Metropolis - News & Features » The Goods

I Heart Goods

daviatrix — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:02 +0000

Mould your own

Instead of boring heart-shaped chocs, get original and make your own using ice-cube trays. Kooky company Fred and Friends produce some crazy trays that will be sure to amaze your Valentine and ensure some tasty afters. Our pick is the one in the shape of Big Chap from Alien—and an accompanying one with the alien eggs, too (pictured). But you can also nab other themed ice trays from Kotobukiya stores, such as Batman and Superman ones, and there are rumors of a February launch for UFOs, Space Invaders, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and more…

Alien ice tray, ¥1,050, available from Kotobukiya

Secret sweets

For a bargain basement chocolate gift bound to raise a few smiles, check out Chocolate Stadium, where you can snap up chocolates in comedy packaging for as little as ¥198 each. Grab your valentine sugar fix in various forms including soy-sauce and energy-drink bottles, and cup noodles. Chocs in faux medicine packages should not be given to those with poor eyesight, or confusion might result in a Valentine’s Day laxative overdose. The Stadium offers other uncommon chocolate goods, such as chocolate bath salt, chocolate-covered squid, and chocolate curry.

From ¥198, available from www.chocolatestadium.com

Giveaway

From the people who brought you the last Metropolis x adidas promotion, comes… the new Metropolis x adidas promotion! This time, win yourself a pair of brand-new adizero Takumi trainers, designed in collaboration with Japanese master shoe craftsman Hitoshi Mimura. The shoes’ dual-sprint sole system is created to absorb shock and maintain your stability. Win a pair (worth ¥13,650) by emailing the origin of the name “adidas” to giveaways@metropolis.co.jp.

Available from adidas retail outlets. More info here.

New Year Goods

daviatrix — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:00:43 +0000

Cards

As screens supplant pretty much everything, Winged Wheel urges us to remember the beauty of paper. This greeting card company, with a store in Omotesando (and one in Osaka) produces original designs, as well as collaborating with illustrators and designers from various countries including Portugal, the USA, and South Africa. Their nengajyo (new year cards) feature some beautiful, simple designs, including some of everyone’s favorite mythical winged reptile. From ¥70 each, available from www.winged-wheel.co.jp

Inkan

Stamp your intentions on the new year, make your mark, cause an ink, and other related puns. This dragon-like inkan can be used for signing official documents (if your name happens to be “Mr. Dragon”), decorating new year cards (see above), graffitiing office walls, tattooing body parts, and any other perverse activity you might think of. Comes with a gorgeous patterned case, available in blue and orange. ¥9,450, available from Bring Japan, http://meturl.com/inkan

Hat

You know that feeling. On the way out the door to a pressing social engagement, you open your hat cupboard only to be crushed with disappointment. Why are all your head-coverings so passé and mundane? Why does nothing truly match the ebullient spirit of the holiday season? Act at once to ensure that your new year is not ruined by fashion desperation. Order up the last remaining model of dragon hat from Yahoo before it sells out, and walk the streets with your head held high. ¥1,680, available from Yahoo, http://meturl.com/dragonhat

Bank

Global financial institutions have come under fire in recent years, so it might be worth looking back to the Middle Ages, when treasure was often stored in dragons’ caves. The fire-breathing reptile did a good job of warding off any unsavory characters, not to mention the nation’s tax collectors. Now you can establish your own hoard in your own home with this dragon bank, and stash your hard-earned yennage in the belly of the beast itself. ¥1,580, available from Zakka Shop, http://meturl.com/dragonbank

Jingle Bell Flock

daviatrix — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:00:47 +0000

Sparrow Keyring

Julio Shiiki

Comes with a birdhouse to stash your key. Also works as a whistle to scare off prowling cats. ¥1,050

Cloth Cat

Stick your towel where it belongs. ¥1,890

iDuck

Have a musical bathtime with this floating wireless speaker. ¥3,675

Elephant Glasses Holder

Let this pachyderm find your glasses for you. ¥682

Quick Egg Boiler

Sick of saucepans? Microwave your egg in an egg. ¥714

Viceversa Baby Bottle

Confuse your child at breakfast time. ¥1050

All items available from Plywood. Buy online via Yahoo, Rakuten, and Amazon. Different colors available. Prices do not include shipping fees. www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/plywood

It’s a Ripper

daviatrix — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:00:38 +0000

Courtesy of Kodansha

Village Vanguard has a dizzy array of offerings guaranteed to make the most wizened shopper roll her eyes at least once. For people who get a kick out of following short-skirted ladies up spiral staircases or peeping over the rails into the boys’ locker room, the great work of literature that is Mosatsu Seal Book contains pics of seemingly conservatively-dressed girls, or, depending on which version you buy, boys. Simply tear their clothes off (with your teeth, if you like) to reveal skimpy undergarments. Purse your lips and say, “Ooh!” Then, stick ‘em back on (the clothes) and repeat.

