An underground station in central Osaka was converted into a temporary izakaya for four days.

Located in the business district of the city, Keihan Nakanoshima Station is a terminus that connects to the main Keihan run running between Osaka and Kyoto. Starting June 22nd, one of the station’s platforms transformed into a four-day space for drinking and eating.

Nakanoshima Station Platform Tavern, as the event is literally called, is held on Platform 3 of the station, offering a relaxing place for workers to enjoy a quick bite and drink on their way home in the evening.

Not just the platform, train carriages themselves have also been turned into a place to eat and drink. The choice of train — a model that originally went into service in 1964 — was deliberately nostalgic.

However, unlike almost all izakaya in Japan, the event is completely non-smoking since it is located inside a train station.

Entry costs ¥1,000, which then gives you a set of ¥100 food and drink tickets (more tickets can be purchased). Children receive free entry. On June 22nd, in the first hour after it opened at 5pm there were already 500 customers. There are around 250 seats available on the platform and inside the carriages, so customers may have to wait to get in during crowded periods. Though only open in the evening on weekdays, the final day on Saturday will start at 2pm.

The event has been organized by Keihan to celebrate eight years since the opening of the Nakanoshima Line, which extended the previous terminus at Kyobashi to Nakanoshima further to the west of Osaka. However, the station is not being used by as many passengers as expected and Keihan hopes to boost its popularity with this event.

Keihan also previously organized a “sake train” in past May, offering a chartered ride between stations in Kyoto for passengers to enjoy local sake.

Though the Nakanoshima event is particularly ambitious, Japan’s train station platforms sometimes have unusual amenities and services in addition to the standard food kiosk and vending machines. For example, the Donbei cup noodle restaurant at Shibuya Station has been popular with passengers needing a quick bite since it opened in 2010. UNIQLO also opened a pop-up shop on the platforms of the empty Toyoko Shibuya Station in 2013.

Images via Traffic News.

Monocle has declared Tokyo the world’s “most liveable city” for the second year running.

The magazine says:

This city of 13 million nurtures a balance of hi-tech efficiency and traditional neighbourhood values — and it’s a combination that wins the Japanese capital the top spot for a second year running. Our film focuses on its nocturnal delights, from sunset sports to the public-transport system, restaurants to late-night shopping.

Monocle highlights the punctual transport, safety and convenience as well as the night life of the city where shops are open late and there is always such a choice of places to eat and drink. The magazine also notes the popularity of sports and running in Tokyo after work hours.

Though this is a welcome change from all those misleading “guides” that frequently declare Tokyo to be one of the most expensive cities in the world, based on false criteria of American-sized homes in the city center of Tokyo, Monocle’s standards are also problematic.

The magazine has long been obsessed with Tokyo. Content about Japan regularly features in issues (there is a “Tokyo bureau” since 2007) and it has even produced its own guidebook to the city in its own inimitable style.

Monocle once had a pop-up shop, in Francfranc in Aoyama, before it eventually opened an antenna cafe in Yurakucho and then a shop in Tomigaya, which perhaps best encapsulates the Monocle-reading demographic. The store is housed in the same building as the Tokyo offices for Winkreative, the creative agency responsible for Monocle.

This is Monocle reporting on Isetan, “shopping as spectacle”.

But whose Tokyo is all this? It seems to be pulled from a hipster wet dream revolving around third-wave coffee shops in Nakameguro and apartments in Yoyogi-Uehara. It is a world inhabited by singletons under 40 with jobs in the creative industries, rather than regular families or people who work long hours.

This video showcasing the city as the world’s most liveable is revealing in that it shows almost entirely only young people. Where are the families? Is Monocle aware how hard and expensive it is to get a place for a toddler in a nursery in Tokyo? And what about how rare it can be for non-smokers to find somewhere to eat and drink? Instead we are treated only to alluring shots of Commune 246 or charming back streets. We see taxis gently taking people home, and evening trains hardly full. We doubt the folks at Winkreative ride the JR Yamanote Line during the morning rush hour. That would make for very different footage.

We love Tokyo, but there needs to be some realism to lording the city. We fear that Monocle is pushing a fantasy of Tokyo for single men in their thirties.

The upcoming election on July 10th for the House of Councillors will be the first time that 18- and 19-year-olds will be able to vote in Japan.

This means there are 2.4 million new youth votes up for grabs, but do the teenagers even know about the election and will they vote even if they do?

