co., one of the largest in Japan. Muji will be designing everything, Mitsubishi will only be responsible for construction. The concept is thus: Green, Plain, Community. Sounds less than inspiring, but you could transliterate it to Nature, Simplicity, Community which maybe sounds more inviting! Anyway, this means plenty of foliage, a timeless aesthetic and airy communal spaces where residents will be able to mingle.

Some Uniqlo news now. I was in the newly expanded Ginza branch yesterday and had the good fortune to see the new +J line of clothing at the back of the new mens’ section. I tried on some of the outerwear, and I liked it very much. Although I didn’t buy anything (yet), I was taken by the fine tailoring and the details. This lead me inevitably back to the Japanese Uniqlo website where I saw the new Flash toy launched this Autumn - Uniqlo Tunes. It plays video in time with MP3’s, and you can even upload your own. As usual you have the option of integrating it into your blog. This new music toy joins a small collection of other Uniqlo Flash virals and microsites.

The Hobonichi Techo is a phenomenon in Japan. It’s a personal organiser built in the Japanese tradition of excellence in workmanship. The company’s forward-thinking marketing has it branded as as much a fashion accessory as a piece of boring stationery. With a community of owners, and idea books full the various ways they use them, it’s become a real modern design icon here. Many people seem to use them and about this time of year are usually in stationery stores such as Loft agonising over which one to choose from the multitude of different collaborations, material finishes and colourways. I’ve been browsing them also, and they look really nice. I’m getting one for 2010, but which one? Check the video above for possible options.

Sorry if this video is a little heavy, its native resolution on YouTube is pretty large.

Musical Interlude. I couldn’t find any videos worthy of showcasing the fine electronic music produced by Susumu Yokota, so I made my own. The track is Azukiiro No Kaori by Susumu Yokota from his Sakura album. All of the footage was shot Autumn/Winter 2008 and Autumn 2009.

Monocle are now offering this limited edition tote bag for every subscriber. It’s made in collaboration with Porter, the legendary Tokyo bag company that readers may remember from a previous post. I personally love the design and everything about it. I haven’t subscribed yet, but I’m seriously considering it. That is, if they ship to Japan.

Construction is well underway of the new broadcasting and observation tower, Tokyo Sky Tree - it now stands at around 100m tall. Designed by Tadao Ando and costing a whopping ¥60,000,000,000, the tower will be one of the world’s tallest at 634m and, judging by the CG mock-ups, looks like the kind of tower you would see on the front cover of 80’s sci-fi novels. You can see the current state of affairs in the bottom right of the picture (inset).

The tower is located in Oshiage, Sumida-ku, on the east side of the city, also known as Shitamachi or ‘Downtown’.

Tokyo has a new feature of its architectural landscape, being heralded as yet another success by most. It even received a nomination at the this year’s Barcelona World Architecture Festival. It can be found in the Shinkiba area of Tokyo (in the East of the city). The large number of timber wholesalers in this area has been acknowledged in the design of this building, it being one of very few structures to use wood so abundantly and to such great effect in the construction of its facade. The wood theme is continued throughout, with interiors and detailing also making use of the material. To me this is very Japanese, and when I look at the building, it reminds me of the detailed rectangular patterns in the wood of traditional Japanese ryokans and… Muji bookshelves!

Building designed by Nikken Sekkei Ltd.

The people of good taste at Tokyobike sell simple, well designed and well made bikes via their website tokyobike.com. These bikes are somewhere between the fixed gear bikes that have such a strong ridership in Tokyo right now, and the kind of practical urban cycles that Muji used to stock in it’s Yurakucho store before the range changed to the meagre offering of mamacharis that it is now. Needless to say, it’s been added to my wants list.

Naoto Fukasawa is one of the most well renowned industrial designers in Japan. Most people will know his work through MUJI (Mujirushi Ryohin Keikaku), the Japanese lifestyle goods retailer, having been responsible for their famous wall-mounted CD player along with a raft of other products. Anyone wanting to get an overview of his output to date should get down to 21_21 Design Sight at Tokyo Midtown between October 16 and January 31 for an exhibition called The Outline, featuring approximately 100 of Naoto Fukasawa’s product designs in photographs taken by Tamotsu Fujii.

This is another musical interlude. No footage to speak of here, just Aphex Twin’s sublime remix of The Gentle People’s track ‘The Journey’. This track can be found on the 26 Mixes for Cash compilation by Aphex Twin on WARP.

I’m a little upset about this, because I just got back from a visit to the UK, and it looks like I’m going to miss Micro Men, the new BBC Four drama series telling the story of the life and inventions of the legendary ZX Spectrum creator, Sir Clive Sinclair. I had a ZX Spectrum 128k when I was a kid (that was to be my second computer, the Oric 1 was my first) and it was important in cultivating my love for electronics. I also know that Clive Sinclair was an erratic megalomaniac and genius, so with all the retro technological geekery piled on, this looks set to be an unmissable show.

UPDATE: Maybe you can watch it in BBC’s iPlayer (only supposed to be available to people in the UK) if you’re a wizzkid.

Ever wondered what it’s like to drive a Tokyo JR train? Actually, I hadn’t until I got a rare chance to see the driver doing his thing. Usually the glass is smoked or there’s a screen obstructing your view, and I’ve never seen this again since. Check out the illegible display on his computer screen!

This is happening in Kobe, but I thought it tied-in quite nicely with the recent Gundam statue in Odaiba. Basically, it’s a 1/1 scale version of the Tetsujin 28 robot from Japanese popular culture. It’s appeared in anime and live action shows here in Japan, it’s also known as Gigantor and Iron Man #28 overseas. This thing is part-way through construction in Kobe’s Wakamatsu Park, and when finished will stand 60 feet tall and weigh-in at a whopping 50 tons. Although this one doesn’t move, I think I like it better. Even so, how many giant robots does one country need?