Some of the interesting videos I had from my trip that I thought I’d share.
Below is a very quick tour of the gallery space from the opening night. Some pieces i went over faster than others and that was totally random and had to do with trying to maneuver around the tight space kind of quickly. So anyway, this does not represent fully the greatness that was “Made in Japan”, but it is still fun to see, and no offense to any of my colleagues. love, mike
So today was a fairly insignificant day of working on some writing in our hotel. I got up pretty early and we were just hanging in our room all morning and that is pretty much it… wait…. wasn’t there something else… hmmm…. oh yeah….. A FRICKEN EARTHQUAKE!
So we were just sitting in our room and suddenly I felt really dizzy and I looked up and saw the blinds in the building across from us swaying. That is when I realized that it wasn’t as much me just feeling dizzy, but more like the whole 24 story building was swaying. It was quite a surreal experience that lasted for about a minute. I called the front desk and they said that if I was worried the best thing was to stay in my room, because the building is earthquake proof or something like that. So that made us feel better, but needless to say we went to the bottom floor to get some fresh air!
It is apparently common to feel earthquakes at least 2 times a month here in Japan, but they are not strong enough to cause damage as most buildings are built for that. The one we felt was just an aftershock wave and there wasn’t damage at all near us.
Went to the Advertising Museum Tokyohere in Tokyo of all places.
Nice mirrored ceilings in the museum. This is the last photo in the museum before be were told we couldn’t take photos. haha!
We also went to the G8 gallery that was a few blocks from the ADMT to see a graphic design exhibition called “Good Graphic Design Awards”. Typical logo found on business trucks. Cute characters are not just all over Japan… they ARE Japan!
We took the bullet train out of Tokyo to the city of Kyoto, which is about 2 hours from here on the train. It was a nice ride on the train and apparently we were going about 200mph!
A little taste of home. This little pouch has vanilla ice cream that you eat as it melts and it’s just like a milkshake.
Sheer amazement at the architecture at the Kyoto train station! My reaction to most things here… well I guess this looks more like extreme fear, but I was amazed believe me.
Buddhist temple
Niji Castle in Kyoto. These girl were interviewing us as an assignment for their English class.
The whole crew
Why not have a slide at your door? So fast, fun, and fantastic!
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DAY 8 Tokyo Tower visit
Tokyo Tower: 13 meters taller then the Eiffel Tower, but very similar in many ways.
Of course this is the mascot for the tower. A giant pink candle-like doll…? don’t ask me.
Very nifty ad for a Smart car. Japan has many many vending machines so this company took that aspect of Japanese life and made a car vending machine as a car ad! You can’t actually get the car, but you can push a button and get free information. A great way to send a message about compactness and affordability, and hundreds of people pass by every day.
The view from the top of the tower… yes that is a braille information plate at this lookout point. I’m not sure who would torture a blind person by bringing them to a place with a beautiful view of the city.
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DAY 8 HARAJUKU - GALLERY VISIT
Design Festa Gallery - At the end of the month we will be displaying the art we have been working on at this gallery in Harajuku. It is a sweet local art gallery that seems to get lots of visitors.
This morning we left at 6am for the Tokyo fish market. An amazing experience! After our initial walk through we stopped and ate the freshest sushi I think I will ever eat!
This is a random coffee drink called “Boss” sold in vending machines everywhere. Yes that is Tommy Lee Jones promoting it!!! There are big name American actors in ads all over.
Our fearless leader Doug Barrett as we are entering the market.
Nice mirrored ceilings in the museum. This is the last photo in the museum before be were told we couldn’t take photos. haha!
We also went to the G8 gallery that was a few blocks from the ADMT to see a graphic design exhibition called “Good Graphic Design Awards”.
Typical logo found on business trucks. Cute characters are not just all over Japan… they ARE Japan!
Niji Castle in Kyoto. These girl were interviewing us as an assignment for their English class.
The whole crew
Very nifty ad for a Smart car. Japan has many many vending machines so this company took that aspect of Japanese life and made a car vending machine as a car ad! You can’t actually get the car, but you can push a button and get free information. A great way to send a message about compactness and affordability, and hundreds of people pass by every day.
Our breakfast every morning. 
Sweet pattern on the Bowie wall.
Lunch at the top of the museum.
Beautiful view from the top of the museum, but the lunch was unfortunate for me. It was raw tuna in a white slime that was very hard to deal with.