From ¥1,785. Published by Kodansha, available from Village Vanguard stores.

Pocket This

daviatrix — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:00:37 +0000

Now that publisher Kodansha International has closed its doors, rival English-language publisher Tuttle has stepped up to the plate with their latest guide book Getting Around Tokyo: Pocket Atlas and Transportation Guide. They’re hoping to fill the void left by Kodansha’s venerable take-everywhere almanac, Japan Atlas: A Bilingual Guide. However, the too-big-for-any-pocket book appears to target tourists more than bilingual residents, with an included folded map focused on the central areas of the city, info about getting in from the airport, day trip details and transport advice. And it has no index. Nevertheless, it is attractively designed and might be something to bundle into the arms of visitors—especially if they don’t have a smart phone (can you say Google Maps?).

¥1,600, in major bookstores and Amazon.co.jp from Sep 13.

Slice of Life

daviatrix — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:00:22 +0000

Deep amid the clanking metallic music of Asakusa’s Kappabashi Dogu St. (Tool St.), where merchants have peddled their kitchen-related wares for almost a hundred years, you can find Tsubaya Cutlery Store. There, you can indulge your slicing and dicing fantasies with over 1,000 kinds of knives, including some designed for those accursed left-handers. You might go for the Desert Iron Wood Damascus Steel model (13cm petty knife, ¥34,000; 27cm butcher’s knife, ¥80,000). Or go more economical with a hammered Damascus steel butcher’s knife for ¥14,500, among many others. In case you didn’t know, Damascus steel is created by an ancient art that forges 63 layers of metal to create the finest blade known to man. Cutting edge or what?

Tsubaya Cutlery Store. Tel: 03-3845-2005. Open daily. http://e288.jp.

An App to Remember

daviatrix — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:00:20 +0000

Shane Busato

The platform-independent, cloud-based note-taking application Evernote has also been around for a few years, but rather than ingratiating itself only with tech-savvy, GTD anal-retentive types, it has now broken through to mainstream software users. That’s largely due to its go-anywhere mobile attitude: the Evernote service works on both Windows and Mac, the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Android Tablet, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry and Palm devices. While the market is stuffed with audio- and video-recording note apps, Evernote adds optical character recognition to the list, meaning you can snap a photo of someone’s meishi, sync it, and retrieve the information from the card later from any other device by opening the app and searching for keywords. While you were away, the Evernote service noted all the words and names on the photo and made them searchable. Now that’s clever. Our writers have been known to use it for writing review notes in bars and restaurants and to take mind-jogging pics of the ambience. Needless to say it’s all geo-tagged so that drunken stumbles away from the bar can be retraced on the map. Notes are then copied straight from the desktop into Word and finished up. Talk about techno literacy. If you’re not keen on phone-cam photos, hook up the above Eye-Fi card to share your pro pics directly to Evernote and keep everything in one place. And the bottom line is it’s completely free—a great example of how apps can use ad-supported revenue to supply a great product. Though if you must, there is a no-ad, bigger-upload-size, MS Office document-capable, video-taking premium version for $45 per year.

Evernote. www.evernote.com

So, Mr. Bubbleflop

daviatrix — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:00:30 +0000

These latest kawaii accessories have actually been around for a few years, but an outing on the dainty feet of K-pop heroines Miss A and Kara has flip-flopped them into the massive time. The Bubbleflop, apart from sounding a bit like a kind of weird cartoon villain, is a happening foamy-type sandal with absolutely no bubbles of any kind on it. Only joking, it has loads of them. And what’s more, you can find ones with little football-bubbles, grape-bubbles, floral bubbles and the full extent of your most substance-based psychedelic imaginings.

¥4,700-5,500, buy at Japan Duty Free (4F Aqua City Odaiba, 1-7-1 Odaiba) or online.

