Month: February 2003

According to this article, they’re going to open a real Apple store (meaning owned by Apple) in Tokyo’s Ginza area this Fall. This will be the first Apple store outside of the US. It definitely would not have made sense to open it in Akihabara (the purpose of the stores is to showcase to new…

A friend of mine, Leon, is leaving Japan in a few days, and yesterday he come over for a last visit before his return to Australia. We decided to check out a Chinese restaurant in Ikebukuro that we’d heard good things about (but still hadn’t gotten around to checking out), Seiryumon. The lunch special I…

I just found out that the excellent track that you hear in the teaser trailer for KILL BILL, the next Quentin Tarantino film, is by Japanese artist Tomoyasu Hotei, a very famous rocker. I’m still not sure if the song will appear in the film, or if it was just used in the trailer. You…

Michael Clarke seems to share a lot with me. He’s a Canadian in his early thirties (I turn 30 in a few months) who’s been living in Tokyo for four years. He also likes taking pictures. You can follow his great photolog at his Hunkabutta site. Also check out his photo essay at the Urbanphoto…

I absolutely love Simon Ladefoged‘s photography. You can even download two pics to use as desktops, which is what I’ve done.

I just caught the last few minutes of a new anime on late-night Japanese TV called PLATONIC CHAIN. What made me stop is the look of the show, which is something I’ve never seen. The animation is computer generated, but they’ve used cell-shading to give it a cartoony look, even though the characters and movements…

Yuko was diagnosed today with influenza. It’s a big problem right now in Japan, there’s a big warning, and it finally hit home. The strange thing is that I was sure that I would be the one to bring it home, since I’m in contact with so many kids every week, and a good number…

I’ve already talked about Japan’s infamous 2 Channel message board in this log, and here’s a link to an article that appeared in today’s edition of the JAPAN TIMES. My wife used to check it quite often for discussions on North Korea.

Yes, believe it, a new issue of GEISHA is out! Today being a holiday and all, I took the entire evening to create a new issue, and it’s just been freshly uploaded. As always, I played around with the shape a bit. This is is the street issue, and I hope you like it. Click…

Tomorrow is a national holiday, and I think I’m going to go check out the Muji store in Yurakucho (the biggest one in Tokyo, maybe even in Japan, it includes a gallery and a cafe) to check the without thought 4 exhibit that takes a look at design work by Naoto Fukasawa. Looks very interesting.