it isn't over til the gaijin sings

i spent the last day this trip to tokyo in the office to catch up on emails from all the business cards i collected during the shows. I think I did a good job of identifying key people to send emails to from 300+ cards before i forget who they are! at 8:00 we went to a local izakaya which looked very non-descript at best [i would never have thought to eat there on my own] but was a delicious kyu-shu specialty restaurant! we had ba-sashi which i was hunkering for the whole trip and dishes like mentai-tsume sanma yaki [spicy cod-roe stuffed grilled mackerel] and in place of edamame, steamed sora-mame [broad beans] which were great. (i tried to buy broad beans in the US but the frozen ones are all from china and were quite bitter – any suggestions?) i got drunk on a nice bottle of imo-jochu and then off to karaoke!

it was a rainy monday night and one would expect the karaoke-kan to be more willing to negotiate price, but we managed to get a ¥2500 [+tax] per person for 2 hours all you can drink. when i think about it, it was cheaper and nicer than the karaoke box places i've been to in nyc. needless to say, it was a fun night. artist taku anekawa joined us and is fun to watch sing as was mr. yamada's japanese rap!. here is a link to his site. we were out til 3:00 am.


i didn't get to hang out with my dear friend soichi terada as he was too busy with a new game soundtrack he's working on. here is a link to his site. because of this, he offered to drive me to narita for my flight to HK and we would catch up on an early lunch and the drive. the drive was great...first time i made it to narita in an hour by car or train.

and now, i am in HK! i will write a separate blog for HK. fotos for the above in a bit.

MoMA Store Omotesando

on the evening of november 1st, i went to the opening of the MoMA store in Japan. They are in a brand new luxury shopping environment on Omotesando called GYRE which has galleries and restaurants as well. the MoMA shop has been an important supporter of my work from the beginning so it was great to see the NYC and Tokyo staff at the same event. The Tokyo store features quite a few models of my line.

the party was great, i got to meet the architect of the store space, Richard Gluckman of Gluckman Mayner Architects [of NYC] and people from other brands in the shop.

photos include Chay and her hubby Rob, a picture of me with Cathy and Mr. Suda, a buyer for the Tokyo store.

check out the store in person or online.

november 2nd

yesterday was another busy day in tokyo for me. travel + jetlag + standing for hours in cool-looking-but-painful shoes at the fair left me feeling like a pretzel – off to find a place for a massage! unfortunately, all the places on shokuan-dori in tokyo's little korea looked a bit sketchy, so i boarded the JR to shibuya where i know a few places. the tui-na place i normally go to doesn't open til 2:00 pm so i ended up in a shiatsu clinic place for a massage. it was at times both painful and relaxing but my day long headache was gone! i also had lunch at the raj mahal with gordon who does web design for amway japan and nissan [i hired gordon as a graphic designer when i was an art director for a small design studio in tokyo in 1988 and he's still here].

i then went to 100% to meet with michael young and his team and catch up on what he's showing and as usual, everything is amazing. his designer, ben walked the show with me and showed me his side projects. lots of great stuff in the main tents but the student work this year was really horrible – not one notable project that stood out [or am i burnt-out from seeing to many exhibitions this year?]. i also ran into ken o'rourke (the bicycle king of taichung) which was nice. he worked on the bikes michael young designed [see foto].

at tide i met the designers of a ridiculously expensive but wonderful line of kimonos called HIROCOLEDGE which debuts in the newly renovated Dairmaru across from Tokyo Station. Hiroko was as beautiful as her creations.

after tide we went to a party for a japanese laquerware maker called wajima where i met the chief technology office for a brand i LOVE calle amadana as well as catching up with designers from the shows. we then went to a party thrown by iDEA, a shop that does very well with nooka. i also met Chiaki Murata, an industrial designer whos work I also admire. It's really great to have the opportunity to meet so many people I admire in one city and on the same trip.

nooka booth

here are finally some better pictures of our booth and the nooka kaiten-sushi market. unfortunately, our booth is in a dark corner of the show and people do not seem to figure out that you need to walk through the doorway to see the items on exhibit. i wanted a booth design that reflected the stated theme of the show "PLAY" without straying from the nooka concept – it seems i was the only one trying to do so – which has been a painful exercise in how i over-think everything! well...it's all experience to apply to next years show and to shows in NYC.

design tide day one

last night was the press preview and then opening party for design tide. i was interviewed and photographed for mono magazine in the afternoon which was great. i will write a longer post on our booth and the nooka people, but i thought i'd give a taste of some of the other exhibitors first [and also, my installation is sooooo sad in comparison to the design studios from europe whose booths are financed by their respective embassies!]. i need to get on finding a sponsor to do an NYC pavilion type installation next year and bring some local NYC talent along with nooka...any ideas? or maybe i should bring tide to NYC? both ideas excite me...

from top: me with a nooka logo mustache.
entrance area with installation by Pearson Lloyd of London.
LED Abacus...a lot of fun!
installation by bleed of norway [who sell nooka in their concept shop] to showcase lamps by norway says.
instant libraries by BACH tokyo.

Doctor Tanaka

i began an email exchange with artist, shin tanaka after the success of the nooka+garbege collaboration [thank you garbege for the introduction] which resulted in the tanaka+nooka boxboy collaboration. up until recently, shin lived in kyushu and we never managed to meet face-to-face until this weekend. of course, our mixi pages are linked, so we keep up-to-date on each other. he has a top secret job as a scientist at a research center near mt. fuji [i promised not to reveal his day job to anyone, and it awes me that someone can do so many things as well as he does]. i was honored he took time to come to tokyo to meet and hang out. check out his great web site.

(how do you like my new cap? it was ¥100 at the yoyogi flea market)

devilrobots 10th anniversary party

it was great that the devil robots 10th anniversary party happened while i was in tokyo as it was a great way to catch up with old friends - especially people from osaka i haven't seen in many years who came up for the opening. it was about 8 years ago when i first met the devilrobots team in new york when i assisted them in the installation of their very first gallery exhibition for the tofu-oyako at zakka on grand street. it's been wonderful to see their characters grow into an international phenomenom and become friends along the way. the opening party was held at the parco gallery in shibuya.

you can learn more about team devilrobots here though the site is japanese

top: with mori chack.
bottom: mister kitai, creator of the tofu oyako series [left], special guest gachapin [middle], and tofu oyako no hitori [right].

i also got to meet mister tei of furifuri company who recognized me from my mixi page [mixi is the japanese equivilent of facebook], and mister mori chack, creator of gloomy bear, who's work i love and also knew only through mixi until the party. mixi is a one way i keep up my japanese writing skills.