FT Wastes Time, Money in Tokyo.

[Mulboyne]

The FT ran a travel feature on Japan at the weekend. Tyler Brule, founder of Wallpaper magazine, comes up with a dull and expensive Tokyo itinerary.
FT: Every hour counts in Tokyo

07.00. Wake up at the Four Seasons Marunouchi, don your running gear and make your way to the Imperial Palace's perimeter path. There you'll join diplomats, bankers and perfectly coiffed students doing a lap.
8.15. Make for the hotel's gym and take 20 minutes in the small-ish spa. As it's fully stocked with toiletries, you won't need to shower in your room.
9.30. Leave the hotel armed with an umbrella and wander over to US gourmet food shop Dean & DeLuca for a coffee.
10.00. Sort out Christmas gifts by purchasing gift sets from toiletry company Marks & Web. Owned by Matsuyama, the Marks & Web brand makes excellent-quality, lightly scented shampoos and shower gels. [etc etc]

And this from Okinawa: FT: Raw fish with a dash of amiability

The sun was scorching my neck. The murky water was approaching my waist. My shoes were sticking to the muddy bed. If I kept fiddling with my digi-camera, I was going to fall in.
Such were the complications of producing sashimi from scratch. We were wading through the gloop of an Okinawan waterway to net some fish, led by the owner of our minshuku inn. But the blase; old man wasn't hanging around for his guests. [click headline for more]

[Taro Toporific]

The FT ran a travel feature on Japan at the weekend. Tyler Brule, founder of Wallpaper magazine, comes up with a dull and expensive Tokyo itinerary.
FT: Every hour counts in Tokyo

Tyler FT's Most Excellent Vacation Simulacrum

07.00. Wake up at the Four Seasons Marunouchi [$900+/DAY EUROPEAN]... and ..running ...the Imperial Palace's perimeter path [FERO-CONCRETE, ITALIAN]

8.15. hotel's gym [FAKE CALIFORNIAN]

9.30. Dean & DeLuca [SORT-OF AMERICA] for a coffee...digested the Asian edition of this newspaper [AMERICAN]

10.00. The Marunouchi Building shopping --- Marks & Web [FAKE BRITISH]

12.00. EAT tonkatsu [FAKE PORTUGUESE ]

13.00. Marunouchi Building Sovereign House [FAKE BRITISH]

14.30. Aoyama back-streets [FAKE WEALTH IN A SLUM ENVIRONMENT]

17.00. Roppongi-- Adam & Eve--- Korean body scrubs [FAKE KOREAN]

19.00. --- Roppongi Hills -- Tsutaya books [ENrISH BOOKS] --- Mori art collection. [COLLECTED EUROPEAN]

21.00. Higashiyama lounge Kyushu inspired [NOT TOKYO CUISINE]

23.00. Day is done. The best bit about the Four Seasons with the concierge [FAKE FRENCH/SWISS] -Narita Express [AHHHH, FINALLY REAL TOKYO!]

[Mulboyne]

I especially like his advice that going to the tonkatsu restaurant at 12:00 would "beat the lunch rush".

[Taro Toporific]

I especially like his advice that going to the tonkatsu restaurant at 12:00 would "beat the lunch rush".

Maybe that place is never crowded since tonkatsu lunch starts at 6,000yen, hee, hee.

the little minx's diary / 11.9.2004
6:46 AM

Two days ago, I lifted the window shade on the plane, nearing the end of a fourteen hour flight, and thought oh. the sky is blue over Japan, too. Never mind that I had no idea what new color to expect of the sky: I had simply expected something different.
My boyfriend is at business meetings all week, while I am navigating a new an unfamiliar city on my own. Because of this, and because we are staying in the hotel that Lost in Translation was set in, I have wondered when my lost-in-translation moment is going to happen. I thought it walking around Ginza yesterday. In Shibuya. In Aoyama. In Mukagaoka-Yuen. At the park of minka-en. I even have little thought sentences that attempt to spur on a grand whistfulness about my life, and how the fact that I don't speak Japanese, or read more than 10 kanji, or read zero hiragana or katakana, may be taken as a metaphor that my lover does not understand me. The voice says hey! that was your lost-in-translation moment. But my life is not a movie, or an audition for a movie, and so this moment has not happened. It will surely come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that none of the conditions that were documented in the film apply to me. I'm not unhappy that my boyfriend has business here: business is what enables us to visit, and to stay in such a spectacular hotel. I'm not alienated by being the only gaijen on a commuter train: after all, I live in New York, and it's not uncommon for me to be the only Caucasian on a train. I'm not frustrated by not speaking or reading the language: even my French is poor enough for me to be mostly mute when I'm in Paris. And again: I live in New York, and it's not uncommon for me to be amongst those who speak no English. I have no desire to meet a washed-up soap actor at the New York Bar and Grill on the 41st floor of the Shinjuku Park Hyatt. ...more...endlessly more...<yawn>...

