I’d love to visit the upcoming Yayoi Kusama Museum in Shinjuku, opening in October — not only to take in her work, but the building itself looks quite nice. You’ll find more details in this Spoon & Tamago post.
On a related note, here in Montreal we live near the Musée des Beaux Arts, and this summer they’ve set up an outdoor collection along Sherbrooke street, and we’re lucky enough to have a piece by Kusama near our place (pictured below).
Spoon & Tamago takes a look at the beautiful Tohoku Standard shop, located inside the PARCO2 department store in Sendai. It was designed by my buddy Keiji Ashizawa, part of his Ishinomaki Laboratory project.
Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I’ve done a lot of music-related projects over the years, like my PLAY sessions at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, and then in more recent years my Codex music podcast. I haven’t done anything in the form of creating mixes or playlists in ages, but recently have been teaming up with one of my colleagues and friends at work, Samya Khemri (who together with me is part of the studio’s Game Online Operations team), in creating playlists in Spotify for internal events at the studio. Since we’re both huge fans of Twin Peaks, we call ourselves DJ Dougie Jones. The first playlist was for a happy hour on the studio’s rooftop terrace, the second playlist we did as a soundtrack for an evening of Cards Against Humanity (that we played in a meeting room), and the third one was for our team’s summer BBQ, that was held last week in a park not far from the studio. These are really fun to make — we basically bounce off each other, track by track — and I love the exercise of listening to something someone else has selected, and then trying to think about what would be fun to follow with. It definitely scratches my music itch.
Illustrator Hanabiyori Tatami has been creating a series of illustrations that combine food stuffs and drinks with the traditional yokai (demons) of Japan, and it’s great to see — pictured here, instant curry by way of yokai. See more in this Spoon & Tamago post.
I think I would go crazy if I had access to the newly opened (back in April) Good Design Store, near Tokyo Station (in the Kitte building). I’m sure it stocks tons of products I featured in my “On Design” column over the years. Via Spoon & Tamago.
As I had posted recently, The Tokyoiter project went physical with its first exhibition, and at the event you could purchase the lovely tote bag you see pictured. Big thanks to my buddy Andrew — one of the co-creators of The Tokyoiter — for helping me get my hands on one.
Muji’s flagship store in Yurakucho has just undergone some big renovations, and the renewed store re-opened yesterday, with not only a new look, but also a food market area. I miss Muji Yurakucho so fucking much. You’ll find more details and photos in this Spoon & Tamago post.
Shibuya has been undergoing some major redevelopment work for years now, but here’s a great look at what all these changes are going to look like once it’s all done in 2027 — a lot will already be ready ahead of 2020.
When I saw this mentioned on Muji’s Instagram account the other day, my jaw dropped: Muji is producing a hotel — along with a new flagship store — in Ginza, set to open in 2019. As this Spoon & Tamago post reveals (and that’s also where you’ll find more details on the Ginza project), it’s not Muji’s first hotel, as they’re also producing one in Shenzhen.
I’m very happy to see the arrival of the new Designart (“Design & Art”) festival in Tokyo, set to take place for the first time in October of this year. I’m especially happy because among the founders are Astrid Klein & Mark Dytham, who I of course worked with during my last 6 years in Tokyo. Here’s a Facebook post by Mark talking about the new event.