Japan in nearly 8 minutes.

This one will be short and sweet. A few days ago, my friend Ed passed along this video to me:


Someone recently went to Japan with his girlfriend; he then threw all of his pictures into a machine-gun style slide show set to an LCD Soundsystem song. You don't get to see the details of each picture before it flashes to the next one, and the result is a really cool gestalt of the trip. The speed made me a bit emotional because it felt like I relived my 2 week visit last April in just a few minutes. This is just lovely, take a look.

Brutus, in English!

As promised, the guys at Naked Tokyo have been so kind as to translate the Brutus Magazine article on Naked NY. Thanks, guys!

WORLD HIP OFFICES
"The ideas that lead the advertising
industry are born in such a greenhouse" *

NAKED COMMUNICATIONS
NY/USA

Naked Communications is based in the residential loft building in the middle of SoHo. Reflecting its characteristic as the advertising consulting company who is known for progressive marketing strategies, the office is unique and different based on the “house” concept, having two floors. On the lower floor, several people are having brainstorming, and others are meditating, in the ‘greenhouse’ within the building. In the next ‘living room’, other staffs are enjoying video gaming on a couch. On the upper floor where actual work is done, appr 40 people are focusing on working, sitting side by side in front of the long, aligned desks. Because of the philosophy that imagination would be stuck when staff get used to routine, the management shuffles seating at random, which helps free flow of communications amongst staffs. The office environment is considered to prioritise ‘Flexible mindset and unique idea construction’, and it represents peculiar business model of this unique company. Whilst belonging to the advertising industry, Naked neither produces advertising nor functions as a traditional agency, but just generate ideas for clients. If you look at the huge chalkboard in the meeting room, you see their corporate philosophy, ‘Naked Truth 6 clauses’, such as “everything communicates”, “the world of communications is bigger than the world of advertising”, etc.

You will never know what this company is doing by just looking at the office, however, it is certain that such cool working environment helps establish Naked as ‘the agency to watch’ just within three years since the launch of the NY office. By the way, they are looking for new office, as the number of the staff is being increased too quickly.

1. ‘Greenhouse’ is the place to think, isolated from noisy working areas.
2. Many signs of generated ideas on the chalkboard in the meeting room.
3. ‘Living Room’ for the people who want to relax and refresh.
4. Bunch of tennis balls used for the event, and polaroid of people.
5. Quite congested working floor due to the increase of staffs.

Profile
Naked Communications was born in London in 2000, and launched NY office in 2005. Partner Paul Woolmington and Neal Davis are enjoying foosball. They sell media strategy and branding strategy. Recently opened the office in Tokyo. http://www.nakedcomms.com

DATA
• Lease
• Location - SoHo
• 2F/3F of five-storied residential building
• Scale – 464 sqm
• Facilities – greenhouses, meeting rooms, etc.
• Built in 1879
• Loft type, renaissance revival design
• With boutique on the ground floor and artists’ SoHo in other floors.

* I can see other agencies that dislike us really hating this headline!

Japan

I've been really overwhelmed with life-related things since being back from Japan (work, errands, etc.), and didn't take the time to reflect on my trip until yesterday. We have a status meeting every Monday morning at work, and I got to share some photos and brief rundown... I hate to admit that this impending chat is what forced me to really sit down and think through it all, but I'm glad I finally did it. Nippon08 is the Keynote presentation I gave, but here are the photos with voice over text.

Those who know me know that I've been wanting to go to Japan for around 10 years. There are a lot of things that slowly built up my interest and love for all things Japanese, but that's a sort of long story /explanation. Anyway, last April I realized that I would be missing the Brooklyn Cherry Blossom Festival that year. I was so frustrated that I told myself "I should just go see the real thing in Japan." A few moments later I stopped and thought, "Hey, I should!" and made the decision to go over for sakura the following year.

So I went to Japan last month, all by myself, with not too much of a plan. I was terrified. There were several instances in which I couldn't sleep at night, thinking I was mad for doing such a thing.

