Month: August 2003

Today I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Jim Frederick, the Tokyo bureau chief for TIME magazine, and the man who wrote most of the excellent Cool Japan feature a few issues ago. We met at Montoak in Aoyama for lunch, where the setting was nice on the terrace, but the food was…

As you could see in the moblog, I was at the Cinema Korea 2003 festival yesterday to see the film WET DREAMS. I even got a press pass, which was a nice touch. Arriving at Sogetsu Hall (5 minute walk from Aoyama 1-Chome station on the Ginza line), it was nice to see a big…

A while back I mentioned seeing a very cool-looking trailer for an animated movie on TV, but didn’t have any more info to share. Today I picked up a very nice flyer for the film (you’ll see a much bigger version of the above graphic at this link), which is called TOKYO GODFATHERS. I now…

Nadine over at Tokyo Shoes has just posted my contribution to her blog. I’ll probably send her some more stuff when I finally go out and do a bit of street reconnaissance.

I’ve never made it a secret that I’m a huge MUJI fan, and now there’s a special exhibit for the retailer at Gallery MA from September 13 to November 8. From REALTOKYO: The MUJI (Mujirushi Ryohin) shops are always inviting to step in and have a brief look through the shelves, even if you’re not…

I’ve recently gotten some really bad news regarding two shows I watch regularly. The worst is the cancellation of UCHIMURA PRODUCE (Monday nights at 23:15 on TV Asahi). The whole thing started back in the Spring, when it came to light that Uchimura (host of the show, and one half of the comedy duo Un-chan…

Regarding the Cinema Korea 2003 festival taking place this weekend at Sogetsu Hall in Akasaka (previously mentioned here), after having been contacted to say I had won tickets for one movie (I picked WET DREAMS, as it seems like a fun comedy, and I’ve liked some of the Korean comedies I’ve seen in the past,…

Pa-Pa-Pantie Pa-Pa-Pantie Pantie Ondode Pan Pan-tie (Repeat many times)

I finally got a chance to read the article I had linked from TIME ASIA a few weeks ago (I was waiting to get back home and read it in my copy). Yes, these are definitely some of the things that make me stay in Tokyo, and why I couldn’t really see myself being anywhere…

The other day I got my HANERU NO TOBIRA t-shirt in the mail, which I ordered online when I got back from Tokyo. HANERU NO TOBIRA is one of my favorite comedy shows (Fuji TV on Mondays at 00:35), and features the comedy groups Robert, King Kong, Hokuyo, Impulse, and Drunk Dragon. They had a…