Tokyo Temperaments
Deep bows over delicate foods, as chilly winter air colors my moods... Sleep deprived and tongue tied, I take in Tokyo on its own terms, marveling at how much there is to learn... Here lies an empire ancient & proud, where leading lights are more inclined to by shy than loud, where craft is revered & designers rule over a scifi city satiated with wifi tools...
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Departures
Friday, March 2, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Japanese Business Culture
"According to Global Business Culture, a consultancy, the top three tips to doing business in Japan are “relationships drive business,” “it is important to show respect,” and “try to be diplomatic at all times.” These concepts are the cornerstones of a business culture that is based on consensus-building."
There's a great site here detailing some of the guiding principles for doing business in Japan. Good read.
"Wa - The most valued principle still alive in Japanese society today is the concept of 'wa', or 'harmony'. The preservation of social harmony dates back to the first constitution in 604 AD and the teamwork needed when living and working on collective farms. In business terms, 'wa' is reflected in the avoidance of self-assertion and individualism and the preservation of good relationships despite differences in opinion. When doing business with the Japanese it is also important to remember the affect of 'wa' on many patterns of Japanese behaviour, in particular their indirect expression of 'no'.
Kao - One of the fundamental factors of the Japanese social system is the notion of 'face'. Face is a mark of personal pride and forms the basis of an individual's reputation and social status. Preservation of face comes through avoiding confrontations and direct criticism wherever possible. In Japan, causing someone to lose face can be disastrous for business relationships.
Omoiyari - Closely linked to the concepts of 'wa' and 'kao', 'omoiyari' relates to the sense of empathy and loyalty encouraged in Japanese society and practiced in Japanese business culture. In literal terms it means "to imagine another's feelings", therefore building a strong relationship based on trust and mutual feeling is vital for business success in Japan."
Anime Highlight 1
Japanese TV Commercials
Gonpachi
Cake-mouflage by LB/Singapore
Cake-mouflage from Katherine Khor on Vimeo.
Hallmark "Mother Bird"
OK, maybe the GPC doesn't hate puppies
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Dinner @ Jinroku: Teppanyaki Artistry
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Kaku: Profile of a Tokyo B-Boy
Dinner @ Tokyo Shiba, Toufaya Ukai
"Today we introduce to you "Tokyo Shiba Tofu-ya Ukai", which respects Japanese taste and produces it excellently... One of the advantages of this restaurant is its good location. It's located just at the foot of the Tokyo Tower, the symbol of Tokyo. When you stand in front of the gate of the restaurant, you can see the big Tokyo Tower behind the restaurant... If you enter the gate of the restaurant after being fascinated by such splendid view, you'll find a narrow upward stairs. After you go up the stairs and go through the wall, you'll be struck by the Japanese traditional styled building. It's built under the concept of "Edo" culture. There is dreamily impressive contrast between "Edo" styled building and Tokyo Tower. Inside of the "Edo" building, there is a Japanese traditional waiting room, and ahead of it, there are the big Sake (Japanese wine) barrels that were moved from Yamagata prefecture. You are invited to Edo era, as if you slip back in time to the old ages.
As the name of the restaurant is "Tofu-ya" (bean curd restaurant), they serve us the Japanese dishes based on Tofu. Every course starts with Goma (sesame) Tofu. It's soft and mild and smooth texture, and the taste of it is very sophisticated. This daintiness arouses our expectation for the following dishes. Among them, "Age-Dengaku" (deep fried Tofu) is impressive. It looks just like an ordinary deep fried Tobu, but when you bite it, you feel crispness of the surface and the softness from the inside. According to the staff's explanation, Tofu is sliced thicker than the ordinal so that the softness could be remained. Furthermore, after deep-fried, it's roasted one by one on the charcoal fire at the court garden, this labor can create the crispness of the surface.
Tofu that boiled with soymilk and soup stock, Yuba (soymilk paper), Sashimi (raw fishes) and meat dishes that vary from course to course, each dishes create typical Japanese taste, mild and delicate, and offer us a peaceful satisfaction.
After you enjoy the dinner, it may be good idea to walk around the court garden. The old tree aged more than one hundred years, the ponds where carps are swimming, the beautiful Japanese garden, all those amenity spaces will gives you another peaceful satisfaction."
