Donut Decorations

My mother always said: “Once is None, Twice is Always”, and I’ll take her advice when it comes to judging this emerging trend in Japanese donut shops: donut decorations! If you happen to sell something that in itself is both colorful and with a distinctive shape, why not make it the centerpiece of your shop decoration theme, as in these two donut shops! One of them is in Omotesando in Tokyo, and the other one is in the Red Brick Warehouse down in Yokohama. When I was a kid I used to day dream about living in a house decorated like this. I still do, especially when I am hungry. Enjoy!

Green Mannequin

It’s been a long and unusually hard winter, and even here in Tokyo the cold doesn’t show any signs of letting go. This unusually green show window decoration I saw in Ginza last year might help cheer us up. This was way before Avatar (a recent movie you must have heard about but I still haven’ seen) and is probably very close to how I would have made the movie, blue is nice but green is even better! It also reminds me of one of my favorite Science Fiction writers back in the days when I still had time to read non-instructional books: Jeff Noon, and his fantastically weird book Pollen. Recommended for hard core SF fans only. Sorry about the bad photos though, the glare of the Ginza nightlife made it hard to shoot properly. Enjoy!

The Year of the Tiger in Calligraphy

“Contemporary Calligraphy for the New Year – Inspirations with brush & ink”. Are you a fan of calligraphy and Japanese brush art? Are you into modern design and art? Hurry up and don’t miss the calligraphy exhibition at the Wako department store in Ginza. A number of famous calligraphers have been invited to interpret the coming year – the year of the tiger. In their show window you can see bottles displayed, all decorated with the Japanese word for tiger – tora or 虎, とら, トラ, 寅, depending on what characters you want to write it in. Simplicity and grace when at it’s best.