Get your chill on

daviatrix — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:00:34 +0000

If ’60s band The Lovin’ Spoonful had had a can of Mobile Air Conditioner 123 to spray on the back of their necks, the consequent lack of dirtiness and grittiness thereon might have prevented them from ever writing their landmark hit “Summer in the City.” Fortunately it was decades before this miraculous spray can was invented, in 2009. At first it was only -40ºC, but manufacturer Strapya has managed to shave that down to -45ºC for this year’s release. Apart from cooling you down to sub-Arctic levels, this non-CFC aerosol also deodorizes (if you like smelling like industrial sealant), and kills any bacteria within a forty-mile radius. Use in the office, on the sports field, during military incursions and for dusting your cash crops.

¥840, available from here.

Aliens are so ’90s

daviatrix — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:00:50 +0000

The early nineties were the epoch for foreigners in Japan: English teaching jobs paid handsomely, the bubble had the economy booming, and internet culture hadn’t yet bred the plethora of online resources needed for living in this strange and exotic country. But there was… The Alien, a free humor magazine that was started out in Nagoya by Neil Garscadden. If you were around then, you will remember it (and the birth of Charisma Man), but you young ’uns can now experience the gaikokujin halcyon days with The Very Best Of Alien Humor. Garscadden has compiled the best comic panels from its eight-year history into one volume, with original artwork by Wayne Wilson and contributions from Mark Bailey.

¥1,400 at major bookstores.

A tumbler that can really party

Shane — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:00:36 +0000

Set your table setting apart with PARTY, a uniquely designed titanium-infused crystal glass with a rounded base that makes it tilt back-and-forth and “dance” on your table without ever tipping over. Whether it is water, juice, wine, or even hors d’oevres and desserts, anything served in this versatile glass is sure to make your whole dining experience rock. Celebrate the hottest time of the year by having some of the coolest tumblers on hand. Available at Zwiesel Boutique, Daikanyama. Set of two, ¥3,150.
http://www.zwiesel-kristallglas.jp/

A fine specimen

Shane — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:00:24 +0000

Lovingly created Transparent Specimens of young reptiles and aquatic creatures are now available at Tokyu Hands. The work of Tomita Iori, these beautifully luminous and eerie creatures encased in jars have stirred plenty of interest—and controversy, with questions posed by some about the humanity of the enterprise. Though schools and aquariums have used the specimens for education, Iori does not make them for any specific purpose. The process itself, involving enzymes and mysterious liquids, takes six months and sometimes doesn’t even work out. Iori has also developed an iPad app and two books to view examples of his work, but it might be quicker to pass by a Tokyu Hands and see through one for yourself. Transparent Specimens from ¥1,000, Tokyu Hands. English friendly website:

http://www.shinsekai-th.com/en/top.php

I scream for basashi

Shane — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:00:24 +0000

Basashi ice cream, an ice cream mixed with minced horsemeat, is just one of over a hundred bizarre ice cream flavors made by Fugetsudo, a 120-year-old Japanese sweets manufacturer and sales company in Miyagi prefecture. Other curious flavors include natto or fermented soybean, abalone, shark fin ramen, mana musume (“Adorable Daughter,” a brand of rice), yakisoba, nori, field mushroom, oyster, beer, cypress, mackerel pike, octopus, onion, cow tongue, pearl, kimchi, sea urchin and sea squirt. An inspired selection of desserts for funky summer parties, order an assortment of nine 120ml cups (¥4,400) or a set of fifteen (¥5,900 including tax and shipping) at this specialized ice cream website (Japanese):

http://www.ice-tengoku.com/syohin/hug001.html

Strap ‘em up

metropolis — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:38:25 +0000

Photo by H.Itsuji

Been having sadistic urges towards your breakfast banana? Based on the concept that human beings are not the only possible targets for a bit of S&M-style bondage, Hirotsugu Itsuji has tied up an impressive range of 300 different subjects for your perverted pleasure—including bananas, jellyfish, pairs of high-heels and a great deal more. Why? To put the “strap” into your keitai strap. He personally produces his kinky creations by hand, so they frequently go out of stock, leaving waiting punters panting to immerse themselves in a bit of healthy kinbaku with a pineapple, for example. These kawaii accessories are a massive hit, especially in their local neighborhood, which is—unsurprisingly—Shinjuku’s Nichome.

