Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Shintaro Ohata graces the cover of Giant Robot 65. The interview was conducted at Yukari Art who’s putting on another exhibition of his work. His paintings are comprised of great paint strokes, and he depicts Tokyo just as I’ve seen it and felt it many times. He actually captures one of the exact reasons why I love being there. I haven’t tried to spell it out, but his works might be one of the best explanations. I’d like to chill out on a rail overlooking the town with my cat. He mostly depicts females, so I guess I’ll never be a subject of his work. You probably thought this was a painting, but it’s actually a sculpture in front of a painting. ’2′ mixed media H91xW116.7xD35cm Ohata has multiple styles, from the sculptural painting, to the piece above which has elements of reality. He captures the best parts of the day in every painting. What is she feeling and thinking exactly? I can guess. I feel this too. Can you? (Tomorrow – acrylic on canvas 91×116.7cm) Then he has this style, which includes a slightly cartoonish character. The sunspots make this cool. (‘Stopover’acrylic on canvas 80.5×116.5cm) That’s myself and Shintaro Ohata.
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“Slowly, they have begun repairing the damage inflicted when the tsunami flooded the first floor to the ceiling.” Teruo and Katsuko Kano call the life they had before the March 11th tsunami a small one. They had friendly neighbors to whom they often said hello, and had the time and pride retired folks often have to clean their modest home and enjoy the beautiful countryside where they had lived in the Motoyoshi community of for 42 years. The disaster changed all that, but did not destroy the possibility that the Kanos can reclaim the lives they had before. For the past month, they have gone back to their home, which miraculously survived the tsunami, and have begun rebuilding and refurbishing it to make it habitable again. Building materials are scarce now, but they have time. Time enough to complete a big task to regain a “small life”. (MSNBC World Blog – Big Task, Small Life)
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Super Cool “Daylight Savings” in Tokyo “Under Japan’s corporate culture many workers feel obligated to work until it is dark outside—no matter what their starting time.” Last week we reported on the Japanese government’s “Super Cool Biz” business clothing campaign, which encourages office workers to dress in cooler business attire for summer instead of the traditional heavy suits and skirts which have become the symbols of salarypeople in Japan. This week, Tokyo’s city government is taking things a step further by establishing summer hours, under which some employees report for work an hour earlier to take advantage of cooler morning working conditions, and to save costs related to air conditioning. And, of course, these workers get to leave an hour earlier, effectively creating a sort of daylight savings time without actually changing the clocks. But establishing actual American-style daylight savings time is also under consideration, much as the Japanese have traditionally very much disliked the idea. (National Public Radio – Japan’s “Daylight Savings”) The Guardian UK report has some extra details on summer hours in Japan: 10,000 on Tokyo Summer Hours. Australians Consider Japanese Quiet on Trains “Vomiting salarymen on late night trains aside, Tokyo journeys are largely a silent experience.” Have you ever made or received a cell phone call while on a train in Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya? Bad foreigner, bad. In Japan this is considered bad etiquette, taboo even. It violates an unwritten Japanese social contract. Well, in some states and cities in Australia, government officials would like to write that Japanese contract down in ink. In Queensland, for example, there are already cell phone quiet zones at the front and the back of all trains. Officials in Sydney and in New South Wales are mulling over a similar implementation. Although there currently are no plans to impose fines for quiet zone violations, the zones on trains would ban not only cell phone conversations, but also playing music and interpersonal conversations above a certain acceptable volume. It seems like a very considerate and civilized move in a country known for boisterous and larger-than-life behavior. (CNNGo – Australian Quiet Zones)
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Pain Mobiles in Odaiba “Proud itasha owners from all over Japan rode up to proudly display their wheeled wonders.” In case you were curious, those cars you may have seen on the internet with the amazing anime, manga and/or video game character paint jobs are called itasha, which literally means ‘pain mobile’. Typically the cars are decorated with a combination of actual paint, and stickers. And the typical itasha theme centers on cute female characters. The fad started back in the ‘80s, with only stickers and plush toys for decoration, but has evolved into the visually wonderful results you’ll see at the link, which features a big gallery of photos from the recent ItaG Fest in Odaiba, Tokyo. (Crunchyroll – Odaiba Itasha Fest) (For the odd origin of the term itasha, see Wikipedia.) Dazzling