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Get re-acquainted with old friends as Pixar comes to Tokyo
This article by Lily Crossley-Baxter first appeared on Tokyo Cheapo. I have never met a single person who didn’t cry during that first montage of UP, and I hope I never do. Pixar has consistently...
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Japanese Twitter users expose Hillary Clinton as video game, anime character
The ludic Japanese Twittersphere strikes again. Japanese Twitter users like to play tag games where they post a picture of someone (typically someone famous or currently in the news spotlight) and then...
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teamLab offers digital installation wedding ceremonies in Tokyo
The award-winning “ultra-technologists” teamLab have carved out a successful niche in digital art installations, working with the likes of Gucci and even Narita Airport. Their signature approach...
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Sanrio’s Pompompurin “huggable” Shinjuku Station ad
We’ve seen some great “physical ads” in Tokyo recently, from a removable block mural to an interactive sound billboard and a scratchable poster. How about a “huggable” ad? From March 7th to March 13th,...
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Gudetama Kendama brings Sanrio kawaii to the cup-and-ball toy
Last year we reported on Gudetama, the peculiar “lazy egg” character by Sanrio that has become a range of hit products. In a perfect synergy of trends, the curiously loveable character has joined the...
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MoCHA: designer cat cafe opens in Harajuku
Until now there has been a relative lack of cat cafes (or their various spin-offs with dogs, owls, rabbits and more) in central areas. If you search, you can find some around Shibuya, Shinjuku and...
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Taisin’s FLX65 Sphere, Heart, Star Ice Ball Mold for luxury drinking experience
Taisin has created another superb ice sphere mold. The FLX65 Sphere, Heart, Star Ice Ball Mold has three alternate 65mm molds so you can vary the shapes you make to go in your glass and keep your...
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Pechat button speaker turns toys into talking characters
Hakuhodo’s latest in its series of HACKist creative lab prototypes is Pechat, a simple button-shaped device that “lets your stuffed animals chat”. In essence, Pechat is a yellow button that can be...
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Kentama, an adult version of kendama toy
There’s a joke that a meme is only truly a meme when it gets adapted for porn. We’ve been covering the kendama boom that first emerged overseas and is now unfolding in Japan, resulting in special...
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Sega opens Puyopuyo!! Quest cafe in Tokyo
We’ve seen a lot of themed cafes in Tokyo recently but most are franchises with established merchandise and anime lines, such as Miffy or Rilakkuma, to name just two recent examples. Sega Networks...
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Rediscovering folklore in contemporary Tokyo
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. LP Hartley wrote those words as the opening of The Go-Between, a very English novel about very English themes. But the message is...
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Maker culture spaces booming in Tokyo
Maker culture spaces, fab labs and hackerspaces have been springing up all over Tokyo in recent years, offering designers (both established professionals and aspiring amateurs) the chance to share...
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Sharp Plasmacluster Katori Kuusei cleanses air, catches mosquitoes
Japanese homes are not the largest of places so any appliance that combines more than one function is going to be popular. Sharp’s Plasmacluster Mosquito Catcher Air Purifier Katori Kuusei does just...
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Lyric Speaker displays song lyrics in real time with matching graphics
What were the lyrics to that song? Know this in real time with the Lyric Speaker, which displays the lyrics to songs it plays through a neat interface in the speaker itself. The lyrics are shown...
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Hiroshi Fujiwara opens concept store in Ginza underground parking lot
Musician and fashion guru Hiroshi Fujiwara opened a new concept store, The Park-Ing Ginza, in an underground parking lot on March 24th. The parking lot is located underneath the Sony Building at the...
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Namco virtual reality center, VR Zone Project i Can, opens April
Namco opens VR Zone Project i Can on April 15th in Diver City Tokyo Plaza, Odaiba, as a virtual reality technology entertainment complex. It will run until mid-October, offering head-mounted virtual...
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Dare Who? tells you which Japanse fashion model you most look like
Which Japanese fashion model do you look like? That’s the tempting question asked by Dare Who?, a website that allows you to upload your portrait and then let it analyze and calculate your closest...
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Makoto Azuma creates “flower shop scooter” for Fendi Ginza store
Remember Makoto Azuma? He’s the flower artist who launched bonsai into space. Now Azuma has got together with Fendi to create a unique flower shop inside the brand’s Ginza store. Open until April 17th,...
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April Fools’ Day 2016: Top hoaxes in Japan
While originally a western custom, April Fools’ Day has now become something of a tradition recently for Japanese brands and services to trick us with seemingly incredible new products or promotions....
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Nadeshiko Hotel Shibuya, a new designer capsule hotel exclusively for women
Capsule hotels are one of the most iconic things about Japan but are an increasingly rare breed now since their old business model started to be undercut by all-night internet cafes. They are also...
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