So. More crazy travels to SF. To be honest, I wouldn’t normally bore you with the specifics and details of my tedious, overly-adult life, but the past few weeks have found me bumping into great- and interesting-ness so I figured what the hell. Or what the hello, as I seem to want to type over and over again.

This weekend saw the wife and I hauling our bones back down to San Francisco for a few concurrent special occasions. As the toy- and/or comics-minded of you may already know, the geniuses at Wondercon decided to schedule, um, Wondercon, for the same weekend as Easter. Which made for an at-once crazy busy and crazy empty SF. It was weird. To add to the madness—a daisy-chain of insanity, really—the fine folks at Super7 organized a big show with Gargamel—the Japanese vinyl toymakers, NOT the gravelly-voiced smurf foil—and they sort of brought the heat. In addition to releasing a couple of new head sculpts for S7′s Monster Family line of toys, they brought a staggering 120-ish customs to sell.

We also had a chance to check out the fabled and mysterious Alameda Flea Market/Swap Meet on Sunday which was…a disaster. It’s raining, it’s cold, and all I got was this (awesome) lawn gnome. One of those types of affairs. Anyway, the whole set is here, but I figured I’d pull a few highlights to make you all jealous at my awesome, glamour-filled, yes-sir-mr.-west, lifestyle. To wit.

PS: Wouldn’t the above photo qualify as Bear Porn? Whatever happened to Bear Porn?

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Better Farms is having workshops each weekend  at a huge farm house up north by the boarder of Canada.  If you’re needing a mini vacation where you can chill at 60 plus acres of nature and are looking to pick-up a fun new skill like Tarot Card reading, Yoga, Horseback Riding or even furniture building then this is totally for you!

Or perhaps you’d like to learn how to shoot erotic photography? Because if you do well then you’re in luck because I’ll be teaching a class on the weekend of July 16-18 and bringing some of my naked models from Stagg Street up along with me.

I will be teaching you to shoot properly outside,  making Erotic art and having some fun.  I’ll be teaching you how to shoot images like these of Emily Marilyn and  Justine Joli with Adriana Sage.  The proper set-up for outdoor shooting, the art of eroticism in photography and how to have fun while you’re doing it!

So sign up now and I’ll see you in nature. NFSW pic after the break!

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Well we’re back from Tokyo now but there are still some more images to show you from our trip. If you missed the first two installments head over here and here. All of these pics are from my Girlfriends camera and mostly document much of our side diversions while in Tokyo over the past week or so.

Up above is an outtake from an FLJ Magazine shoot we did in the shop, where they had Prolly, Greg, Lamour, the Tokyo store staff and myself all pile into the shop’s window display.

This up above is the much fabled used panties vending machines of Tokyo. I’ve been going to Tokyo for over a decade now and had never, ever seen these. Sure I had heard about them…EVERYONE has heard about them. And anytime I come back from Japan someone undoubtedly asks about them and I say “Those don’t actually exist”. Oh but how wrong I was!

To my understanding these were something that sprouted up in the 90s and were quickly done away with…but the stories about them spread and continued to live on long after their demise to the western world. I think most people outside of Japan just assumed these sorts of machines lined the streets sprinkled amongst the many vending machines offering soda, candy, coffee and beer. Unfortunately for the tourists who like to point and giggle, they do not…but they do however exist.  Snopes has a good chronology on the urban legend of these machines if you’re interested.

We discovered these while in Akihabara AKA “Electric Town” Akihabara is an area of Tokyo known mostly for it’s electronic and gadget shops but there are also a fair number of Cosplay maid cafe’s, video game dealers, toy stores and adult video and book stores. We hit up one of these adult stores which was actually a 6 or 7 story megaplex. Tucked away in a barren corner of the shop where these vending machines selling the much fabled school girl panties for about $10 – $20 a pair. There was even basket full plenty of disposed capsules near the machines in teh event you couldn’t wait ’till you got home to see what you got. But that wasn’t the only thing we found…

Yes these are exactly what they look like, child sex dolls made of rubber. We found these on the very top floor of the adult megaplex. They were set up in this charming window display showing the different options/ages of sex dolls available for purchase. I’m not really sure of the prices these were retailing for but I have some strange suspicion that based on the signs that you could actually rent one of these if you wanted to. I don’t know what’s creepier, these existing or someone renting one after it’s already been used.

