Nisei Week Festival/Little Tokyo/Related

Tu_triky wrote:

Yeah it was supposed to be influenced by fashionable areas such as Roppongi Hills and the like

All I can recall is that it is supposed to be some new mixed used development which would have office, retail, and residential space.

I found this link but it's not exactly what I was looking for.

http://www.angelenic.com/2963/nikkei-center-revealed-new-renderings/

That was from two years ago... I guess things have changed. :( :sweat:

bmwracer wrote:
That was from two years ago... I guess things have changed. :( :sweat:

Yeah, like I said, I think one of the development's lead partners pulled out...not surprising given the crappy real estate market. Sucks though...I was looking forward to seeing a new Japanese influenced development to invigorate the area...maybe it's not completely dusted just on hold.

Tu_triky wrote:Yeah, like I said, I think one of the development's lead partners pulled out...not surprising given the crappy real estate market. Sucks though...I was looking forward to seeing a new Japanese influenced development to invigorate the area...maybe it's not completely dusted just on hold.

Well, if I had pocketed that 266M from the Mega a couple of weeks ago, I would've made a donation. :victory:

bmwracer wrote:
Well, if I had pocketed that 266M from the Mega a couple of weeks ago, I would've made a donation. :victory:

:rofl: Philanthropist now?

Tu_triky wrote: :rofl: Philanthropist now?

You've heard of Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football.... Fantasy Millionaire. :mrgreen:

bmwracer wrote:
You've heard of Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football.... Fantasy Millionaire. :mrgreen:

We shall dub thee Mitsuwa Millionaire.

San Jose's Japantown's new development is taking its time as well. :banghead:

Itazura ichiban wrote:San Jose's Japantown's new development is taking its time as well. :banghead:

It's gotta be the crappy economy. The real estate market is especially bad in CA, although I'm sure you are quite aware of that.

It's not bad if you're looking for cheap real estate. ;)

The city of Mountain View was turned around from urban blight to a destination city; my hope is that eventually SJ J'town will see that type of revitalization.

Itazura ichiban wrote:It's not bad if you're looking for cheap real estate. ;)

The city of Mountain View was turned around from urban blight to a destination city; my hope is that eventually SJ J'town will see that type of revitalization.

Back when I went to college up north at Cal, San Jose was a cow town...but with the explosion of the Silicon Valley and surrounding area, San Jose has come a long way so I'm sure it will continue to see future growth over the coming years and decades.

Re: San Francisco's Japantown



An All-Japanese Mash-Up
By BONNIE TSUI

[image]

THOUGH the Japantown area of San Francisco has remained largely static since the 1970s \ stretches of concrete, blocky mini-malls and lots of sushi restaurants \ a new wave of Japanese popular culture, from monster movies to Lolita dresses, has hit the area, thanks to the recent arrival of New People, a five-level, glass-walled, 20,000-square-foot shrine to all things Japanese.

Opened last August, New People (1746 Post Street; 415-525-8630; newpeopleworld.com) is a modern mash-up of culture, art, design and fashion. It has a ground-floor cafe that serves vegan doughnuts, Blue Bottle Coffee and bento boxes by Delica, the upscale Japanese deli. The next two floors are dedicated to merchandise, specializing in items rarely found outside Japan; one level carries a wide selection of books, stationery, music and other goods, including skinny silk neckties ($139) from the Japanese brand Giraffe and hand-printed postcards ($2.25) by the popular Tokyo-based artist Yuki Koishikawa.

The second level is mostly devoted to three permanent labels \ Black Peace Now; Sou-Sou; and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright \ that are all big players in Tokyo street fashion and run from punk-rock goth to Lolita schoolgirl chic. An additional rotating boutique space introduces other works to Western audiences, including a line of white ceramic pins and rings that sprout live moss ($190) by the jewelry designers On Za Line, and whimsical line drawings by Noritake, an artist who collaborates with fashion houses and magazines in Japan.

Seiji Horibuchi, who founded New People as an extension of VIZ Pictures, his San Francisco-based Japanese film distribution company, says that Japantown is on the cusp of change. gWefre just the beginning, I think, of a more recent, more modern presentation of Japan and Japanese popular culture here,h he said.

New People also has its own state-of-the-art movie theater, VIZ Cinema (vizcinema.com), billed as the only movie theater in the United States entirely dedicated to Japanese film. (Recent mini-festivals have focused on works by three of Japanfs most acclaimed directors: Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi.)

The complex also features its own art gallery, Superfrog (superfroggallery.com), named after a Haruki Murakami story, gSuper-Frog Saves Tokyo.h A recent exhibition at the art gallery, titled gThe Surf Shop,h was an experimental collaboration of 17 Japanese artists inspired by surf culture. The result was a multimedia extravaganza: hand-shaped balsa big-wave boards by Yoshihiko Kushimoto; a gSurfing Barbieh exhibition by the graphic designer Taku Satoh; menfs swallowtail suits reminiscent of surfboard designs, by Hiroshi Kubo; a glorious photograph of a stand-up paddleboarder in a snowy Japanese island riverscape, by Mie Kushimoto.

Superfrog is exhibiting works by the Taiwanese multimedia artist Yu-Cheng Chou through Aug. 1, in a show called gBecause 64 Crayons Made in the USA.h Fittingly for New People, much of his work is preoccupied with the globalization of cultures and the creative mash-up of new media.

gItfs kind of a hybrid space \ itfs not about ethis is all the cool stuff from Japan now,f g said Mika Anami, the manager of Superfrog. gThe whole thing speaks to the person who is borderless, taking in a lot of cultural influences and sensibilities, of Japanese pop culture and the Bay Area specifically to start.h

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/travel/27heads.html

^ We need something like that down here... Though that area around Sawtelle is sorta like that...

bmwracer wrote:^ We need something like that down here... Though that area around Sawtelle is sorta like that...

I agree. Yeah it'd be great. With a movie theater as an anchor to show Japanese and other foreign films.

Tu_triky wrote:I agree. Yeah it'd be great. With a movie theater as an anchor to show Japanese and other foreign films.

Yeah.

The Aratani Theater in Little Tokyo is sorta like that... But we need one outside of that area.

bmwracer wrote:
Yeah.

The Aratani Theater in Little Tokyo is sorta like that... But we need one outside of that area.

Yeah. I agree. Something new to garner some attention.

I didn't see that when we went to the Cherry Blossom matsuri, but I had my eyes on other things. :naughty:

Guess I'll be back to check it out.

bmwracer wrote:
Yeah.

The Aratani Theater in Little Tokyo is sorta like that... But we need one outside of that area.

We did, but not anymore. It was called The Imaginasian Center. I managed to see a few movies in there when it was in operation.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/imaginasian-center-los-angeles

Got some plans for Obon?

Super No. 1 wrote:

We did, but not anymore. It was called The Imaginasian Center. I managed to see a few movies in there when it was in operation.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/imaginasian-center-los-angeles

I went there a couple of times...it was a nice place actually but not terribly well integrated with the rest of Little Tokyo since it was located on Main St.

I remember attending films being showcased for the Japan Film Festival. Too bad it's gone.

After reading thru all your posts, quite jealous of all you out in CA. Up here in the boondocks of CNY, we have a small, small Japanese tea shop and that's it for up here for anything related to Japan, :puppydog: :shamefulcry: anyone know if NY has a little Tokyo or Japanese community?