BEAMS TOKYO CULTuART aggregates Tokyo urban culture & art

If you wanted to sum up your city in one room without making it cluttered, what would you put in there? This is precisely the challenge that TOKYO CULTuART, a new project and shop from BEAMS in Harajuku, is taking on since its opening two weeks ago.

While their main business is design and apparel (ranging from casual to business to t-shirts), culture is also a valuable commodity, a point not lost on BEAMS RECORDS. CULTuArt is in the culture business, taking the best of Tokyo’s art and design scenes and letting it all play together, regardless of medium or genre.

Recently we were lucky enough to spend some time with Nagai-san, the General Manager of CULTuART and a mainstay at BEAMS for over two decades. According to Nagai, CULTuART is an aggregator of urban Tokyo, bringing its many faces and artists into one place that acts as both retail outlet and museum.

YAMANAYA pieces from famed figure-maker M1GO

From the Gundam figures of Akihabara to design books and prints found in Ueno, CULTuART spans the urban landscape of modern Made in Japan, shows it to the world, and makes it available to the masses all at once. The contents reflect the tastes of modern Japanese, but also those of its curator who values a piece’s cultural and aesthetic qualities at once.

The shop is decidedly down-to-earth in its sensibilities, but that doesn’t mean it comes with a small price tag. While Modoka Morikawa’s Peloqoon stuffed figures can go for around $150, one-of-a-kind pieces like the Doraemon stained-glass lamp from Pucci (seen in the slideshow) can exceed $7000. This is surely the nature of bringing in the best of the best, and makes it a great stop for both foreign and local visitors to get a solid overview of Tokyo culture and design in a very pop-culture kind of way.

Technology certainly has its place in CULTuART’s space as well. Aside from multiple Mac models open for use, they’ve also created a special browser-based application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Each item has its own number which, when clicked on, brings up detailed information about the piece and its artist in both Japanese and English. If you have one of the devices yourself, click here to browse on your own, and check out pieces like MODERHYTHM’s very cool CHUBU 01, pictured below.

Gadget-less customers can get loaners to use during their browsing time, but Nagai-san notes that devices integrated with the shopping experience are going to expand even more in the coming years, incorporating RFID and other technologies to better provide interactive information about the displays.

For the next step in its evolution, CULTuART is expanding to bring the best of Tokyo to other major cities around the world, though they haven’t made any firm plans yet as to where they’ll be going. Since they’re interested in spreading culture, a unique or unusual location (in our opinion anyway) would be far more interesting than the usual suspects.

However, the concept can work both ways as well, as many Japanese are increasingly travel-minded and appreciative of other cultures. TOKYO CULTuART would be interesting in Brooklyn, but how about a BROOKLYN CULTuART version in Paris or Cairo?

To visit for yourself, click for a map from Harajuku Station.

Tags: Art, Beams, Culture, design, Retail
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

Hello Kitty sexy body fashion water bottles

We weren’t able to find anything online about these, but our recent trip to a Lawson convenience revealed these very cool Hello Kitty bottles. Aside from being rather ergonomic, the seemingly Gaultier-inspired sexy bottles are also sporting the latest in Kitty-chan fashion.

Of course, for 368 yen ($4), this is clearly water for cute-loving women over 30.

Tags: beverages, design, Fashion, FMCG, Hello Kitty
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

E-Cigarettes land in Japan with unique marketing angles

We’ve certainly covered enough cigarette developments (innovative new products and packaging, even the cult of the mobile ashtray) to demonstrate that a lot of people in Japan still smoke. So it is a notable change to come across an interesting product campaign that encourages the opposite.

While we all know that smoking isn’t the healthiest activity, the campaign for TaEco takes the angle that it can also have a negative effect on the environment.

TaEco, a contraction of the Japanese spelling of tobacco (“tabako”) and the oh-so-trendy word “eco,” is one of those plastic fake cigarettes with an LED light at the tip to simulate the burning ember.

It also comes in a variety of flavors, like vanilla, menthol, and strawberry, but the main sales point is that the TaEco is an environmentally friendly alternative to the real thing (which is a good thing, since the appeal of a drag of artificial strawberry essences isn’t wholly convincing).

The marketing even goes as far as to position the TaEco as a fashion item by offering a “deco” version.

Another similar product, the Mismo (a contraction for “mist smoke”), in addition to also offering deco versions, boasts of health and therapeutic benefits. The flavor cartridges come in “stimulating mint” or “soothing grapefruit,” both spiked with vitamin C and co-enzyme 10.

A Mismo starter kit costs ¥12,600 (about $115) while the TaEco comes out to ¥18,900 (about $180).

Tags: Eco, health, Tobacco
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends

Vibrating pillows get us up, shut us up

Even pillows seem to be getting the tech-treatment these days, with a couple of useful vibration-based inventions that seem like they should have been made years ago.

Just out on the market, the Alarm Clock Pillow from Vessel let’s you wake up quietly without disturbing anyone else. Just set the alarm on the side, and it wakes you up with vibrations!

The Anti-Snoring Pillow from Japan’s legendary France Bed (yes, it’s Japanese). With a built in sensor, the pillow detects snoring and then disrupts the offender to stop it with vibrations. for those who really want to know more, there’s even an audio out to record just how bad it really is.

Via Impress

Tags: health, Pillows, Sleep, Wellness
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends

The Sushi Deco Cake

We’ve looked at the trend of cute and decorative lunchboxes for kids, but what about grown-ups? Surely Japan’s tradition of exquisite food displays has something innovative in the works for those who are old enough to actually appreciate the work involved. Enter the Sushi Deco Cake from Ryu Gu Jo Sushi Studio.

The birthday candle numbers and decidedly not sweet ingredients suggest that these cakes are designed for the (increasingly) older population in mind. Not to mention the prices, which run from ¥5,250 to ¥6,830 depending on the fish used. Though considering we spot some delectable looking uni below, they are considerably reasonable.

This is also a nice example of taking a western import, the birthday cake, and bringing it back to Japan.

Tags: Back to Japan, food
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends