Forget last year’s fitness fad, the makudake “just-wrap-it” diet. If you want to be light as a feather, you should try out some of the latest aerial exercises and sail through the sky while you shed those pounds. Aerial silk, a.k.a. aerial tissue or ribbon, is an acrobatic performance in mid-air by contortionists who wrap, ...
This year’s Academy Awards swag bag included both the covetable (a private island getaway to Belize, anyone?) and the random (a scale model of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft). It also included a bottle of the made-in-Japan antioxidant drink Kousanka. According to August Hergesheimer, whose company Albios makes the drink, it’s the first time a product ...
When skincare manufacturer Aesop sets up shop around the globe, it makes a point of working with local designers and materials. The goal, says press representative Fuki Ikeda, is “to blend seamlessly into the local environment.” This, we suppose, explains why the Australian company chose a space in one of those ubiquitous white tile apartment ...
Fashion and music are often seen as natural bedfellows, but you need talented people in both fields to make a collaboration work. Local promoters Street Level have been attempting to perfect the fusion with their Tokyo Fashion Fuse events, which pair stunning models—many of them Miss Universe Japan entrants—with internationally renowned DJs. Tokyo Fashion Fuse ...
Florida native Soness Stevens moved to Japan 13 years ago for an MBA—and, she jokes, to fulfill her dreams of “becoming a ninja.” Today, the effervescent 35-year-old spends her time jetting around Asia to run a range of life-enhancing courses and consultations. “Have you ever wanted to get from point A to point B but ...
Holistic lifestyle center Argutha offers yoga classes, aromatherapy and vegetarian workshops—all under one roof. It’s a one-woman show, too: owner Midori Kameoka handles all of the above. Having logged 15 years at an American corporation before changing directions, she also speaks fluent English. An aromatherapist with 14 years experience, Kameoka specializes in total body treatments ...
While the organic lifestyle has been popular in Los Angeles for decades, it’s only recently caught on in Japan. Bridging the divide between the two is Multeepurpose, a concept store which opened last summer in the Little Tokyo area of LA. Founded by longtime city resident Ruriko Yamada, the cafe promises much more than an ...
Imagine swinging through the forests of Hakone, over 10 meters above ground, alternately exhilarated by the view and suspicious that short-shorts were an inappropriate wardrobe selection (those safety harnesses do tend to cause some awkward bunching). That’s the concept behind Forest Adventure, the family-friendly high-ropes experience that started in Talloires, France, and has since spread ...
Premium Sports Club NAS Roppongi has only just opened, but it already fits right in with the neighborhood. This new fitness center offers dance classes from around the world (think New York Street Jazz and South American Zumba), as well as a golf simulator—complete with karaoke—and a golf range where you can knock balls in ...
If you’ve already tried the gum, the patches, going cold turkey and beating yourself around the head with a copy of Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, this one’s for you. The Rien Pipe aims to wean wheezers off the evil weed in the space of a month by gradually filtering out the ...
Wired Cafe Fit is clever, we’ll admit. This new sports club and cafe blurs the lines between public and private space, and outdoor and indoor exercise. Tucked in between Shibuya Boxx and the overhanging curve of Yoyogi National Stadium, the facilities are just a few minutes from Yoyogi Park, and aimed squarely at the keep-fit ...
It’s never too early to start in yoga—or at least, that’s what Heather Kamala Wong-Xoquic thinks. The preschool teacher and traveling yogini—not to mention sister of celebrity instructor and Yogic Arts creator Duncan Wong—has pioneered a blend of yoga and martial arts that’s tailor-made for youngsters. :Ki|Do) Yogic Arts for Kids is taught through songs ...
Gut’s Dynamite Cabarets got off to a raucous start at the Autumn/Winter 2007 edition of Japan Fashion Week. The Tokyo-based brand’s runway show was every bit as outrageous as its name was nonsensical, featuring bodybuilders, transvestites, transsexuals, models of indeterminate gender and blaring disco remixes, all held at an ungodly hour in the morning. “We ...
Acclaimed fine art photographer Mika Ninagawa is laying aside her camera and trying her hand at fashion design. The Fall 2010 “Mika Ninagawa Collection,” released next month, features seven designs produced in collaboration with Daikanyama-based brand 7 For All Mankind. Ninagawa’s photography is instantly recognizable for its super-saturated colors and flower motifs, and that signature ...
“When I jogged in the streets of Tokyo, people would stare,” says Clark Hatch. “Motorists would often honk at me.” He’s talking about 1965, the year in which he opened his first fitness center in Tokyo. “Back then, my Japanese friends had a difficult time understanding the words ‘physical fitness,’” he recalls. “There wasn’t a ...
Acupuncture clinic Theracua specializes in maternity care, from “womb warming” infertility treatment to alleviating morning sickness and fatigue to getting ready for the big event. Owner Yuko Sugeta, who has been practicing for 15 years, notes that acupuncture has a high success rate at turning breech babies and may even help prevent miscarriage. “We check ...