Both public organizations and the political parties are campaigning hard to encourage the newly enfranchised to contribute to the election, whose turnout is predicted to be low.

Election commissions on the national and local level are trying to disseminate information and excite teenagers about the poll.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which organizes elections in Japan, hired actress Suzu Hirose to front their campaign publicizing the election. Sadly the politicians the teenagers are voting for don’t look as nice as Hirose, though this is certainly one way to get their attention.

Sometimes, though, the attempts have taken a curious approach.

As we previously reported, Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched TOHYO-to, featuring a truly bizarre video and website that seemed to liken the election to a psychedelic experience.

Other governments were more subdued. Nara City has a short anime by the up-and-coming Ryo Inoue where a character called Naranara educates three just-turned 18-year-old women about the need to vote (Inoue also voices all the characters). The anime then morphs into a surreal song in Inoue’s inimitable style.

Another Kansai city, Ikoma, has created a two-page manga with its mascot, Takemaru-kun, which was sent to new voters in the district. The manga was written by a first-year college student.

The political parties have also tried some new tactics.

Japanese Communist Party has created JCP Magazine, which is obviously aimed at young people and bears the hallmarks of the student group SEALDs, with whom the JCP has been cooperating.

Finally, the newly inaugurated Democratic Party (formed out of the merger of two opposition parties) seems to have taken a leaf out of Tokyo’s book with their campaign website, Minshin18. Apparently the way to woo young voters is to reduce everything to a comic book words like “Wow”, “Yeah” and “Japaaaaaaan”. If only politics really was a manga. Oh, wait — sometimes it is!

This is one of the videos the party made featuring two teenagers who are fronting the campaign.

The way to young voters’ hearts is seemingly to pair middle-aged lawmakers with attractive female models at events in Harajuku called “Democratic Party High School”. Stick “high school” in the title and you are going to get youngsters attending in droves, right? The jury’s still out until July 10th.

After previous successes such as Infinity of Flowers with Gucci and Night Wonder Aquarium, teamLab has now teamed up with online retailer DMM and Fuji TV to create a new major summer attraction in Tokyo Bay.

“DMM.Planets art by teamLab” has a somewhat Japanese-English title and opens at a venue at Odaiba Dream World on July 16th. Running until August 31st, the immersive event brings together previous teamLab installations and also a new piece, “Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers”, which features 10 million digital flowers inside a 21 x 10.8-meter dome.

The makers describe the new installation:

A seasonal year of flowers bloom in this ever changing universe of flowers that spreads out into infinity in the dome art installation space.

Viewers can use their smartphones to select butterflies and release them into the flower universe.

Neither a pre-recorded animation nor on loop, the work is rendered in real time by a computer program. The interaction between the viewer and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork. Flowers are born, they grow, bud, bloom, and in time, the petals fall, and the flowers wither and die. The cycle of birth and death continues for perpetuity. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.

Other installations include “Wander through the Crystal Universe”, in which particles of light are digitally controlled and change depending on how the viewer interacts with the installation through their phone.

Tickets to the event cost ¥2,000 for a one-day pass.

Along with the Art Aquarium series, these kinds of events that combine art, spectacle and selfie-friendly scenes are proving massively popular in Japan. Sega Toys recently jumped on the band wagon with the Art Aquarium Prisrium, a compact version of the Art Aquarium exhibits for home consumption.

TeamLab describes itself as a group of “ultra-technologists” aspiring to “expand art”. The collective is also taking part in Kenpoku Art 2016 in Ibaraki Prefecture this autumn, which is meant to be the largest art festival in Japan. Outside Japan, its installations have been seen in California, Ohio, London, Australia, Bangkok and more.

Although it is best known for online shopping, DMM has all kinds of other creative side projects that make it a suitable partner for producing the teamLab event. Dmm.make, one of DMM’s endeavors, is at the heart of Tokyo’s current maker culture and fab lab boom.

Last year we reported on a stunning series of concept mobility vehicles and musical instruments by Yamaha.

Now Yamaha is back with more, though this time it is just their motoring arm.

The two concept vehicles, 05GEN and 06GEN, are themed around connecting people and the environment through mobility.

The bold-looking 05GEN is a single-seater mobility concept that you ride like a tall tricycle, albeit one that “wraps” around you. While some may question the sturdiness of the vehicle, the eye-catching features include electric motor assist technology, leaning as you take corners, a roof that folds down neatly, and snazzy tires.

