.,, Mug's Alehouse “Split Thy Brooklyn Skull” Barleywine Festival. Brew Dog Tokyo - The most dangerous brew of the day at 18.2% ABV. This past Sunday I had the pleasure of my first ever meet up with some of the gang from Brew York (Lee ... .,, Canadian Music Fest launched on Wednesday night with the opening night party at The Mod Club, featuring a special reunion performance by '80's new wave rockers Platinum Blonde. Far more than a night of nostalgia, ... had a blast (and only $5!) NOW writes the latest chapter in the city's East vs. West rivalry Sorry? You're comparing Toronto to Tokyo in a favourable way? I lived in Tokyo for three years. If you've even been there, I don't think you got... down up ... .,, My Canadian Music Fest kicked off with The Bonfire Ball at Lee's Palace. And who better to sit around the bonfire with than Bahamas, Zeus, and Jason Collett? The first and only Toronto stop on The Bonfire Ball Tour was an amazing night, ... NOW writes the latest chapter in the city's East vs. West rivalry Sorry? You're comparing Toronto to Tokyo in a favourable way? I lived in Tokyo for three years. If you've even been there, I don't think you got... down up ... .,, ... incorporates elements of folk, rock, blues and jazz, will perform on May 1 at Arabaki Rock Fest, a large outdoor music festival held in the city of Sendai. They will also play a smaller gig at a venue in Tokyo the following week. ... .,, October 19th, 2009 'Babel' director Inarritu heads Tokyo fest juryTOKYO — "Babel" director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is back in Japan, a nation he says has long fascinated him — this time, as head of the jury of the Tokyo ... .,, Japan's leading one-location music event, Fuji Rock Festival, has announced some of the main headliners for its 14th edition, to be held July 30 to Aug. 1. .,, The first lineup announcement for the 2010 Fuji Rock Festival has been announced and it features Air, Massive Attack, Muse, and more.

Design Festa at Tokyo Harajuku

January 26, 2010 · Posted in Japan News · Comment

Design Festa Gallery will be holding Creative Live! from Jan. 23-29. The event will feature art, music, workshops and live graffiti shows both inside and out. Design Festa Gallery, hidden in a back alley of Tokyo’s Harajuku district, has become a mecca for aspiring young artists in Japan. The building itself is an old apartment complex renovated to provide exhibition spaces. The gallery provides affordable spaces ranging from a 1 1/2-sq. meter-bathroom to a larger tatami room. Artist applications are still being accepted.
Creative Live! will be held from 11 a.m. till 8 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (03) 3479-1433 or visit the Web site at

Tags: <Design Fiesta, January, japan event>

AKB48 Group come Abroad

January 9, 2010 · Posted in AKB48 · Comment

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that the site Yasushi Akimoto, producer and songwriter of the group AKB48 idol Japanese woman, is a spinoff entertaining offers for a group of seven television stations and production companies in six countries. Six countries, including Thailand, Singapore, China, and Italy.

According to the website, Akimoto believe that “the era of Western copying done. Now we export Japanese culture.” Seven companies want to license the rights to localize AKB48 concepts and formats in their respective countries. In particular, spin-offs proposed would each have their own theater (similar to the AKB48 been in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku shopping), 48 members and a name that ends with “48,” imitating the high school uniform costumes, and songs written by Akimoto .
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Tokyo Metropolis Overview and Map

December 15, 2009 · Posted in Japan Travel · Comment

Tokyo Metropolis, Japan: Overview and Maps

Tokyo (東京, Tōkyō), officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to), is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people. The population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million. The prefecture is the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, the world’s most populous metropolitan area with 35 million people and the world’s largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$1.191 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2005.

Tokyo was described by Saskia Sassen as one of the three “command centers” for the world economy, along with London and New York City. This city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC’s 2008 inventory and ranked fourth among global cities by Foreign Policy’s 2008 Global Cities Index. In 2009 Tokyo was named the world’s most expensive city for expatriate employees, according to the mercer Human Resource Consulting and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys and named the third Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by international lifestyle magazine Monocle.

Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Tokyo Metropolis, Japan: Map

Map of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan

Tokyo Metropolis, Japan: Google Map

Tags: <Tokyo Map, Tokyo Metropolis>

Love Exposure Review

December 1, 2009 · Posted in Japan News · Comment

Bottom Line: a dizzying farce of sex and perversion of religion – Japanese style.

TOKYO – Embarks son of a priest on the path of sin and photography panty motivated by compulsion in religion “Love Exposure.” Each type is put through the blender in the pot-pourri of references to Japanese pop culture and half-baked ideas of guilt Christian brainwashing institutional transvestism, voyeurism, sex and violence. Improbable twists, but joyous to the duration of the marathon (3 hours, 57 minutes) by fly like a roller-coaster ride.

Since its first edition in Tokyo FILMEX poet became director Shion Sono hit jackpot festival, pinning several awards. Although its length is an obstacle to market projections, long exposure DVD is assured.

Sono, whose portfolio grab-bag ( “Strange Circus”, “Noriko’s Dining Table”, “Exte”) is alternately kitschy, pseudo-intellectual and often sublime, these traits carried to extremes in “Love” obtaining instant cult status. Although self-indulgent, his strange reason is powered by the distributors who never misses a step, while treading the line between parody and pathos.
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Tokyo fest Markets Open

October 26, 2009 · Posted in Japan News · Comment

Japantopten.com , TOKYO Japan — If movie industry buyers and sellers are tired of the non-stop caravan of film sales events, they scarcely showed it as the Tokyo festival’s three-day market got underway Tuesday, less than a week after Pusan’s Asian Film Market wrapped.

Held on the 40th floor of the colossal Mori Tower in Tokyo’s colorful Roppongi district, the TIFFCOM corridors were busy, but not bursting. Many of the buyers and sellers were the same as had been spotted in Pusan.

If any deals were signed, they were being kept under wraps. The first day of the market is usually quiet on the signature front and Wednesday should show whether buyers are actually closing deals or are still just window shopping. Read more

Tags: <Tokyo Fest>