Category: art

Day After Day: A Trip to the Dad Fresh Market (ADERerror)

Korea will always hold a special place in my heart because it’s the first country I ever felt truly “lost” in.  When I first visited Japan during my study abroad trip, I already had a basic grasp on the language and had the ability to ask for help and directions if needed.  Other Asian countries I’ve been to like Hong Kong and Thailand attract a great amount of foreign business and tourism, so there’s always some English guidance even if you don’t speak the native tongue.  Korea also attracts a number of foreigners, but it’s not really a place known for its beaches or resorts so outside of Seoul (and even within the city) there is limited English support.

Korean people are very educated and usually have a basic understanding of the English language, but those who do not go on to higher education usually don’t have much of a reason to study it (much like Japanese people).  Knowing absolutely no Hangul before coming to Korea made me experience an initial language barrier for the first time in my life, so I had to learn to think quickly on my feet and also always have my translation app at hand.  It was a bit frustrating at first and I regret not taking more time to learn basic Hangul, but not comprehending any of the language also made my trip a fun challenge while learning about a new culture.  I am very fortunate that people here were extremely kind to me.  An example: When I was too jetlagged to figure out how to get back the deposit on my subway card, a kind Korean man helped me work the machine so I could receive my change.  After he suggested we exchange contact information in case I needed help.  I sensed now ill will from his actions so I did so.  I am happy that I can feel safe at all times in this country.

Getting back to the story, I have visited Korea a total of three times: Once during the new year of 2018 visiting Seoul and Busan, again during 2018 for Golden Week exploring Jeju Island, and once again in 2019 for eye surgery (I will talk more about my operation next year).

In this article I would like to talk about one of my favorite glitches in the human paradigm fashion/avant-garde galleries: Adererror.  I stumbled upon this place while hunting for aesthetic things near Hongik University, and boy was I in paradise!  From cassette tapes to “Dad fresh markets”–this place had it all!

Dad fresh market!

Dad fresh market?! you ask, wondering if they are selling actual paternal figures at this display.  Fear not, because “Dad” actually stands for Day After Day which is popular designer soap brand sold on the first floor of this store.  I am sure the English-speaking visitors get a kick out of this when they first see it (I sure did).

Here are more fantastic sights of the latest 2019 display:

The neon blue “THE BLUEST BLUE” sign immediately made me think of in the blue shirt.  I opened a closet to find 3 TVs flickering with images of owls.  One room was filled with a broken popcorn machine.  Another room was completely upside down.  Was that an iPhone glued to the bathroom door?  And who put the plant in the bathtub!?  All these sights made the Dad fresh market seem like a normality.

The 2018 display also raised some questions:

FLOWRS.  IN.  URINALS.  SOAPINTOILET.  Using tissue boxes as wallpaper?  Plants climbing ladders.  Mattresses chilling with speakers.  More neon signs and pressed pink rocks.  What is the true meaning of “Day After Day” anyway?  Add all of these questions with my inability to comprehend Hangul, and you have complete sensory overload.  The best part was that I was enjoying every second of this.  Being in a foreign country without having any idea how to speak the language, and stumbling upon a place as unique as this–it was like a fantasy come true.

Clothing aside (which I was almost too memorized to look at, but I did do some browsing), Adererror is a masterpiece.  And to think this was just the beginning of my wild adventures in Korea.  TO BE CONTINUED…

M3秋2019: Attending M3 for the First Time

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend M3, one of Japan’s biggest interactive multimedia events that is essentially the Comiket of music.  M3 is a great opportunity for aspiring artists and record labels because they are able to rent a booth and distribute their music in addition to connecting with other artists and fans.  I like this kind of event because it preserves the culture of physical music distribution and a lot of the music sold here is unavailable online so you won’t be able to find it elsewhere.  The same goes for the merchandise (such as hats and bags) as well.  There is also a space where you can freely listen to select music with your own headphones or have the option of renting some.  It’s very exciting to wander around here because you can literally see the happiness of people as they connect with the artists they love.

Getting to M3

M3 takes place at Tokyo Ryutsu Center, which consists of six exhibition stalls and a conference center with multiple floors.  This complex is actually really close to Haneda airport, so I rode the local Tokyo-Monorail towards Haneda-Airport Terminal 2 to reach it.  The event goes from 11:00 – 15:30, and I arrived at 11:30 just to avoid the initial crowds.  My timing was perfect because it only took me around 5 minutes to register and I was able to visit the 3 booths that I wanted.  The entrance fee is 1500 yen, plus it includes a guide with all of the participants listed and a map which is quite handy.

Navigating M3

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The floorplan of M3秋2019.