The four-wheel 06GEN is a multi-seater leisure vehicle with a Japanese vibe. All the family can ride together in this boat-inspired, round car, which also comes with a wheelchair that can be loaded onto the spacious, wooden deck.

Unfortunately the new vehicles are not on display in Tokyo. But if you are really keen you should head to Ehime Prefecture’s Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari, in Omishima, where they are exhibited from July 4th until June 6th next year.

Though visitors cannot actually test-drive them, the genteel vibe of the vehicles should fit in perfectly with the museum’s island setting.

We have been following recent developments in the Tokyo book store world with interest.

From gimmicks like Book and Bed Tokyo — a bookstore-themed hotel — and the actual opportunities to stay overnight at Junkudo, a real book shop in Tokyo, to the revamp of the Muji store in Yurakucho with spirals of bookshelves, and the silent disco “book bar” Mori no Tosho Shitsu, it is cool to be a bookworm these days.

It started with such hipster favorites like Shibuya Publishing & Booksellers, near Tomigaya, and B&B (Books and Beer), an event space with a highly curated selection of books that opened in Shimokitazawa a few years ago (part of the growing gentrification of the area). In addition, Tsutaya has reinvented itself from the Japanese version of Blockbuster for the new century to being a sophisticated bookstore with chic ventures in Roppongi, Daikanyama and Shonan.

The latest example is Book Lab Tokyo, which opened on June 25th in Tokyo. Featuring 10,000 books with a particular focus on cooking, design, architecture and business books, it also has a coffee stand that serves drip brew coffee during the day and craft beer at night. The “lab” is open from 8am to midnight. In other words, the third-wave coffee and craft beer trends in Tokyo have dovetailed with the high-concept bookstore movement.

Like Mori no Tosho Shitsu, Book Lab Tokyo was partly crowdfunded. It is produced by the start-up Labit, which is led by a 25-year-old.

Book and Bed Tokyo in Ikebukuro is also so popular now that it has its own pajamas. When you stay over the “bookstore hotel”, you can rent these snazzy PJs. They were put on sale earlier in June but sold out in 15 minutes!

Kota Hatachi of BuzzFeed News Japan has investigated a bizarre and unsettling case where Tokyo police seemed to link Airbnb with foreign terrorism.

Shibuya police put up an illustrated poster showing a gallery of mixed and swarthy faces around the message: “In order to protect against terrorism and protect the Olympics, we need your information. We are especially collecting information about detached houses engaged in minpaku.”

While there is no direct reference to the non-Japanese faces, the implication is that foreigners staying at private residences (minpaku) may be planning a terrorist attack on Tokyo during the Olympic Games in 2020. The police want citizens to proffer information if they believe that something suspicious is happening at a house.

BuzzFeed News attempted to speak to the Shibuya police station. Turned away when they went to the station directly, they were given the PR office’s phone number. The journalist was then told that questions were only accepted by fax. Dutifully sending in a fax, a response came back two days later explaining that the “foreign faces” were chosen to show how Airbnb-style services were expanding, and the police wanted “foreign tourists also to feel safe during their visit”.

It is not known to what extent the poster was distributed or how it was used, though the online storm created by the Buzzfeed News article may mean police will be reluctant to employ a similar campaign in the future.

Although the recent killings of Japanese citizens in the Middle East and in Bangladesh has attracted headlines, there has been as yet no recent cases of terrorism in Japan carried out by foreign nationals with the exception of an attempted bombing of Yasukuni Shrine in 2015. In fact, the threat of domestic-grown terrorist attacks, such as the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, is arguably far more significant and dangerous.

The police poster seems part of the growing backlash against minpaku by the hotel industry and the authorities. Minpaku is a private residence that is rented out, typically as short-term accommodation for tourists. This is most obviously represented by Airbnb, which has been surging in Japan since it launched locally in 2014. Police agencies have clamped down on certain illegal minpaku as hoteliers call for minpaku operators to be registered as business entities. Local citizens have also complained about the side effects of minpaku, such as trash being put out on the wrong days of the week.

The government is torn between embracing the minpaku revolution or protecting its lobbyists in the hotel industry. It wants to attract 20 million tourists annually in the run-up to the 2020 Olympic Games, but there aren’t enough hotels. In April, it relaxed the Inns and Hotels Law to make it easier for individuals to operate private homes legally as lodgings, though some municipalities — including wards in Tokyo — still have their own rules that restrict what constitutes a legal minpaku, such as having a front desk.

