Since 1970 FREE Vol.41 No.15 Aug 20th–Sep 2nd, 2010 www.weekenderjapan.com Including Japan’s largest online classifieds Fuji Rock Music, Mud and Madness Summer Blockbusters Japan Inspired T-Shirts Dealing with Mental Health in Tokyo CONTENTS Volume 41 Number 15 Aug 20th–Sep 2nd, 2010 4 Up My Street 12 5-9 Arts & Entertainment 10-11 Tokyo Tables 12-13 Fashion 14-15 Business 16-19 Feature: Fuji Rock 20-21 Weekender Bulletin Board 16 22-23 Real Estate 24-27 Parties, People & Places 28-29 Families 30-31 Products 32-33 Healthy & Responsible Living 30 34 Back in the Day PUBLISHER Ray Pedersen CONTRIBUTORS Kevin Jungnitsch, Cecelia Martinez, EDITOR Kelly Wetherille Sam Griffen, Simon Lawson, Christopher Jones, DESIGNER R. Paul Seymour Deborah Im, Ian de Stains OBE, Pankaj Arora WEB DEVELOPER Ricardo Costa MEDIA MANAGER Tomas Castro EST. Corky Alexander and Susan Scully, 1970 MEDIA CONSULTANTS Mary Rudow, Pia von Waldau RESEARCHER Rene Angelo Pascua OFFICE Weekender Magazine, 5th floor, Regency Shinsaka Building, 8-5-8 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 Tel. 03-6846-5615 Fax: 03-6846-5616 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Owen Schaefer (Arts), Bill Hersey Email: [email protected] (Society), Stephen Parker (Products), Elisabeth Lambert (Health & Eco), Darrell Nelson (Sustainable Business) Cover photo by Kevin Jungnitsch Opinions expressed by Weekender contributors are not necessarily www.weekenderjapan.com those of the publisher. 3 WEEKENDER // Up My Street Maruyama-cho may not ring any bells with many Tokyoites, but this small Up My Street visits residential district has some unexpected surprises waiting for its visitors. Just a few blocks away from the bustling main street of entertainment center Dogenzaka lies this quiet area, which offers a good variety of Japanese and Western restaurants, making it a neighborhood that will melt into the hearts of passionate foodies. When dusk arrives, a small handful of bars and izakayas open to people wanting to get away from the crowds of Dogenzaka. by Kevin Jungnitsch Maruyama-cho is also home to one of Tokyo’s most popular nightclubs, Womb. And the best part? All of this is conveniently located only ten minutes on foot from Shibuya station. Osteria Baccano Tonkatsu Jyunya Womb 3-1 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku 22-16 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku 2-16 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku Tel: 03-3461-0515 Tel: 03-3461-5233 www.womb.co.jp Don’t be fooled by the ageing exterior—this If you’re a fan of Japan’s famed breaded pork For any clubber in Tokyo, a visit to what is restaurant offers top notch Italian cuisine. cutlet dish, Jyunya will satisfy your culinary arguably the city’s holy grail of clubs is a Baccano has a great atmosphere with an interior needs. Although it may not be a big chain like must. Close to Dogenzaka, Womb is famous that one would expect to find in the dining room Tonkatsu Wako or the much-hyped Maisen, it for hosting world-renowned DJs such as The of a Tuscan villa. The menu includes a wide definitely delivers in terms of the food. Think Chemical Brothers, John Digweed and Steve range of freshly prepared Italian dishes, from of a family-run restaurant with a simple but Aoki to play alongside local and resident antipasti to homemade pasta and pizzas. Why comfy interior that is very inviting after walking acts. On top of that is a stellar sound system not finish off your meal with your favorite Italian around in the searing sunshine. It may not be and light show above a massive dance floor dessert, such as gelato or tiramisu? Osteria as fancy as the big names, but it offers fresh, that is overlooked by three other floors. On Baccano also offers reasonable lunch menus crispy meat at decent prices. The lunch roast big nights the cover fee can be quite hefty, that are excellent value, although like many pork katsu set was certainly the most popular edging up toward ¥5,000, while on regular popular Tokyo establishments, it can get pretty order during my recent visit, with a stream of nights the charge is usually ¥3,500. If you’re packed from around noon. So if you plan to come hungry visitors demanding the tasty food. And unfamiliar with the club, check a map before in a group be sure to make a reservation or do a if you’re not a pork fan, the menu of course heading out, as it can be hard to find due to late lunch instead. offers other meats as well. its unassuming exterior. A ll What international ph o to s act would you like b y K to see perform in e v i n Japan and why? 1 & 2. Mie, a student, and Sofie, J 3 u n a model, both from Denmark: “We g n i t s would really like to see Lady Gaga. She’s c simply amazing and we love her!” h Word 3. Michael, a drummer from the US: “I would like to see Floating Points from the UK. They make on the great music that’s got a great mood to it, Street... and I also like their inventive style.” 