Tokyo’s Odradek found itself in the international limelight in April when Lady Gaga appeared on TV Asahi’s Music Station wearing a specially customized pair of the brand’s “Private Universe” handcuff bracelets. With fans of the pop singer dissecting every item she wears on sites such as www.gagadaily.com, it wasn’t long before people around the world ...
With Yukio Hatoyama’s run as prime minister now over, the hapless politician is likely to be remembered for two things: the Futenma Air Base issue and the multi-colored gingham shirt he wore to a barbeque last spring. While the Japanese tabloids slammed him over his perceived fashion faux pas, Michael Yang and Peter Crawfurd, co-founders ...
Self-described “ladies’ beauty lounge” Cluxta is the perfect antidote to the rainy season’s soggy hair and runny makeup. This spacious, squeaky-clean powder room offers not only excellent lighting and comfortable chairs, but also a selection of rentable cosmetic and hair products. For a fixed price of just ¥300 an hour, customers use a variety of ...
“Yoga is a life-encompassing practice—so, unsurprisingly, there are abundant ways to teach it,” says Michael Glenn, head instructor at Yoga Tree in Hiroo. “We find that offering classes with a different focus, such as Yoga for Runners and ‘Shakti’ dance, opens people’s eyes to yoga’s diverse tools and techniques for improving physical, mental and emotional ...
Scott Schuman has a success story that most amateur street snappers could only dream of. The Indiana native quit his fashion industry job in 2005 and started up a photo blog that has since become a watchword for fashionistas and street photographers worldwide. The Sartorialist documents sophisticated—albeit suspiciously New York-ish—trendsetters on the sidewalks and at ...
Tokyo’s fashion industry insiders were treated to a pleasant surprise last month when Yohji Yamamoto held his first show in Japan for nearly two decades. The designer presented the latest collection of his Yohji Yamamoto Hommes brand at an event in Yoyogi National Stadium attended by over 3,000 people. Along with Issey Miyake and Rei ...
Japanese women have been flocking to Korea for spa treatments recently, encouraged as much by the favorable exchange rate as the appeal of a novel approach to wellness. The country’s spas may be famous for their body scrubs (akasuri in Japanese), but jet-setting beauty junkies are plumping for another treatment: mugwort steam saunas (yomogi mushi). ...
With its bubbly texture and thick-furled leaves, salt leaf looks pretty odd, but that hasn’t stopped organic co-op Kunitachi Farms from selling 50,000 packs of the stuff a month. This variety of ice plant, native to South Africa, literally drinks the salt from the soil, giving it a naturally salty flavor. Eaten as-is or in ...
While walking through Tokyo Midtown one day, it occurred to Kumi Ishihara that the lawn—“a lovely green space in the middle of Tokyo,” as she puts it—would be a nice place to practice yoga. Instead of keeping this idea to herself, she contacted the folks who run the complex. To her surprise, she got a ...
If you’ve swung by Akasaka Ark Hills or UN University in Aoyama on any recent weekend, you probably noticed a “chain” of farmers’ markets. Since launching last fall with help from the Ministry of Agriculture, Marche Japon has expanded to nine locations around the capital, including Asakusa, Ikebukuro and Kichijoji. The selection of fruits and ...
The denim wars are set to take a different direction this year as Japanese brands strive to offer consumers higher quality while maintaining affordable prices. The days when meticulously crafted premium Japanese jeans could fetch upwards of ¥70,000 a pair are long gone, and last year Uniqlo and discount denim shop Right-on cut the bottom ...
Skirts patched together from worn-out jeans. Handbags fashioned from discarded sweatshirts. Cellphone cases made from old gloves. While these have long been common sights in the bohemian areas of Shimokitazawa and Harajuku, the remake movement seems to be spreading. As the continued economic downturn makes consumers eager to squeeze a little more life out of ...
Even before you set foot inside the Sundari Lifestyle Store, you know you can expect the royal treatment: the façade of the Kita-Aoyama building is a deep, regal purple. If the name Sundari (Sanskrit for “beautiful woman”) sounds familiar, that’s because the brand of luxury Ayurvedic skin care products has been around for a while. ...
Spent all winter plumping your skin (and your waistline) on collagen-rich stews? Fortunately, there’s a fad food for losing weight as well. Kanten (agar) has been garnering considerable media attention for its purported slimming powers. Simple in theory, the so-called Kanten Diet regimen involves eating the red algae-derived product with meals or as a snack. ...
Picturesque, convenient and mercifully bereft of traffic lights, the 5km route around the Imperial Palace moat has long been a popular haunt for runners of all stripes. In belated recognition of this fact, a number of dedicated running stations have begun to spring up in the area over the past few years, providing a welcome ...
Collaborations between celebrities and fashion brands are nothing new in Japan, but usually they amount to little more than using a famous face to draw attention to the latest lucrative trend. However, a new tie-up looks set to make consumers think about what they wear and where the money spent on it actually goes. Harry ...