This article by Adriana Mazza first appeared on Tokyo Cheapo.

New Toyosu Fish Market | Photo ©Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market

You’ve probably heard by now that the iconic Tsukiji Fish Market will cease operations later this year, and reopen as the Toyosu Fish Market. Here are the top tidbits regarding the relocation of this historic and cultural landmark.

When one market closes, another opens only slightly farther east… you know that old saying.

The Tsukiji Market is slated to close it doors on November 2nd, 2016, which means time is running out for those keen on seeing the live tuna auction and experiencing the market in it’s historic state. It’s unclear whether the auction will be open to visitors at the new site, so make your way to Tsukiji while you still can. Check out the Tokyo Cheapo guide for opening hours, closures and what to expect.

The new Toyosu Market is set to open on November 7th, 2016 on a bigger and better lot in Tokyo’s Koto ward — about 2 miles (3.4 km) east of the market’s current location.

Relocation costs a lot of clams. (Ha… clams… fish market… you get it?)

The expected cost of transplanting the market from Tsukiji to Toyosu is ¥392.6 billion (approx. $3.76 billion USD).

Allocation breakdown

Construction: ¥99 billion/$948 million USD (Fun fact: the new market will be fitted with solar panels and a green rooftop.)

Soil contamination clean-up measures: ¥58.6 billion/$561 million USD

Infrastructure (including road planning, maintenance and a highway overpass): 37 billion yen/$354 million USD

Land costs: ¥198 billion/$1.9 billion USD

Wait, go back — what’s that about soil contamination?!

The Toyosu site was formerly owned by Tokyo Gas Co., and after a survey conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, it’s been confirmed that the soil is heavily contaminated. According to the official Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market site, Tokyo Gas Co. has agreed to shell out ¥78 billion ($747 million USD) for clean-up efforts. There’s been much concern — especially from the side of business operators — about food safety at the relocation site.

What will happen to Tsukiji Market?

The Tsukiji Market is closing for a few reasons: its facilities are old and the current layout inefficient—which the government says is hurting the market’s “image”, in addition to causing health and food safety concerns. Another big reason (and most likely the main reason) is that the Tsukiji Market is currently sitting on prime real estate. There’s word that the site will operate as a temporary bus terminal during the 2020 Olympics, and then be redeveloped into a sports stadium and retail shops. More on that at Japan Property Central. Keep in mind, though, that no official redevelopment plans have been confirmed, but we’ll keep you posted once more information is released.

Read more and see a map on Tokyo Cheapo

This week, a major Studio Ghibli retrospective exhibition opens in Roppongi Hills, covering all of the studio’s 22 anime feature films.

The Ghibli Expo runs July 7th to September 11th, and includes sketches, previously unseen materials, posters, and even a recreation of what inside Studio Ghibli looks like.

There’s nothing “trendy” about the exhibition per se, but the event also includes a special pop-up cafe with a Ghibli-themed menu.

As we have been reporting, these tie-up cafes are now a major thing in Tokyo. A recent example was the Mamoru Hosoda anime cafe in Shibuya, while others have included Sesame Street, Miffy, Rilakkuma and Sailor Moon.

One of the highlights from the cafe menu is the “black burger” (¥1,380), whose color is meant to represent the Susuwatari “soot sprites” featured in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

Perhaps more conventionally appetizing is the Laputa Bread (¥1,080), which is toast, egg and meatball soup. Naturally, it’s inspired by a moment from Castle in the Sky Laputa.

There is also this Green Tea Umbrella Shaved Ice for ¥750, which references the umbrella in the famous bus stop scene from My Neighbor Totoro.

Among the other desserts, there is also a parfait for ¥1,280, themed around sea, land, sky and the heavens — all of which feature heavily in the various Ghibli anime films.

To visit the cafe, a ticket to the exhibition is required. Admission costs ¥1,800 for adults.

Earlier this year, we wrote about fashion guru Hiroshi Fujiwara’s new project, The Park-In Ginza, a unique retail concept space located in the parking lot underneath the soon-to-be demolished Sony Building in Ginza.

Not satisfied with its bold use of space and geography, The Park-In Ginza is also branching out into the art world with an exhibition of in-demand photographer Mika Ninagawa’s work.