---

This was one of the first things I noticed in Japan. I was exhausted and wonky until I got onto the express train to Toko, and peeked through the seats to see a forty year-old businessman reading manga. This is when it started to feel real.


This is where I stayed: Shinjuku. There are a lot of businesses here, but also neon lights as far as the eye can see. It's like Times Square times fifty.


What I didn't know was that the district my hotel was in (Kabukicho) is the biggest red light district in Japan. I reguarly saw flyers like this, and groups of androgynous beautiful people plastered outside of clubs, advertising the cast of "performers" to be found within.



I got lost every single day. Since I felt really safe in Tokyo, though, it was not too bad. I didn't have a set schedule, only a handful of things I wanted to make a point to see. Each time I got lost, I found something awesome. One time in Warp Zone (I was on the same road for an hour, eventually ending up where I started, even though the road is not a loop on my map) I found a shrine with this cherry tree in front of it:


While wandering in Shibuya, I found some stone steps leading downward two flights into a basement manga superstore mecca (there were dozens of aisles like this, very narrow so two people could hardly pass by at a time):


Also while finding my way in Shibuya, I saw a television show being filmed:


Let me tell you something quickly about Shinjuku Station - it's the busiest train station in the world. It's easily the size of Chinatown (although my estimating intelligence is quite crap, so I might be wrong, but it's HUGE) and as of 2006 saw over 3.5 million passengers a day. I got lost every single time I was in there. One of those times, I ended up in the Metropolitan Government Building, where I was shuffled into an elevator with a bunch of people and ended up on the 40-somethingth floor, looking over the city at sunset. wow.


It wasn't confusing craziness the entire time, though. I got to visit Naked Tokyo. They just moved into a new space in a tangle of streets in residential Harajuku. Turning the corner and seeing the familiar sign made me grin. They were very wonderful and welcoming, inviting me to clubs and dinner etc.


I also got to meet my friend JWoo's father. The day I met Papa Woo, he was helping to record a rockstar in a basement studio in Shibuya. He let me play the Hammond organ, which was amazing.


I had some mountain time! I went to a few mountains in and around Hakone, one of them being this very iconic one:


I also took one of these to the summit of another mountain and got vertigo:


Culture of Cute is something I kept saying in my head over and over while in Japan. Everything is cute. I was squeaking the whole time. Here is a store that was inside a hot pink airplane (all the sales associates were dressed like flight attendants):


Here are random trucks in Roppongi:


Here is a train - omg, this train.


Here is another big reason I went to Japan: I have relatives there that I had never met (or even heard of until a few years ago). I first got to meet my second cousin (she lives in Tokyo and was so so so so gracious and nice and helpful and fun and lovely).

So, I went to Japan with this photograph that I've seen in my mother's bedroom since I was young. The woman is my great grandmother, and the little girl is my... great aunt? My grandmother's sister. They're from Nagasaki, so I took a bullet train nine hours there.




I got to meet the little girl in the photo. She is now 96 (or 97, my first cousin once removed's wife told me; sometimes the Japanese count the 9 months in the womb as a year) and lives in a retirement home in Nagasaki. I can't even describe what this felt like. My grandmother hasn't seen her in over 60 years, and was flipping out when I got back and told her about this /showed her the photos. Guys, this was amazing. I got to meet my mother's first cousin as well, whom she has never met either. He was lovely lovely lovely, and even though he didn't speak English he kept telling me things through his wife (who spoke a teeny amount of English) and showing me photographs. I was ecstatic. This entire chunk of the trip was very emotional for me (don't even get me started on all the atomic bomb stuff I saw and learned about).

Oh also, I found out that I'm part Russian. neat.


I took a detour on the way back, upon a couple of people's advice. It was pretty beautiful, albeit a little harder to get around. It took more time to get to places than actually see them, but again I didn't have a set plan so that was fine by me.




Even though I had only spent 6 or 7 days in Tokyo prior to returning, I felt instantly at home when I stepped out of Shinjuku station (after getting lost again) on my last day.


