So here I am…a month late and all the happier for it. While the bossmen are in beautiful Tokyo, I figured I’d continue my tribute to that happy land and drop a few fotoz on you inre: Tokyo’s burgeoning street art scene.

One thing that I can say about Tokyo in general—at least the parts that I’ve been to—is that the street art/graffiti is predominantly paste-up- or sticker-based. Not a lot of huge murals. Not a lot of super flagrant pieces. LOTS and lots of lurking in corners, fucking up stuff that was an eyesore to begin with, and blending right in with actual ads. (This phenomenon is so prevalent—again, based on what I’ve seen—that one gets the distinct impression that any ‘real’ mural or paintjob is either commissioned or at least done with permission. Go figure.)

In other words, it’s super disposable, super-distressed, and—in this reporter’s opinion—super-interesting. So yeah, that’s where I’m coming from: stickers. A little bit of paint. And a whole lot of awesome.

I’ve listed a few of my favorites below (is it still cool to say after the jump?), but you can also check out the whole set at My Friendly Neighborhood Flickr Stream. If—too—you’re into this sort of thing, you should check out a few awesome Flickr groups dedicated to Japanese Street Art. Woot.

This one gives me nightmares…I can’t tell if it was a painting that someone defaced with a hideous grill (see below) or if it was originally a mixed-media piece. Harajuku, near the DSL 55 Store.

I’m not really one of those dudes that loves blow, but I can absolutely get behind a Jack Nicholson look-alike with vampire fangs. Outside Nakano Broadway…I believe in the alleys over to the right of it. A gold mine of this type of shit, PLUS, I think I witnessed a toilet flushing into the street, so maybe even a goldmine of other kinds of shit, too.

These are both from outside Nakano Broadway. I’m a sucker for anything a) pulling off it’s own face, b) having to do with boobs…big or otherwise, and c) convincingly splattered with fake/real blood.

I have become obsessed with Essu, the person responsible for these and a multitude of other variations of this, all throughout Tokyo. Shinjuku is where he really shines, but I found him all over the place.

Keeping watch over the most heavily trafficked intersection in the world. He is—without a doubt—about to get some company.

Definitely some Buff Love in Shibuya and Daikanyama.

This is certainly one of the stranger images I was confronted with on this trip. A four-eyed, frankensteinian, nazi-loving, mickey mouse. In-fucking-credible. Daikanyama, on the causeway leading up to Junie Moon (Mrs. Hateball is bonkers for Blythe).

An especially hideous grill. Wondering if this guy is responsible for defacing the otherwise-un-scary little girl from above. His presence is haunting. Shibuya station, near The Gap. Be sure to study the elevator.

I didn’t really know what to think after finding this, given much of Japanese culture’s fixation on both sides of this particular equation. Balanced? In need of solving? Who can ever really tell. Not the first time, by the way, that I’ve been shocked back into my shell by a piece of Tokyo Street Art.

- Hateball