Month: October 2011

About to head out to the mountains in Nagano again, this time we’re doing Mount Okuhotaka (pictured, Mount Hotaka, from the Wikipedia page). It’s the third highest peak in Japan, at 3190m. It’s our last chance to stay in mountain huts, as they close for the winter. It’s going to be cold, of that I’m…

I’m very happy to announce a new little project of mine called Instabike Tokyo. It all started last week when I discovered a site that Amsterdam-based illustratorLaszlito Kovacs had launched called Instabike. The idea was a simple one, and can be explained with this mathematical equation: Amsterdam + Bikes + Instagram = Victory! I loved…

Let me point you to a new post on The Magaziner that helps explain why you should go and support this Kickstarter campaign to help finance a fourth issue ofLetter to Jane on iPad. Tim’s a friend of mine, and he’s been doing some amazing work in terms of editorial publishing on iPad — first…

This month’s edition of my “On Design” column is in today’s The Japan Times, and can be read online here. Above, Branch’s Paper Chopstick Rest.

I have this other little site called The Magaziner where I obsess over magazines. For the past few months I took a break from writing up any new reviews (sticking mostly to news items and covering the occasional new releases), but I’ve found a way to make the review process a bit easier (by adopting…

And while I’m talking about magazines, let me also recommend you pick up the new issue of Gym Class Magazine (No. 8), which not only includes a piece by yours truly, but is basically a dream team issue with contributions by a bevvy of magazine freaks (and I of course use that last word in the…

I know I’m terribly late with this, but here’s a partial list of those who attended this past month’s PauseTalkVol. 54 (those who signed up the attendance sheet). It was an interesting evening, with the talk this time often revolving around game development and design, since we had a few developers as part of the…

As of a couple of weeks ago I’ve started spending more time at the Klein Dytham architecture office in Ebisu, and that’s given me an excuse to do a lot of biking again. That’s still my bike pictured above, a Bianchi BD-1, that I bought from Craig Mod close to 3 years ago. At first…

I know I’m late sharing the list of participants from last week’s PauseTalk Vol. 54 — another great one, by the way — and I’ll get to that soon, but here’s a gallery of photos from the evening courtesy of Michael Holmes. If you’re wondering how he gets that effect, it’s done through the use…

It was back to the mountains yesterday, but this time closer to home as we went to the Okutama area to climb Mount Takanosu. It still always amazes me that all of this terrific terrain is within the boundaries of Tokyo. It was a tough day though, as the hike up was quite the workout…