Isetan Shinjuku is now hosting its “Living with ART” event on the 5th floor of the main building until September 29, 2020.

Living with ART brings together collections of artistic products by designers from both inside and outside Japan, from unique items to add accent to your daily life to more daily-use bits and bobs.

STUDIO THE BLUE BOY comes to Isetan Shinjuku for the first time

<STUDIO THE BLUE BOY> Wavy Gradient rug – Orange × Yellow | ¥289,000 (Before Tax)

Keisuke Shoda is a Tokyo-based designer and art director whose name is known both in Japan and overseas. He creates products for his art studio, STUDIO THE BLUE BOY, all of which are sold exclusively online from rugs to interior products and more. Exhibiting at Isetan Shinjuku for the first time, STUDIO THE BLUE BOY’s lineup will include their popular rugs, fragrances, bags, and more.

<STUDIO THE BLUE BOY> Zen Garden Collection (Left: Charcoal Grey, Right: Matcha Deep Green) | ¥329,000 Each (Before Tax)

Visitors will also be able to order the Charcoal Grey and Matcha Deep green rugs early from the studio’s new Zen Garden Collection line.

Valeria Vasi showcases their new range in Japan for the first time

<Valeria Vasi> Vases | ¥12,000-¥75,000 Each (Before Tax)

Barcelona-based designer Valeria Vasi is showcasing her iconic and eye-catching handcrafted vases. Her designs are simple, but have their own beauty and quality, giving room for a single flower to express its own beauty. She will be selling around 40 items.

<Valeria Vasi> Vases | ¥34,000-¥45,000 (Before Tax)

As well as her ceramic vases, which have a beautiful glossy finish, Valeria Vasi is also selling her newest glass-type vases in Japan for the first time.

Young artists’ pictures turned into blankets

<Slowdown Studio> Blanket | ¥32,000 (Before Tax)

Slowdown Studio’s products are available in 16 countries worldwide. It is a home product brand that makes items using pictures and illustrations created by young artists around the world. At the event, they will be selling 10 different kinds of blankets, including three from their new TOKYO COLLECTION together with Japanese artists.

<Slowdown Studio> Blanket | ¥32,000 (Before Tax)

The blankets can even be used as wall art.

This is just a snippet of what will be on show at Living with ART. If you’re in Tokyo this month, don’t miss out on the event.

A new spaghetti carbonara restaurant by the name of Nama Carbonara opened in Harajuku, Tokyo on September 17, 2020.

The restaurant opened in the same building as Harajuku’s popular fresh cream shop MILK and bubble tea shop Mot Tram. The restaurant makes its own fresh flat pasta everyday and uses fresh, rich cream sourced from Hokkaido.

The current menu lineup consists of six dishes, from classic carbonara to Japanese twists. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Classic Carbonara | ¥790

Walleye Pollack Roe Japanese Carbonara | ¥1,090

Freshly Grated Cheese & Bacon Carbonara | ¥1,090

Seafood, Avocado & Basil Carbonara | ¥1,190

Discover a brand new world of carbonara like never before at Nama Carbonara in Harajuku.

Tower Records Shibuya will host an exhibition dedicated to the ongoing manga series Tokyo Revengers from September 26 to October 18. The exhibition is being held to promote the release of the 19th volume which hits shelves in Japan on September 17.

Tokyo Revengers is a manga series written and illustrated by Ken Wakui. An anime adaptation is scheduled to broadcast in 2021.

The exhibition will feature a variety of works drawn by Ken Wakui for the series, both black and white as well as coloured illustrations, as well as panels of each character, and more. There will also be an exhibit for the upcoming live-action film.

Tokyo Revengers x TOWER RECORDS OSMO Stamps (22 Designs) | ¥909 Each (Before Tax)

Tokyo Revengers Monochrome Panels | ¥30,000 Each (Before Tax, Includes Shipping)

Fans can also get their hands on a range of exhibition-exclusive merchandise, and from October, the exhibition will sell some Tokyo Revengers x Tower Records collaborative merch. There’ll be some signed artwork for sale too.

Character Business Cards (11 Designs)

And for every ¥1,000 spent at the exhibit, fans will receive one of 11 possible character business cards.

Grand Nikko Tokyo Bay Maihama is a new hotel which opened on July 1 this year. Easily spotted by its pink exterior, the hotel offers Grand Nikko’s brand concept of guests releasing all of their sense to enjoy a relaxing and sophisticated time while providing a refreshing resort-like experience.

