Categories
Fashion

TAB T-Shirts at Beams T

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On top of the the color variations available on their site, Tokyo Art Beat also have some different colors for their tees at Beams T.

Categories
Fashion

PingMag: Tsukikageya

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PingMag takes a look at the funky yukata designs from Tsukikageya.

Categories
Design Web

Taeki Oh

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Designer Taeki Oh’s portfolio site includes info on his “Conceptual Drawing Table,” pictured above. Via JoshSpear.com.

Categories
Music

Video for Digiki’s Desktop Music

Check out the new video for Digiki‘s “Desktop Music,” off his BEAT VACATION album. It was made by Mumbleboy, and you’ll probably recognize a few faces within, since Takashi (Tokyo Fun Party), Marxy, and O.Lamm all show up.

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Meta TB.Grafico

Deskset

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My current workspace at home. I usually do most of my writing at Cafe Pause though. I took the picture for Matt Fraction‘s Deskset Flickr group.

Categories
Web

Hitotoki New York

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First it was Tokyo, and now Hitotoki sets its sights on The Big Apple. Submissions are now being accepted for “New York Tales from Curious Borough Dwellers,” so get to it!

Categories
Music Web

Sonore and Radio Dondon

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Not only is Sonore a great little record label, they also have a rather nice podcast in the form of Radio Dondon — you can listen to it stream on their site, or subscribe to a feed.

Categories
Design Events Web

Information Architects Japan

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You may have caught the recent Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0, created by Oliver Reichenstein at Tokyo-based Information Architects Japan. You can catch him at the next “Tokyo 2.0” web community event, happening August 7 at Fujimamas in Harajuku (19:00-22:00), where he’ll be giving a talk on the future of news.

Categories
Magazines

This Week in Magazines

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I’ve been slow with my “This Week in Magazines” posts of late, so time to catch up. I’ll probably post another one in a couple of days. Please note that some of the following titles already have a newer issue out. Also, I picked up the following for Cafe Pause last week.

  • TITLE (90) took us on a tour of the “Very Best of Waza-Ari Housing,” meaning small, cosy homes, not unlike the ones featured on that segment I did for last week’s episode of TOKYO EYE. There’s also a big feature on cars, which I pretty much skipped.
  • The previous issue of BRUTUS (620) claimed “No Bike, No Life,” and that’s something I can definitely support. It was a really great issue for anyone with an interest in cycling, from personal accounts to round-ups of bikes. The issue also featured an illustration by Katsuhiro Otomo on a thick stock page.
  • PEN (202) offered a great round-up of top web creators, with lots of work (sites) on evidence. The issue also included a guide to the city of Nagoya.
  • Toshio Iwai is this month’s cover interview for the latest AXIS (128).
  • CASA BRUTUS (89) celebrates “Le Corbusier: 120e Anniversaire!” with a detailed feature that covers pretty much everything you’d want to know about the man and his work. The issue also includes a report from this year’s edition of Art Basel.
Categories
Meta

Japanese Kanji Flashcards from White Rabbit Press

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For longtime readers, you know that my battle with Japanese is an ongoing one. I’ve gotten to a point where I can converse casually, but I still can’t use it in a professional manner, and more annoyingly, still can’t read more than headlines and the like. I’m constantly in and out of the books, but about a month or so a go, after a bit of a pep talk from a good friend, I decided to give it another big push, this time on the kanji front. The tool that’s really been helping me a lot are the Japanese kanji flashcards (I’m still just on volume 1) from White Rabbit Press. The reason I became aware of them was because the person behind the company, Max Hodges, attended PauseTalk a few times. I’ve tried using kanji cards in the past, but those other sets where nowhere near as nice as the White Rabbit Press ones. My favorite thing is that each card lists 6 words (usually commonly used ones) that use that kanji, which for me is just so much better for learning than just trying to memorize all the readings of a particular kanji. I can’t recommend these enough, and I’ll definitely be picking up volume 2 when I’m done with this first set.