Chatting with Fumiko Imano about the desire to self-duplicate, the nature of photography, the relationships between fashion and art, and how she came to be her own favourite subject [read more]

A few other highlights I haven’t already mentioned … [read more]

Out in the ‘burbs of western Tokyo in a quiet neighbourhood park is a museum set up by Hayao Miyazaki dedicated to all things Ghibli. [read more]

At any moment in time there are hundreds of thousands of people moving at speeds of tens of thousands of kilometres an hour in the sky above us [read more]

With choreography by Yuka Kobayashi and costumes by Taisuke Abe, She de cusu oh chee! is a Japanese performance troupe of escapist alter egos [read more]

There are those who would say ‘The Fashion Show of The Gods’ might be an ambitious thing to call your own fashion show – but the smoke, Nico Muhly soundtrack and senior men in volumes of white fabric and hair had us all convinced last night at writtenafterwards [read more]

It seemed like a pretty standard uptight fashion week party at TRUMP ROOM last night, until the Trippple Nippples exploded onto the dance floor with screams, water pistols, glitter bombs, fake blood and feathers, whipping everyone up into a messy mania before disappearing as quickly as they appeared. You better brace yourselves for these guys before they perform at our event in December! [read more]

Yesterday the BBC reported a new tiny dinosaur species had been identified from fossilised remains, measuring 4 inches in height. Go science! Meanwhile in parallel Tokyo fashion world the young label Tiny Dinosaur unearthed their SS10 collection ‘dreamtime’ in a somewhat tiny space just off Omotesando. We were invited to peer into a temporary bedroom setting where we saw some beautiful tailoring, shirts-turn-skirts, and boots with toes [read more]

Fans of the legendary poster designer Tadanori Yokoo should be making the most of cheap flights to Japan this October. [read more]

A new exhibition has just opened at 21_21 Design Site (a foundation that was established by Issey Mikaye and friends in 2007), showcasing 100 objects by product designer  Naoto Fukasawa, accompanied by images of his work from photographer Tamotsu Fujii [read more]

Notes from day 2 of Japan Fashion Week: as the Japanese turn their backs on the frenzied consumption of handbags that require mortgages, it’s exciting to see a new generation of designers for whom the aspiration of luxury is irrelevant [read more]

Bones, plastic and whiteness are some of Teppei Kaneuji’s favourite things. Liquid, towers and stains are a few others [read more]

As possibly the most contrived and controlled built environments possible, airports are rather surreal places. Like disorienting black holes where time and space cease to exist in the same way, they are sites of heightened emotions (the drama of goodbyes and reunions, the anticipation of new journeys, the panic of missed flights) played out alongside intense boredom. Perfect places, I say, for transparent floating balloon people. From this week until November 3rd, Terminals 1 and 2 at Haneda Airport will be filled with digital public art projects, including human balloons, LED stars and video projections [read more]

Besides moss and ferns Takashi Kuribayashi’s other running motifs are seals and penguins, which he often uses in latex form for his instillations where audiences are invited to peer through walls or ceilings into fragments of alternative aquatic worlds [read more]

On the rooftop of an abandoned school near the flashing lights and madness of Tokyo’s Akihabara Electric Town, there is a nightly happening comprising kinetic sculpture, balloons, instrumental inventions, light, sound and performance art [read more]

You might be one of the 1.4 million who have already watched this unnerving/mesmerising Youtube clip, originally posted as an experiment to show a friend but subsequently spawning a series of copycats and launching Daito Manabe to an unexpected level of celebrity. But Daito is not just a geeky guy Youtubecasting himself from his bedroom doing fucked up things with gadgets on his face. Since graduating as a mathematician he has been active as a researcher, programmer, coder, hacker, sound / light designer, composer, DJ, VJ, video artist, and this list goes on [read more]

It is a festival factory line here in Tokyo. Design Festa, the Tokyo International Film Festival and Japan Fashion Week are all happening this month (with reports on all of them coming from yours truly), and a unique performing arts programme called Festival/Tokyo is about to kick off, starting with Rojishiki by Ishinha. Since forming in the early ‘70s the theatre/dance company has become renowned for their site-specific outdoor roaming performances – often set in the Muroji Temple in Nara or the isolated islands of Okayama – and this one is taking place in an old junior high school [read more]

Unlike a lot of experimentation in noise aesthetic, Monthly Hair Stylistics possess an irresistible brand of hilarity and silliness [read more]

A major retrospective of Kosho Ito’s work was recently held at the Museum of Contemporary At Tokyo, focusing on how he shows that chaos exists inherently in order, and vice versa [read more]