This Halloween, the hotel’s all-dining restaurant Le Jardin will serve up its “Happy Halloween Sweets Buffet” from October 10 to 16.

There will be 20 different desserts to pick from all in pastel colours, offering a different kind of Halloween vibe. Desserts are decorated with cute Halloween motifs like Jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, and pumpkins. The chefs will also be certain desserts in front of guests like pumpkin mont blanc, praline mille-fuille, and pavlova.

There will also be a savoury menu too like roast beef in onion sauce, seafood acqua pazza, bread, salad, soups, and more, as well as soft drinks and non-alcoholic cocktails.

The restaurant will be restricting the number of people allowed in the dining area at once to protect diners during the pandemic.

Hotel Gajoen Tokyo, a museum and hotel combination, is home to New American Grill “KANADE TERRACE,” the hotel’s restaurant popular for its food grilled in the open kitchen, its afternoon teas made with seasonal ingredients, and cocktail lineup.

This autumn, Hotel Gajoen Tokyo is serving up its new “Shine Muscat Parfait,” an richly-sweet and elegance-scented dessert made using Shine Muscat grapes.

Shine Muscat Parfait ¥2,800 | With Champagne ¥3,600 (Before Tax & Service Charge)

The parfait is layered with Kyoho grape and shampagne jelly, crémet d’Anjou which is made from fresh cheese, and maqui berry granola. It’s topped with blackcurrant sherbet and tuile.

teamLab Borderless is a world of artwork without boundaries, a museum without a map created by art collective teamLab. Over at their museum in Tokyo, MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: EPSON teamLab Borderless, they are exhibiting a range of autumn themed digital art in time for the changing seasons. Let’s take a closer look at what’s on show.

September Flowers

October Flowers

Proliferating Immense Life – A Whole Year per Year | teamLab, 2020, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Proliferating Immense Life – A Whole Year per Year looks at the life cycle of flowers. Throughout the year, with the passing of time, flowers bloom and change. They bud, grow, and blossom before their petals begin to wither and eventually fade away. The cycle of growth and decay repeats itself in perpetuity as the flowers propagate. When too many flowers grow, they scatter and fade all at once. When people touch them, the flower petals scatter and fall away

A variety of autumn flowers will be recreated in digital art, such as Blackberry Lily (September) and Red Spider Lily (October). Visitors who touch these digital flowers will see them wither and decay, and subsequently bloom new flowers in their place.

Rice Fields

Autumn Colours
Memory of Topography | teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This artwork installation depicts a rural mountain landscape of varying elevations. The scenery instills in the viewer a feeling of eternal permanence, however with the flow of real time the scenery is continuously changing. In the spring, the rice fields are still small and lush. In summer, they begin to mature, and in fall, they turn a golden color.

The colours of autumn will be depicted in its glorious combination of golds and reds for the exhibit.

Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke, Autumn Mountain | teamLab, 2016, Interactive Installation, Murano Glass, LED, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

When a person stands still close to a lamp at Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke, Autumn Mountain, it shines brightly and emits a colour that resonates out. The light becomes the starting point, and it spreads to the two nearest lamps. The light from the two nearest lamps transmits the same colour to other lamps, spreading out continuously. The light transmitted always resonates out as a bright light once, passing to close lamps, until all lamps have shone brightly once, and then returns to the first lamp.

For October, this exhibit will turn into Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke, Autumn Mountain.

Flowers Bloom in an Infinite Universe inside a Teacup | teamLab, 2016, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Make tea, and flowers bloom inside the teacup. If you pick up the teacup, the flowers scatter and spread outside of the cup. Flowers bloom infinitely as long as there is tea. The tea in the teacup becomes an infinite world in which the flowers continue to bloom. Drink in the infinitely expanding world.

The exhibition hall’s tea house “EN TEA HOUSE” will see a variety of autumnal flowers used including safflower, dianthus, and Chinese aster for September and cosmos, osmanthus, and chrysanthemum for October.

The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) introduces Japan’s distinctive culture to all areas of the world. The project started with MANGA＊ANIME＊GAMES from JAPAN which ran from June 24 – August 31, 2015. This was followed by the same exhibit held in Thailand and Myanmar. In 2018, as part of Japonismes 2018: les âmes en resonance, the NACT held the MANGA⇔TOKYO exhibition (November 29 – December 30, 2018) in Paris, France, which attracted over 30 thousand visitors. This time, the NACT will bring the renovated exhibition back to Japan.

