Since 1970 FREE Vol.41 No.9 May 21st–June 3rd, 2010 www.weekenderjapan.com Including Japan’s largest online classifieds Haikyo: Abandoned Treasure Exploring Japan’s Lost Era Annual Outdoor Issue Fashion Inspired by the Great Outdoors Summer Programs for Kids Adventure Playgrounds in Tokyo Join us for PLAY, MUSIC & ART classes this summer! Music Our Special Summer Programs Start 6/14!! Art Play & Learn www.gymboree.jp CONTENTS Volume 41 Number 9 May 21st–June 3rd, 2010 4 Up My Street 14 5-7 Arts & Entertainment 8-9 Tokyo Tables 10-11 Fashion 12-13 Business 14-15 Promotion: Summer Programs for Kids 16-19 Feature: Haikyo: Abandoned Treasure 16 20-21 Weekender Bulletin Board 22-23 Real Estate 24-27 Parties, People & Places 28-29 Families 30-31 Products 30 32-33 Responsible Living 34 Back in the Day PUBLISHER Ray Pedersen CONTRIBUTORS Kevin Jungnitsch, Deborah Im, Elisabeth EDITOR Kelly Wetherille Lambert, Ian de Stains OBE, Dorothee Jahn, Luke Poliszcuk DESIGNER R. Paul Seymour WEB DEVELOPER Ricardo Costa EST. Corky Alexander and Susan Scully, 1970 MEDIA MANAGER Alex Brooke MEDIA CONSULTANTS Mary Rudow, Pia von Waldau, OFFICE Weekender Magazine, 5th floor, Regency Shinsaka Building, Damiano Cannarile, Maria Arteaga 8-5-8 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 RESEARCHERS Rene Angelo Pascua, Mike Samson Tel. 03-6846-5615 Fax: 03-6846-5616 DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Stephen Young Email: [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Owen Schaefer (Arts), Bill Hersey Cover photo by Michael John Grist (Society), Stephen Parker (Products), Danielle Rippingale (Eco), Darrell Nelson (Sustainable Business) Opinions expressed by Weekender contributors are not necessarily www.weekenderjapan.com those of the publisher. 3 WEEKENDER Up My Street Up My Street visits Look at Tokyo from a distance and you’ll see a concentration of the city’s highest skyscrapers standing tall amongst the metropolis’ sea of concrete and steel. This collection of high rise buildings makes up the business district of Nishi Shinjuku. Despite being known as a center of commerce, the area offers some attractions by Kevin Jungnitsch worthy of a visit. Beneath the towering structures is a countless selection of eateries and shopping outlets ranging from popular burger joints and major department stores to smaller neighborhood hangouts. Shinjuku Chuo Park Tokyo Metropolitan Chuo-Dori Government Building 2-8-1 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku Tel: 03-5321-1111 www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/TMG For those who feel slightly overwhelmed by These twin towers, home to the city’s This street features a large concentration the sea of skyscrapers and never-ending administration, provide one of the most of eateries that all serve up a quick meal at parade of restaurants and stores, there’s stunning views of the Tokyo skyline—free of decent prices. It’s no wonder, considering Shinjuku Chuo Park, located next to the charge. The existence of two separate decks the competition during weekdays to serve government building. Although the park may ensures little waiting time during peak hours. as many salarymen as possible during not be on par with some of Tokyo’s more Once on top, take in the breathtaking views of lunch hours. Most outlets consist of typical famous, larger areas of respite, the lush Tokyo, which make you realize how enormous yet satisfactory Japanese restaurants or greenery provides fresh air and calm away the city actually is. The decks also provide a common international fast-food outlets. from the hustle and bustle of the business clear view of the Tokyo Sky Tree, the tower One place that stands out in the crowd is district. During the week you’re bound to see under construction that is set to become Paris 4eme, a small bistro that offers great business people taking refuge in the park, Japan’s tallest structure. Be sure to bring your French cuisine without having to break perhaps enjoying a delicious bento as the camera to capture the spectacular sight. Tip: the bank. For fish lovers with a few free weather steadily improves. go early in the morning for a clearer view of minutes, there’s a standing sushi bar for a Mt. Fuji—the cooler air means there will be fast, fresh and cheap bite on the go. The less dust and smog to block your view. lunch menu starts at just ¥580. A ll p ho What’s your to s b favorite outdoor y K activity in Japan e v i 1. Jean-Pierre, a tourist and n and why? J u n amateur photographer from Canada: g n i t “I like to walk around Tokyo. Exploring s c the city allows me to discover new things.” h 1 3 Word 2. Beatriz, a housewife from Mexico: “I like to walk with my husband in the park on the and around the port of Yokohama.” Street... 3. Dan, a consultant from the US: “I like to go to the park and play a round of Frisbee.” 