SHIBAURA HOUSE x Hello Sandwich

SHIBAURA HOUSE x Hello Sandwich

Thursday, 14 July 2011

SHIBAURA HOUSE is one of the latest and the most exciting architecture you can find in Tokyo today. Opened earlier this month, SHIBAURA HOUSE was designed by Sejima Kazuyo of SANAA (it's not a work by SANAA, a little confusing I think) for a printing company as their new office / community space to share with the people in the local area of Shibaura (Tamachi). I was only able to be on the ground floor which apparently is going to be a cafe, but you can see what it looks like in this amazing illustration by Jody Wong here.

The more exciting thing is that my lovely friend Hello Sandwich is having a regular craft workshop in this building!!! I went to her second workshop there to make my own notebooks! It was so much fun the 2 hours went by far too quickly. You should definitely go to her workshop if you are ever in Tokyo, do check out Hello Sandwich blog for future workshop information!

Speaking of Hello Sandwich, she's actually been seen everywhere in Tokyo these days, at the nidi gallery for a group exhibition (with more cute artists mogu-chan and gracie), and at the TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR -the biggest zine fair in Asia- coming up this long weekend. Exciting!!

SHIBAURA HOUSE
3-15-4 Shibaura Minato-ku Tokyo (google map)
5 mins from Tamachi Sta on JR Yamanote / Keihin Tohoku Line

Comments: 8

Kawashima Kotori

Kawashima Kotori

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

All above photos are by Kotori Kawashima
This adorable girl called Mirai-chan was on the cover of BRUTUS December issue last year and every time I saw her face at the book stores or on the posters at train stations she made me smile, really big. These were taken by a Japanese photographer Kotori Kawashima (such a cute name!) and I just couldn't help posting about him (I thought it was "she" but was actually "he"!) and the sweet Mirai-chan after seeing her cuteness again on Sokokashiko which is one of the loveliest blogs I recently came across!

Oh and, hello March!

Comments: 22

MOT with a little one.

MOT with a little one.

Thursday, 14 October 2010

These are from late August (late late post) when my niece Ako was visiting during her school holidays. One day we went to the MOT (museum of contemporary art tokyo) and had a wonderful time. They were having 2 exhibitions which kids can really enjoy, one was "kodomo no niwa" (garden of children) where everyone can enjoy physical art experience, and the other one "Karigurashi no Arrietty & Yohei Taneda Fusing Fantasy With Reality" which exhibited a life-sized set based on Ghibli's film Arrietty. I'm not a big fan of Ghibli works or animations but no it was quite interesting and amusing.

Ako was staying with my mum while she was in Tokyo like always, but after this MOT fun day she decided to spend the night at our apartment. This was the very first time she had a sleeping over at our place, she had always said she couldn't sleep without her dad or grandma so that was a real big step for her and aunty was so pleased :)

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Comments: 17

3331 Arts Chiyoda & The Tokyo Art Book Fair 2010

3331 Arts Chiyoda & The Tokyo Art Book Fair 2010

Friday, 30 July 2010

The Tokyo Art Book Fair started today and I went to the opening last night as I was lucky enough to have lovely Ebony of Hello Sandwich inviting me :) It was huge and I was really impressed with the quality of the zines all the creators were exhibiting at the fair, of course including the new Hello Sandwich Scrap Book Zine and now too-famous-to-mention Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide! Having booths alongside Ebo-chan, I also met cute mogu-chan and lovely Anna Glesson from Australia who had the prettiest pale blue dress on that suited her perfectly.

The venue 3331 Arts Chiyoda (seen in above images borrowed from their website) was also awesome! Renovated from an old junior high school it provides cool art spaces that host many exhibitions and create many art scenes. I loved how it has a big open space at the front of the building (even with a green grass that you can go and sit on, which is (believe me) rare in Tokyo), especially being in the middle of the busy office area of Kanda.

The Tokyo Art Book Fair will be held for the next 3 days, so if you are free in Tokyo I'd recommend you get there and have fun!! And also do visit Hello Sandwich blog to see the photos from last night which Ebony took ;)

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Comments: 4

Yachimun Pottery Village.

Yachimun Pottery Village.

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Everyone asks me if I went for a swim at the lovely Okinawan beach and when I say I didn't they all seem either disappointed or startled. I guess most people who holiday in Okinawa would go there for beaches and scuba diving. Well not me. It wasn't hot enough anyway.