Navigating M3 is quite daunting at first, because each booth is identified with a letter and a series of numbers.  The booths are placed side by side and there’s a lot going on so it’s really easy to walk past the one you’re looking for.  Not only do they use all 26 letters of the English alphabet in the booth naming system, but they also use Japanese hiragana and katakana consonants and vowels as well.  There is very little English guidance and I don’t think much of the staff speaks English, so I would strongly recommend researching the artists/circles you’re interested in and finding exactly where their booth is placed before you come here.  It is extremely fun to wander around, but sadly there is not enough time to fully experience each and every artist’s music as this is only a one day event.  I would advise you to plan ahead so you can make the most of your time here.

Buying Music at M3

The CD I was most interested in buying was TVR Compilation Vol. 1, which is from a relatively new independent label in Asia.  One of my favorite artists who I’ve written about before; in the blue shirt, has released a rare song that is only obtainable at M3.

Here is the preview of the compilation that was uploaded a few weeks before:

Fortunately when I arrived there were multiple copies of the compilation I wanted, and the people running the booth were quite friendly and gave me an extra CD along with my purchase so it was an extremely good experience.  The compilation was only 1000 yen and was more than worth the cost.  All of the artists on the compilation have experience in the music industry, so it was quite the noteworthy compilation.

The first time I ever saw in the blue shirt at Lounge Neo in 2017, he played the song 「Dreamin’ of You」as an exclusive song in his set.  I’ve wanted the song for the longest time but I could never obtain it until now.  Finally in 2019 it was officially released as a part of this compilation, and I am very happy to officially have it in my collection now!

In addition to TVR’s booth, I also checked out the booths for Miraicha and Lipgloss Records.  I bought some merch for my friends overseas who couldn’t be here, and also picked up the Departure CD early that a lot of artists I know have collaborated on.  While I was here I saw so many familiar names of Japanese artists like IOSYS and ave;new that I listened to in high school through the internet, so I felt extremely nostalgic even though it was my first time here.  I had an amazing time even though I was only here to purchase a few things.  It truly felt like a dream to be here.

Closing Remarks

Overall M3 is a really friendly event that is perfect for networking and sharing music.  All of the music and merch is extremely affordable (most CDs are sold for 1200 yen on average), and I like knowing that all of the profits go to the artists and record labels (in addition to the booth rental fee).  M3 is quite comparable to Comiket, but not as big and daunting.  The size of the event center was enough to accommodate all of the artists and crowds of people, so I was relieved that I didn’t have to deal with long wait lines or commuter traffic on the trains.  All of the artists I talked to were happy to meet me, so I left the event center with an extremely good feeling.  If you love Japanese music as much as I do, please consider checking M3 out!

*M3 is a seasonal event, so you can check the latest information on their official website here.

Adventures in Adelaide (Southern Australia)

Since a huge part of why I traveled to Australia was to see wildlife reserves and nature, my friend and I decided to fly to Adelaide for 4 days from Melbourne since this is the place where he grew up.  Like Perth, Adelaide is considered to be one of the smaller and more remote cities of Australia, but it actually has a number of unique attractions worth seeing.  Not only is it one of the two places in the country where you can hold koalas at the Cleland Wildlife Park, but it also has a yearly event called the Fringe with a number of theater and festive events.  Though my time here was very short compared to Melbourne, Adelaide left a huge impression on me and I hope to visit here again in the future!

After landing, the first thing I noticed about the city was the beautiful trees and architecture of the houses.  Though the spring season had just begun, the temperature here was much warmer than it was in Melbourne.  We were staying with a friend who conveniently lived near the airport so it was fortunately convenient to get around by using Uber and the trams.  Since the weather was in our favor we decided to go to Glenelg Beach and soak up the sun for a while.  This beach is perhaps one of the most popular because it is near Jetty Square that is filled with shops and boutiques.  I enjoyed the laidback atmosphere here and managed to relax a lot.  It was just what I needed to rejuvenate myself.

All of the food we had here was absolutely amazing.  I had a delicious chai latte sprinkled with cocoa powder at a cafe called Cibo, which I highly recommend.  Though I currently reside in Japan, I was curious to try the sushi here so we decided to eat at the conveyor belt sushi chain Kintaro.  Surprisingly, their sashimi selection was quite tasteful, and I enjoyed the heaping amount of sauce they put on my avocado crab sushi.  Next up were the Japanese Wasabi Doritos we found at Coles Supermarkets.  They were almost overpowering, but worth it for the meme factor.

