the Wu visits Japan

This year’s Sapporo Snow Festival kicked off last weekend, bringing hundreds of massive snow sculptures into the streets of Japan’s northern capital. Here’s a look at some of the works on display at the event, which runs until February 11. + Video Hatsune Miku [Photo by kamemaruk] Michael Jackson [Photo by tmaeda_japan] Frauenkirche (The Church of Our [...]

Here’s a peek at a few creatures profiled in Yōkai Jiten (“Yōkai Encyclopedia”), an informative guide to 100 of Japan’s traditional monsters, written and illustrated by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki in 1981. Suiko [+] The suiko (lit. “water tiger”) is a king-sized variety of kappa living in and around the Chikugo River (Kyushu), Lake Biwa (Shiga [...]

Hagoromo canned tuna (a.k.a. “sea chicken”) commercial, circa 1978. + Video [Via MetaFilter]

Want to earn 50,000 yen ($550) a day? If you have a strong stomach, you might consider a part-time job washing cadavers in Japan. Strapped for cash? Rumors about the existence of lucrative cadaver-washing jobs have circulated on Japanese college campuses for over 50 years. For the most part, these stories are regarded as urban legends, and [...]

“Bad Apple!!” is a magical piece of stop-motion animation made from 6,566 still photos of printed bitmaps. + Video The creator, Nico Nico Douga user “shige-ruuu,” says he made the video without using photo-editing software. The images were captured with a webcam, and the effects were achieved by changing the camera position and adjusting the focus, brightness, [...]

“Robot Age,” a series of illustrations published by Shōnen Sunday magazine in 1969, offers a glimpse into a utopian future populated by sophisticated robots. Robot workers [View full image] In the coming Robot Age, assembly lines will be manned by tireless robot workers. Once the robots start building newer and better versions of themselves, the need [...]

A vast subway system, extensive subterranean shopping arcades and miles of pedestrian tunnels make Tokyo’s underground city a hotbed of human activity — and a fertile source of mystery and intrigue. Here is a look at six of the most persistent rumors to emerge from beneath the city’s streets. * * * * * Rumor #1: Government [...]

“Desert Eyeball” (砂漠の眼玉 – Sabaku no Medama), a deliciously nonsensical one-shot manga by Maki Sasaki, appeared in the August 1970 issue of Garo magazine. [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [See also: 'A Dream To Have In Heaven' by Maki Sasaki (1967)]

Whether it’s genetically-modified mutant chickens or burgers made of eyeballs, tales of tainted fast food are favorite fodder for urban legends. In Japan, one juicy rumor claims that a popular gyūdon (beef on rice) restaurant chain secretly substitutes its beef with the meat of the ririkan, a type of giant rat from Australia. Where’s the beef? Considering [...]

Researchers from the Machine Perception Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego have teamed up with Japanese robotics firm Kokoro Co., Ltd. to create a sophisticated humanoid robot modeled after a 1-year-old child. The baby robot — named “Diego-san” — is designed to help researchers study how infants develop motor skills during the [...]

Representatives of the necktie industry made an official appeal to Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa to end Cool Biz — the campaign to cut greenhouse emissions by encouraging white-collar workers to work sans jacket and tie in the summer months to reduce dependence on air conditioning. The necktie lobby says it’s unfair to treat neckties as [...]

A translation of Mori Ōgai 森鴎外’s Honyaku ni tsuite 「翻譯に就いて」 (”On translation”), published in 1914 for a collection of essays by famous writers on literary technique. ON TRANSLATION Translation and fallacy I have been asked to write something on translation for this book. It appears that I am considered a major figure among translators. Very well — [...]

1. J-Pop: From Peak to Weak I recently heard rumors from Japanese music executives that Japan has become the world’s largest market for recorded music. Consumers in the U.S. can no longer be suckered into buying $18 CDs. Meanwhile the loyal Japanese music fan still shells out ¥3,000 — this is not a typo: ¥3,000! — [...]

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 CS, [...]

In the English-speaking world, “Santa Baby” has been the go-to Santa-as-lover song for ladies since Eartha Kitt’s original 1953 version. The lyrics propose, slyly but unmistakably, that the dynamics of a hypothetical relationship with Santa, while grotesque, would nevertheless be topologically conjugate to the norms of postwar US gender relations. Santa baby, slip a sable under [...]