1 & 2 For more write-ups on Tokyo neighborhoods, go to 4 WEEKENDER www.weekenderjapan.com/upmystreet // Arts & Entertainment Tokujin Yoshioka, Snow, 2010 Taro Shinoda, Reverberation, 2010 Takashi Kuribayashi, Seehund Hiroshima, 2004 The Elusive Nature of Nature by Owen Schaefer an enclosure. It seems alien; out of place. The second screen runs through placid images of the water reservoir that provides much of Tokyo’s drinking When the Mori Art Museum proposed to do a three-artist show that would water. And the third is a series of films taken on Tokyo’s canals and water- examine the contemporary Japanese perception of nature, I hoped it ways. No humans are seen, but the signs of our industry are everywhere. would be more than a feel-good environmentalism show. While the ‘eco’ The box of the installation seems a container for Tokyo’s entire environ- movement may have grown, it seems that nature itself is increasingly ment, strangely portable and physical. Shinoda’s work muddies the bor- being packaged into simplified boxes. ders of nature so much that you are led to question its very meaning. But pick any three artists and commission them to create new works, and It is Takashi Kuribayashi’s works that seem to best fulfill the promise of you’re going to get three different approaches. And while the approaches Sensing Nature. Kuribayashi also focuses on the borders between things, at Sensing Nature sometimes speak less to the perception of nature than but does not erase them quite as entirely as Shinoda. For me, it is Kurib- they do to the artists’ pet issues, the works highlight the fact that the ayashi that comes closest to a re-examination of nature and our place in it. nature of ‘nature’ is not so easy to pin down. In his forest work, viewers enter from underground; above is a landscape of washi paper with holes torn in different spots to allow the audience to Designer Tokujin Yoshiok’s main event for this show is Snow: a room, care- pop up and see the forest above them. The effect is that of seeing a familiar fully lit, containing several kilograms of feathers that are periodically scene from a place that even the environmentally minded tend to ignore. blown around to simulate the movement of snow. It’s a beautiful installa- Then a second work amplifies this notion, envisioning the continents as tion, and fascinating to watch as it moves from an almost blizzard-like fury we know them as only the tip of an earthen iceberg. Kuribayashi hints that to a gentle drifting. there is always more beneath the visible surface. At first, Yoshioka seems an obvious choice for Sensing Nature. Previous Sensing Nature is a refreshingly simple show, not overburdened with struc- works, such as his essentially unusable chairs grown from crystals, have ture. And what it reveals, perhaps even despite itself, is the problem with been studies of the complex relationship between human industry and setting out to establish a contemporary view of ‘nature’—for some, nature natural processes: an object caught between growth and manufacturing. is going to be a thing outside of the human; for others it is something we But really, I expected more from him for this show. Snow, while beauti- are inextricable from. No consensus is reached here, but the journey is ful, doesn’t say much about the human relationship to nature. Instead, it one worth taking. comes across as a clever imitation, and like much of Tokujin’s work seems to hold nature at arm’s length for contemplation. As a contrast, Taro Shinoda’s work, Reverberation, is refreshingly prag- Show: Sensing Nature: Rethinking the matic and very much a part of his ongoing efforts to point out connections Japanese Perception of Nature (to Nov 7) between the natural and urban, the local and universal. Gallery: Mori Art Museum (Roppongi station) Hours: (Tuesdays to 5pm) Reverberation is an enormous cube, three sides of which are lit by videos of 10am–10pm natural and urban scenes from around Tokyo. One screen shows images of Admission: ¥1,500 Tel: 03-5777-8600 buildings, interspersed with a shot of a tapir wandering back and forth in www.mori.art.museum // WEEKENDER 5 Arts & Entertainment Image courtesy of TGS2010 Image courtesy » Tokyo Happenings by Kevin Jungnitsch Photo courtesy of Kyodo courtesy Photo Simply Red Tokyo Game Show 2010 This iconic British soul band is coming to Tokyo on a farewell tour, This annual four-day expo and trade show opens its doors to the public meaning it will be the last time for fans to catch a live show in Japan.