Here is an excerpt from artist Naoyuki Tsuji's "A Feather Stare at the Dark" (2003), a simplistic, yet hauntingly surreal, hand-drawn animation made from charcoal drawings. + Video A unique characteristic of Tsuji's minimalist style is that each frame is created by partially erasing and redrawing the scene on the same sheet of paper. Traces [...]

A dramatic computer-animated simulation, produced by NHK Japan and the National Film Board of Canada, depicts what would happen if an asteroid measuring 500 kilometers (300 mi) in diameter collided with Earth. + Video The massive asteroid -- larger than Japan's main island of Honshu -- is traveling at a speed of over 720,000 kilometers [...]

Inter // States is the latest Tokyo time-lapse piece by photographer Samuel Cockedey. The soundtrack is "Paradigm Flux (Tokyo Cut)" by Woob, from the new "Paradigm Flux" EP (listen).

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) maintains a collection of 400 health-themed woodblock prints from 19th-century Japan. The collection -- which includes drug advertisements, illustrated instructions for treating and preventing contagious diseases, and visual guides to the human body -- offers a unique look at Japanese medical knowledge in the late Edo and early [...]

A pair of action-packed Ultraman Monster paintings by Toshio Okazaki were published in Shōgakukan's 1979 edition of Ultra Kaiju (Shōgakukan Nyūmon Hyakka Series #97). [+] [+] Alien Guts, Windam, Gyango, Black End, Kingsaurus III, Bemstar Alien Icarus, Gomora, Muruchi, Alien Baltan, Alien Magma, Kemular Dancan, Giradorus, Astromons Gandar, Gabora, Alien Metron, Agira, Antlar, Seabozu, Woo [...]

This year's Good Design Expo, which took place at Tokyo Big Sight over the weekend (Aug 27-29), showcased over 2,000 design-conscious items under consideration for the 2010 Good Design Award. Here are photos of a few items that were on display. Goya de Goya: Goya (a.k.a. bitter melon) planter bag that resembles a giant goya [...]

The illustrations of TokyoGenso (a.k.a. Tokyo Fantasy) depict a post-apocalyptic Tokyo devoid of people and overtaken by nature. Shinjuku skyline [+] Tokyo Big Sight [+] Rainbow Bridge [+] Moai statue at Shibuya station [+] Kabuki-za Theater, Ginza [+] Mode HAL iKO Building, Shinjuku [+] Poster for "The Book of Eli" (Japanese title: "The Walker") [+] [...]

Gundam videographer darwinfish105 has captured some dazzling footage of the 8-meter-tall laser-shooting Hello Kitty spectacle at Odaiba Beach, which has appeared as part of a campaign to promote tree-planting activities in Tokyo. + Video The event, which features periodic light and water shows, will continue through August 22.

Here are a few manner posters that appeared in the Tokyo subways between 1976 and 1982. Three annoying train monsters (October 1982) The three annoying train monsters shown in the poster are Nesshii (the sleeping monster), Asshii (the leg-crossing monster), and Shinbunshii (the newspaper-reading monster). * * * * * Don't throw chewing gum on [...]

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto's "1945-1998" is an animated map showing the 2,053 nuclear explosions that took place around the world during the 20th century, from the detonations at Alamogordo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to the tests conducted by India and Pakistan in 1998. + Video: "1945-1998" by Isao Hashimoto The month and year are [...]

WWD: The Real Harajuku Girls The greatest challenge in any social analysis is linking the macro (the big ideas, narrative, mass patterns, cultural phenomenon) with the micro (individual people, individual cases). A “trend” becomes visible in the movement of multiples, but often no specific person perfectly embodies it. In fact, many birds-eye observations will turn [...]

Sally Suzuki is media director and co-founder of the collaborative online journal Beholdmyswarthyface.com. Welcome, Sally. Today I want to talk to you about the origins of the Japanese shōsetsu and the genres included in this term. But before we get to that, could you remind our readers of the genres of novel that exist in [...]

On August 22, music store Shibuya HMV shut down operations. Surely it’s never good to see a large-scale culture shop smack middle in Tokyo’s central youth shopping district have to close its doors, but the obituaries have focused more upon HMV’s historical role than the possible contemporary impact of its disappearance. Mainichi called it the [...]

A few weeks ago, I was taking some visiting friends around Asakusa. This was unfortunately the day of the Sumidagawa fireworks, and we were trying to get out of the area in the late afternoon, before the crowds got too insane. Being 5pm, however, the yukata-clad girls and their plain-clothes boyfriends were already filing in, [...]

The latest in a series of graphic design tools for Néojaponisme readers: a number of red, white, and black patterns based on Modern Japanese graphic design from the 1950s. These patterns are free to use for non-commercial applications. (For commercial applications, please contact us for a license.) The patterns are provided in Illustrator CS3, Illustrator [...]

When it comes to artistic contribution and innovation, Shugo Tokumaru remains the most important member of Japan’s indie music scene. Yet Tokumaru also deserves credit for keeping himself in the business of making music within these incredibly turbulent times. Besides moving a good number of albums, he provides tunes for NHK and Mujirushi Ryohin, tours [...]