Kinbaku strap, ¥1,600. Available via www.kitanya.com

Sit and swivel

metropolis — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:35:35 +0000

Horie Takeharu

If hitting the half-pipes at the skate park just makes you feel in need of a sit-down nowadays, help is at hand. Produced by a skateboarding workshop in Aichi Prefecture, the “Rolling Foot” lets you sit and skate. Billed as a way for board-phobes to deal with their anxiety, this skateboard-cum-seating device clocks in at ¥52,800, a price sure to make some weak in the knees. Using a mind-bending new propulsion technique, the chair is operated by sitting down and pushing at the ground in the opposite direction with your feet. You can turn by shifting your weight and there is even a footbrake, for those whose nerves remain uncomforted. The magnificent Rolling Foot is made to order, so allow for a two-week production time.

Rolling Foot, ¥52,800. Available from www.rollingfoot.com

Pocket polka dots

metropolis — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:33:11 +0000

If you are a fan of self-proclaimed “obsessive artist” Yayoi Kusama—who holds the record for most expensive work sold by a living female artist (US$5.1 million)—now you can snap up some trinkets for your home gallery. Designed with her trademark bright colors and repetitive patterns, the conceptual artist’s range of goods includes the floating action pen, with an image of the artist and her work “Pumpkin” appearing and disappearing; a heat-resistant mug decorated with spotted creatures Ring-Ring and Toko-Ton; bicolored sugar-coated chocolate in a Kusama-designed polka-dot container (“Love Forever”); and “Pumpkin” cookies with exclusive illustrations.

Floating action pen, ¥1,050; Toko-Ton mug ¥1,470; Love Forever, ¥3,360; Pumpkin cookies, ¥630. Available at Roppongi Hills Art & Design Store.

Ultra Vogue

metropolis — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:00:58 +0000

Seen those ladies walking around in full body suits, gloves and umbrellas—when it’s forty degrees on a clear, sunny day? Many also have been known to layer on the sun protection underneath the threads. Those afraid of the sun’s harmful rays and keen to stay youthful into old age need no longer resort to such measures. Uniqlo’s spring and summer range of UV-proof clothing, named Kiru UV Cut, blocks 90 percent of those nasty rays. Released in April, the t-shirt and sweatshirt line offers 26 different varieties ranging in price from ¥1,000-2,990.

Kiru UV Cut, available from Uniqlo stores nationwide.

Snap up Miffy

metropolis — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:00:55 +0000

Hot on the trail of last year’s punchily-named Exilim X Miffy Camera, Casio are releasing another photo-snapping contraption themed with everyone’s favorite minimalist Dutch floppy-eared rodent. Apparently they were really pleased with the 300 they sold last year. This year’s point-and-shooter—the Exilim EX Z800—contains added features such as a kawaii Miffy frame you can add to your photos and… actually that’s it. Start popping some Year-of-the-Rabbit-esque flowers and bunnies on your photos for ¥36,000. It includes a fluffy pouch shaped as Miffy’s head which is probably worth the cash in itself.

Miffy-themed Exilim EX Z800, ¥36,000, out in May. Reserve at http://collabo-exilim.com.

Fuzzy and Furry

metropolis — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:00:41 +0000

Kigurumi, or fur suit mascots, are a “growing pastime and successful marketing tool,” according to Edward and John Harrison, the creators of Fuzz & Fur, a new 144-page hardcover book available from Amazon. The former Harrison brother was involved with the design of viral sensation #quakebook, created to aid the victims of March 11. This book provides lighter reading and perhaps a respite from the trauma, with the fluffy fellows lining this colorful book providing plenty to laugh at and discover. Fuzz & Fur contains over 100 bewildering creatures with photos and text explaining their origins.

Fuzz & Fur, Mark Batty Publisher, ¥1,340. Available from Amazon Japan

A Date With Wine

metropolis — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 06:00:42 +0000

Courtesy of Entrex, Inc.

Once you’ve popped your cork, there’s no turning back: in only a matter of days, a delicious bottle of fine wine can transform into unpalatable vinegary swill. The consensus seems to be that, when stored in a fridge, resealed wine will last around three days before becoming undrinkable. For those who can’t remember that far back, this wine stopper acts as an elegant reminder of when the bottle was initially opened. Simply twirl the rings round to display the correct date before inserting the stainless steel stopper. After you’ve crossed the three-day threshold, it’s up to you to decide whether to re-purpose your booze as cooking wine, or risk a quick swig.

A Date With Wine, ¥4,900. Available via Generate online: www.gnr8.jp