LB/Tokyo does J-Pop: Namie Amuro's "What A Feeling"
The GPC Hates Puppies
Docomo NTT "Touch Wood"
Monday, February 27, 2012
Kawaii - The Unbearable Cuteness of Being
Kawaii, an adjective usually mistranslated as simply "cute," has become much more than a word. It is a state of mind for Japanese teens, a modifier that means cool, bitchin', groovy, killer and I-love-it all rolled into one, then squared. For a clothing label trying to crack Asia's burgeoning teen fashion industry, business these days boils down to the quest for kawaii. Asian teenagers tend to wear today what Japanese teens wore a few minutes ago. And unlike the fashion industrial complex in the West, in which top designers and magazine editors dictate what's hot, Japan's teen fashion industry revolves entirely around what Tokyo girls say is kawaii.
Tokyo Map
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Seppuku & Samurai
I bring up Bushido because I wanted to mention the practice of Seppuku briefly... It blows my mind, and I think it reflects profound insights into Japanese civilization, and how deeply these people believe in honor and character. Seppuku, or Harakiri, is a Japanese Samurai tradition of committing ritual suicide by disemboweling yourself with a blade. Samurais live by a very strict code of honor and discipline, and this form of suicide was practiced and endorsed if it became impossible for a Samurai to uphold his honor. Rather than living with the shame of defeat at the hands of an enemy, Samurai warriors would commit suicide by cutting their stomachs open with a blade. I've never come across any other culture with such an aversion to shame, or with such a willingness to embrace death if it sustains the honor by which one lived one's life. Have a look at the movie clip below. Not the best clip, by any means, and there are plenty of others on YouTube that are more focused on the ceremonial aspects of Seppuku, but this is a pretty dramatic visualization of it. There's something really compelling about Japan's history, and the ancestors of the people here who made this nation such a formidable power. I revere any people who hold themselves to higher standards, even if it means taking a blade to their own belly...
Beacon Tokyo's Recent Work
In this next campaign, Beacon was asked to help promote Yubari City following the city's bankruptcy in 2007. They crafted a brilliant promotional campaign called "No money but love" which helped revitalize the city. This idea helped generate millions of dollars of revenue for a city struggling under old debts after their mining industry collapsed. Have a look, it's marketing dedicated to happily married people, and it was recognized as one of the best promotional campaigns in the world of 2009.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
DJ Kentaro
Gin No Sara Sushi
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
From Book Reporter:
NORWEGIAN WOOD is a simple story, simply told, with an emotion and quiet retrospection characteristic of Murakami's trademark style, especially in works like SOUTH OF THE BORDER, WEST OF THE SUN. First published in Japan in 1987, it is this novel that propelled him into the forefront of the literary scene and made him Japan's biggest-selling novelist. His characters are unpredictable and quirky as they share poignant insights into growing up in the late'60s, losing loved ones and accepting undeserved tragedies of youth.
Read more about Murakami's latest book, 1Q84, here at the Telegraph:
With novels read in more than 40 languages, Kyoto-born Haruki Murakami is probably the most popular of those authors whose names bookmakers list each year prior to the award of the latest Nobel literature prize. His best-known work, Norwegian Wood (1987), which traces the love life of a Japanese student in the late Sixties, won him such fame in his home country that he fled to Europe and the United States in search of anonymity.
Red Eye
I wanted to sleep today, but I had work to do, things to finish before the conference starts tomorrow, and countless e-mails to send that I should've finished weeks ago. Sigh. No rest for the wicked. Met up with old friends and briefly wandered through the lovely sculptured garden tucked away behind the hotel. Still the anxiety looms. This is going to be a marathon work week, and the scope of it could wreak havoc on me if I wasn't prepared. I'm probably not prepared, to tell the truth. But that's never stopped me before! The beautiful thing about having your back up against a wall is that you have no choice but to deliver. Sometimes getting rid of the inner dialogue does wonders for your work ethic....
I'll leave you with my first impression of Japan. This was next to the toilet in my bathroom, the Toto Washlet. You've got to hand it to people who've used their ingenious tech-savvy minds to design heated crappers with rotating bidet nozzles that clean off your nether regions with carefully targeted streams of water. I wonder how many engineers it took to craft this marvel of modern technology...