Quoted: Roll out of bed around mid-day and head to the park on your board until sometime around dusk, then hit up a few record shops before hooking up with all your bro's at a friend’s crib. Chill out to some fresh hip-hop tracks while scribbling drawings and filming idle images with the 8mm camera you [...]

Quoted: When this year’s Sonar Festival proudly featured a nice video selection of experimental electronic music label Audio Dregs, we knew we had to investigate further. Although based in Portland, this label has a tight connection with Japan, releasing artists like Mumbleboy or Lullatone. How come? PingMag had a chat with co-founder Eric Mast a.k.a. E*Rock,

Quoted: In the past, we took you into a sento (Japanese bathhouse) and showed you its rich visual treats. Today, PingMag takes a look at this institution as place of social interaction: German photographer Julia Baier spent several weeks documenting the vivid life inside a sento. The result is Sento – the Japanese Bathhouse published by [...]

Quoted: Every August, folks flock to the huge Tanabata festival at Pearl Centre in Asagaya, Tokyo. The 700 metre shopping street that stretches from Asagaya station to Omekaido road, comes alive with a world of papier-mache creatures - floating down its path! From original animal designs to popular anime characters, you’ll encounter all kinds of funny [...]

Quoted: Visual Kidnapping... what was that again? French street artist ZEVS - yes, the one from the week before - now also has a home in the art world and had his first exhibition in Asia: Postcapitalism Kidnapping at Hong Kong-based gallery Art Statements, documenting how ZEVS cleverly distorts the logos of big brands. For PingMag, [...]

Quoted: According to a survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, 5,330,000 foreign tourists visited the city last year - which is 10 percent more than the year before, and it has been increasing since the first survey in 2004! How do they perceive Tokyo? Is it fast for them? Or big? Or wacky...? TOKYO! is [...]

Quoted: A tonbo-dama (literally "dragonfly ball") is an ornate glass bead with a hole in the centre. Until today, their colourful variety, their style and shape is used for kanzashi, beautiful hairpins and also decorative kimono sash pins to compliment the kimono’s colours. However, as Japanese people sadly don’t wear traditional clothes so often these days,

Quoted: Have you ever had the feeling that in Japan, since things are so over excessively convenient, people tend to lack imagination…? This might be a bit of an overstatement but it’s a serious topic that could determine the future of the Japanese creative industry! Just as we were contemplating this, we had an unexpected e-mail [...]

Quoted: Yay, it's already Tuesday! PingMag MAKE day! Have a look at our sister's lovely report on Daruma: This very part of Japanese folk art emerged in the Edo period and, since then, the little dolls are used as pretty popular talismans. Typical daruma are bright red, and they come with either just one eye painted [...]