[Captain Japan]

12.00. If you have a taste for tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets), beat the lunch rush and grab a table at Katsugen. The menu tells a happy tale about how the piggies that show up on the lunch trays live on a diet of sweet potato. I really felt I could taste the difference.

He had to have been drunk when he wrote that part.

[Captain Japan]

The selection of architecture books is outstanding and you can replenish your collection of J-Pop.

That is really, really funny.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Holy shit! I've had hangovers more enjoyable than his planned day in Tokyo. How could a human being be so boring? Actually, he could probably get a job planning trips for Japanese group tours.

[Mulboyne]

Our friend Tyler Brule of the FT (FT Wastes Time, Money in Tokyo) is back again this week with a guide to top spots in London. It looks like he thinks he is still in Japan.

Japanese Haircut
A good Japanese haircut takes at least 90 minutes - it involves a 10-minute hair wash session, 10-minute massage and a long luxurious rinse. The Michio Salon on Avery Row in Mayfair is currently the best in class
Dinner at Defune
My friend calls Defune in George Street the "tunnel to Takashimaya" because as you descend into this Japanese restaurant, it feels like you might emerge in Tokyo's Ginza district. The restaurant covers all the bases from tonkatsu to teppan-yaki with faultless service
Post-dinner drinks at Shouchu[actual bar name is Shochu]
The owners of Zuma have done an excellent job of bringing a Meguro style to Charlotte Street with this cosy little drinking hole. Given the reputation of the kitchen, the bar menu could well be the best in the capital.
Karaoke at Cousin Jill's
London is not great late at night but if you know Cousin Jill of Albermarle Street and how to behave in a proper karaoke setting, this could become the nightspot you've been looking for.

[Taro Toporific]

Our friend Tyler Brule of the FT (FT Wastes Time, Money in Tokyo) is back again this week with a guide to top spots in London. It looks like he thinks he is still in Japan.

Japanese Haircut
Dinner at Defune
Post-dinner drinks at Shouchu[actual bar name is Shochu]
Cousin Jill of Albermarle Street and how to behave in a proper karaoke setting,

I was thinking about the so-called reporter Tyler Brule's focus on Korean bathhouses and the "surfaces: in Tokyo.
It sounded odd. I guess he has lived a very geigh life after his fun in Afghanistan ...

Tyler Brule - activities of founder of Wallpaper magazine
The Advocate, August 14, 2001
Sometimes you've got to get shot in order to make a few changes--just ask the late Andy Warhol (actually, don't bother, he won't respond) or Tyler Brule. Long a journalist focusing on fashion, celebrity, and--occasionally--gay and political issues, the Canada-born, London-based Brule was undertaking one of his more. "serious" assignments in Afghanistan in 1994 when he was shot. Twice. While recovering in a hospital, Brule decided to focus his attentions on the "good life" from then on. That drive led to his developing Wallpaper magazine, a superslick publication dedicated to dreamy interiors, luxurious living, fabulous furniture....

"... international trend forecaster Tyler Brule, 35, has been called many things.
Style guru. Fashion maven. The pope of yuppie chic.......One recent [trend] prediction was the end of luxury."

