Following on from last week's mention of Lang Leav's study of Japanese underground fashion, Cosplaying Lolita, everything you wanted to know about Japanese cosplaying, or costume playing, but were afraid to ask. Cosplay - short for "costume play" - is a popular pastime for anime and gamer geeks in Japan, who express their fandom by dressing in character. Some spend hundreds, even ... Read full entry

Australian fashion designer Lang Leav has written a fascinating account of her recent journey to Tokyo to study the Japanese underground fashion scene, and seek out market leads for her Akina label, as part of the Churchill Fellowship. I arrive in Japan in the midst of the harsh July summer at my share house in Nishi-Kawaguchi, an infamous red light district north ... Read full entry

For a minute I thought these "super toilets" could only be found in six-star hotels, but in Japan they are apparently a little more commonplace. While they sound like fun, these "always on" toilets are starting to take their toll on the environment though. Japanese toilets are super-bidets. As well as warming and washing one's bottom, they whisk away odours with built-in fans. Female-only ones play water noises that ... Read full entry

The 2005 movie Memoirs of a Geisha, and the recent rise of the "cyber-geisha", are behind a renewed interest in pursuing a career as the traditional dancer and entertainer, among young Japanese women Experts believe the recent surge in teenage girls hoping to enter the "floating world" of tea ceremonies, performing arts, and yes, flirtatious exchanges with inebriated clients, is evidence of renewed respect among the Japanese ... Read full entry

Lang Leav, who was recently awarded a Churchill Fellowship, launches The Akina Churchill Fellowship Project (PDF 3.07Mb approx). The ACF Project is an investigative study undertaken by Lang Leav in Tokyo from the 1st of July through to the 11th of August 2008. During this time, Lang will be working with Austrade to gain a rare insight into the inner workings of the Japanese fashion industry. On her ... Read full entry

Japan: Where URL's Are Totally Out Japanese advertisers use recommended search terms, rather than URLs, to promote websites, something Cabel Sasser noticed while in Japan recently. Within minutes of riding on the first trains in Japan, I notice a significant change in advertising, from train to television. The trend? No more printed URL's. The replacement? Search boxes! With recommended search terms!

Thumbs Race as Japan's Best Sellers Go Cellular. Do mobile phone "novels", stories written on phone keypads, present a threat to printed novels and books, in the same way as blogs are said to threaten the future of newspapers? This certainly appears to be the case in Japan, where the popularity of mobile phone novels is on the rise. Of last year's 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly ... Read full entry