Furutori (written in Japanese as 奮酉) are a two-piece band made up of Maki Takada on guitar and Aisha Kawanishi on drums. The two met in high school and have been making music together for the past 7 years.
Continue readingFurutori (written in Japanese as 奮酉) are a two-piece band made up of Maki Takada on guitar and Aisha Kawanishi on drums. The two met in high school and have been making music together for the past 7 years.
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If you’re walking along the beach this summer and you see a group of napping cat sand sculptures, there’s a good chance it’s the work of a Neko Cup.
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Nothing says summer quite like the glimmering surface of a nice cool body of water. Whether you’re a pool person, an ocean person or both, Japanese design studio HAQCI (pronounced ha-ku-shi) has the perfect accessory: earrings that mimic the surface of water.
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The Tadami Line is a local railway in Japan that connects Aizu-Wakamatsu Station (Fukushima) with Koide Station (Uonuma, Niigata). Originally opening in the late 1920s, the line was gradually extended over time and now stretches a distance of 135 km (83 mi).
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This weekend is Tanabata (七夕, meaning “Evening of the seventh”), a Japanese festival celebrating the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month. To celebrate, 3700 candles have been placed in front of Tokyo’s Zojoji Temple, curving their way to Tokyo Tower and creating an illusion of twinkling stars reaching up to the sky.
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Comedian and plus-size model Naomi Watanabe is huge in Japan. With 8.8 million Instagram followers, she’s a distant first. And she’s used her unconventional size to further the cause of body positivity, especially for women in Japan, more than anyone in recent memory. And now she’s back with her partner-in-crime, the art director Yuni Yoshida, for another groundbreaking advertisement for Shu Uemura.
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Oita in Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, is often hailed as the “onsen prefecture” of the country. Its mountainous terrain and underground discharges makes it home to many mineral-rich, natural hot springs. Just last month, a new hot spring park called Kur Park Nagayu opened. With hot springs, lodging and a restaurant, they combine soaking eating and sleeping (our three favorite activities) all in one.
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Lacquer has been used traditionally in Japan as a varnish coating for thousands of years. It’s adorned everything from Buddhist artifacts to tableware. But Kyoto-based artist Genta Ishizuka has been exploring the sculptural qualities of lacquer, known as urushi in Japan, proving that old traditions of making can still surprise us as being radical and contemporary.
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Between the years 1987 and 1993, the fashion designer Kenzo Takada built a 1,300- square-meter (14,000 sq ft) residence on the border of the Bastille and the Marais neighborhoods. Kenzo lived in the home for a little under 20 years before deciding to put it on the market in 2007. At the time, the asking price was €12 million, or $17.7 million.
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In November of 1969, Japanese stationery company Tombow released what would go on to become one of the country’s most iconic stationery items: the MONO eraser. Designed by the company’s in-house designers, the simple striped design, reminiscent of a flag, has remain unchanged for the last 50 years. And to celebrate the half-century mark, the company is running several fun promotions this year.
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