The new PechaKucha website is now live.

It’s been live for a few days now, and I hope you all take some time over the holidays to check it out, and see what we’ve been up to for a good part of the past year, and take in a few presentations.

It’s a drastic re-imagining of our web presence, and something that was very much due — the previous site, built 4-5 years ago, wasn’t up to dealing with today’s ultra-sharable and mobile landscape. We worked with Chicago’s Firebelly and Table XI on the project, which was a fantastic experience — on my end, I dealt more closely with Table XI (the company behind the site’s programming), and offer big thanks to Mark Rickmeier and Melissa Sevilla for dealing with my constant stream of comments and feedback.

The look of the site is in good part due to the amazing work of Luis Mendo, who not only acts as our PechaKucha design director, but is a constant supplier of good vibes and comforting (for those times when things aren’t going the way we want them to).

And although it doesn’t need to be said, I of course thank Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham for not only inviting me on this crazy ride four years ago, but for also making me feel like I’m truly part of this grand adventure of ours.

There’s lots to take in with the new site, from stronger use of imagery throughout, more emphasis on sharing presentations online, and the introduction of “Channels.” You’ll also now find a “Presentation of the Day” featured on the front page of the site — today we mark the anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami by highlighting a presentation that looks at the reconstruction efforts that followed that terrible disaster.

And this is just the start — wait till you see what’s coming in 2013.

My holidays start… here.

As I’ve probably written on this blog a bunch of times over the years, Christmas isn’t much of thing here in Japan — and in fact I was at the office on that very day — but the New Year is. That means that PechaKucha HQ — located within the KDa office — is closed next week, and so I’m on the holiday break as of today.

So what have I done so far?

I always enjoy getting a slow start on Saturdays, having coffee while still in the futon, reading various things on my iPad. It just becomes that much sweeter when you know that you have a week of doing this every day ahead of you.

I’ve been enjoying some of the year-end issues — Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Huffington — and for no particular reason, I accompanied it with the 80s radio station on Spotify. Made for a nice contrast: Scenes of Sandy, Obama, and Gangnam Style, to the sounds of Tear for Fears and Flock of Seagulls.

This morning’s gaming was mostly taken up by Into the Dead and Northmark on iPad, and later, while I was out and about, I played some Spectromancer on iPhone (one of my favorite games this year, although I usually play it on iPad).

I was very late with it, but I finally posted the list of attendees from this past month’s edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 66). That’s what the holidays are for, right?

My next mission is to finish my annual “favorite media of the year” post, which I’ll then follow up with a couple of episodes of the Codex for my favorite tracks and favorite albums.

But first up, I think a nice cold stout is in order.

This is what I liked this year. The most.

Every year (2010, 2011) I prepare a list of my favorite media, covering games, movies, TV shows, comics, and music — I skip books because I don’t feel like I read enough books in a year. Also, I am a bit loose in terms of when things were released — for the most part, these are things that did in fact come out in 2012, but I don’t mind highlighting things that came out the year before, but that I only got around to experiencing this year. And there’s of course a lot — especially in games and movies –that has come out in the latter part of the year that I have yet to experience. But who cares, in the end, you have to keep in mind that I’m not saying that this is the best that has come out this year, simply that these are some of my favorite things (what I could remember) in media that entertained me the most.

For each category I have a top 5 — listed alphabetically — followed by a few honorable mentions.

FAVORITE GAMES
This year I started being patient in terms of major releases, opting to wait for them to go on sale, and so a lot of what I played came out late last year — and there’s of course a lot that has come out this fall (like Dishonored and Far Cry 3) that I have yet to play. I list the platform that I played the game on — some of these are multi-platform releases.

• Gravity Rush (PS Vita)
• Journey (PS3)
• Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360)
• Sound Shapes (PS Vita)
• The Walking Dead (iPad) 

Honorable Mentions: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Xbox 360), Asura’s Wrath (Xbox 360), Binary Domain (PS3), Dyad (PS3), Lumines: Electric Symphony (PS Vita), Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360), PixelJunk SideScroller (PS3), Rayman Origins (PS Vita).

FAVORITE iOS GAMES
Since I don’t think it’s fair to compare most iOS games to bigger budget consoles games, here’s a separate category for them — although I don’t include The Walking Dead, which I played on iPad (as I do all Telltale Games), since it’s a multi-platform release and it’s just one of the best games of the year, no matter the platform. 