The first art event to be hosted by the space, “Light of” is at The Park-In Ginza from July 22nd to August 16th. It is themed around festivals and fireworks, which are iconic images of the Japanese summer.

In addition to photographs, visitors can also purchase special t-shirts, iPhone cases, tote bags, and more. The first zine created by the artist will also be on display.

Ninagawa’s signature use of floral motifs and vibrant color makes her a good choice for transforming spaces, as she did for Shiseido with a public bathhouse in February.

The iconic Sony Building will be torn down in March 2017 and make way for a temporary park, after which a new tower will rise in 2022. The merciless march of urban development in Tokyo continues, though at least these kinds of events and pop-ups make it more tolerable.

Last week we reported on the growing bookstore boom in Tokyo that has seen Book and Bed, a bookshop-hotel, become such a hit that its customized pajamas sell out in minutes.

Book and Bed Tokyo opened in Ikebukuro in November last year, riding on a book-themed accommodation trend started by the bookstore chain Junkudo in 2014.

It has proved a success, including with overseas tourists. Now comes news that Book and Bed is to open a new branch in Kyoto, another literary city. Like with the Ikebukuro branch, guests will sleep among the tomes on bunks built into specially adapted bookshelves.

Details are slim at the time of writing but it is announced that Book and Bed Kyoto opens this autumn. Once again it will be designed by Suppose Design Office (Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida) and with art direction by Soda design. We assume that the book selections will be handled as before by Shibuya Publishing & Booksellers.

Films have a habit of attracting strange marketing stunts, though this is quite an incongruous one indeed.

Godzilla and whisky?

Yes, Japan is the land of Godzilla and also the land of great whisky, as the overseas acclaim for Suntory can attest.

To commemorate the release of the new Japanese Godzilla movie on July 25th, two new Scotch whiskies are being launched by liquor store Shinanoya.

Shin Godzilla (New Godzilla) and Godzilla boast a 6- and 24-year age respectively, as well as the dubious honor of being “exclusively chosen by Shinanoya for Godzilla” — as if the kaiju wanted a drink in the first place. They go on sale from August 5th at Shinanoya in Shinjuku, priced ¥13,800 and ¥22,800. Shin Godzilla is a single malt Talisker whisky while the blended malt, older Godzilla is advertised as a Hector Mcbeth beverage.

A launch ceremony is being held at Speyside, Jiyugaoka, on July 17th. We wonder if the big beast will be there in person?

Directed by Hideaki Anno, Godzilla Resurgence stars Satomi Ishihara, Yutaka Takenouchi and Hiroki Hasegawa, and is the first domestically produced Godzilla film since 2004. The franchise was rebooted by the successful American movie in 2014. The new release has spawned several interesting items of merchandise so far, such as this Godzilla money box.

Godzilla is also set to burst out of Shibuya Parco before the department store closes later this year, as well as smash into Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Who says movie marketing needs to be subtle?

To celebrate the 100 years since the Dada art movement launched in Europe, a series of commemorative events is happening around Tokyo this summer.

Dada, or Dadaism, was an anti-art movement started in 1916 by Tristan Tzara and his peers, spreading across Europe in an attempt to celebrate anarchic and new forms of art such as collage and montage, nonsense, readymades and more.

Though Dada was a European movement, its influence on Japan has been relatively significant, perhaps most obviously in the eponymous alien adversary in the Ultraman franchise. The first major avant-garde art movement in Japan, MAVO, also developed in the 1920s partly out of Dada and Futurism.

The events in the Dada 100 Festival involve a wide range of venues and institutions, including Spiral in Aoyama, Waseda University, and Goethe-Institut Tokyo.

It is natural that Tokyo, which from 1923 onward had its own highly inventive Dada movement, MAVO, will be on the map of world capitals celebrating the legacy and influence of Dadaism. Tokyo will mark this anniversary in the spirit of Dada: open to all creative minds and with the goal of encouraging their thoughts to change direction. The Dadaists were the first to incorporate chance into their artistic creations, which parallels how the Dada festival came together — through spontaneous connections and accidental encounters. Multiple art institutions have taken the gamble to propose unconventional events that will challenge the audience’s preconceptions.

The Roppongi music and art space SuperDeluxe is hosting the “centerpiece” of the festival: a series of Cabaret Voltaire events this week, named after the Zurich nightclub where Dada was founded. “Art enthusiasts will have the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of the birthplace of Dadaism in a uniquely transformed space with groundbreaking performances of dance, music and poetry.”