We spent a lot of our time here catching up with friends, watching anime, drinking at home, and relaxing, but we were still able to see a lot of the city in the time that we spent here.  My friend went through his anime figure collection and found his Rei Ayanami piece that was actually the top of a pachinko machine in Japan, so it was definitely worth the trip.  One of my favorite landmarks here were the silver balls, or “gintama” as you would say in Japanese:

Apparently they are quite a popular meetup spot in central Adelaide–kind of of like a miniature version of the bean in Chicago.  We also visited an anime store called Shin Tokyo which surprisingly had quite a good selection of goods (way better than where I grew up in Michigan), and hilariously I found stuffed kangaroo balls at a souvenir shop nearby.  There was also something mysterious for sale for $15.  This city seemed to be full of humorous content for some reason:

Another awesome place I highly recommend checking out is called MOD.  This is a futuristic museum with interactive exhibits that will help you discover “hedonism”, or the pursuit of happiness.  They had various happiness simulators here; including one that gave you believable compliments to boost your confidence, and another that had classic games like Solitaire and Minesweeper that would auto-win the game for you with just the press of a button (but it seemed like a fair game at first).  They also had surveys regarding what makes the ideal workplace, and we found some interesting results (see the picture of the coffee cups for reference).

I jokingly called this museum the teamLab of Adelaide, because some of the exhibits have similar concepts with lighting and projected images.  I was actually really impressed with the technology they used for their giant globe that you could spin and interact with.  You could create your own character using touch screens to live out various scenarios through the Symbiosville simulation.  In this exhibit, you will learn through trial and error how to keep you and the people around you happy.  I think this is a vital skill in life.

In my next blog entry, I will talk about my experience hanging out with kangaroos, koalas, and other wildlife in Adelaide.  I hope that more people will make the journey out to this city, because it truly is an interesting place!

Exploring Aesthetic Art Galleries in Melbourne

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Upside-down kanji has never looked better in this florescent lighting.

While traveling on my spontaneous two week trip to Australia, I decided to peruse the National Gallery of Victory (NGV) in central Melbourne to see some aesthetic works of art.  Needless to say with their large collection of traditional paintings, sculptures, stained glass, and pottery, I was not disappointed by their selection.  Most of the exhibitions here are completely free to enter.  Only the rotating featured exhibit has an entrance fee.  Since it was one related to Asia (where I currently reside), I decided to skip it and see the other permanent parts of gallery instead.  Most of them were pretty awe-inspiring with pieces of art from all around the world:

The first room we entered had European oil canvas paintings that I found to be quite thought-provoking.  Some of the art were beautiful portraits of woman and landscapes, but others depicted quite sad themes like war and death.  I really liked how the portraits were juxtaposed on the bright red wall–I had to walk around this room several times so I could fully let the context of it all set in.

In the connecting hallways were displays of pottery from various centuries (I was especially fond of the vase with booty painted on it), sculptures, a rocking chair, and other interesting works; like a horse with a lamp on its head.  On the top floor is a beautiful stained glass window that illuminates the performance hall.  They also had some really derpy paintings of animals, and one wall of art depicted a hint of bestiality, but it was discrete and as tasteful as possible.

My favorite exhibit was definitely the neon upside-down kanji room.  It only exemplifies the difficulty of learning kanji as a westerner:

The final room we entered had shapes made completely out of pages from books which gave them a unique texture.  There was also the “Ship of Time” exhibit you could walk through to find the inner peace depicted in Zhuangzi’s parable.  Once again it was a lot to take in at once, but I managed to successfully cross over:

Overall this was probably the best free museum I have stumbled upon in my travels.  I was impressed with all of the diversity it had to offer, and despite my initial jetlag I had a lot of fun reading about the exhibits.  Be sure to check out the NGV if you ever are in Melbourne!  There is also the Eureka Skydeck nearby where you can see a beautiful view of the the city.

“Moment” by Bahi JD Exhibition at Shinjuku Ophthalmologist Gallery

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Framed album artwork for Carpainter’s “Returning” (2017).

If you have any interest in animation, please stop by the Shinjuku Ophthalmologist Gallery and check out this amazing exhibition by Austrian artist Bahi JD, who has worked as a key animator for various Japanese companies and has created many original designs. Not only has he drawn covers for Carpainter albums (“Returning” and “Digital Harakiri”), but he’s also drawn his own original manga (“地球のマグノリア”) and has worked intricately animating scenes of Blade Runner, Fate/Apocrypha, SSSS.GRIDMAN, and more, as well as his own original GIFs that went viral. I’m really lucky I had the opportunity to meet him here, as I have cherished his art for a while!

For those who would like to see the in-depth animation process behind his works; a room of the gallery is covered with stills and a looping video so you can see each individual frame of his original animation up close:

Most recently Bahi has created the storyboard for and directed the beautiful opening for the anime “Carole and Tuesday” which premiered April 10, 2019:

The dynamic colors and physics he uses in his animations are quite unique and highly entertaining to watch! I hope people who are interested in working in animation can see this, as he is a major inspiration as a foreign artist that is very successful now in Japan.  