• Groove Coaster Zero
• Letterpress 
• Rayman Jungle Run
• Spectromancer
• Symphonica

Honorable Mentions: Into the Dead, Law & Order: Legacies, Magic 2013, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Theatrerhythm Final Fantasy, The World Ends With You: Solo Remix.

FAVORITE TV SHOWS
Yes, we are indeed in the midst of a golden age of TV, and it was rather difficult to narrow things down to a top 5. 

• Breaking Bad
• Downton Abbey
• Game of Thrones
• Louie
• Mad Men

Honorable Mentions: Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Girls, Glee, Justified, Life’s Too Short, Parks & Recreation, Shameless, Sherlock, Sons of Anarchy, Spartacus: Vengeance, The Bridge,The Walking Dead (3rd season), Wilfred.

FAVORITE MOVIES
This is one of the categories where there’s tons of great films not included because they came out in the last few months. 

• Intouchables
• Looper
• Prometheus
• Safety Not Guaranteed
• Skyfall

Honorable Mentions: Dredd, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Magic Mike, Moonrise Kingdom, Ruby Sparks, The Dark Knight Rises, Total Recall, Your Sister’s Sister.

FAVORITE COMICS
When it comes to comics, as I go through lists of recommended stuff from 2012, I always encounter tons of stuff I didn’t read and that I will need to get to as soon as possible. I include James Kochalka’s American Elf, a web comic, because it’s been one of my favorite reads for years, and I’m very saddened that he’s ending it on December 31.

• American Elf
• Conan the Barbarian
• Hawkeye
• Saga
• The Massive

Honorable Mentions: Friends With Boys, Parker: The Score, Raising Rachel, Sweet Tooth, The Walking Dead, Thief of Thieves.

FAVORITE TRACKS
It’s always so difficult to narrow this down — as listeners of my Codex podcast will know, this could go on for longer. And how about that, two singles called “Default.” Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of the Codex in which I’ll highlight these tracks and the albums below.

• “Barely Standing (feat. Datsik & Sabi) (Diplo)
• “Comeback Kid” (Sleigh Bells)
• “Default” (Atoms for Peace)
• “Default” (Django Django)
• “Terrorist Threats (feat. Danny Brown & Jhene Aiko)” (Ab-Soul)

Honorable Mentions: “All of Me” (Tanlines), “Counter Charm (feat. Gaspar Claus)” (She Keeps Bees), “Honeycomb” (Animal Collective), “Hospitality” (Betty Wang), “I Want More (Viv Albertine), “Lens” (Mike Wexler), “Money Makin’” (A-Trak, Dillon Francis), “Nerve Damage!” (Unknown Mortal Orchestra), “No Love” (Hooray for Earth), “Sinful Nature” (Bear in Heaven).

FAVORITE ALBUMS
When it comes to favorite albums, there are tracks off some of these that I could also include in my favorite tracks list, but I prefer not to do so — I feel like these albums go beyond singles, and are worthy of being enjoyed as a whole. 

• Channel Orange (Frank Ocean)
• Cyrk (Cate le Bon)
• Love This Giant (David Byrne & St. Vincent)
• Sun (Cat Power)
• Visions (Grimes)

Honorable Mentions: Happy to You (Miike Snow), June 2009 (Toro y Moi), Love at the Bottom of the Sea (The Magnetic Fields), Something (Chairlift), Spooky Action at a Distance (Lotus Plaza), The Only Place (Best Coast), The Sparrow (Lawrence Arabia), Traps (Jaill).

The end of the year draws near.

Ever since I’ve lived in Japan, I’ve always enjoyed celebrating New Year’s Eve in a quiet (and what I think is a relatively traditional) way. It’s late in the afternoon, and my wife is preparing lots of good food for dinner — in years past we’ve often just picked up a feast from the Seibu depachika, but this year we decided to cook instead.

The evening usually goes this way: We start eating (and drinking) as NHK’s Kohaku kicks off the evening of TV programming. The Eve is a ratings bonanza for all the networks, and they all have very big specials that run through the night. In years past I’ve given myself the duty of live tweeting Kohaku, but I don’t think I’ll do that this year. 

But you never know.

When it gets to about an hour or so before the changeover, we slurp up some soba, as is the tradition. After midnight, we head out to one of our local shrines or temples for a New Year “prayer,” bringing the pooch along.

