MetaFilter posts tagged with tokyo

Otaku in Love

digaman — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:53:07 -0800

"Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes... 'I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,' Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. 'She has really changed my life.' Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo." The New York Times' Lisa Katayama on "2-D lovers" in Japan, the latest outgrowth of otaku subculture.

HDRi Images of Tokyo

kanewai — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:56:08 -0800

High Dynamic Range 'photosketches' of Tokyo from Toshiro, and a site in Japanese containing hundreds more photographs that seem more real than real. HDRi, previously

Perhaps the easiest city to be a photographer in.

mhjb — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:37:11 -0800

Tokyo Undressed - one excellent photo after another, and another, and another. WARNING: nipples! WARNING: may contain traces of nuts (page 2).

Daikichi Amano

seabel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:38:52 -0800

Really interesting photography by Tokyo artist Daikichi Amano, who claims to be the reincarnation of Katsushika Hokusai.

Tokyo Camera Style

chunking express — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:49:12 -0800

Tokyo Camera Style "People who shoot film simply do because they choose to, and the Photo Culture of Tokyo is full of film camera users. When I meet them out on the streets I ask to photograph their camera, and usually post it here the same day"

Squeeze in, get online for a better life

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:54:48 -0800

Newly jobless and homeless former members of the Japanese upper or upper-middle class are turning to a distinctly 21st century version of the flophouse, the net room: a tiny cubicle, rented by the day, with that all-important feature... an internet connection and a computer. See this video followup on Ito Hidefumi, who, ironically, has been able to move into somewhat nicer accommodations, thanks to his new job cleaning temporary dwellings for other jobless/homeless displaced workers in Tokyo. Here's some bite-size infobits on Japan's current economic/jobs malaise. Oh, and none of this is to be confused with this Net Room, which caters to foreigners, but may well decide to change their name if the "net room" phenomenon really takes off and becomes a household word...

Ramen Girl. No really. No joke! Seriously!!

gen — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:38:08 -0800

Kaiju Shakedown points us to the trailer of Ramen Girl, starring Brittany Murphy as a American who decides to learn how to make the perfect bowl of ramen noodles (what?!?!) after she is dumped by her boyfriend in Tokyo. Tampopo this isn't. Hat tip to Ivan Ramen, who is the real deal foreigner who has a succesful ramen joint in Tokyo. See Chowhound, Food and Wine - Tokyo, Day 2: Japanese Éclairs, Perfect Ramen, Sake Fix, Soba Heaven, or the WSJ: Trying to Out-Noodle the Japanese for more info.

And people say that foreign film is inaccessible

mikepop — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:10:31 -0800

A Dinosaur Paleontologist's View of Godzilla; fabulous views from Godzilla (previously); an alternate history view of Godzilla; a view of Godzilla's insides.

Tokyo Glow

Kronos_to_Earth — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:40:38 -0800

"The beauty in chaos." Photographer SATO Shintaro's Tokyo Twilight Zone and Night Lights.

The Resting Place of the Fallen Flowers of Yoshiwara

gomichild — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:42:25 -0800

浄閑寺—Jokanji, the "Throw Away" Temple "From the street, it looks like many other Tokyo temples, but behind the new main building is an old cemetery that has one particular point of interest, a crypt and monument to twenty-five thousand prostitutes interred there."

So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit

desjardins — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:58:07 -0800

NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. Other trip planners (mostly mobile):

MTA (New York City)
MTA (Los Angeles)
Amtrak
New Jersey Transit
MBTA (Boston)
Washington DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Chicago Regional Transit Authority (CTA, Metra)
A Train (Atlanta)
Valley Metro (Phoenix)
San Francisco Bay Area 511 (BART, Muni Metro, VTA Light Rail, Cable cars, Commuter Rail, buses, ferries)
Portland (interactive map; roll your own app)
King County Metro Online (Seattle)
Toronto (TTC Buses and subways)
Vancouver (BC) Translink
Paris (RER, TGV, Metro, bus, more - in French)
London Underground and DLR
Norikae-Annei (Tokyo)

Virtual Tourism FTW

yort — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:49:33 -0800

Google now has the megacity of Tokyo photographed at the street level. Coverage is reasonably impressive, from the end of the road a couple of hours out of Musashi Itsukaichi, itself a couple of hours from Tokyo by train, to Narita Airport, down to Enoshima, and many, many, many, many, many points in between. . .

Personal photos from the Pacific (WWII)

zzazazz — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:05:47 -0800

According to the photographer's daughter, "All photos in this collection were taken by then Lt. and later Capt. George S. White, my Father, while he was serving in the Pacific as a pilot. They are generally between 1945 and 1948 from what is documented." My favorites? The barmaid or postwar Tokyo or wrecked planes and airplane graveyards.