If the tips in this month’s Body & Soul article didn’t warm you up, maybe it’s time for a “Lava Bath” at Magma Spa. Not quite as deadly as it sounds, the spa’s signature treatment involves lying on a bed of polished lava rocks. At 50C (122F), the room is hot—but not sauna hot—and the ...
“Whatever you can imagine, you can create,” says Leza Lowitz, owner of Sun & Moon Yoga in Meguro. The 47-year-old Californian credits this mindset with helping her open her own yoga studio, publish over a dozen books, and adopt a child in Japan. It’s also the subject of her popular workshop, “Creating Abundance.” “I first ...
When it comes to cosmetics, Japanese women are like kids in a candy store. In recent years, low airfares to Seoul have allowed consumers to go on weekend shopping sprees for Korean cosmetics, which can cost less than half their Japanese counterparts. This fad has been helped by transgender makeup artist Ikko, who advocates the ...
Every few years, a big-budget Hollywood film comes along with such a strong visual style that its influence can instantly be seen on fashion runways. Moulin Rouge brought the corset back in 2001, and Marie Antoinette made ruffled skirts hip again in 2006. Judging from the soon-to-be-released spring/summer collections from cutting-edge Japanese designers, two of ...
Uka Nail Oil multitasks like we wish we could. The scented oil in this lip-balm-sized roll-on stick promises healthy, glowing nails and cuticles, with a mood boost to boot. Using healthy oil derived from the seed of the Moroccan Argan tree (which boasts three times the vitamin E content of olive oil), the newly launched ...
Healthy and happy are fine, but maybe you’d like to be a little more fabulous? That’s where long-time Tokyo residents Kike Yamakawa and Brad Hays, the duo behind Roppongi’s Fab Academy, come in. Just opened in November, this boutique dance studio offers bilingual lessons from a bevy of charismatic international instructors. Fancy honing your catwalk ...
The fashion of the ’80s may be back this winter, but that doesn’t mean you need to hit the slopes in a neon jumpsuit. International ski and snowboard brands are offering collections that blend fashion and functionality, and the B by Burton line is a perfect example. With skinny and flared pants, satin finishes and ...
Fancy a shirt made by James Bond’s tailor, or a hat by Her Majesty’s milliner? Want to lounge next to a Jag just like Austin Powers? No, there’s no need to go to Saville Row: all this and more can be found at one shop on Kotto Dori in Aoyama. Vulcanize London started life in ...
“In Tokyo, most yoga studios are in concrete buildings and you’re requested to use a plastic yoga mat,” says Eriyo Watanabe, director of the Center for Arts and Wellness. “Ideally, it is much better to do yoga outside and breathe clean air. I love the idea of beach yoga, listening to the sound of the ...
Just launched this fall, RinRen is a line of organic hair and body care products made exclusively from local Japanese ingredients. The Yuzu & Ginger series, for instance, pairs invigorating ginger, which is said to improve blood circulation, with yuzu oil, a traditional bath additive. The other ingredients offer a virtual tour of Japanese agriculture: ...
As the days grow colder, it’s time to get some nice warm knitwear—and if you’re keeping up with the current trends, you’ll make it yourself. Stitch & Bitch groups, where like-minded knitters and crocheters create everything from scarves to jackets in a warm and casual atmosphere, are held in cities worldwide, including Tokyo (www.meetup.com/TokyoStitchandBitch). If ...
If you find yourself getting flustered about what to wear this holiday season, relax. While Tokyo shops are notorious for their high price tags, it’s possible to create a winning style for all occasions without having to dig too deep in your wallet—if you have a few basic elements in your wardrobe. With the right ...
Hands up if you’re tired of the treadmill and fed up with the same old gym routine. Has your quest to look good got you feeling down? Maybe you should consider joining Jeff Libengood, aka “The Fitness Doctor,” at his Healthy Body Boot Camps in Arisugawa Park. “We never do the same workout twice… ever,” ...
With the H1N1 pandemic now in full swing in Japan, swine flu vaccinations also started at the end of last month, initially targeting health care workers. But what about us foreigners? The Tokyo Metropolitan Health Department and the Suginami Ward Public Health Center have provided the following information: As a rule, registered foreign residents can ...
Anyone who has ever set foot in a gift shop at Disneyland may have good reason to doubt that a Donald Duck T-shirt could ever be considered trendy. However, a series of new collaborations between the animation giant and Japanese brands have sent hipsters scrambling to get their Mickey fashion fixes. Uniqlo’s T-shirt brand UT ...
When Hiroko Koshino speaks, people pay attention. And the veteran designer wasn’t at a loss for words when she noted the increasing prominence of young Japanese names on the global fashion stage. “There are young people working who can not only create, but can back up their skills with business knowledge,” she said. “They are ...
“The beads and Birkenstocks vision of organic doesn’t fly anymore. It needs to be more urban and sophisticated.” So says August Hergesheimer, co-founder of OnlyPureProducts.com. This English-language website sells organic anti-aging supplements that are 100 percent free of artificial or chemical ingredients and pesticides—a step up from ordinary organic standards, which allow for trace residues. ...
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