The next couple of days are then filled with eating, drinking, relaxing in the futon, while reading, gaming, and watching various things on TV (or on my iPad). It’s also fun walking around the neighborhood during this time — it’s really the only time of the year that the city really shuts down.

So let’s end this year, and see you on the other side.

Here we are, 2013.

My Eve ended up happening pretty much like I described in yesterday’s post, and yes, I couldn’t help myself and I did indeed end up live tweeting Kohaku.

It’s beyond my control.

Feels good starting a new year. Not to say that the last one was bad or anything, but that sensation of an entire year ahead of you, waiting to be manipulated and molested is a great one.

The one thing I do know will happen this year is that I will move by the end of June — the contract for where we live has not be renewed — and that’s going to be a big deal. And a stressful thing. I can tell you that on the PechaKucha side of things, as I’ve been teasing, there’s some really cool stuff on the horizon, and the launch of the new site only marked the beginning.

I also look forward to those things that happen that you didn’t know where going to happen, and end up shaking up your entire world.

That stuff rocks.

Happy 2013, everyone — let’s see how kick-ass we can make it.

Jean Snow is a debaser.

I don’t really know what that means, but Debaser is what I’ve called the Tumblr blog I started earlier this month, as a place to share my pop culture and gaming-related musings. 

The main reason I decided to start a Tumblr blog is because I’ve become so annoyed at the lack of search available in Facebook — despite the recently announced Graph Search, it’s not really going to let you search through your old posts, to find specific content.

I like to write little mini-reviews on Facebook of movies I watch, TV shows I like, and games I play, and sometimes I like to refer back to them, something that’s pretty much impossible the way things are now. Then it dawned on me: Tumblr is perfect for this kind of thing.

So enter Debaser (yes, named after the Pixies track), a little place where I can continue to share all of my pop culture obsessions. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, then you’ve already seen links to posts.

Got me a movie
I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs
I want you to know

Sharp TV, sharp service.

We have a 45″ Sharp Aquos TV, a 2006 model that I think we bought in 2007. It’s been a great TV to have, but then a couple of months ago it started acting up.

Occasionaly, almost half of the screen would get darkened — depending what was showing on the screen, you would either see images with strange coloring, or see nothing at all. The amount of time it would do this was getting worse and worse, until recently, when it was consistently doing this whenever the TV was on.

What to do? I’m not really in a position to be able to buy a big new TV right now, so didn’t really know what my options would be, other than getting something cheap and small. But even though it was long out of warranty, we decided to call Sharp to see what they would say.

The Sharp man came. He checked it out, and suggested that the next day they could send someone to pick it up so that they could have a proper look at what the problem would be. They wouldn’t do anything to it until telling us what it would cost — since it might get expensive — but we would need to pay around 4000 yen to get this check done, and they would lend us a smaller TV in the meantime. I agreed.

The following day, another Sharp man came.

I was expecting him just to take the TV, but he brought in his box of tools and some sort of panel, and said that he would take a look and see what he could do, that it would maybe take 30-40 minutes. He proceeded to open the TV and get to work. 

And he fixed my TV. For free.

I’m still blown away by this level of service for an old product that is not even under warranty. Based on this alone, I want my next TV to be a Sharp too.

Thank you, Sharp.

10 years. 600 cities. 100 volumes.

Yes, it’s a big celebrative week for us in PechaKucha land. February 20 is our traditional anniversary date, and this year, not only will the PKN we have this Wednesday be our 100th volume, but it will also mark PechaKucha’s 10th anniversary (the very first PKN was held in February of 2003 here in Tokyo), and last month we passed the 600 city mark.

It’s our birthday.

I haven’t been part of this since the start, but last month marked 4 years of my involvement with the organization. It’s funny how things happen — I still remember the first time I believe I properly met Astrid and Mark, and it was for an interview I did with them on the PechaKucha phenomenon for TIME magazine.

At the time, PKNs were in about 15 cities around the world. That was maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Fast forward to now, and wow. 

I really do hope you can join us on Wednesday at SuperDeluxe for our PKN Tokyo Vol. 100. Despite all the big milestones, we decided we wanted to celebrate things in a local way (we will have some global happenings later in the year), although the event will have an international feel — we have a few PKN organizers joining us, including my very good friend Jesper Larsson (PKN Gothenburg) — and we will be live streaming the event, on our Ustream page.