The Japanese Garden

Effigy2000 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:54:57 -0800

Paradise: The Gardens of Tokyo. A collection of amazing photographs of Japanese gardens as taken by Tim Porter. Impressed and want to see more Japanese gardens? Look here and here for more links to more photos of some beautiful Japanese-style gardens from around the world. For further reading, check out Meditations on the Japanese Garden and The Modern Japanese Garden. And if after all of that you feel inspired to turn your garden into a Japanese garden of your own, The Japanese Garden Journal has you covered. Mind you, building the bridge sounds kind of tricky...

Reinvent yourself with an MBA.. in farming

your mildly obsessive average geek — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:30:57 -0800

Trying to get unemployed youth interested in farming, Pasana O₂ boasts a slick website (Japanese only unfortunately), a vision statement, a newsletter and oh yeah, an underground farm covering one square kilometer inside a former bank vault. [Via our very own]

Low-bit gal from 'round Tokyo-way.

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:38:25 -0800

There is a small but very dedicated and enthusiastic group of people around the world making music with Nintendo Game Boys and other cheap electronic gadgetry. While many of them are consciously fitting their low-bit sonics into relatively straightforward and predictable dance-oriented forms, some others are taking a rather more whimsical and less predictable approach. One such favorite of mine is the utterly charming, Tokyo-based henna dress. Then there's her alter ego, beta dress. Then there's her 3rd alter ego, CAMEBOY (of GGG) . Wikipedia page for Game Boy Music

The Tokyopia Wedding Game

panamax — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:40:47 -0800

The Tokyopia Wedding Game A work of love for friends executed in late 2006, via "Greggman"'s generally excellent blog. (via the pre-search I see that Greggman was previously FPPd five years ago).

robpongi

bigmusic — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:29:45 -0800

Meet Rob Pongi (sometimes known as Evil Pongi) an american, doing something different in Japan. Sometimes he's chillin with some sexy and beautiful Japanese women enjoy a very exciting Tokyo dance party! Other times he translates North Korean soap operas into english for our edification. He just finished his first Hollywood movie, and he's very proud of it. Join his fan club here. You can watch all of his videos here.

Im in ur sewer killing your d00dz

dersins — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:32:03 -0800

Some amazing photos of the storm sewer system in Tokyo. (Further reading)

Top Tokyo tape typography

WPW — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:42:13 -0800

Signs in Shinjuku station made with coloured sticky tape.

1-2-3-4-en pointe-2-3-4-pop it-lock it-3-4

boo_radley — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:38:44 -0800

Behold the Uniqlock. (flash, sfw)

manga review of da Vinci's "Annunciation"

gen — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 09:20:53 -0800

Painter and comic artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa visited the Tokyo National Museum recently to view da Vinci's Annunciata which created protests in Italy when the Uffizi Gallery lent this artwork to Japan. Shiozawa then created a fantastic "manga review" of the experience for Tokyo Art Beat's TABlog. You can see the steps Shiozawa made to create his manga review on Shiozawa's Flickr account or blog.

The Ultimate Sushi Experience

monju_bosatsu — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:16:29 -0800

Sheets of kombu (kelp) covered with herring roe; big white sacs of octopus roe. Among a biochromatic wealth of mysterious mollusks and other sea invertebrates of unknown nature, I see the weirdest creature I've ever seen. Now, that's a fucking organism. Tom Asakawa looks at it awhile, too. Hoya, or sea pineapple. "Sea pineapple," he says. "Attaches to rocks in the ocean. Tastes something like iodine. Sendai people like it." It looks nothing like a pineapple. It looks like something that could exist only in a purely hallucinatory eco-system. It looks like, I don't know, maybe an otherworldly marital aid of inscrutable purpose for the brides of Satan. "I need to eat that," I say. "I'll see what I can do," Tom says.

Nick Tosches visits Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market for Vanity Fair. [previously on mefi]

Post Apocalyptic Tokyo in Lithograph

jonson — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:03:34 -0800

Hisaharu Motoda’s “Neo-Ruins” series of lithographs depict the cityscape of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where familiar streets lie deserted, the buildings are crumbling and weeds grow from the broken pavement. More here, here & here.

Tokyo stories from curious outsiders

gen — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:13:29 -0800

Hitotoki.org (Japanese for 'a point in time') is a "new literary site collecting stories of personal, singular experiences in Tokyo." If you've visited Tokyo, please consider sharing a part of your Tokyo experience at hitotoki.org. If you plan to visit Japan, please peruse what will be an interesting collection of personal stories of life in Tokyo.