From sweet to savory, Japan has a rich culture of freshly-made snacks. There’s gyoza and takoyaki for late-night snacking and castella and yokan for afternoon tea snacking. There’s kakigori for summertime snacking and hanami dango for spring cherry blossom-snacking. Illustrator Fanny Chu and I both share a love for Japanese snacks. The difference is that the former decided to turn her passion into a poster.
This may be one of the more absurd things you see today. But who doesn’t need a little absurdity on the day after Labor Day weekend?
43 beakers lined up, each meticulously filled with water to create a musical note. Several feet away, 43 participants in lab coats. In one swift motion, all of them precisely toss a coin into the air and it lands in the in the beaker.
I’m not sure how many takes it took but the motion was captured on camera. Viewed normally it’s nothing more than an incredibly soothing 2-seconds of concentration and precision. But when slowed down, the motions reveal Mozart’s “Minuet.” (Watch the video below!)
Photos by Miyuki Kaneko courtesy Takram
Issatsu, Isshitsu (一冊、一室). It’s a phrase that literally translates to ‘A Single Room, A Single Book,’ and it’s one that’s come to define a small, minimal bookshop in the backstreets of Ginza. As the name would lead you to believe, you won’t be doing any browsing here. Morioka Shoten offers only one title per week to its visitors.
Yesterday everyone’s favorite minimal lifestyle store MUJI opened a new shop in Yurakucho, Tokyo. The new space, which is actually a renovation of an existing store, occupies 3 floors and 3,277 square meters, making it MUJI’s largest flagship store in the world. One of the main attractions is a partially-suspended bookshelf that holds 10,000 books and traverses 2 of the floors.
Oyster pearls are formed when foreign parasites breach the boundaries of its shell. In order to protect itself the oyster covers the intruder with layers of nacre until, to borrow from the poet Clint Smith, “the very thing that was trying to destroy it becomes the thing that makes it most beautiful.” Which is why it’s equally poetic that, in the hands of Japanese jeweler Shinji Nakaba, oyster pearls are turned into morbid yet beautiful skull jewelry.
When talking about residential architecture in Tokyo it’s hard not to mention the common urban obstacles: extremely dense communities, limited privacy and oddly-shaped plots of land. Throw in a line of train tracks and you’ve got yourself a recipe for an architectural nightmare. But architect Kunihiko Nakama was up for the challenge.
Scomber japonicus
Beginning today, you can now walk through a universe. And control it with your smartphone. “Crystal Universe” is the latest immersive installation by Japan’s artistic tech wizards TeamLab and it’s currently on display in Tokyo.
a Pretz knight rescuing a Macadamia princess
“Yoshida at Tōkaidō” by Katsushika Hokusai. Part of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series. Travelers resting at the station watch is a Shinkansen goes by. They, of course, continue their journey on foot.
Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of floating worlds” were woodblock prints that became wildly popular in 17th -19th century Japan. Emerging as a spontaneous artistic development, they remain, to this day, as some of the most well-known imagery and, by extension, some of the most readily available glimpses into what life was like in Japan.
OrySnack: The Bar Where Bartenders Work From Home
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There’s an English Version.
Tokyo is Gearing Up for an Art-Filled Fall. And the Entire City is Here for It
Candidates Announced for Suica Penguin’s Successor. A Public Vote Will Decide the Outcome
Winners of Japan’s 2027 Packaging Design Awards