Pictured above is a photo taken by Michael Holmes in December of the PK team at the time. From left: Kerensa and Akihiro, who were interning for us last year; Mark, who along with Astrid gave birth to this thing 10 years ago; Don, who continues to be one of our biggest supporters and who volunteers his time at every event; Yuki, who works with me at PK HQ; Astrid, who along with Mark indeed came up with this thing back in 2003; and me. If Michael wasn’t taking the photo — as he has been doing at all our events for the past couple of years — he’d of course be part of the group, as would Luis Mendo, our design director, if he was in Tokyo.

Come celebrate with us, I promise fun times.

This is not Jean Snow. Well, not the one anyone reading this post would think they know.

I was taken by surprise on chat today when someone I know popped up, asking me what he should wear for the recording of the video. Video?

Huh?

It didn’t take long for him to figure out I had no idea what he was talking about, and he then pointed me to this Facebook event page, for the making of a “Harlem Shake” video in Shibuya.

I fucking hate “Harlem Shake.”

If you look at the event page, the creator is a “Jean Snow.” Surely there are other Jean Snows in the world, you say? Yes, of course. But a “Jean Snow” in Tokyo, organizing something that is media-related? And look at that “Jean Snow” profile page — it was created on March 7, the day the event was created, and it has no other info, no friends, nothing.

Some fucker took my name.

I have reported the event to Facebook, and I tried reporting the profile as someone impersonating me, but the Facebook mobile verification keeps failing for me. Some of my friends have reported this profile as someone impersonating me, and if you are my friend on Facebook, I would appreciate you doing the same.

I do not like someone using my name to promote something they are doing without my knowledge, and I especially don’t like it when it’s associated with something that I have no interest in.

This is the Jean Snow who lives in Tokyo.

Goodbye, Ikebukuro.

In a few days I will be moving away from the only area in Tokyo — hell, make that Japan — that I’ve lived in for my entire stay in this country (close to 15 years).

Ikebukuro.

We first moved here because it was the area where my wife’s university at the time was located. We’ve stayed in Ikebukuro all this time because we found it convenient to be there. Sure, it’s not a popular spot for people to go to (at least for those living in Tokyo), but with one of the biggest stations in the city, lots of shopping options, and relatively decent rental prices compared to other parts of the city, it made sense to stay.

But the urge to go somewhere else has been there for a while.

The latest place we’ve been living in — for the past four years — is an old house, and at the end of December we found out that our contract, which expires in June, would not be renewed. 

OK, where to next?

For privacy concerns, I’d rather not say much about where we are moving, but I can tell you that we are incredibly excited, and it’s going to mean a very different lifestyle — for the better.

On Monday, April 1, is PauseTalk Vol. 69, and it will mark my last night in Ikebukuro as a resident.

“Dead” Man: I’m not dead.
Dead Collector: What?
Large Man: Nothing. [hands the collector his money] There’s your nine pence.
“Dead” Man: I’m not dead!
Dead Collector: ‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
Large Man: Yes he is.
“Dead” Man: I’m not.
Dead Collector: He isn’t.
Large Man: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
“Dead” Man: I’m getting better.
Large Man: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.

Yes, there’s nothing worse than a post in which someone apologizes for not having posted in a while, but I really do feel like I need to acknowledge the fact that it’s been a ridiculous amount of time since my last post.

Too long.

The last time I wrote something here, it was to announce that I was moving, and by not following-up with anything for almost three months it does make it look like I just plain disappeared. I didn’t.

Life is indeed very good in our new location. We’re enjoying a much nicer life with the pooch — closer to places we can actually go with him, and to spots that are more on the dog-friendly side of things. Pooch is happy.

And I’m happy too.

My biking life has also taken a turn for the better. I’m much closer to the office now, so I’m enjoying a daily bike commute, and just biking more in general. I also finally started wearing a helmet, which my wife had been pushing me to do.

So all in all, things are good. 

The best batard in Tokyo is at Gontran Cherrier.

I’m a simple man with simple needs, and I dare say that my favorite thing to eat is cheese — of the creamy variety, usually brie — with a batard (the stumpy fatter cousin of the baguette).

I have found the one true batard in Tokyo.