Here is something neat. I barely got to see any cherry blossoms while in Japan, because rain and winds wiped them all out before I got there. The weekend after I got back, though, I went to Brooklyn:


It's kind of cool how things work out. The thing that brought me there was actually waiting for me when I got back.

I just wrote this in an email to someone, but picture taking every single feeling you've ever had, throwing them into a kaleidoscope and shaking it up. I think that's why it was a little difficult to collect my thoughts on my trip, because I felt everything while I was there. I was terrified, elated, lonely, introspective, everything. I finally have mental closure now though, and all I can say is

I weep for our infrastructure.

But even if we did have it in the U.S., would that help anything? not sure. maybe.

What I'm talking about is mobile technology. I've had to think about it a lot lately, and well, it's no secret that we're far behind the rest of the world when it comes down to it. Actually, all I had to Google (for support) after writing that sentence just now was "mobile technology america behind" and got to this wonderful bit. And that was the same point I was going to make.

(Let me back up for a minute. I am writing this while Oceans Thirteen plays on my television dubbed in Japanese. Know what that means? I am in Tokyo! Those who know me (even those who don't, perhaps) will know that I have been longing for this time for ages.) *

So, back to what I was going to share. Today I was frustrated and tired after being stuck in Warp Zone (which some like to call Meiji Dori), and instead of finding the store I wanted (Laforet), I wandered into a five-story, circular building with the same internal architecture as the the Guggenheim. I think I was drawn to it because there was a lot of stuff happening in there - computers, lights, flashy larger-than-life images of well-dressed models holding cool devices, etc.


The guy working the first floor was very proficient in English (and he liked to practice, I think), and he was telling me all about this structure. Apparently it is owned by KDDI, which is mobile carrier and ISP in Japan. It's called the KDDI Designing Studio, and each floor does something different. In order:

1. Live Lounge - free Internet on four computers (one of them ONLY runs Second Life, which was amusing) and a huge center-floor Sony Ericcson display

2. au Design Park - the newest concept models are displayed here (including the very rectangular and very flat flip phone styles I have seen on Gizmodo), space station-style:




3. KDDI Portal Living - new experimental technology is demonstrated (you can try it out too); right now includes a broadcasting service and a Sony /au music collaboration (I think au is a handset manufacturer)

4. Lismo Forest - this was a surreal, storybook-like forest setting, featuring LISMO (an online music service run by KDDI)'s mascot:


5. Wired Café 360° - must have missed this one... the pamphlet I took calls it an "urban escape," while my English-speaking friend stressed that I could get a beer there.

This Designing Studio was awesome. Yes, we have all heard about "creating an experience for the consumer" a million times. Well, duh. I had quite the nice time walking through it and touching the shiny phones devices (also: on the walls going up the spiral was a nicely-designed and laid-out history of mobile handset design).

I'm sure that in the minds of people who live here and are familiar with these brands, they all live together. I am trying to think of a relevant U.S. example (help me out if you can think of one), but I'm pretty sure there is a competition problem – in addition to an infrastructure problem – in North America. Carriers are – from what I have seen – obsessed with taking over the user interface of their devices (among other things). I think I had an LG VX450 before Verizon started doing that, because I remember very pretty dandelion wallpaper with purple trim and very intuitive UI in 2004. Well, when I got a RAZR two years later (for very few months, please forgive me), the UI was terrible. And it was RED and I couldn't get it to NOT be red. Because of this, there were two separate components in my mind: Motorola (handset) and Verizon (carrier & user experience). Not "one, single, streamlined" mobile experience. This entire KDDI Designing Studio felt cohesive, and I mostly had no clue that there were at least four brands working together in this space until I did some research. I wonder when something similar can happen in the U.S. (if ever). I would love it.

(I would also love to hear thoughts on this, please share! I just kind of started typing without a real point or end opinion on how things can change.)

* If you want to read more about my trip (including photos), check out my Tumblr page. Oyasumi nasai (good night)!

