TOKYOMANGO

Family taking pics in front of Tokyo Tower

I just thought this was a cute moment, taken from the Mori Art Museum.

Erina Matsui art exhibit in Tokyo

One of my favorite artists (and super-fun person) Erina Matsui is having an exhibit in Tokyo from April 3-May 1 at the Yamamoto Gendai gallery. I interviewed her last year when I went to Japan with the producers of PRI's Studio360, and spent a few hours talking to her about her art (she says she draws self-portraits of herself as a axelotl because people told her she looks like one) and eating sushi. She's young, talented, and totally worth checking out.

Related stories:
Studio360 in Japan
Erina Matsui's sci-fi self-portraits

Digital photo frame for your sticker pictures

Need a more stylish modern way to flaunt your sticker pictures? There's a new product from toymaker Takara Tomy that'll let you do that — it's called the Love Digi Furi Furi Photo Frame, and it's a small keychain/cell phone strap that doubles as a digital picture frame. It comes out at the end of the month, it's about $50, and it's already sold out on pre-order.

Product page (Japanese)

NY Times interviews founder of 4chan

The NY Times' Bits blog has a fun interview with 4chan founder Christopher Poole, aka Moot. I hung out with the guy a few years ago at Nakano Broadway. I think I was working on the 2channel story for Wired and he happened to be in town.

Kanae Kijima, online serial killer

The Independent has a story today about a woman named Kanae Kijima, age 34, who is suspected of killing at least four and conning a dozen men whom she met on the Internet. Many of them were older; she wooed them first with her benign cooking blog and later by acting the part of the perfect subservient housewife. Then she would take their money, lace their food with sedatives, and make it look like suicide. A quote from the article:

in a country where women traditionally play a backseat role, the "Black Widow" case has delivered a devastating blow to male confidence. Bloggers say Kijima has ruined their faith in dating and marriage sites, making them fearful of anonymous encounters with potential online partners.

Kijima was arrested in September.

Link