(Act One, Scene 1 can be found here.) Disclaimer: The following is for reference only. Its sole purpose is to give readers an overview of the history of modern Japanese literary criticism. I have avoided using all features common to the dramatic form, including plot, character development, word play, humor, Verfremdungseffekt, involution, and any explicit or [...]

Sometime in November, Marxy of Néojaponisme and Patrick Macias — author of such books as Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo and Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook — met in Inokashira Park and recorded a very long podcast about Harajuku and the past, present, and future of Japanese [...]

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 [...]

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 CS, [...]

Unearthed outside of the city of Sano in Tochigi-ken, this portrait photography series documents Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taishō Periods.

So what’s the latest on SNOW? I guess two new developments art that I added a dedicated Twitter feed, and also created a Facebook fan page. The Twitter feed is mostly just automated with new articles from the site — because some people actually prefer that over RSS feeds these days — but I do [...]

Some very good news: Arcade Mania is getting a 3rd print run! Huge thanks to everyone who has picked up the book so far — hoping you’ve enjoyed it — and here’s an invitation to everyone who hasn’t done so yet. The book is available in bookstores, but of course on Amazons worldwide too (Amazon [...]

If you follow my Twitter feed, then you may have noticed all of the tweeting I was doing while in Kyoto this past weekend, and more importantly, adding the @hitotoki tag to all of those tweets. The reason is that I’m currently helping with the beta testing of the soon-to-relaunch Hitotoki, and as you can [...]

So here we are, almost a week since the launch of SNOW Magazine. How have things been? Well, it was a bit of a rough ride for the first couple of days, mostly because I wasn’t happy with the way I had set up the domain (a lot of people will recall that you could [...]

I’m afraid I have some bad news for PauseTalk in February. I was planning on having it happen on the 8 (because I’m currently in Kyoto and will only be back tomorrow night), but just found out from the manager at Cafe Pause that there’s an event booked there, so no go. Since I don’t [...]

This week’s episode of Radio OK Fred (20) is the “Dark” episode, something to listen to during these cold winter months. Below, a list of the tracks played as well as a link to download the episode — or subscribe to the feed. Radio OK Fred 20 (41MB) 1. Tricky – “Broken Homes” 2. Siouxsie and the Banshees [...]

And we have ignition. SNOW Magazine is launched: snow-mag.com. I’ll post more later, but wanted to just put this out there, and invite everyone to take a look. Subscribe to the feed too!

And now we get to the best of all these teasers for my SNOW web magazine (see parts one, two, and three), looking at the aspect of this project that really has me the most excited, and that’s the guest columns. As I talked about earlier, it was always my intention to make this magazine [...]

Continuing with my coverage of my soon-to-launch web magazine (see parts one and two), this time let me get into what exactly you can expect to see in terms of content. As I’ve mentioned before, all the art/design/culture news bits you’re used to seeing here will show up on SNOW, but I’m upping the frequency, and [...]

As we’ve seen with many a site and company, 2009 was a very rough year, and our dear Tokyo Art Beat — itself a non-profit — was hit as well. So if you can, PLEASE help TAB keep going by making a donation here. PLEASE!

We’ve been gathering resources and case studies on eco trends in Japan for years now. As part of our recent eco report we compiled a lot of them into categories in order to analyze their influence and global potential. Here’s a quick run-down of some of the coolest innovations we came across. 1. Eco-vending machines Japan has [...]

We all would like to have a girl for every day of the week. While most of us struggle unsuccessfully to convert our fantasies into reality, Suntory has achieved this feat with their latest TV commercials campaign. The new ads for the Jokki Nama (mug draft beer) feature a different model on different days of the [...]

Consumers love to buy cool shoes made from durable material, and Seal brand have taken this to an eco level. Collaborating with Hiroshima sneakers line Spingle Move, their latest product, Sneaker 101, is made using old tires. More than just a green gimmick jumping on the eco bandwagon, the recycled material makes these shoes very water-resistant [...]

We just love digital tryvertising and this interactive terminal at Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku blew us away when we stumbled upon it a few months back. The Digital Cosmetic Mirror by industry giant Shiseido can be used to test make-up and recommendations without even having to pick up a mascara brush! Using augmented reality [...]

When a man’s down on his luck it is kind to offer him a helping hand back up. However, it is rare for a company to do this in their campaign slogan. Yet that is precisely what tour operator H.I.S. is doing for its spring vacations campaign, currently being heavily advertised on TV. It proudly announces [...]