Over 500 items are being displayed, including original drawings of manga and materials related to anime production, from a total of over 90 titles.

The largest ever MANGA exhibition in the country

The exhibition displays over 500 items such as original drawings of manga, production documents and visuals of anime and games, from the total of more than 90 titles of manga, anime, games and tokusatsu (SFX films) works that are closely related to Tokyo, in a 2000 m² exhibition space.

1/1000 Scale Giant Model of Tokyo and Visuals Installation

模型制作：株式会社ニシムラ精密地形模型／株式会社マーブリングファインアーツHD

A 1/1000 scale giant model of Tokyo, 17m wide and 22m long, along with visuals of anime, games and tokusatsu (SFX films) works staged in Tokyo, will allow spectators to experience the intertwined relations between “Tokyo” and “MANGA.”

Exhibits are displayed so that visitors can experience the integrated reality of “Tokyo,” with scenes of various stories and memories of characters merging into the real cityscapes.

Installation to Experience Reality merged with Characters

While manga, anime, games and tokusatsu (SFX films) in Japan have been influenced by the existing city, characters from those works appear in the sphere of reality, such as at stations, on trains and at convenience stores, altering the scenes and images of the city. It has become part of everyday life for those who live in Tokyo to live side by side with characters, which this exhibition will show through various installations.

Section 1: Cycles of Deconstruction and Reconstruction

EVANGELION:2.0 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE. ©khara

“AKIRA”
Based on the graphic novel “Akira” by Katsuhiro Otomo. First published by “Young Magazine”,Kodansha Ltd.
© 1988 MASH・ROOM/ AKIRA COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

Depiction of catastrophic damages to Tokyo, inflicted by unprecedented natural disasters or mysterious creatures, is almost routine in Japanese manga, anime, games and tokusatsu works. This section includes works with themes of  “destruction and reconstruction.”

Section 2: Life in Tokyo

The three sections Edo as Pre-Tokyo, From the Beginning of Modernization to the Post-modern City, and From the End of the Century to the Present represent different eras of Japanese history.The exhibit depicts Tokyo as a place where ordinary people live despite the surreal experience of city-wide destruction and reconstruction.

Edo As Pre-Tokyo

“Sakuran”　ANNO Moyoco　©Moyoco Anno / Cork

From the Beginning of Modernization to the Post-modern City

“Rurouni Kenshin” WATSUKI Nobuhiro　©Nobuhiro Watsuki / SHUEISHA

“CITY HUNTER” by HOJO Tsukasa　© 1985 by TSUKASA HOJO/NSP

From the End of the Century to the Present

“Solanin”　ASANO Inio　© Inio Asano / Shogakukan

“5 Centimeters Per Second”　© Makoto Shinkai / CoMix Wave Films

Section 3: Characters vs. the City

The Life-sized Unicorn Gundam statue in Odaiba.
Location: DiverCity Tokyo Plaza　© SOTSU, SUNRISE

The last section focuses on characters existing alongside real life, for example, in cities as mascots for promotions, in advertising and in tourism.

Explore the history between Tokyo and Japanese pop culture media at MANGA⇔TOKYO.

Following her firework-inspired summer promotion look for Shiseido Beauty Square, Japanese pop icon Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has returned to the beauty facility with an all-new Halloween look, first revealed on Friday.

Kyary is serving a dark romantic world in Harajuku this Halloween, with Gothic hair and makeup that delivers us spook fantasy mixed with a bewitching, fairy tail-like sweetness. The look was brought to life thanks to Shiseido’s top hair and makeup artist Tadashi Harada.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu became the ambassador for Shiseido Beauty Square when it opened back in June. The concept of the beauty facility is centred on having people discovering their beauty, having fun, sharing experiences, and learning the latest in the scene

The Harajuku branch of UK cosmetics retailer reopened after a revamp on Friday with its all-new ‘Slow Bath’ concept. The branch first opened to the people of Tokyo in November 2018.

Since opening, LUSH Harajuku has delivered a LUSH-esque bath product lineup experience, since Japan is known for being a nation of bath lovers. That is now being taken to the next level with the Slow Bath revamp which will stock a wide variety of items for self care and indulgence.