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The day after the party, all of us were running on just a couple hours of sleep. But we had to head out to take care of a few last minute things before heading over to the store opening. After greeting our fans, some press and being engorged in bouquet after bouquet of flowers we ventured out and about into Tokyo.

Our first stop that afternoon was to Thrash Out for a Le Merde’s solo show, “Severed for Life” which featured and assortment of custom Kaiju, prints and paintings by the Seattle based artist. This case was chock full of amazing customs of this brand new figure by Gargamel, which is the bastard child of their Hedoran and Le Merde’s Hujili’s Ghost.

The small space was crammed with Kaiju and Le Merde fans eager to scoop up some of the custom figures along with a chance to meet the artist.

One of Thrash Out’s display cases featuring years of Zagoron colorways. There’s some serious bank in this case right here.

Takashi (on the right) AKA Terrible Whore AKA Rezeon Scum was in attendance. Takashi will be joining us back in NYC for an extended stay in a couple of weeks, and we can’t wait to have him back! Hopefully that means you’ll be seeing more Rezeon Scum graphics in upcoming collections? Who knows…The Terrible Whore is weirdo! However, I do know is that Spring-2 does feature a brand new tee design by him that I’m eagerly looking forward too.

More Le Merde customs figures, this time in resin though…these things are so effin’ trippy!

The man himself, Mike Kelly AKA Le Merde! He came all the way from his home in Seattle for this show and was a gracious host, signing figures and drawing sketches for all of his fans. After the show we had to head on back to the shop for a photoshoot where they crammed 10 of us into a window..we’ll have more on that later but as soon as that was done some of split for dinner while others ventured to Shibuya O-East to catch Baroness‘ first ever Tokyo show!

The guys were gracious enough to invite us to the show, and there’s no way I was going to miss a chance to see them play! I also was really curious to experience a concert in Tokyo as I had never been to one out here. As expected, metal show or not the fans were very polite…way into it, but still, very courteous.

The Guys played about 90% of the Blue Record and were absolutely amazing! The club itself had some terrific sound, so this was a real treat to experience one of last year’s best albums in such a pristine environment.

Allen pounding away…

Peter shredding away!

Seriously, this was one killer show! The guys were in town for their first ever Japanese tour supporting Isis. We unfortunately had to bail right when Isis was starting up. Dinner plans and just overall exhaustion from this whirlwind trip were starting to take a toll on us.

Again, all of these photos were taken by John Prolly, who has more over on his Flickr stream. Stay tuned to the as we’ll have more shots from the trip in the coming week!

I’m sure you’ve all seen the interior shots of the shop that have been up Hypebeast a lil’ while now, so I won’t bore you with more of the same in this post. But here’s a great one of Lamour Supreme’s finished mural of the Swami Simon on the wall by the cash wrap.

Pictures don’t really do the space and details justice. You should really just book a plane ticket and fly all the way out here and see the store for yourself. Oh and while you’re at it, buy a few things ya know? This store cost 60 jillion dollars to make, so we gotta recoup that cost, NOW!!!!!!!

Secret Base was kind enough to make a custom colored magenta and sea-foam marbled skull for the Tokyo shop. These vinyl craniums are what we use to display our new eras, snapbacks and beanies. I think we may even have a few of these to sell sometime soon…but don’t hold me to that!

The Rotting Flesh Boogie Man… These guys blew out the door in no time! Seriously one of the best colorways ever of any Boogie Man. There was a kid camped out from midnight ’til 11am on the morning of the opening, just to ensure he got his hands on one of these. He didn’t unfortunately because there were 10 people camped out ahead of him to get these! I’m just kidding…he got his.

This is Ricky, one of our pals out here in Japan. He too is in the Kaiju business, running his own brand by the name of Velocitron. For the opening Ricky made a very limited run of 5 Larvadons which also blew out of the shop in no time. Who wouldn’t want one of those cuddly little creatures?

Here’s the Larvadon attacking world renown toy ruiner, Lamour Supreme! Hopefully this will put an end to his heinous reign of destroying beautiful Kaiju.

So after a couple of all-nighters and trips to Tokyu Hands we got our new Tokyo shop all spic and span, it was time to close up and head over to our Grand Opening Party at Microcosmos…

Greg wasted no time getting crazy along with Hikauru from Bounty Hunter. Hikaru DJed a great set of punk and hardcore classics that not only got the crowd wild, but re-energized us after a long 14 hour work day. I think 2 minutes after this photo was taken Greg was so crazed he head-butted John Prolly!