Other highlights include at Spiral (Wacoal Art Center), where there is a series of exhibits from August 4th to August 28th inspired by the anarchic energy of the avant-garde spirit of the original movement.

At the offbeat art space The Container, an exhibition by the Swiss artist Nadja Solari runs from July 18th to October 3rd that references Dadaist Sound Poetry.

Nadja Solari’s exhibition … is a spatial mixed-media installation, constructing a connection between the contemporary digital-age bot-generated spam emails and Sound Poetry. Inspired by the subject lines of such emails, which are often a comical neologism that tries to outsmart the spam filtering programmes to avoid interception, is akin to Sound Poetry, and used as the backbone of this exhibition. During this process these subject lines and emails defunct semantic meaning and create a new language, random and chaotic, reminiscent of the Dadaists’ writings — the generated poetry of our current digital and virtual realities. The result is similar to early 20th century poetry that many Dadaists generated through manual techniques, such as Automatism and chance, currently, replaced by digitally automated systems.

The exhibition at The Container is a loose conglomerate of everyday objects, each with a different kind of circuit/stream/flow, or a repeated mechanism, to raise issues relating to the boundaries between the private and public. The objects are adorned with over-sized heart-shaped gingerbread biscuits, bearing bot-generated spam messages lifted from actual spam emails. The iconography is deeply influenced by advertising, consumerism, slogans, and catchphrases we habitually encounter in our everyday lives, with a dose of associations taken from fairytales’ symbolism and allegory.

Asakusa, a small art space in east Tokyo, will engage with Dada in a more socially conscious way through an exhibition called “Radical Democracy” featuring the work of two artists.

Using materials such as tinfoil, Xerox copies, adhesive tape, and cardboard, Thomas Hirschhorn gives form to cultural critique and composes questions about consumerism, media spectacle, aesthetic value and moral responsibility…. Marked by sensations of unease and discomfort, Santiago Sierra’s work captures body politics exhumed by the conditions of market capitalism.

The exhibition is organized with help from Sanya Labor Welfare Hall Action Committee.

The overall events continue until the end of September, when a selection of screenings at Goethe Institut Tokyo will close the festival.

The timing of the festival is also somewhat apt. Following the recent victory of Shinzo Abe’s LDP in the House of Councillors election last year, cementing the regime of the conservative government possibly set on changing the Constitution, many disillusioned liberals and art fans in Japan will surely welcome a dose of anarchy in Tokyo.

A muscular male “performance team” will bring their brawny charms to Tokyo for the first time this summer. ALLOUT will open a special “muscles cafe” in a venue on Omotesando on July 30th. All 230 tickets quickly sold out, so ALLOUT added an extra date on August 27th.

At Muscle Cafe Tokyo, women can try various “original omotenashi” services such as being picked up “like a princess” or even the kabe-don treatment, where a strapping man will plant his hand on the wall behind you to trap you in a kiss-me-now position.

Tickets cost ¥4,500 or ¥6,500 for a VIP seat. Diners get a free drink plus some tickets to use for the “omotenashi” options, each of which carries a different fee.

In Japan, the men have hostess clubs, girls’ bars, maid cafes, and even now local branches of Hooters. What about the girls? Sure, there have been host clubs and butler cafes for a while, but these kinds of “muscular” services and events for women are now a growing trend in Tokyo.

Earlier this year we reported about the Macho Craft Beer Bar, neatly dovetailing the craft beer boom with a “hunky pub” concept.

Later this month, Tokyo’s first “naked restaurant”, The Amrita, is also set to open, featuring scantily clad male hosts. It has drawn ire for having age and weight restrictions, but promises to be such a hit that the organizers are already planning three new branches in Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya.

The Macho Bus Tour was also held earlier this year, offering women passengers a ride with sinewy chaps on board.

We also previously spotted the Ikemeso Danshi “hunks”, who go around Japanese offices helping stressed office ladies cry and relieve their work stress.

Going back further, there is also the Macho Cafe, which is kind of like Hooters in reverse. It was so successful it generated a spin-off meat restaurant.

A new photography exhibition showcases sexual diversity in Japan.

“Out in Japan: 1,000 Portraits” opened at Spiral in Minami-Aoyama on July 12th, featuring portraits taken by Leslie Kee, a Singaporean photographer with a major presence in Japan (and who was once arrested for exhibiting nude photos of men). People who posed for Kee include politicians, teachers, celebrities, artists, and more.

Since it launched in 2015 with a series of portraits of cast members from the musical Rent, the project has been crowdfunded but also sponsored by a range of corporations and brands such as Shiseido and GAP. Kee travelled all over Japan and has held nine shoots so far.

The exhibition is part of an overall project to collect 10,000 portraits of LGBT in Japan by the year 2020.

Out in Japan is a project aimed at shining the spotlight on sexual minorities in Japan — with various acclaimed photographers taking portraits of LGBT — identified individuals from all walks of life, with the goal of showcasing 10,000 portraits in the next five years.

The growing public awareness of LGBT in Japan has been boosted by the success of the annual Tokyo Pride event as well as high-profile couples, and the decision of Shibuya, Setagaya and other local governments to offer de facto official recognition of same-sex partnerships from 2015.

That being said, there is no discussion on the national government level about LGBT rights, let alone same-sex marriage. While the recent shocking events in Orlando are surely never going to happen in Japan, that is not to say that LGBT do not face discrimination and ignorance in their lives. Transgender and gay people are essentially confined to a subculture, which infiltrates the mainstream in terms of the presence of cross-dressing in many walks of life — but is still rarely addressed head-on.

“Out in Japan: 1,000 Portraits” runs until July 18th. Admission is free.

Mercedes-Benz has opened a virtual showroom in central Tokyo. Potential car-buyers visiting the new space inside Daikanyama’s T-Site, an upmarket bookstore by Tsutaya, do not get to experience the “new car” smell typical of an automobile showroom. Instead, they use virtual reality headsets to explore the interiors and exteriors of car models.

The lounge-style space is located adjacent to the snazzy bookstore area, since Mercedes-Benz is hoping to entice hip visitors to T-Site who might not otherwise take an interest in owning a car in central Tokyo. While it may offer a glimpse into how we may buy cars in the near future, this isn’t a fully VR showroom just yet. It is staffed with Mercedes-Benz employees and, if you want to test-drive a car, there are also demonstration vehicles in the parking lot.

In the face of declining domestic sales across the industry, luxury cars with deeper pockets than ordinary automotive manufacturers have pursued novels ways to market their products to consumers in Tokyo. This includes opening third spaces like Intersect by Lexus in Aoyama or Mercedes-Benz Connection in Roppongi. These sites have facilities to eat and drink as well as for hosting music and other events that often have no direct connection to the brands’ fleet of automobiles. Mercedes-Benz, which also sponsors Art Fair Tokyo, opened a branded space in Haneda Airport last year. Audi had a similar venue, Audi Forum Tokyo, though it shut down in February after 10 years.

The choice of T-Site is also not so surprising, since it was conceived as more than just a bookstore but a hub for different lifestyle experiences. In addition, bookstores in Japan are increasingly more than just places to flog books to readers. They are also hotels, event spaces, galleries, and more.

This summer, Tokyo is going mad for ninja (again).

“The Ninja: Who Were They?” is an exhibition at Miraikan, a science museum in Tokyo, until October 10th.

While ninjas might seem a better suited to a history museum, the innovative show lets children (and older visitors) practice their skills as assassins through various physical and digital exhibits. Ever wanted to imitate the famous “nanba-aruki” walk? Learn about it from a scientific perspective and see how it reduces exhaustion. Somewhat like getting a tutoring session at the Boy Scouts, visitors test their senses and acquire techniques in navigation.

Needless to say, there are lots of exhibits of ninja weapons, tools and clothes. You can even try your hand at throwing a (non-lethal) shuriken or walking silently across a wooden floor.

The Miraikan website also proudly notes that “all visitors who attend this exhibition will receive the Ninja Certificate issued by the Japan Ninja Council”.

As Japan experiences an unprecedented tourism boom and looks to boost this even more for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it is shamelessly exploiting these tropes.

The ninja was once a dark and rather unpleasant historical figure, but has since become mythologized and romanticized today, or even integrated into pop culture through countless representations in movies and animation. The clickbait belies the true history of ninja, who were assassins without the honor associated with the samurai class. But who cares about reality when your movie takes home the box-office bacon or your museum brings in tourist yen? There is even a “ninja temple” in Kanazawa with absolutely no connection to genuine ninja history except that the architectural features have “stealth” defenses.