Throw away the needless and make way for mind and body reconnection

LUSH Harajuku is a place that helps you discover new ways to design your daily routine, with face masks to refresh your skin, products to care for your hair, scents for your well-deserved bath time, and more.

Well-being is also a big part of the brand, teaching you to be kind to yourself while you’re working everyday, and to look after your mind and body. LUSH Harajuku stocks not only bath bombs and bubble bars, but a selection of items to use while you’re in the bath too for some much-needed self care.

Naked items are environmentally friendly

About 60% of LUSH’s products are sold ‘naked’ without packaging in order to reduce on waste in the environment. This also lets the essential oils and natural smells of the products seep throughout and outside the doors of their stores, beckoning people with the pleasant fragrances.

LUSH’s “Lush Labs” app also has a function called “Lush Lens.” This lets customers scan any naked item which brings up information about that particular item such as what ingredients are used, as well as videos on how to use products and bath bombs fizzing.

If you’re ever in Harajuku, be sure to stop by LUSH.

Shibuya is set to welcome tourists to its all-new tourist information centre SHIBU HACHI BOX which will open on October 1, 2020.

Conveniently located outside of Shibuya Station next to Shibuya’s iconic Scramble Crossing and Hachiko statue, SHIBU HACHI BOX, managed by PLAY! DIVERSITY SHIBUYA, will act as the hub for tourist and sightseeing information on events, food, shopping, hotels, and more.

The centre will also house a PR space for its supporting partner NTT Docomo which will offer entertainment and video content related to the latest in technology and more.

SHIBU HACHI BOX will be ready waiting to welcome the people of the world to Shibuya as they step outside of the famous Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station.

Tokyu Food Show Edge and +Q Beauty inside Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble Square mixed-use skyscraper are now serving a succulent selection of autumn fruit desserts, incorporating autumn flavours like chestnuts, apples, and Japan’s famous Shine Muscat grapes.

Let’s take a look, and try not to drool too much on your keyboard.

MORI YOSHIDA PARIS

Mont Blanc | ¥918 (Tax Included)

A mont blanc with cream draped around like a helix. Inside you will find Crème Chantilly and chestnuts, while the base is baked in parcel.

apple & roses

Caramel Apple Rose Cake/Raspberry Rose Cake | ¥2,160 (Tax Included)

These rich butter and almond rose cakes come in two flavours: caramel apple with apples specially selected from Nagano Prefecture, and raspberry, which add a sweet and sour kick.

Péché Mignon

Feuilletée (Box of Two) | ¥756 (Tax Included)

Feuilletée pies filled with a chestnut paste which add a delightful sweetness. The box contains two base flavours: chestnut and chestnut chocolate.

c7h8n4o2

Fresh Fruit Tablet Shine Muscat | ¥2,592 (Tax Included)

Whole specially selected Shine Muscat grapes wrapped in chocolate and shaped into a tablet bar. The chocolate is a rich 70% Piura Quemazon from Pacari Chocolate which blends deliciously with the grape juice.

Atelier Anniversary

Whole Chestnut Pound Cakes (Set of 4) | ¥1,404 (Tax Included)

The dough is combined with chestnut paste and each mini pound cake contains a whole chestnut.

ANNA’S by Landtmann

Red Apple | ¥693 (Tax Included) *Eat-in price

This apple cake is filled with apple mousse, chocolate mousse, and chocolate sponge. The entire thing is coated in a red apple glaze, giving it a cute appearance.

SMALL WORLDS TOKYO, the world’s ‘biggest’ miniature theme park in Tokyo, opened its Halloween event on Thursday (September 10) which is set to run all the way up to Halloween Day.

Visitors will experience Halloween on a miniature scale this year at SMALL WORLDS TOKYO. Halloween Party 2020 is taking place in the Global Village Area where ghosts and monsters have taken to the tiny streets. You yourself can become part of that world too. Visitors who dress up in Halloween costumes and purchase the “Figure Program Plus Resident Rights” will have themselves scanned using a 3D scanner to create a miniature figure of themselves to put into the town.

There’s also an entry fee discount to ¥1,000 (tax included) for those who wear Halloween attire and visit after 5:00pm. The theme park is also holding a variety of Halloween themed workshops like making your own Jack-o’-lantern and more.

SMALL WORLDS TOKYO is taking all necessary precautions against the spread of COVID-19 so that people can experience Halloween like never before.

©SMALL WORLDS