[Mulboyne]

Tyler Brule is back. After his inciteful guide to a day in Tokyo, Tyler has some export recommendations for Japan to "re-establish its global influence". Here are my favourites:
FT.com A Plan for Japan
Taxi culture
Japan's taxi drivers may not always know where they're going but they certainly look great doing it. From boots full of feather dusters and cleaning products to the doily-covered seats to the white-glove service, Tokyo's drivers could easily take their act on the road and create the world's first global taxi brand in the process.
Royal Host
Royal Host, or RoyHo for those in the know, is Japan's response to family dining and boasts one of the best logos in the catering business. Whether you're in the market for a stack of pancakes or a plate of gyoza, RoyHo offers up all kinds of Japanese and western classics with calorie scores and reasonable prices. With so many restaurant chains attempting to go gourmet, Royal Host is dedicated to delivering unpretentious, homely comfort food.
Civilised society
Much has been made of the UK bringing in a Boston super cop to sort out its crime problems. He's not the answer. The UK, and a shopping list of other countries, need to cut to the core and build a better society, not just curb break-ins. For a substantial fee, Japan's foreign ministry could start offering consultancy packages for other countries whose citizens seem to have misplaced their manners and morals.

EDIT: New Link

[Captain Japan]

Civilised society
Much has been made of the UK bringing in a Boston super cop to sort out its crime problems. He's not the answer. The UK, and a shopping list of other countries, need to cut to the core and build a better society, not just curb break-ins. For a substantial fee, Japan's foreign ministry could start offering consultancy packages for other countries whose citizens seem to have misplaced their manners and morals.

If he keeps this up, Tyler is going to have an FG thread all to himself.

[Taro Toporific]

Tyler Brule is back. After his inciteful guide to a day in Tokyo, Tyler has some export recommendations for Japan to "re-establish its global influence". Here are my favourites:
FT.com A Plan for Japan

I loooove Tyler's unintended humor in saying,"Japan's big retailers might want to show Tesco how it's really done."

Aside from that joke, how can the FT.com stand the stink of these paid placements for products?

Arrow bicycles
Arrow Bicycles make some of the handsome-looking two-wheelers on the streets of Aoyama and Ebisu....

Royal Host
Royal Host, or RoyHo for those in the know, is Japan's response to family dining and boasts one of the best logos in the catering businesscomfort food.

Premium fashion shops.
United Arrows, Tomorrowland and Beams, three of Japan's biggest premium fashion retailers

[Captain Japan]

Tyler Brule is back. After his inciteful guide to a day in Tokyo, Tyler has some export recommendations for Japan to "re-establish its global influence"

This past week's had the following in reference to his personal wish list:

Japanese dream home
As I've yet to shed my current obsession with Japan, I'd like to find a nice plot of land on the island of Kyushu and commission architect Shuwa Tei to design a modernist beach bungalow with a volcanic rock swimming pool and a stand-alone studio where my mum can paint. In the driveway there would be a Toyota Century (complete with driver) and Arrow bicycles for trip to the shops.

You can reach him here: tyler.brule@ft.com

[Samurai_Jerk]

I can't tell you how much I want to kick Brule's ass.

[Mulboyne]

I can't tell you how much I want to kick Brule's ass.

You could try heading for Okinawa and listening out for K-pop coming from a bungalow.
FT.com: Don't spend - create

As you prepare to welcome in 2005 and contemplate what to do with the extra pounds, euros, dollars and francs that will soon find their way into your account, I thought I might offer a little creative direction if you're stumped on where to deploy your funds...
Three months in Okinawa (&#8364]
Why not take a sabbatical that sees you return to work leaner, more learned and likely to live longer? Never mind all the faddish nonsense about the "Okinawa way" of living, just go there and switch off. Bring a steamer trunk full of books, find a bungalow to rent, install a high-speed broadband connection, go for morning swims and evening runs, and track down a nice lady to cook for you twice a day. It will add years.
[b]Curate a collection of K-Pop (<€1k)
South Korea has been turning out some excellent music acts that will appeal to anyone whose taste veers toward pure, plastic pop. First purchase should be Rollercoaster's Sunsick, forward to the track "Rainbow" and hit play.

Tyler Brule

[Captain Japan]

I can't tell you how much I want to kick Brule's ass.

Doing a Google search for Tyler brings up this thread on the second page. He's bound to find this if we keep it up.

[Mulboyne]

The full article is "premium content" but I think we have the gist already from Tyler's previous contributions...