When I lived back in Ikebukuro, my favorite batard was at a bakery/cafe/restaurant called Racines, and I would often pick one up while walking the pooch — the staff was used to me going there, and would bring the bread to me and let me pay at the door. I’d also often pick up a batard at Seibu’s depachika — either at Donq or Le Nôtre. 

And then I moved.

During one of my walks, I passed by a bakery (with cafe/restaurant on the second floor) in Shibuya called Gontran Cherrier, located at the crossing with Meiji Dori, right by the station.

Believe you me, that batard rocks. The baguette too for that matter (for when they are sold out of the batard).

It’s great for me that it’s on my daily bike commute, so it’s easy enough to pick up on my way back from work — don’t worry, it’s not a daily requirement.

I’ve decided to start writing my posts on the Medium platform, as I really like the way you can easily format articles — including photos with captions and notes — and I also like the way it handles comments. I took away comments on this site a long time ago due to excessive spam. I’ll always make a point of linking to my new posts on this site, so you can just continue to check here — or follow me on Twitter (sorry, I keep my Facebook account private).

I just posted “Happy Holiday,” in which I talk about my plans for this week.

As the title indicates, “Tokyo Hot” is about how fucking hot it is in this place I call home.

I addressed this slightly in a post here the other day, but here’s a more detailed piece on why I recently started writing my posts on Medium.

This post has nothing to do with Morrissey.

Does my last update date back to the summer? Oh my. You can probably guess that it’s been some busy times, first with the big PechaKucha Global Night we did back in September, and then this past week’s design festivities, which saw us do 3 PechaKucha events over the past 5 days (at the British Embassy on Monday, our big Tokyo Designers Week event on Wednesday, and then a collaboration with Artek at DOVER STREET MARKET GINZA on Thursday) — and we still have a regular PechaKucha Night (Vol. 108) this coming Wednesday.

Can I breathe yet?

As successful as this past week was, I did take great pleasure in getting back home last night after work, cracking open a tall boy of Yebisu Kohaku, munching on famichiki, while watching more episodes of Twin Peaks – I’m currently watching the series for at least the 4th time in my life.

Fire walk with me.

Speaking of Twin Peaks, my wife made an interesting observation last night. Although most people feel that the series went downhill after we learn who killed Laura Palmer, she feels it gets even more interesting from that point, more weird. I don’t know if it gets better, but I certainly love the entire series, and love being in that world again. We even dance and snap our fingers along with the show, when that paricular funky music comes on.

I really do hope that the rumors of a return to Twin Peaks are true. It’s all I want for Christmas.

How about that new Arcade Fire album? Pretty great, huh. A lot of great music has come out over the past couple of months, and I really do need to get a few new episodes of the Codex recorded. 

I have been watching lots of stuff during this time, and playing games of course. Don’t believe me? Check my Tumblr for proof. I’m much more active on Twitter too.

There were rumours he was into field hockey players.

A heads-up that over the past couple of weeks, following a hiatus of quite a few months, I’ve released three new episodes of my Codex podcast — 65, 66, and 67. I also created mixes for last month’s PechaKucha Night at Tokyo Designer’s Week and this month’s PechaKucha Night Vol. 108 — music to play before the event and during the breaks — and I’ve shared them as Spotify playlists here and here (they’re meant to be shuffled).

Over the weekend I recorded two new episodes of my music podcast, Codex — that would be episode 68 and episode 69 — as I try to get a few more episodes in before the end of the year. Also, if you’re looking for some good Christmas music, I won’t be doing a new Christmas episode this year, but you can of course revisit the ones I did in the past: episode 10 and episode 62.

That was fast.

Somehow we’ve already reached the end of 2013, and it’s almost come as a surprise. I’m tired as all hell, so that’s a sure sign that something is coming to an end, but still, feels like the months flew by.

Wasn’t it just yesterday I was complaining about the summer heat?

And no, I’m not going to complain about the cold, even though I have been shivering this week — but I think it has more to do with a latent fever that my mind is refusing to acknowledge.

Down to the depths of hell, influenza, I hereby exile thee.

It’s been a year of changes — and moves, of course. I don’t want to get into a round-up or summary of my year that was, but it does feel like a lot of what was done this year — both personally and professionally — will pay off next year in a big way.

Oh yeah, baby.

But for now, I’m just tired, and looking forward to the holiday break — where hopefully I’ll be able to unwind and re-energize, for the next phase of things.

And yes, I will get to episode 70 of the Codex before the year’s out — I swears it.