If I get asked what I enjoyed most in Okinawa, it definitely would have to be "potteries" and yes when I say that people look at me like "what is she talking about?" but that's alright I understand. (Or rather it's them who don't understand, I think.)

OK, so Yachimun Pottery Village (Yachimun no Sato) is "the" place I highly recommend to go to if you are ever in Okinawa. ("Yachimun" means "pottery" -yakimono- in Okinawan dialect apparently!) It's located in Yomitan in the central Okinawa main island, and is a lovely little village where many local artisans gathered along and have their own atelier/galleries in and around. The above photos are one of the kilns from Yachimun no Sato (it's huge!) which various artisans share and is fired once every two months. The red tiled roofs are typically seen in Okinawa, the contrast between these red tiled roofs and the green in the background were really nice, it was so calming.

I found this article about Yachimun no Sato written in English, so if you are interested you can learn more about it.

Comments: 10

minä perhonen x torafu @ CLASKA

minä perhonen x torafu @ CLASKA

Monday, 18 January 2010

All images are from CLASKA.

Over the weekend, I went to the exhibition of a collaborative furniture project by mina perhonen and wonderful torafu architects at my very favourite shop/gallery in Tokyo -DO in Claska. Some very interesting new furniture pieces were exhibited including prototypes, and also there were some really lovely cushions and tablewares for sale. I could not resist that hasami-yaki ceramic (from Nagasaki) grey coffee cup & saucer seen in the top picture! (I'm seriously considering for going back for more.) It came in a pretty grey box too :) This exhibition will be going till the end of January, so if you will be in Tokyo check it out. You can also buy these wonderful items at CLASKA's online shop (Japanese).

Also, now the mina perhonen exhibition "The future from the past" is held at the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum until the end of May, so hopefully I will get the chance to go see it!

And for all mina lovers, do check out this and this (wonderful magazines full of mina perhonen!).

New posts here too ;)

Comments: 14

Makoto Kagoshima Exhibition @ biotope

Makoto Kagoshima Exhibition @ biotope

Friday, 6 November 2009

All images are from biotope.

I went to an exhibition of a Japanese ceramic artist Makoto Kagoshima held at a lovely little shop called biotope in Gakugeidaigaku. I first saw his plates at aaA of yu (she has a great collection!) and later at ii-ne-kore. I instantly fell in love with his works and I did get to go to a little exhibition at the spiral but there weren't so many left there though I got a little plate for myself :)

At biotope today, I was literally surrounded by all his works from beautiful plates, bowls-big and small, coffee cups, vases, cute little objects and paintings! (you can see what it was like here) It was marvelous and I got really excited!!!! I liked many of them and didn't know which one I should get so I ended up not getting anything at all. The ones I really liked were too expensive for me anyway (30,000yen+). But I might go back soon as the exhibition will be going till Sunday, hmmmm.
You can buy them online here too, though am not sure they'd ship internationally.

Well, hope you will have a great weekend!!

biotope
5-14-1 Shimouma Setagaya-ku Tokyo 154-0002
Open: 14:00-19:00 Weekdays / 12:00-19:00 Sat&Sun&holidays / Closed on Wednesdays.
*biotope has moved to aoyama
　

Comments: 14

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art

Sunday, 23 August 2009

原美術館。
Hara Museum in Shinagawa is one of my favourite museums in the world. It's not one of the major museums in Tokyo, it's small but tasteful and is like a hidden treasure box, or that's how I think of it. This Bauhaus-inspired architecture was designed in 1938 by Jin Watanabe who was one of the leading architects in the Showa period. It was originally a residence of Mr Hara, a businessman and art collector, and was turned into a private Museum in 1979 by his grandson.

Hara Museum showcases the latest developments in contemporary art and design including architecture, music and dance.

It has a really charming cafe overlooking a courtyard, which makes me love this museum more! Unfortunately like most Japanese museums no photographs are allowed inside the building so the top three photos are mine taken from outside and the bottom two are from their website.

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
4-7-25 Kitashinagawa Shinagawa-ku Tokyo (google map)
5 mins by taxi or 15 mins on foot from JR Shinagawa Station Takanawa Exit.

Comments: 9