Arts & Design
Japanese animated 3D ASCII art
Japanese tech news magazine Weekly ASCII has published this tutorial (only in Japanese) for making pseudo-3D animated GIF images. With the technique they are describing, it’s possible to make all kinds of 3D environments. They have included this pretty cool 3D ASCII art! Read More
Creative barcodes amuse Japanese shoppers
Barcodes, those monotonous symbols of our consumer civilization that make us pay for every product in the world, have received some pretty extreme makeover in Japan. Since 2005, a Shibuya-based design agency D-Barcode has been turning those conventional black and white lines into unique and inventive creations. Read More
Incredible Japanese banana art
You have seen sculptures made of wood, stone, clay, paper and who knows what else. But bananas? A 23-year old artist under the name Suu (スー) from Japanese art community Pixiv is using bananas to create some pretty amazing sculptures. Read More
Cute ultra-thin Japanese pocket lamp
Flashlights, lamps and light bulbs come in all shapes and sizes but a Japanese company AntDesignStore took creativity a step further. Among other novelty products, they sell some very slim LED pocket lamps with an ideal shape that fits easily in your pocket or wallet. The lamp — which… Read More
Impressive miniature architecture of Ichiyoh Haga
Take a look at some of these fine pictures: Even though these buildings seem fairly realistic, they are actually miniature models built by a Japanese artisan Ichiyoh Haga. Haga, who was born in 1948 and lives and works in Tokyo, began creating three dimensional miniature art in 1995 after running… Read More
Tokyo Genso: Post-apocalyptic Tokyo in ruins
What will Tokyo look like in a post-apocalyptic world with no humans, no politicians and no corporations? Japanese artist who calls himself Tokyo Genso (Tokyo Fantasy) has a frightening vision. Let’s begin with a teleport to Shibuya, the location of a once world’s busiest pedestrian crossing. The famous Shibuya 109… Read More
Japanese acrobats captured on 1904 film by Thomas Edison
On one sunny day of April 29, 1904, American inventor and scientist Thomas Edison made a short film of two pretty intense Japanese acrobats at his New York City studio: Footage is from the archives of the U.S. Library of Congress. More details can be found on this page. Read More
Cute Japanese bus stops look like fruits and vegetables
Bus stops don’t have to be boring! In the Japanese town of Konagai, part of Isahaya City in Nagasaki Prefecture, along the road you’ll find some juicy bus stops, built in the shape of strawberries, melons, watermelons, oranges and tomatoes. There are a total of 16 stops that look like… Read More
New animated film ‘Karigurashi no Arrietty’ opens in Japan in July 2010
Studio Ghibli’s new animated motion picture titled Karigurashi no Arriety (The Borrower Arrietty) will arrive in Japanese theaters on July 17, 2010. Let’s look at the trailer: The 80-minute long movie is an adaptation of the British fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton from 1952. The story talks about… Read More
What graphic programs do Japanese manga/anime artists use?
Japanese publishing company Inforest has published an interesting yearbook that introduces 59 known and less known Japanese digital illustrators for the year 2010 who create art in manga/anime style. In the last few pages there is a short questionnaire where they asked professional artists which graphic programs they use,… Read More