Independent: Tyler Brûlé: Man behind The Desk
The studio smells of solid oak, the blazers come from Japan and the reporters are based across the globe. Tyler Brûlé tells Sholto Byrnes about his new BBC4 media show, his fear of flying and why he doesn't read Wallpaper* anymore...The presenter will not be the only unusual aspect of the programme. This is a show whose participants will not be allowed on air until they have been groomed by a Japanese stylist.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I don't know why you guys keep posting this Tyler Brule stuff. You'd better stop because you're making me angry. And Trust me, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

[Watcher]

I can't tell you how much I want to kick Brule's ass.

Doing a Google search for Tyler brings up this thread on the second page. He's bound to find this if we keep it up.

THAT is too funny. It's no longer the 2nd page but the 2nd option. Who'd have thought we had the power to influence and change real outsider people's lives (yeah, yeah, 'breastcrash" aside).

[Taro Toporific]

[Mulboyne]

Observer: ebay Boomers

What they're buying on eBay:

3 Tyler Brule
Founder of Wallpaper* and head of design consultancy Winkreative

Recently I've been buying any memorabilia to do with Japan Airlines from the 1950s to 1970s - guide books, luggage tags, in-flight service pieces. Japan Airlines had a fantastic corporate identity and they've destroyed it with the one they rolled out recently, so I'm trying to amass a collection of the old one. There's a lot of it around and the starting prices are incredibly low, but there's three or four keen buyers around the world bidding against me. My best eBay buy was a book which celebrated the launch of their first passenger jet. They produced a special-edition book for passengers on the inaugural flight and it's a wonderful example of Japanese printing and graphic design.

Imported from TokyoDV:

FT.com: Pay Attention Please

If you've found your winter weekends have so far kept you in town rather than up in the mountains then you need to come up with some urban distractions to keep your mind off thought the pistes. As you probably enjoy this paper sometime before lunchtime on a Saturday, here are 10 remedies I've come up with to keep me occupied and entertained in the city:
...6. Tracking down very obscure music on the cdjapan website. My latest best finds are Maki Nomiya's two solo albums.

[Captain Japan]

I had a tough time figuring out which thread to post this under...but here goes:
Momus - "Miles Franklin"

All the lovers I've had I seemed to mislay
One went mad, one went away
One left a note that said 'the heart repairs'
On the wine cork he wrote 'love is there'
The shelves we put up at the foot of the stairs
Make me long to be a couple like the ones at Ikea
Now when I dream of a man
I see him putting up shelves (shelves!)

Single, 32, working in I.T.
Miles Franklin
Gay, discreet
Neatly-bound issues, Wallpaper magazine
Sam Taylor-Wood, Philip Glass symphonies
David Sylvian, 'Dead Bees On A Cake'
Modernist, minimalist, opaque
Japanese tea, lonely old me

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Whether you care or pretend you don't care
You can't forget 'love is there'
Classified advertisements, Wallpaper magazine
Lines from stupid pop songs, the fragments of a dream
Or simply spring (spring!)
It all begins again

The serene calm of ebonised ash
Modern antiques, ceramics and birch
A stainless steel kitchen, a stainless steel heart
Kuala Lumpur, a world apart
The men I never met
The books I never wrote
Files full of letters and boxes full of notes
A Charles Eames chair, beautiful and bare

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Whether you care or pretend you don't care
You can't forget 'love is there'
The shelves of magazines
You flipped through idly
Your life as tidy as the Alexandria library
The heart repairs
Like the shelves at the foot of the stairs

The day before you came
The one that got away
My life with Tyler Brule
Discreet or outrageous, scene or non-scene
Love is there, shy and obscene
The men I never met
The books I never wrote
The songs I never sang, my heart full of hope
Or simply spring (spring!)
It all begins again

I'm a bit stunned as to what to make of this. But in any case I'd say this thread is now most certainly bound for Beyond Fucked...

[Captain Japan]

If he keeps this up, Tyler is going to have an FG thread all to himself.