幸せ

I have been a little scarce as of late; my final week in New York before the holidays was a crazy one... lots of stuff happened not limited to work (which was stressful in itself). I hope everybody had a lovely holiday. When I'm visiting my family, I tend to lay low and get into everything analogue; I play my upright piano from childhood, type on my father's old typewriter and listen to vinyl on my mother's record player. I'm taking a slight break now to share this though:


Last month, a man stopped me on the street asking if he could take my photo for "a magazine." Little did I know at the time that it was for Elle Girl Tokyo! Each month they feature a different city, and December's is New York. exciting. It pretty much looks to me like a twee version of The Sartorialist.


They update with one girl a day. I wonder if this is only on the web site, or if they put it in the paper version? Babelfish turned up with quite the hilarious translation, which I'm hoping to have corrected by some of my Japanese friends.

Inserting favorite music in ipod, her who is in the midst of shopping. Under P coat of grey original T shirt of local radio bureau. Collecting the bottoms with the black denim and the sneaker, the pop street style completes! You observe, to also small article errand such as hand made muffler and tear drop sunglasses.

I think I'm more excited about this than I should be. _

A Wild Sheep Chase

I just finished reading Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (1982). I was going to say that it's a little creepier than the other stuff of his that I've read, but... come to think of it, all of his short stories and novels so far have had a little weird twist to them. Anyway, this book was lovely and chilling at the same time. It's about a former ad exec from Tokyo who gets sent on a literal sheep chase through the countryside /mountains of Northern Japan.

Here are my underlinings (no it doesn't give anything away, don't worry!):

There was a small coffee shop near the university where I hung out with friends. It wasn't much of anything, but it offered certain constants: hard rock and bad coffee (4).

The air was alive, even as everything seemed poised on the verge of collapse, waiting for a push (5).

"The sun climbs high in the sky, then starts down. People come, then go. The time breezes by. That's like a picnic, isn't it?" (7)

She tossed the twig to the ground and stood up, brushing the dry bits of grass from her coat (9).

whiskey fog (15)

A short ray of sunlight divided the table, me in light, her in shadow (17).

The tip of the cigarette crackled dryly as its lavender smoke formed a tracery in the morning light (19).

"I still love you. But I guess that's not the point now, is it? I know that well enough myself." (22)

"I do believe that my ears aren't dying properly," (40)

...letting go a trial balloon (49).

Russians have a way with aphorisms. They probably spend all winter thinking them up (112).

The rain had been preceded by four or five days of crisp, clear early summer skies, fooling people into thinking the rainy season was over (113).

In a sunken area in the middle of the coffee lounge, a woman wearing a bright pink dress sat at a cerulean blue grand piano playing quintessential hotel-coffee-lounge numbers filled with arpeggios and syncopation.

With my eyes closed, I could hear hundreds of elves sweeping out my head with their tiny brooms. They kept sweeping and sweeping. It never occurred to any of them to use a dustpan (151).

Strings of tiny yellow streetlamps threaded everywhere below (152).

I got orange juice out of the refrigerator and popped three-day-old bread into the toaster. I tasted like wall plaster (161).

Far off, someone was practicing piano. It sounded like tripping down an up escalator.

He gave me a blank-white-sheet-of-drawing-paper look (195).

The conductor was so totally without expression he could have pulled off a bank robbery without covering his face (249).

...if the roof caves in, you got yourself some flat sheep (260).

My girlfriend appeared with coffee, and we faced each other as we drank. Drops of rain tapped intermittently on the windows. The time passed slowly as chill infiltrated the room. The yellow glow of the light bulbs drifted about the room like pollen (285).

Birds of a kind I'd never seen before clung like Christmas ornaments to the pin oaks by the front door, chirping away. The world shone moistly in the morning light (290).

It's hot and stuffy. ...Someone opens a window. Shivering cold. Seagull cries, sharp piercing voices ripping at my flesh (341).

The sea was shining when I arrived at my destination (351).