Hello Kitty Bike Tires

Ha! Found this during my morning “pretend I’m working hard at my desk routine” at J-O-B.

Check out the tread…you can cop your set for your nifty bike at nirve.com

Not sure if this was a good idea…

Via Engadget.

Light Painting

or light writing is starting to pick up steam with several youtube and flickr groups.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainted/

http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=lightwriting

16-Bit Halftime Show

pretty cool!

The Cal Marching Band’s Amazing 16-bit Video Game Halftime Show (click)

Oil Spill in SF Bay

If you live in the bay area, you’ve already heard the news about the cargo ship hitting the bay bridge. This resulted in a HUGE spill of 50,000+ gallons of fuel oil all over the bay area beaches and on sea and wildlife animals. So much so..that the community has been eager to lend a helping hand.

Crissy Field

Globs of oil were found all over the beach.

Bags of oil already collected.

Today, I took a day off and joined a grassroots organization of kiteboarders, surfers, members of Surfrider, and the community-at-large where we met at Ocean Beach by (Noriega/Great Hwy) to try and clean up some of the oil.

If you’d like to get involved visit http://www.sfsurfrider.org/ or http://zunasurf.wordpress.com/ . I believe there will be more beach cleanups this weekend.

Day trip to Osaka

So we decided to take a day trip to Osaka, which is less then 20 minutes on a Shinkasenfrom Kyoto. We walked to a region of Osaka called Amerika-Mura (or America Village), when we saw stickers that were very familiar. It was a sign for a record store called Uprise Market.

It is a really cool record store that carries many of the same record labels and clothing lines as TGP!

We met one of the owners, DJ K-Flash, who was also rocking the Stones Throw Outline Tee.

We chatted about the hip-hop scene and perused the shop. Definitely, check this store out if you are in Osaka. Also, pick up DJ K-Flash’s CD, it is a great mix.

Shigureden Museum

Making our way south of Tokyo, we visited Kyoto and headed over to the Arashiyama region to visit the Shigureden Museum.

The owner of Nintendo created this interactive museum featuring Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Ogura Anthology of 100 Poems by 100 Poets). As soon as you enter and pay the fee, you are asked to remove your shoes . When you walk into the exhibit you are given a Nintendo DS which acts as your navi. Be warned, that the exhibit is in Japanese only. We were lucky to have one of the staff members who spoke a little english approach us and offer an explanation the games and how to ‘play’ them.

The room is darkly lit and you immediately notice the digital panel squares on the floor. The first “game” asks you to step on the screeens and immediately, your DS reacts and greets you! The grid floor morphs into a aerial view of Kyoto.

The screen on the DS navi then becomes a list of locations (again, in Japanese). Once you make a selection, a little animated bird appears on the floor by your feet that waits for you to “follow”. Pointing your DS in the same direction, you follow your bird to the destination you selected on the navi. How sweet!

Don’t want to spoil the rest of the exhibit, as there are several other exhibits to interact with.

Note: We went by the directions on the website, which basically said, get off the train at the station and walk 15 minutes…grab a map by the shrines in Arashiyama and ask for directions. It’s kind of in the cutty.

More Japan: Animation, Video Games, and Bootlegs

If you ever visit Japan and are big into the old animation. You must check the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It is about 25 minutes west of Tokyo on the subway. Totoro, Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service…fans will recognize. Tickets are available at JTB travel agencies where you can purchase vouchers if you live oversees.

Picture taking is prohibited inside, but trust me, it’s well worth the visit.

Another area to visit is Akihabara, where you get a major dose of electronics, video games, and gadgets.

For you video game addicts, if you can find it head to Super Potato. It’s literally five floors of vintage and hard to find video games, consoles, portables and game-related toys. Most of the stock is primarily Japanese Nintendo Famicom products but best believe you’ll find something from your childhood! Again, no picture-taking allowed inside.

While shopping for goods, I came across these bags. Upon closer inspection, the art looked rather familiar…

Old Upper Playground designs…bootlegged!

Speaking of Upper Playground, Rich Jacobs art sighting:

London Police, Faille, and many more. I actually trip/stepped on the first/last homeless person I’ve seen:

Obey sighting:

Back from Tokyo

I decided not to post from Japan for the sake of finally “unwiring” myself from all things internet-related. I’ll post in parts, as we took about 8 gigs worth of photos…Our first days we stayed in an area called Meguro-ku, known for its many design, architecture and modern furniture stores.

First morning sunrise.

The first thing you’ll notice are the vending machines that are found on just about every corner and alleyway.  So convenient since we walked all over the place.

Went into a store in Daikayama and recognized a familiar artist, Pnut Gallinsky!

to be continued…Shibuya…

Wii

So I’m a little late, but I finally got a Wii. Found one while shopping for a memory card for my Japan trip. I was having fun with the internet browser:

Not another blog…

Yes you will follow me.