Holy fuck was this place packed! It took an average of 15 minutes to maneuver through the crowd to get from one end of the club to the other.

This is just how international Kaiju superstar Lamour Supreme rolls. He sculpts gigantic bear heads, he buys Audis like they’re packs of gum and he tips waiters with Rolex sub-mariners right off his wrist! And this is how he parties when he hits the clubs…with three Japanese groupies on his arms; all of whose breasts he customized and signed after this photo was taken. Seriously kids, fuck being a rock star or an athlete! You want the good life? Design, sculpt and customize Kaiju!

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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.

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Matsuo Mine, North Japan

So, same as it ever was: I’m thinking about Japan. Sure, it has quite a bit to do with the fact that the boss-dudes are in Tokyo as we speak, preparing for what can only be a truly epic shop launch in beautiful and wondrous Shibuya.

As happy as I am that this is going on for Mishka, and as demanding and stressful and ultimately rewarding as it all must be, it’s really all I can do to not desperately try to commission a Keep Watch field trip to some radical Japanese Haikyo sites.

Haikyo is japanese for ‘ruins’. Nuff said. While I was in Tokyo last month, I had some time to kill at a bookstore, and I had already found my copy of Catcher in the Rye, so I started browsing and found an awesome photo-journal called , by Kaoru Nakata and Jun Nakasuji. As someone who doesn’t speak or read japanese (in any form), I couldn’t read a lick, but the photos spoke for themselves. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

And, as it turns out, Ruins are like…a thing in Japan. Much the same as they are everywhere else, but, I don’t know…I guess I just wasn’t thinking about it.

I bought my book (Mandarake was FINALLY open), filed under ‘awesome loot I bough in Japan’ and eventually came back and got on with my life. Until I was sent this link a few days ago and well. First, science tells me I’m probably a hologram. And now, there are all these killer Dharma stations spread around Japan that I didn’t think to go to when I was there.

The Chemical Pools of Osarizawa Mine

Kanagawa Tokyo Bowl, brought to you by the owner of the Empire State Building. The real one.

Underground Vault (!!!) at Yamanashi

I’ve looked at travel rates like six times this week already. It’s taking over my mind.

So yeah, Mishka fam, currently projecting your message of hope, radness, and prosperity to the other side of the globe: if you end up making it to one of these, or any Haikyo spots while in Japan, think of good ol’ Hateball. Take lots of pictures. And tell me every single detail.

No, not those kinds of Cathouses! These are cafes in Tokyo were patrons can spend some time enjoying the company of cats! I know this sounds ridiculously odd, but it’s Japan Ok? How is this any odder than this? It’s actually infinitely way more sane if you ask me. Just look at the guy up above just waiting to me you!

The concept behind these is very similar to Japanese hostess bars where you can select from a wide range of girls in a variety of outfits ranging from maids, school girls, gothic lolita to just your favorite anime characters and enjoy some drinks or even some video games in their company. Above is the “menu” of all the lovely cats you can select to spend your time with for ¥900 (about $10) an hour.

Coilhouse recently took a visit inside one of these Tokyo Cat Cafes and has a great rundown of this very surreal experience that was filled with highly trained cats and I’m sure some pretty creeped out Japanese patrons. I mean who wants the presence of a weird westerner as you try and get your cuddle on with some sweet, sweet kitties.

As with any good cathouse, there are some rules of conduct patrons must adhere to. Above is said rules of the house… just like with strippers, you must also be gentleman with these saucy felines. Why Cat Cafe’s you say? Most people unfortunately just do not have the space in their Tokyo apartments to house a cat, let alone deal with it’s litter box. Plus the work environment in Japan can be very, very stressful and who wouldn’t want to relieve some of that stress by stroking one of those guys for a little while?

Best believe I’m hitting one of these up in a week or so! Just don’t tell my girlfriend… I’m just kidding she’s coming with me. We actually visited something sort of similar to this in Amsterdam, De Poezenboot!

Hey Fuck it, let’s have a whole TNBC flashback after the break!

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I just stumbled upon this comprehensive archive of NYC transit maps dating back to 1924. I’m sure this will appeal to design nerds, train aficionados and I’m sure just tried and true New Yorkers.

It’s particularly interesting to look at the slow progression of design changes within communication graphics within this little microcosm. Unfortunately the site does not show any detailed shots of the map interiors and how they changed over the years. But the covers are still beyond interesting to see chronologically and also a good way to kill some time on a Saturday morning with your coffee and get some inspiration… Well, at least for me.