Gallery of Hand-colored Japan Images “Farsari’s photographic work was highly regarded, particularly his hand-colored portraits and landscapes, which he sold mostly to foreign residents and visitors.” In the 19th century, strange fate brought an Italian photographer to Yokohama, by way of the American Civil War. And now, over a century later, it is our good fortune Adolfo Farsari made his way to Japan. At the link, you will see many wonderful images which give us a visual insight into what life was like during the period in the late 1800s when Japan was just beginning to open itself to the world. Farsari shot his work in black and white, of course, but then made his stunning pictures all the more eye-catching by hand coloring them. We can only speculate that, try as he might, Farsari’s beautiful hand colors pale in comparison to the colors he actually saw in the images he photographed. (My Modern Metropolis – Farsari Colors Japan) For Malaysian Man, Apology is Such Tweet Sorrow “Whilst this is a fairly harmless outcome to the case for Fadzil, it does raise more questions as to the legal implications of what we say on public forums.” Fahmi Fadzil’s heart was probably in the right place last January when he used Twitter to criticize BluInc Media on behalf of a pregnant friend he thought the publishing company was treating badly. It still isn’t completely clear if the Malaysian social activist was entirely right, or entirely wrong. But a court in Malaysia found sufficient cause to rule that Fadzil’s comments on Twitter about BluInc were defamatory, and that he must take some kind of action to apologize. So, as part of an out-of-court settlement, Fadzil has agreed to post the following tweet 100 times: “I’ve DEFAMED Blu Inc Media & Female Magazine. My tweets on their HR Policies are untrue. I retract those words & hereby apologize.” Not a bad outcome for the guy, really, considering he could have had to pay a hefty fine, or been sued by the publishing company. (The Next Web – Malaysian Tweets 100 Apologies) Forget Disneyland, North Korea is the (Second) Happiest Place on Earth “North Koreans who are completely brainwashed, repeatedly...
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Coming Soon: The Smartest Town in the World “Imagine a city of the future, populated by wind-powered vehicles, with homes running on intelligent software that consume less power.” This is the plan for Fujisawa, Japan, a city about 31 miles to the west of Tokyo. A consortium of large Japanese companies, including Sumitomo Bank and Tokyo Gas, will build the Sustainable Smart Town (SST) on a vacant property where a Panasonic electronics factory used to stand. For the 3,000 residents who will live there, daily life will include electric cars, with charging stations throughout town, solar-powered homes, and a massive town-wide network to monitor energy consumption and reduce CO2 emissions in the area by 70% from 1990s levels. And the whole thing should be fully populated and operational by 2018. This looks to be a very exciting and relevant project. (SST Overview at Tokyo Times, DVice and CEPro) Happiness different for Americans, ethnic Asians “Not everyone sees positive emotions such as joviality and self-assurance as unequivocally good.” If you are of European descent, you may sometimes wonder why your Asian friends seem more restrained and taciturn in situations where you would jump for joy. Likewise, you Asian folks may find it silly and odd that your Caucasian buddies smile and get giggly seemingly at the drop of a hat. Well, according to studies done at the Universities of Washington and Wisconsin-Madison, people of European and of Asian descent are to some extent culturally programmed to show emotions like happiness in different ways. Research suggests that Asian-Americans and Asian-born Asians, in particular, are often unsure or suspicious of expressing happy emotions unless they can determine how doing so will benefit the group rather than themselves. Interesting stuff which, unfortunately, may or may not reinforce certain clichés white and Asian ethnic groups have about each other. (Time Healthland – Asian vs. European Happy) Magic “Money Liquid” in China “Posing as Americans or Frenchmen, they promised to invest their $4 million funds into the victims’ business and even vowed to marry some of their victims.” There are a lot of benefits to the herbs and remedies found in traditional Chinese medicine, even though modern science cannot yet explain how they all work. However, we’re pretty sure there is no sound scientific way to use a magic elixir to convert counterfeit American dollars into real ones. But that did not stop a group of con men, who recently were able to cheat more than 50 victims in China out of more than US $300,000 with promises that such a money-conversion potion existed and actually worked. It seems amazing that anyone in any country would fall for such a scam, but they did. And Chinese police have had a hard time catching all the con artists because some victims had sex with the scammers and became too embarrassed to report them to police. (China Global Times – Money Liquid Con) Hong Kong iPad2 Sales Scam “Eager buyers waiting outside a Fortress outlet in Hong...
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