Categories
Games

PlayStation Spots Expand

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Well, it’s about time. Kotaku reports that Sony is planning on expanding the number of PlayStation Spots — where you can download and play demos of games for your PSP — to 150 in Tokyo. I don’t know how many they have now, but I’ve only seen one at the Sony Building in Ginza.

Categories
Food

Ajisen in Canada

syashu_menI’ve never been to a branch of the Ajisen ramen chain, but a reader just sent me word that they’ve opened a shop in Toronto, and they even have TV commercials airing on the local Asian channels. Ramen lovers of the world unite!

Pictured in this post is their Chaashuumen, that goes for 800 yen.

Categories
Photography Web

Intentional Twins

I’ve mentioned GENEVEtokyo‘s art director Ani Watanabe’s photolog, Fotografia, in the past, but hadn’t checked it out in a while. I still have trouble believing that all the pictures in the “Intentional Twins” gallery are real!

UpdateAs a reader points out, these pictures are indeed manipulated (look at the creases in the clothes).

Categories
Food

Canned Coffee Review

canned_coffee_glassI was asked to write a review for the Canned Coffee site, and that’s just what I did. The result, a review of Bourbon’s Caferi, is now up.

Categories
Design

On Design for February

Just a reminder that my monthly “On Design” column will be in tomorrow’s (Tuesday) edition of THE JAPAN TIMES. In it, I cover Naoto Fukasawa’s new Neon mobile phone (and I promise that I will take a break from mentioning anything by Fukasawa for at least a few months), the Monacca calculator, the Omron electronic thermometer, and I say farewell to the late QRIO.

Categories
Art Events Photography

3+5+6+8

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Nao Suzuki has an upcoming exhibition, “3+5+6+8,” featuring works from her published series no. 3, 5, 6, and 8. It takes place at Gallery Omotesando, March 6-11 (open 12:00-19:00 daily). More info here (in Japanese).

Categories
Magazines

This Week in Magazines

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  • The new TITLE (73) is an absolutely terrific issue that considers “Design for Air Travel.” It’s air travel porn, basically, with a look at graphics, uniforms, airports, waiting lounges, and pretty much anything else you could associate with air travel, all from a design perspective. A must-buy for anyone with an interest in this sort of thing.
  • They didn’t have it yet at Junkudo, but the new issue of AXIS (120) is supposedly out, with the Campana brothers on the cover, and a feature that looks at the design of disaster countermeasures. This issue’s “Creators’ Works” section is also to include a spotlight on one of my Canadian Style participants, designer Sonia Chow.
Categories
Art Events TB.Grafico

Spiral

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A picture I took a while back at the Spiral exhibition I talk about in the first episode of my Tokyo Boy podcast (and if you listened to the podcast in iTunes or on a color-screen iPod you saw this image as a chapter marker).

Categories
Anime Film

Tales from Earthsea

Catch a trailer (aired yesterday on a Japanese TV show) for Studio Ghibli‘s upcoming film (out in July), TALES FROM EARTHSEA (GEDO SENKI). The video was found here (in French).

Categories
Technology

iPod Storms Japan

BusinessWeek says the iPod is taking Japan by storm, but faces competition from cell phones (especially AU).