Devilman

Not posting much these days... so thought I'd test out blogger's mobile blogging function. Maybe that will inspire me to blog more. I can email from my mobile while sitting on the train... or in the office like I am now. I just read the Devilman manga, it's pretty wacky!

Yokai Attack!

So, what’s my excuse this time? For not posting in 3 months. Well, yokai actually. The little buggers attacked me. Kept me stuck at home for months. In the dark. Chained to my computer. And when I tried to get away? They crashed my hard drive, and I lost 3 months work. That didn’t please them at all! Made me do all the work over again. In 5 days! Not nice.

But I got them back. Used purple for the endpapers of this book. They don’t like purple you see, so they’re trapped. I hope.

Yokai Attack! Designed by me, written by these nice folks.

Buy it!

Atarashi blog

Yet again I've been somewhat slack in posting. I'd like to blame it on the rather serious hard drive crash I had recently which forced me to work like a robot until I had redone the 3 months work I lost (yes I know "backup"). But really, even if that hadn't happened I probably wouldn't have posted. I have been a very busy boy.

I am however, back. And as you may've noticed I've moved this blog over to blogger.com. I hope you like the new 3 column layout.

Fukubukuro

The first few days of the year are always sale time in Japan. Which I guess is the same in many of the world's big cities. What makes Japan a little different is the tradition stores have of selling "Fukubukuro" or "Lucky Bags". These are like a lucky dip because their contents are hidden until you've bought them, but the promise is they will always contain goods worth about double the price paid.

All kind of places, from department stores through to the big brand-name stores have them, and their price can reach exorbitant levels - resulting in some big savings. While the Ginza area attracts much of the attention during the Fukubukuro season the best place to see the modern nature of this tradition is in Tokyo's heart of girl's fashion - the 109 building in Shibuya.As thousands of girls flock to the store, eager to grab bags from their favourite boutiques, they are heldin check by rows of neatly dressed security guards, whose blue uniforms stand in drab contrast to the glitz of J-girl fashion. These men resemble somewhat bemused fathers as they control the crowds of girls young enough to be their daughters.

Eventually the girls re-emerge from the building clutching their booty, and many soon stop to open the bags on the street in front of the store, where the second stage of this Fukubukuro spectacle takes place. Within and around this seven storey cylinder of style the Fukubukuro sale has become much more than an annual sales event, and has evolved into a free-market trading ground resembling the stock exchanges of old. The proper thing to do during Fukubukuro season, is to accept what is inside the bag and take it home, but for the past few years, girls have set up an impromptu market on the sidewalk in front of 109 and swap or sell the unwanted items of clothing they find inside the bags. The frenzied action is fascinating to watch and probably one few places in Tokyo where you can actually haggle on the price of goods. These girls are going against the accepted norm by doing this and some Japanese people I have spoken to think the management of 109 may try to shut down the market next year. But personally I feel the entrepreneurial spirit shown by the girls who started this trend proves the 109 building in Shibuya continues to be the epicentre of change for Japanese women.

My photos can't really capture the mood so please watch the video below.

Ake Ome

I took this snap of Tyson inspired graffiti in Omote Sando several months back, but it seemed a perfect way to celebrate the Year of the Mouse. So...

Akemashite Omedettou Gozaimau.

Happy New Year everyone... let's hope it's a knockout.

Ebittcho

Over the years I've been somewhat de-sensitised to the odd flavour combinations that pop-up in the snack aisles of the Japanese convenience stores... but this I just had to show you.

So please, um... enjoy the perfect match of shrimp and chocolate?!

(click for a larger view)

Ok... so how do they taste? Well, despite my initial reluctance to try them I eventually did after a few glasses of wine, and can now tell you they taste like chocolate biscuits... with a strangely appealing seafood aftertaste.

But then, I may have had too much to drink.

J-girl Nihongo watch Pt.2

Continuing what may or may not be an ongoing series.

The latest report from my reliable source on all things cool and female in Japan is that the new word on the street is ARASA .

It used to be that single Japanese women in their late 20s were called "Christmas Cakes". In other words they were pretty much useless after the 25th! But these days an increasing number of woman are choosing to marry much later, or not at all. According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average age of women who got married in 2006 was 28.2 years (up from 27 years in 2000 and 25.9 in 1990.) What that means is there are a lot of women choosing to reject the kind of traditional life their mothers had. This may be because they'd rather have fun than settle down, or it may be they don't want to marry a guy like their father - who only had time for the office. Whatever the reason, rather than get married, quit work and have kids, they are choosing to do things their way.

And when asked how old they are they say (in that wonderful way the Japanese have for shortening English words): "A-ra-sa"

Around 30.

