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Tag / Japan

For Over 30 Years, a Tokyo Soba Chef Drew Everything He Ate

Sometimes, it’s the simple stories that stay with us the longest. Like that of Itsuo Kobayashi, a former Japanese soba chef born in 1962 who has recorded his meals in painstakingly detailed, hand-drawn food diaries of sorts for the past 32 years. In addition to recollections about taste, Kobayashi’s pen has accounted for every last…

The Beautiful, Weird World of Japan’s Answer to David Lynch

If home is where the heart is, House (1977) is where the mind unravels. The experimental film by director Nobuhiko Obayashi is a beautiful, Surrealist venture into the horror genre that’s slowly but surely getting its due credit in the Western world. Where to even begin with Mr. Obayasi? His finger-eating piano? Ghostly watermelons? He’s…

The Andy Warhol of Japan you’ve probably Never Heard of

Tadanori Yokoo. “Who?“, hoots back my (usually) reliable, ask-me-anything-about-art source. It’s not a name that rolls off the tongue for many as easily as Andy Warhol, but much like the late American pop artist, Tadanori Yokoo holds nothing short of a rock-star’s status in his homeland of Japan. He too began attracting a cult following…

The Secret Art of Marbling

It’s the DIY to rule them all: marbling. As in, those hypnotic patterns you find inside antique books, posh stationary, and packaging where it seems as if the whole of the colour spectrum has been syphoned through a kaleidoscope and poured onto a piece of paper. So what’s the story behind the painstaking craft? That…

Hungover at the Abandoned Strip Club in a Tiny Japanese Village

I opened my inbox today to find a note from my favourite urbex photographer over in Japan updating me on his latest find. You might recall his surreal visit to Japan’s rather inexplicable abandoned American Cowboy theme park, and this time, Shane Thoms has really outdone himself. Rotting away on a lonely road side in a…

Where has the Japanese Art of Synchronised Walking been all our Lives?

Just when you start to feel like a fairly competent human, something like Shuudan Koudou slides into your Instagram feed to prove you wrong. Literally translated as “collective action”, Shuudan Koudou is the Japanese sport – no, art form – of walking. That is, walking forwards and backwards. Walking sideways. Walking whilst lightly squatting. Walking…
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Sneaking into the Forbidden City with our Travel Heroine du Jour

“Why isn’t her face on a bank note yet?” is one of several slack-jawed questions you’ll ask yourself when reading about Alexandra David-Neel, the Franco-Belge éxploratrice whose life reads like an Oscar-winning film. She was an opera singer, and an anarchist; a student of philosophy, feminism and (rumoured) seductress of monks. And when she wasn’t meeting in…

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A Counterfeit Dreamland Lost

When I share a new photographer’s (or anyone’s) work on this blog, I guess the ultimate hope is that they might get in contact one day with the news that they just had a sold out show or scored a publishing deal for their own book. Well recently, that hope finally became a reality when…

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There’s a new way to access the really special stuff from Messy Nessy Chic …

Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration,  collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

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Take a Brain Break with Errol Le Cain’s Fantasy Illustrations

Errol Le Cain is the perfect example of the magic that happens when cultures collide. Growing up in Singapore, India, and London, the British illustrator started inventing his fantasy worlds as early as early as age 11, weaving in elements of Moorish symmetry, Indonesian shadow puppets, and Baroque fantasy. Above all, he took the art…

Tokyo Is Having Way More Fun Than Us at Fashion

In Tokyo, there are no rules when it comes to street fashion. Current trends have little or no influence and you certainly don’t have to work in the fashion industry to throw down some serious looks. I stumbled upon the Tokyo Fashion Tumblr today, which has been faithfully documenting Japanese street style since 2010. From Lolita…
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