Link tags: japan

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“Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” by Haruki Murakami | The New Yorker

It’s just about an old monkey who speaks human language, who scrubs guests’ backs in the hot springs in a tiny town in Gunma Prefecture, who enjoys cold beer, falls in love with human women, and steals their names.

A sequel to 2006’s A Shinagawa Monkey, translated by Philip Gabriel.

The Voyage of Captain DaCosta – A Digital Narrative

What a beautiful and fascinating website!

This is a layered interactive narrative that traces the life of Captain Antonio DaCosta, a Black Portuguese sailor who visited Japan in 1597. From his early life as a slave in Lisbon to his voyage to Japan, this site weaves together his personal diary and drawings, along with artwork and historical notes from 1500-1700, the Age of Exploration.

Koya Bound — Eight Days on Japan’s Kumano Kodo

Speaking of Koya Bound, here’s the web-based counterpart to the physical book.

To Make a Book, Walk on a Book — Craig Mod

The ability of the physical world — a floor, a wall — to act as a screen of near infinite resolution becomes more powerful the more time we spend heads-down in our handheld computers, screens the size of palms. In fact, it’s almost impossible to see the visual patterns — the inherent adjacencies — of a physical book unless you deconstruct it and splay it out on the floor.

Craig gives us a walkthrough—literally—of the process behind the beautiful Koya Bound book.

Deciding to make any book is an act of creative faith (and ego and hubris, but these aren’t all exclusionary). But before Dan and I sold any copies of Koya Bound, we walked atop the pages that would become the book, not really knowing if there existed an audience for the book.

YouTube - neurowear vol.1 “necomimi” (脳波で動く猫耳)

Animatronic rabbit ears powered by brain waves …in Japan. Of course.

9 hours (9h) Designer Capsule Hotel Review - Kyoto, Japan

A fascinating look at the experience design of the 9h brand of capsule hotel. I like the consistent use of colour, light and iconography.

Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza - Boing Boing

The game Yakuza 3 as reviewed by 3 Yakuza.

Mojibakeru kanji-animal transformers ::: Pink Tentacle

Kanji characters that transform into the animal they represent.

Phonetikana - the johnson banks thought for the week

An interesting experiment in making Katakana self-describing.

“Misunderstanding Markup” 日本語訳

Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.

Garfield: Lost in Translation

Garfield, translated into Japanese and then translated back into English.

GT!Blog » Why Japan didn’t create the iPod

Could it be that the inability of 8-bit computers to render Kanji had a direct influence on the direction of Japan's electronic product design and economy?

Web Directions: East 08

I'm going to Japan in November to talk about Ajax. I am very excited about this.

Star Wars: Collecting | Noriyoshi Ohrai: Star Wars Illustrator

Strikingly different illustrations of the Star Wars pantheon from Japan.