Categories
Film

Yimou with Subs

It’s come to my attention (thanks, Paul) that Zhang Yimou’s latest, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, is presently playing at the Roppongi Hills Virgin Cinemas with English subs. You can check the schedule here. I plan on seeing it sometime this week. Also, it seems that Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046, which opens in Japan in two weeks, will also play there, so here’s hoping it’ll include some English subs.

Categories
Tokyo Walking

An Afternoon in Ginza, Yurakucho, and Marunouchi

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Last Saturday I left early in the afternoon for Ginza to have a look at this month’s Ginza Graphic Gallery exhibition, “Graphic Wave 2004” (more here). After that, I slowly made my way to the Apple Store, comfortably walking in the middle of the street as it was closed off from car traffic. At the Apple Store, I was obviously drawn to the new iMacs, as everyone else there was also. I assure you, they look even better up close, and it was hard to find one that didn’t have someone playing around with it.

Following my usual route when I’m in the area, I headed towards Yurakucho to stop at the Okinawa store (taco rice set, chinsuko cookies, and A&W root beer), and then to Muji. The Yurakucho Muji superstore is currently undergoing some renovations (re-launches September 23), and most of the floorspace was closed off, including the whole 3rd floor, and the Meal Muji cafeteria. I’m definitely curious as to what it is they’ll be unveiling next week.

I then walked through the Tokyo International Forum, which is always a kick (I’ll put some pics up in the next few days to give you an idea of why it’s worth checking out), and then figured that I could easily walk to the Marunouchi Building (or Maru Biru). I sometimes forget that the different areas of Tokyo are so close by, because all these places are stops on the train/subway to me. So a short 5/10 minute walk brought me to Maru Biru, where I found an art event happening (see this moblog pic, and I’ll feature some more pics over the next few days). It’s to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the shopping/lifestyle center. I’d read in TOKYO WALKER last week that Dragonfly Cafe had opened a new branch in the area, but never ended up finding it because of a typo in the magazine (it said it was on the 36th floor, which I checked out, but it’s actually at street level in another building adjacent to Maru Biru). I tried going to another cafe called D’Cross, but the place was packed, and I didn’t feel like waiting in line.

One interesting thing about that day is that it cost me so little. I’ve been complaining a lot lately about not having a lot of money to do stuff, but what I’ve just described shows that it’s actually possible to enjoy the city with next to no money (just the transportation costs to get there and back). The exhibitions at the GGG are always free, and my stop at the nearby Apple Store included some time on the 4th floor using one of their many internet-connected iMacs (where I wrote this post). The Muji store is always fun to visit, and you usually have the Atelier Muji that you can check out (I hope they don’t lose this in the renovations). The Tokyo International Forum is a nice piece of architecture that you can appreciate, and then Maru Biru had the free art event, with works being on display throughout. And tonight I’m going to the free Takemura Nobukazu event at the Apple Store. It’s nice to know that all these things are out there.

Categories
Events Music

Takemura Nobukazu

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Just a quick reminder that Takemura Nobukazu will be performing at the Apple Store in Ginza tonight. It starts at 7. Definitely looking forward to this.

Categories
Anime

Champloo's Groove

SAMURAI CHAMPLOO is settling into a very nice groove, and the latest episode was definitely the best one yet. An intro featuring a recap with hip-hop beats and old-style Japanese, a perfect mix of action and comedy… It’s also come to a point where we really know these characters, and their characterizations are really flowing. If you still haven’t checked it out, do so, now.

Regarding MONSTER, I’ve heard from quite a few people that they never really got into it. The thing with this series is that it really found its groove around episodes 11-12, which is when things really started getting interesting. People who just gave the first few episodes a try unfortunately didn’t get to that sweet point, which I think is where it became obvious that this is one nice series. And it’s not too late to hop aboard either. As we’re now at episode 23, I was curious to see if it was going to go past the 26 mark (anime series are usually 13 or 26 episodes long), knowing that the manga is massive, and I found this page that mentions that it will go to 70 episodes!

Lastly, does anyone know of any interesting new series that will be starting this Autumn? The only thing that’s shown up on my radar is ZIPANG, starting October 7 on TBS. It’s based on a manga by the same guy that did the political series EAGLE, Kawaguchi Kaiji.

Categories
Events Music

Duty Free 0!

Tomorrow (Sunday) sees Kiiiiiii in action again (as well as bands Pushpin and Ikebana, and some DJs), this time at SuperDeluxe. The show goes from 4 to 9 (Kiiiiiii are first on stage), and costs 2500 yen, including a drink. The SuperDeluxe site also mentions that there will be “interesting and original goods for your shopping plexture. One day only, Tax free!!”

Update: And Chad lets me know that he created this mobile site for SuperDeluxe. Very nice, as it has the schedule, as well as a map to the place.

Categories
Design Events

Graphic Wave 2004

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I’m taking a breather at the Apple Store in Ginza (the new iMac looks even better up close), coming from this month’s exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery: Graphic Wave 2004, featuring the works of Kudo Aoshi, GRAPH, and Namaiki.

Autumn brings the annual Graphic Wave exhibition to the Ginza Graphic Gallery, this year under the title “Graphic Wave 2004: Aoshi Kudo x GRAPH x Namaiki.”

Aoshi Kudo designs from a unique perspective, treating products, packaging and space all as media for communication. Issay Kitagawa, the leader of GRAPH, creates total visual communication through graphic design, branding, printing, and intellectual property management, among other activities. Namaiki (David Duval-Smith and Michael Frank) are the happy-go-lucky adventurers of the design world, spiritedly leaping the boundaries between genres such as design, advertising, TV commercials, products, and architecture.

The keyword for the exhibition is “individuality.” The first floor features new works, while representative works to date will be shown on the basement floor. As always, this exhibition focuses on three notable creative talents. This year too we can look forward to the mysterious chemical reaction generated through their encounter. Graphic Wave 9, containing representative works by each of these three creators, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

The most interesting part of the show for me is the Namaiki area, which sort of looks like a workspace, with posters and flyers messily displayed here and there. The GRAPHIC WAVE 9 book, mentioned in the blurb above, is also quite nice, and is in the same small-book format of the regular GGG series. The exhibition ends September 29.

Categories
Technology

W21S Manual in English

For owners of a W21S mobile phone, like the one I got last week, I just found the following page that has a PDF of the complete manual in English (as well as manuals to other AU phones). Here’s a direct link to the PDF.

Categories
Magazines

Magazines from Amazon

B0002YLMKQ.09.MZZZZZZZI guess my magazine service is no longer needed. I just learned that Amazon Japan now has a magazine section. I imagine that ordering magazines from there will be cheaper than what I can do, and it’ll also be nice to be able to browse yourself, and get costs right away. What I will do though is sign-up for their affiliate program, and then if you order magazines by following a link from here, you’ll chip in a few pennies my way. It’s definitely nice to see Amazon offer this kind of service, and I can assure that I would be very appreciative of it if I didn’t live in Tokyo. Let me remind you that the order pages at Amazon Japan can be accessed in English.
Categories
Music

Monster Remixes

654I’ve really been enjoying the MONSTER animated series these past few months, based on the Urusawa Naoki manga, and Patrick’s Agenda blog brings news of a new remix compilation for the show that features remixes by the likes of Sunaga Tatsuo and Jazztronik (who’s NANAIRO album is now a favorite on Yuko’s iPod). It comes out October 21. Patrick’s post has the track info.
Categories
Meta

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I just realized that 2 weeks ago (September 4) marked the second anniversary of this site. jeansnow.net has been alive for 2 years now!