Hisashiburi

Long time no see. But I haven't been procrastinating, honest. Since I last posted I've written a cover story for Metropolis magazine on the anime movie Afro Samurai and an article for the arts pages of The Japan Times newspaper, both of which are now on in the writing section of my website. I also did an interview for the Dec/Jan issue of Monocle magazine. All that and I started at a new language school! So it has been an interesting couple of months.

More soon... maybe.

After Dark

Until recently, it had been a while since I had read anything substantial in English. While in the thick of my studies I had imposed a personal embargo on anything in my mother tongue. But since the summer holidays began, (and they are now almost at a close), I have managed to catch up on some reading. It's probably no surprise that I tend mainly to read Japanese authors. The most recent being the latest Haruki Murakami book to have been translated into English, After Dark.

Murakami's novels always seem like slices from some larger story. They begin as if we should already know what has happened and end as if there is more to tell. After Dark, is no exception. It reads like a chapter lost from some other unpublished manuscript. Dropped on the street at night and discovered by the reader as they stumble home drunk; there it is lying in a puddle, grubby and inviting.

The story begins at 11:56 p.m. around the time the last trains stop in Tokyo and continues until first light. We know it is Tokyo, but the setting could be either Shibuya or Shinjuku as it is set in the somewhat euphemistically named "amusement district". Mari, a nineteen year old girl, is alone in a Denny's restaurant reading a book. She seems intent on reading all night, but her plans are soon interrupted when Takahashi, a boy a couple of years older, and an old friend of Mari's sister, Eri, enters the scene. Soon Mari, who speaks Chinese, is asked by the manager of a nearby Love Hotel to help translate for a Chinese prostitute who has been beaten by a client. As the events of the night unfold we drift in and out of places that may or may not exist; the concrete reality of Mari's introduction into the dark side of Tokyo and the eerie dream world behind the TV screen in her sleeping sister's bedroom.

Murakami has chosen to write this story from a very detached perspective, and we intrude the lives of the characters as if we are invisible, yet self-aware tourists holding cameras slightly above the action. "We are in a Denny's" or "the room is dark, but our eyes gradually adjust to the darkness" we are told as our guide drags us through the night. Yet while the author's trademark surrealism allows us to slip through the screen of an unplugged TV, the scenes involving Eri and the mysterious masked man are too much like something from a Japanese horror film or something David Lynch would dream up. They seem too familiar and lack Murakami's usual originality. As a result I was a little disappointed in this book.

The last book I had read by Murakami was his collection of short-stories Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, and I think it was a much better read. In the introduction to that book Murakami explained how when he writes short-stories he can't think about novels and vice versa. But After Dark somehow seems to be stuck half way between the two. So while his novels usually benefit from the mystery of that which is untold, here the story just seems unfinished.

UT QT

There is somewhat of a T-shirt war going on in Tokyo at the moment. The fashion obsessed hordes that flock to Harajuku and Shibuya are a fussy lot, and if they can't wear something that inspires conversation or praise then they don't want it – hence the demand for curious, original and interesting T-shirts has reached new heights. As this demand has grown so has the competition between various T-shirt producers with everyone trying to supply consumers with groovy Tees at the lowest possible price. This summer's big players in the Battle of the T-tans were Graniph, Beams and Uniqlo's new UT brand. All of whom have enlisted the world's design elite to try and raise their cool quota.

The latest salvo in this war has been fired by Uniqlo from their new flagship UT store on Meiji-dori in Harajuku. Displayed in shelves resembling refrigerated vending machines - or possibly cryogenic storage units - each T-shirt is rolled up and packaged in plastic cylinders with barcodes and product numbers identifying which shirt is inside. The effect is very impressive, very cool and looks really expensive. But the twist is these shirts sell for only around ¥1500 each. Which is ridiculously cheap in my books.

Uniqlo are being really smart here. They have been around for awhile now and are established as as global brand with stores in New York, the UK, China, Korea and Hong Kong. As a cheap store with fairly generic designs and colours that are easy to mix and match the "Uniqlo look" has become a standard in Japanese fashion these days. But perhaps because of that it has become a little bit unstylish. The brand desperately needed to be updated, and that is exactly what the new UT range has done. No expense has been spared to ensure that people notice – with uber-trendy photographer Terry Richardson shooting the ad campaign.

The shirts themselves are are all serialised and constantly updated. Current series include one devoted to the art of Keith Haring, another is an Ozamu Tezuka Tribute and another focuses on Japanese Pop Culture. Various graphic designers get the chance to show their stuff in the World Typographer series and there is an annual competition held with the winner and runners up showcased in the Creative Award series. There is even a collaboration with the colour standards company PANTONE® for their colour series.

It will be interesting to see how both Beams and Graniph counter attack but with summer drawing to a close it may have to wait until next year. My advice to them is to begin by following Uniqlo and make their T-shirts in XL so I can actually wear them.