TOKYOMANGO

After the Quake: A Theater Performance Based on a Haruki Murakami Book

After the Quake was originally a short story collection written by Haruki Murakami shortly after the Kobe earthquake. The Berkeley Repertory Theater put together two of the short stories into a 90-minute theater production. Pretty neat. I had to see it, so I took the Bay Bridge to the East Bay and decided to check it out.

One of the stories was about a love triangle and a girl who had nightmares about the earthquake man. Another story was about a strange frog who predicts a giant earthquake below Tokyo and recruits an uber-ordinary bank employee to help him save the city. Both were executed beautifully with a simple, modern set and really good actors.

Anyway! This performance ends on Sunday, so if you're dying to see it like I was, you better make your way to Berkeley ASAP!

 

Tribute to Ultraman at Roppongi Hills

There's a month-long tribute to Ultraman at the Roppongi Hills Center Gallery in Tokyo starting next week. On exhibit will be original drawings of Ultraman from the sixties and uniforms worn by the first Ultraman actors, etc.

Henshin!!

Link

Art Exhibit Features RFID Math Problems

There's an awesome exhibit right now at the Mori Art Museum titled "Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Art." It introduces some of the most important classic futurist artists from Japan as well as up-and-coming ones.

Pictured here is Math Gates. Designed by two professors—one math prof from Kyoto University and one new media expert from Tokyo National University—it's an interactive installation in which visitors carry RFID cards with math problems on them. The goal is to reach a pre-determined number—kinda like in the license plate number game. The idea behind it is to gain a better understanding of a computer's logic circuits. After all, humans aren't that different from machines, and machines are made by humans.

The exhibit runs through Jan 14, 2008.

Roppongi Crossing (Exhibit main page)

License Plate Number Game

When I was a kid and my dad would take us on road trips up to Karuizawa, my brother and I played the license plate number game. The rules are simple: Using basic math, make the four digits on the license plate equal 10.

In this case, you could do:

1+2+3+4=10

or

1x2x3+4=10

or

2x4+(3-1)=10

and so on.

Did anyone else play this game? Is it just in Japan or worldwide?

Submarine-Shaped Bass Radio

This submarine-shaped mini-radio is like the black, music-playing version of a Rubber Ducky. It floats in the tub and is completely waterproof. It makes bath time so much fun.

Product Page (Japanese)