For more information on his work, please see his online portfolio, and stop by this gallery which will be available until July 3rd, 2019.  There will likely be more of his works display in the future, which I will be sure to visit and write about!

Menmeiz Retro Aesthetic Vaporwave/Citypop Art Gallery

If you’ve ever walked through the streets of Tokyo, you’re probably familiar with flashing neon lights, the bustling districts highlighting fashion and music, and the fleeting nostalgic moments you feel as people in this city come and go.

In the most recent gallery/pop-up store by Menmeiz, vintage and retro-inspired artwork is on display from various artists on the 4th floor of Beams Japan in Shinjuku. The artist I wanted to see the most was Shiho So, who has not only done VJ work for some of my favorite DJs in Tokyo, but also has designed posters, album covers, and a book cover for “Ring of the Day” too!  Her art combines pastel colors with a retro art style that is reminiscent of the 80s in Japan.

In addition to brightly-colored balloons, shirts, hair accessories, zines, posters, and wands, this gallery also features citypop music by Night Tempo for the best viewing experience!  Conveniently located next to this exhibit, there is a store with vintage Sony stereos and cassettes for sale.

If you would like to know more about vaporwave and how this kind of internet subculture originated, you can browse through zines on the table for more information.  I personally enjoyed the one titled “ももたろう/PEACH BOY” because it was a nice homage of the old Japanese classic.

If you are in Shinjuku, please be sure to check this gallery out!  It is only viewable for the short duration of June 14th – June 23rd, but there will be more events like this available in the future.

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“Cube” by Manabu Koga at Clear Art Gallery Tokyo

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By capturing photos of scuba diving models underwater and using editing software to place different angles of them within cubes from a unique point of view, artist Manabu Koga combined two of his major passions (both swimming and plastic models) with his latest artistic work “Cube“.

Displayed at Clear Gallery Tokyo in Roppongi from May 17 – June 15, 2019, this was a free exhibit that thoroughly showed the process in which these works were created.  In addition to several portraits that were hung on the wall, a detailed movie was displayed on a projector showcasing all of the models that participated, and also how the images were placed to make this highly aesthetic cube:

The short movies of each model were really fun to watch, because it was evident that each girl had her own individual style and attitude she put on for the shoot.  Photo books and magazines of Koga’s past works were also available for browsing.

This gallery was small in size, but was one of the striking galleries I have seen in Tokyo.  I very much enjoyed seeing the unlikely combination of kneesocks and athletic swimsuits being paired together.  I would love to try modeling for or shooting a future project like this in the future, and I look forward to seeing more of Koga’s art!

Yayoi Kusama Exhibit: Plants and I

Earlier this month I decided to visit the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Shinjuku, Japan, due to my fascination with her intricately dotted sculptures and paintings that gained a lot of popularity through social media. The exhibit that I saw was titled I Want You to Look at My Prospects for the Future: Plants and I.

The 5 floor museum consisted of a variety of hand-painted pieces, as well as art books you could browse through on the top floor. There was also a beautiful outdoor exhibit of a giant shimmering pumpkin and fantastic view of the city.

Additionally, there was a dark room you could go in with glowing pumpkins. They reminded me of lanterns because they had a very soft glow:

I found this museum to be quite interesting because before each main exhibit, there was poetry printed on the wall about Kusama’s thoughts and feelings about the artwork. In the first poem which is found at the entrance of the museum, she talks about her strong aspirations for us to understand her art since she infused her soul into this museum, and hope that it leads us to peace:

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When she writes about her obsessions of pumpkins and violets, you can see a stark contrast in her feelings. When she describes her love of pumpkins, she talks about how she “cannot efface the joy of them being my everything” and wishes for us humans to unearth ourselves and discover how we should live our lives in harmony like pumpkins in a pumpkin patch.

However, when she talks violets, you can see their is an evident fear of her losing her voice and becoming older. I interpreted both of these poems to be a metaphor for growth. With her pumpkin display, she wishes for humanity to grow in harmony. With her violet obsession (or fear), she is afraid of losing her youth and growing older. However, both are inevitable things in our mortal lives, and there is a lot that can be learned by accepting growth and change in our lives:

Unfortunately photography was only allowed on the top and bottom floors, but I had a very relaxing time walking through this museum and learning about Kusama’s artistic vision.  The exhibitions at this museum change every few months, but you can see the current exhibitions listed here.  The entrance fee is only 1000 yen, and you must purchase tickets in advance online, but it is well worth it for the experience.  I hope this museum continues its visitors to grow and accept change!