The text on the bottle claims that it is a flavor of ramune (classic Japanese soda) with a spicy kick. Have any of you tried it?

We Are All Radioactive – Chapter 7: Departure from Lisa Katayama on Vimeo.

Just released the final chapter of my documentary, WE ARE ALL RADIOACTIVE. I hope you enjoyed it! If you missed previous episodes, you can watch all of them at our Vimeo channel.

Coming soon: a new web site, discussion forums in real time with characters from the show. Please keep an eye on TokyoMango or WeAreAllRadioactive.com for updates!

I wrote an article about Olympic gymnast Kohei Uchimura in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. You can read it here. (There’s also a video story to go with it!) It’s a fun piece with quotes from NBC commentators, Olympic judges, and the athlete’s mom.

Uchimura actually screwed up a bit on his pommel horse routine earlier this week. He has another chance to really prove that he’s the greatest gymnast of all time when he hits the mats again on 8/2. Fingers crossed he’ll live up to his Superman reputation!

UPDATE: He *just* won the individual gold in London!!

I’m excited and honored that Kenta Koga invited me to teach a course at Gakko Project, a cool new initiative founded by the Yale undergrad to redefine cross-border education between Japan and the US. We’re going to be on Nao Island (Naoshima) from Monday to Wednesday next week. Kenta’s one of those innovative, entrepreneurial young Japanese leaders that we at The Tofu Project want to see more of. Stay tuned for updates from the event next week!

Keiichi Tanaami’s colorful depictions of psychedelic Astro Boy and evil POpEye are fun, but much more meaningful when you understand that he’s a 76 year old active artist who was the first art director of Playboy Magazine four decades ago.

Johnny Strategy over at Spoon and Tamago says:

To understand his art one simply needs a brief history lesson into the artist himself. Highlights include experiencing the Great Tokyo Air Raid at age 9, experimenting with LSD in his 20s, travelling to New York and meeting Andy Warhol at age 31, and becoming the first art director of Playboy Magazine (Japan) at age 39.

Check out his latest exhibit, which is on display in Shibuya through August 5th.

via Spoon and Tamago

I love this TV commercial made by the Tokyo-based creative agency PARTY for Sony’s make.believe campaign. It was shot with over 70 performers using 200 Sony devices, and it was all taken in one continuous shot.

“SCREEN STORY” is a new TV commercial film for Sony “make.believe.” The film was created with over 70 performers using more than 200 devices, taken in one continuous shot.than 890,000 people watched it live, and over 7 million pushes were recorded during the show.

So great!

We Are All Radioactive – Chapter 5: Measurements from Lisa Katayama on Vimeo.

In Chapter 5, a team of hackers in Tokyo and Boston take radiation monitoring into their own hands, mapping the measurement levels across the entire country of Japan. Greenpeace and a blogging organic farmer join them in this civilian effort, and a government official admits that they need help.

Episode 4 of We Are All Radioactive is live!! And it’s super important: in this longer (9 minute) special episode, we go deeper with the characters we’ve gotten to know from Motoyoshi, AND we also meet nuclear experts from the US and Japan who help us make sense of the complex web of information out there concerning the threat of radiation in post-earthquake Japan. As you know, this week, Japan returned to nuclear power after a two-month break, and the parliament released an investigative report about the Fukushima disaster pointing out major human flaws in the handling of the disaster. 

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Since the 1990s, photographer Ahn Sehong has spent a lot of his time and attention shooting images of comfort women &mdash Korean women forced into sexual slavery in Japan during World War II who now live in China. He was slated to display his work in Shinjuku at the Nikon Salon from two days ago through July 9, but a few days before opening, Nikon said they were going to cancel the exhibition because it was too controversial.

Havoc ensued, and a court ruled that Nikon would have to allow the exhibit to go on. Nikon’s still trying to appeal to the court to shut down the show, and their web site claims that the show is *not* on display, but according to the LA Times the show is still alive and well. If you’re in Tokyo, please go see it and show your support for this photographer’s work!

Several months ago, I blogged about my high school friend Hiro Fujita, who is living with ALS in Japan. Next Wednesday, he's going to be giving a public talk at McCann Erickson Japan &mdash the ad agency he works at &mdash together with rapper Verbal and father-of-Harajuku Hiroshi Fujiwara. Through a candid conversation, the trio will be providing much-needed information about ALS to the Japanese public. Live tickets are limited, but it will also be streamed in real time on Kaikai Kiki's UStream channel if you want to watch online. More details here.

Ashima Shiraishi is a 4-foot-5 Japanese-American 11-year old girl who can kick anyone’s ass rock climbing. She grew up climbing boulders in Central Park when she was 6 – her parents came to the US from Japan in 1978 – and for the past couple of years has been dominating some of the hardest climbs in the world including the Crown of Aragorn, a V13 (do you know how hard that is??) near El Paso that most adult professional climbers can’t flash. Yes, she does have the advantage of being tiny. But that doesn’t make her any less badass.

Here’s a recent story about her in the NY Times.

(Thanks, Jeremy!)

At the fantabulous wedding of a childhood friend last night, the topic at one point turned to a vintage Japanese commercial about a 300+ year old seaweed + tea manufacturer called Yamamotoyama. Do any of you remember this commercial?

It’s from the 70s. Below, an updated one from the 90s.

The catchy phrase that you hear in both is their tag line, which translates as: read it from the top and it’s Yamamotoyama. Read it from the bottom and it’s Yamamotoyama.

It’s a palindrome!

You guys — take a moment today to think about all Asian and Pacific Islanders living with or who have died of HIV/AIDS. In addition to the physical effects of the disease, our communities deal with a lot of stigma, which often includes the inability to even mention it to our closest friends and family. Of course, that is counterproductive to the fight against the issue.

This post is a shout out to the A&PI Wellness Center, an amazing Bay area organization dedicated to this cause, and its Banyan Tree Project. The above video is part of Taking Root, a national digital storytelling advocacy initiative.

In Episode 2 of We Are All Radioactive, we introduce you to a fisherman who’s weaving a hammock out of fishing net rope. The Japanese artist Shigeki Fujishiro used a similar type of rope to make these awesome (but perhaps not very practical) bags.

Product page

I got a taste of Mitsuru Koga’s Inorganic exhibition at a little shop in Venice, CA yesterday. In the photo it kinda just looks like a pencil sticking out of a wooden block, but it’s actually really beautiful in a display case!

Link