Alice's Blog Posts Tagged 'japan' (14)

Tokyo, Japan-based photographer Shinichi Higashi takes long exposures to exciting new heights with his series Graffiti of Speed/Mirror Symmetry. While his colorful light trails seem incredibly futuristic set against Japan's modern architecture, it's the masterful merging of two identical images that makes this series so compelling.

While it's not…

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Back in 1995, the city of Kobe was hit with one of the most devastating earthquakes in Japan's history. Among the major cities, Kobe was the closest to the epicenter so it experienced the most damage both in terms of infrastructure and in lives lost. To pay tribute to the thousands who perished and to give hope to the surviving citizens, Kobe Luminarie, a light festival was put on that year, in…

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If you happen to be in Japan from now to March 31, 2013, make sure to check out one of Japan's most stunning displays of light called Winter Illuminations at Nabana no Sato, a botanical garden turned light theme park on the island of Nagashima in Kuwana. Opened just yesterday, it's been called one of…

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By golly, I think we've done it. We just found the cutest kitten in the world! Her name is Daisy and she lives in Japan. The blue-eyed ball of fur is only cuter because of her miniature size, which owner Ben Torode accentuates by capturing her peeking her head out of a mixing bowl or from under a hat. For some perspective, he even placed her next to a standard miso soup bowl, which has a 10 cm…

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Officially opened this past April, Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku is a shopping complex that has one of the most mind-bending entrances we've ever seen! Ride the escalator up (or down) and you'll be enveloped into a kaleidoscope of mirrors that's sure to throw you off balance. The mirrors don't just reflect all…

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Back in 2009, during Japan's biggest open-air art festival, called Echigo-Tsumari, artist Harumi Yukutake constructed a magical-looking house covered with thousands of round mirrors. After walking along a narrow path surrounded by grass on both sides, visitors would come upon this house that seemed to merge with its…

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It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since we've checked in on Hideaki Hamada and his two sweet sons, Haru and Mina. Just recently, a selection of Hamada's photos were part of a solo exhibition at the Sincewell…

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It's hard to believe that it's been over nine months since Japan's massive earthquake that not only triggered a devastating tsunami but also severely damaged the Fukushima power plant, which resulted in the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years. While…

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People often ask me how My Modern Met is different than all the other art, design and culture blogs out there. Yes, we're about creative inspiration but more than that, we're about making a deeper connection between the creator (artist, designer or photographer) and the viewer. The relationships we form are real. That's why you'll see us posting about the same person (and their work) as they… Continue

Take a trip with me today and let's visit the wonderful country of Japan. But let's not take the usual route, a plane ticket there is much too expensive. Instead, let's ask our photographer friends to give us their unique perspective. Let's ask them to show us how they see modern-day Japan.…

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About two years ago, boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre reopened the Best Western Miyako Inn in San Francisco as the anime-infused Hotel Tomo. Looking through their website this morning, the rooms really do look like the closest thing you'll get to experiencing Japan's pop-culture in an American hotel. With plasma screens showing anime and monster movies in the lobby, a…

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Perhaps the Japanese know something we don't! A 60-foot statue of famous cartoon robot Gigantor was recently built in the city of Kobe. Towering over Kobe's Wakamatsu Park, the statue weighs 50 tons, costs about $1.5 million to build and took about six weeks to erect. Just like the humongous…

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Oh those folk at Coca Cola like scaring the bejesus out of us! Check out this new "experience" advertisement for their Georgia Max Coffee brand. They redesigned the toilets of a number of key ski resorts in Japan. The toilet areas were fully wrapped on all sides, so that the person squatting would have a ski jumper’s view when they were sitting on the loo. After you fell over because of a bad case of vertigo, you'd look around to see a toilet paper… Continue

If you want to make your way over to Japan this winter, you'll be able to witness one of the craziest light demonstrations ever. 4.5 million light emiting diodes are sparkling at Nabana no Sato theme park in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture. They are boasting that "vivid color changing-the-art LED technology enables a production of 64 billion colors." Holy crappy..I think I… Continue