2 / For more write-ups on Tokyo neighborhoods, go to 4 WEEKENDER www.weekenderjapan.com and click on Lifestyle, then Up My Street :// Arts & Entertainment Future Fossils by Owen Schaefer The first thing you encounter on entering thePost Fossil exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight is a large sheet-metal cube that had been beaten with a sledgehammer into the rough shape of a chair. It’s a powerful image. While it would be uncomfortable—or impossible—to use, it is still clearly a chair, and it has been constructed through a combination of raw modern materials and prehistoric methods...had our prehistoric ancestors ever been inclined to make an armchair. As for design, well, it goes back to basics. It is design on the fly, the method and material choosing the form. Guest-directed by Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, Post Fossil, while riffing on the idea of bones and fossils within design and of design, also refers to a future post-fossil-fuel age. Edelkoort’s near-utopian vision of this future seeks to convince audiences of a movement toward the hand-made, the un-manufactured, and toward rough, easily understood materials. There are some challenging and interesting ideas here (with just a touch of silliness), and the show’s real success is in driving the As a result, there is little differentiation between what is simply quaint in viewer to consider the production of the objects we surround ourselves its prehistoric chic, and more conceptual works. There are any number of with, their impact, and to a certain extent, their necessity. stylish furniture pieces involving fur, leather and wood that seem to risk fueling a consumer desire for products that simply aren’t environmentally The show is a big one, involving some 71 artists and designers, and the viable. But Karin Frankenstein’s chair made partially of cow dung stands works included swing between those that serve as reminders of the as a (possibly unwitting) counter-argument—the material used smells origins of material, such as Julia Lohmann’s realistically cow-shaped more or less as one would expect, albeit faintly, and it isn’t likely to turn up leather sofas; works that mimic prehistoric production methods using at Ikea any time soon, despite how easily obtainable it is. Within the context ancient or modern materials, such as Nacho Carbonell’s recycled junk- of Post Fossil there are enough critical works mixed with the stylistic ones mail benches; and works that simply have a kind of prehistoric aesthetic— that these kinds of dialogues occur almost naturally. Atelier Van Lieshout’s enormous sculptural lamp seems a fitting example. One item that sold the show for me was a hideous yellow toaster that Post Fossil steers safely clear of tenuous-looking product placements that looked like it had been through a fire. Thomas Thwaites’s personal project have cluttered past shows, and the entire exhibition benefits from it. The was to build a toaster by hand—from the ground up. He took copper ore, various rooms are divided into loose thematic sections which allow for iron ore and other metals from mines and hillsides and learned how to genuinely refreshing transitions between objects that span the spectrum extract them using a microwave unit. He’d even hoped to make his own of art object to product. plastic, but was advised against it for the sake of safety, and recycled instead. The result is a twisted parody of a toaster, accompanied by a documentary video showing some of the work that Thwaite had to go through just to create something as simple (and as single-purposed) as a toaster. The work speaks on any number of levels about our disconnectedness from the things around us, and the folly of self- sufficiency. And above all, it is a serious lesson in connecting the objects we purchase with their origins. TOP RIGHT: HITOTZUKI Guus Van Leeuwen “Domestic Animals” Radiator 2008 (Photo: Renee van der Hulst) ABOVE: Marijn van der Poll “Do hit” Chair 1999 (Photo: Droog) Show: Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation (to June 27) Gallery: 21_21 Design Sight (Roppongi station) Hours: 11am–8pm (closed Tue) Admission: ¥1,000 Tel: 03-3475-2121 www.2121designsight.jp WEEKENDER 5 Arts & Entertainment Photo courtesy of the Cotton Club of the Cotton courtesy Photo » Tokyo Happenings by Kevin Jungnitsch © Uchu Taishi Star © Uchu Taishi Fuji Rock Festival Natalie Cole This annual rock festival boasts the honor of being Japan’s largest Look out jazz lovers, Natalie Cole is coming to Tokyo. The nine-time outdoor music event. Held at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata prefec- Grammy award winning singer from Los Angeles packs a lot of soul ture, the event attracts tens of thousands of music lovers every year.