:P

[Mulboyne]

From the FT.com (subscription only)

I've never been the biggest fan of Piccadilly Circus but this doesn't mean I couldn't come to love it. As a regular shopper at the Japan Centre just along Piccadilly, I've come up with a solution that might ease the congestion inside the three-floor travel-food-book emporium and do something for the unsightly Circus at the same time. Regulars to the Japan Centre know it is about to either cave in on itself or bust into the adjoiing buildings. Given what they charge for the air mail magazines that I buy up weekly by the armful, I think they could more than afford to commission one of their countrymen to design something architecturally significant for the whole south side of Piccadilly Circus. Imagine a polished 10-storey tower designed by Toyo Ito or Yoshio Taniguchi.
On the ground floor there could be a food hall to rival anything found in the Ginza department stores. On the first floor there could be the Japanese Consulate and a super sleek travel centre. The second and third floors could be taken up with the first Western branch of Maruzen books. The fourth floor could be devoted to music and film in the form of the Tsutaya media chain. Level five could house a Japanese cinema and screening rooms. On six there could be the Japanese media centre, housing the offices of all the big TV networks and newspapers. With the city as a backdrop, the likes of TV Tokyo and NHK would even anchor portions of their newscasts from this floor.
Seven could feature a lounge, restaurant featuring Kyushu-style cuisine and a series of private karaoke rooms. From eight to ten there could be apartments designed by interior talents such as Simplicity, Shuwa Tei and Wonderwall. On the roof? A Japanese garden, of course, and an on-sen with outdoor pools catering to expats and Londoners alike.

[Samurai_Jerk]

HULK SMASH!!!

[Mulboyne]

At the start of the year, I made a pact with myself to start spending a bit more time in Tokyo and a little less in New York. Having made the journey to Narita no less than 10 times in the past eight years, I came to realize that my knowledge of Japan was limited to the Tokyo district sof Ginza, Shibuya, Ebisu, Meguro and odd little pockets of Harajuku and Shinjuku. Not exactly the most adventurous collection of precincts considering the number of visits and hardly a representative spread of what is currently my favourite country.

Distressingly, the article that follows appears to be a perfectly reasonable account of a trip to Kyoto including a mention of bag-maker Ichizawa Hanpu and high-end ryokan Tawaraya. Now where's the fun in that?

[jim katta]

I saw a film about this guy on cable tv. Jeezus, this is one of the most boring people I have ever seen. How he closes deals is a mystery. I love to hear people talk about design, but this guy is a big snore.

[Kuang_Grade]

[vir-jin]

[Kuang_Grade]

In Saturday's (5/14/05) FT, Tyler complains that Japan's auto industry isn't going after "niche" markets...or at least the "I'm such a dumb fuck, I need a $150,000 car" niche market.

While not on the website , the article's teaser in the print edition was this
"Toyota and Nissan have proved that they can build vehicles for high-rollers but have missed an opportunity to develop the niche market and compete with European brands"

Japan's carmakers must shift up from the top-class low gears
By Tyler Brule
Published: May 14 2005 03:00 | Last updated: May 14 2005 03:00

A drive for excellence

If Tokyo has become the spiritual hub of the global luxury goods business then Japan's automotive industry is missing a trick - both at home and abroad. With the Mercedes line-up looking more Chrysler than Daimler and the latest Rolls-Royce more of a mansion on wheels than a grand motor car, there's room for one of the Japanese brands to get serious in the super-premium sector.

While Toyota's Lexus division makes a perfectly lovely car, I would never own one. Ditto for Nissan's Infiniti. Price and quality aside, there's nothing that feels particularly premium about either brand. This doesn't mean that Toyota or Nissan lack the provenance to sell alongside Maybach and Bentley. Anyone who's spent time in the back of a Toyota Century or Nissan President limo from Narita to the Park Hyatt knows neither has a problem with finish or doing luxury rather well.

The Century's slightly old-school body and formal interior are a perfect launch pad for Toyota to develop a new range that hovers above Lexus and competes directly with the best BMW, DaimlerChrysler and the VW group have to offer.

Over at Nissan, the fact that the company developed the Prince Royal for the Imperial Household Agency gives them plenty of scope to build a heritage story for a completely new brand. As the Emperor's 6m-long limousine was originally conceived by the Prince Motor Company, which later merged with Nissan, perhaps CEO Carlos Ghosn might want to dust down the old Prince brand and work on developing a new family of elegant touring cars: a sharp, angular-looking competitor to the Mercedes S-Class, the world's most glamorous estate and a muscular convertible for both the hip-hop and Hamptons set.

Yes, that limo can be soooooo tiresome, can't it. My god, can't those Park Hyatt savages at least offer up a helicopter for someone of Tyler's mettle