Aichi Prefecture recently hired a squad of professional “ninja ambassadors” to attract tourists to the region. The recruits include a foreigner, 29-year-old American Chris O’Neill who has impressive acrobatic skills, though we worry if his appearance might have made him stand out too much to have been a real ninja back in the day.

Places like Iga in Mie and Koga in Shiga prefectures have benefitted from the ninja boom over the past years. These areas claim credit for creating the original schools of ninjutsu, or the art of stealth. Cue museums and other tourist traps aplenty.

Clearly interest from overseas is insatiable. Earlier this month and unrelated to the Miraikan exhibition, The Guardian featured an article about Masaaki Hatsumi, who is 84 years old and “one of Japan’s few living ninja”.

A Where’s Wally? Wally Run will take place in October, bringing together thousands of Wally (aka Waldo) cosplayers.

Applications are currently being accepted for the two “runs” in Osaka on October 2nd and Aichi on October 15th.

Similar to events held in other countries, the idea is to bring together as many people as possible dressed up in Wally’s signature outfit of red and white striped clothes, matching hat, and black-rimmed glasses.

Where’s Wally? (known as Where’s Waldo? in North America) is popular in Japan, where the series is known as Waarii o sagase!. Being the home of cosplay, Japanese people are also very keen to dress up as characters like Wally/Waldo.

Previous Wally costume parades have been held in Ginza last year. Another Wally Run in Tokyo in May attracted 6,000 people. Wally/Waldo costumes are also popular for cosplayer revellers to wear in and around central Tokyo during Halloween and Christmas, when it has now become customary for young people to dress up and hang out in areas like Shibuya. Wally cosplay is especially popular for girls, though whether they like to dress as Wally’s friends Wenda or Wilma, or Wally himself is not always clear.

Although organizers are hoping to attract 6,000 people to Osaka and 4,000 to the Aichi event, they will be spread over several “runs”. Entry costs up to ¥7,500 for adults, though there are discounts for younger participants and early applicants, and you are provided with a costume.

The Where’s Wally? Wally Run events will also have real-life versions of the famous items you search for in the books, such as Waldo’s camera and magnifying glass.

Is this the most original way to stay cool this year? Quite possibly.

New from Thanko, Japan’s at times strangest creator of chindogu (everyday gadgets), the Electric Armpit Clip-on Cooler Fan is your new way to ward off perspiration.

It was released a few weeks ago but has been receiving quite a lot of online buzz and overseas media interest. And we can see why. Like all chindogu, it initially appears somewhat wacky or useless, yet cannot be discarded as simply a joke. It genuinely works and, if you don’t mind how you look while using it, you will be very grateful to the breeze it provides.

All you need to do is clip the unit to the sleeve of a short-sleeve shirt and turn it on. The cooling wind will be blown directly into your armpit, which should help to combat those sweat marks that are an inevitable feature of the humid Japanese summer.

Get two if you want to keep both armpits cool, and the unit can also be clipped to the front of a shirt if you want to cool down your chest area.

Now comes our burning question: has everyone seen these being used in the wild?

The Nintendo game character Kirby now has its own pop-up cafe and official store.

Kirby Café and store opens August to September in Osaka, with a concurrent store opening in Nagoya’s Parco department store. The cafe is also set to open in Tokyo at Tokyo Skytree Solamachi at an unannounced later date.

Kirby is something of a retro character whose video game incarnations are the stuff of the 1990s, but he continues to inspire new games and toys. This year a new Nintendo 3DS game was released, selling 300,000 copies. In 2017, Kirby also celebrates its 25th anniversary, so expect more tie-ups and releases.

Naturally, the Kirby Café has an exclusive Kirby-themed menu of food and drink, inspired by the Kirby game characters and items.

Not to mention branded merchandise like bags, badges, and cushions.

The explosion of these themed cafes has become of the big marketing trends of the past two or three years. Every month there seems to be a new pop-up dedicated to yet another franchise, attracting fans through a special menu and limited-edition merchandise.

From Puyopuyo!! Quest to Rilakkuma and Pokémon, it seems you are not a respectable franchise unless you have your own pop-up at least once.

This isn’t just homegrown franchises and brands like Sanrio, Sailor Moon, or Ghibli. We have also seen overseas character franchises such as Peanuts, Sesame Street, and Miffy get in on the act, too.