Tokyo Photo Dead Wave is a new bi-weekly series curated by Néojaponisme showcasing the best up-and-coming new photography from Tokyo. The second photo in the series is by American photographer Patrick Tsai. “This photo was originally full color… anyways Japanese armpit hair is always black… I think.” See the original color version here. For a larger [...]

The latest in a series of graphic design tools for Néojaponisme readers: a number of red, white, and black patterns based on Modern Japanese graphic design from the 1950s. These patterns are free to use for non-commercial applications. (For commercial applications, please contact us for a license.) The patterns are provided in Illustrator CS3, Illustrator [...]

The latest in a series of visual excerpts from the out-of-print book 和英文字レタリング (Japanese and English Lettering) by Tsunetoshi Hurusawa (古沢恒敏), a collection of assorted lettering styles culled from history. Originally published in 1978, the book is a great study of lettering used by typical “fancy”/ファンシー businesses — mainly cafés, “snack bars”, cake shops, and [...]

Back online- a handful of patterns that were licensed by Dentsu Canada last year- just click Features -> Pattern Pattern to download. These patterns are free to use for non-commercial applications. (For commercial applications, please contact us for a license.) The patterns are provided in Illustrator CS3, Illustrator CS, and Adobe PDF format. You can [...]

I finally received my issue of the Monocle Mediterraneo summer newspaper today, but it wasn’t easy. I ordered it in early August, and after a month going by with still no paper in my mailbox (they promise delivery in two weeks) I finally decided to get in touch on Monday. To their credit, they immediately [...]

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the use of test patterns as a graphical element, many people reminded me on Twitter that it’s still very much in use in the industry (video and TV production) or film school, and so a lot of people still deal with these quite regularly, so it’s not that [...]

Last night I was reading through the latest issue of Rolling Stone — really loved the cover feature on Mad Men, as well as the profile on SNL creator Lorne Michaels — and seeing how they branded the issue’s theme (“Fall Television”) made me wonder just how relevant that particular imagery really is these days. [...]

I’d like to thank everyone who made it out to the cafe last night for PauseTalk Vol. 44. Although still a smaller group than in past months (we were probably 20 or so) it was a nice mix — as is often magically the case — including lots of new faces, and a few old [...]

What’s wrong with the picture above? My beef with it is that it’s a page from the new iPad edition of MacLife magazine — they’ve just launched a free “zero” issue — but it looks like pretty much any blog post, with it’s row of “social sharing” icons. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely want [...]

Just your friendly neighborly reminder that this month’s PauseTalk (Vol. 44) happens tonight (September 6) at Cafe Pause, with the usual start time of 20:00 (and the cafe reserved from 19:30). As previously mentioned, I’ll bring out the magazines from last month’s SNOW Magazine Cafe, for anyone who didn’t get at chance to check out [...]

Just over a week ago the latest issue of Wired (September 2010) was released for iPad, and as I’ve done for all issues released for the device so far, I immediately bought it. Yes, despite the less-than-perfect way they’ve handled the digital conversion of the magazine, I’ve been enjoying the magazine, not only because of [...]

Yes, it’s already time for a new edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 44), set to happen this coming Monday (September 6) at Cafe Pause, with the regular start time of 20:00 — as always, the cafe is reserved for the event from 19:30, so feel free to come early. Although the SNOW Magazine Cafe event ended [...]

I’m not a big fan of Japanese dramas in general, but there are the occasional series that I like to follow, usually something that my wife has been really enjoying. I would include Trick and Jikou Keisatsu in that bunch, and now Atami no Sousakan. Atami is a new Twin Peaks-ish mystery produced by the [...]

A while back I announced that I would be removing the commenting system on this site, instead inviting readers to contribute comments either through Twitter or Facebook. The result? I can’t say that the number of “replies” I get on Twitter has noticeably increased much, but since it’s not like this site was getting a [...]

It’s that time of year again. As many of you will know, our office sits overlooking a shrine (there’s a good picture of it on our CScout Japan site) and the past few weeks have seen much noisy activity in preparation for the annual matsuri (festival) this weekend. This was the view from our window today… Of [...]

We spotted this cool Proactiv Solution vending machine in a busy concourse near Yokohama station. It’s quite large, with a touch-screen menu and another monitor displaying product information. Actually, it seems that Proactiv has produced the same kind of vendor overseas already but it was for the most part sadly neglected when we were passing through [...]

It’s one of the key sights of a Japanese summer: women shading their fair skin from the fierce sun with a parasol. But has anyone seen any men? Personally, I’ve yet to catch one myself though I’m intrigued by a new fashion trend, the male parasol-user (日傘男子, higasa danshi). This news might not surprise everyone, especially when [...]

Disgraced entrepreneur Takafumi Horie (aka Horiemon) has already surprised us recently with his entry into the porn business (yes, really). Now the founder of Livedoor seems to be throwing his energies into a literary career! He’s already turned out some books of essays before and next up is fiction. His first novel is called, appropriately, Haikin [...]

J-Cast news is reporting that shimin noen (市民農園, or farms located near cities) have increased threefold over the last 15 years, up to 3,382 sites for fiscal 2008, with local governments and NPOs inundated with applications for certain areas. [Pic via Sanukibito.com] Around 70 per cent of these “farms” are 50 square meters, with the rental cost [...]