Tsunami footage

Build The Memory - Google Street View

Memories for the Future - Street View

Bushi

David Lynch's Twin Peaks coffee ads

These are really weird: Twin Peaks-themed ads for Japanese coffee maker Georgia, involving much of the original cast and directed by David Lynch himself. Follow the link to see the remaining two spots on io9.

David Lynch’s Twin Peaks Georgia Coffee Ads - Twin Peaks - io9

Gunkanjima

As reader andru pointed out, a post about the fabulous "man-made island" of Gunkanjima is pretty much in order: Gunkanjima (literally Battleship Island, its actual name is Hashima) is located a few kilometers off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. It was used from the late nineteenth centuries until around 1970 for mining coal, and its main feature are the 9-story apartment blocks created in the 1910s, the first high-rises ever built in Japan.

Today, the island is abandoned and derelict, awaiting possible restoration as a museum as a museum. The stark visual impact of the ghost houses has been captured in multiple photography series in the last few years. As international attention is rising, it appears that the island has recently reopened for traffic, and there is also a motion in place to submit the island as a World Heritage Site.

BLDGBLOG: Gunkanjima Island

Peleliu landing

Okay, I didn't see that one coming: episodes 3 and 4 of The Pacific were pretty subdued, and I was wondering if the series would get lost in the love life of the protagonists. But no, of course, the fierce battle of the Peleliu landing came on rather unexpectedly. Prepare for you breath to be taken away by the incredibly well-filmed assault on the island with the amphibious tanks, it's pretty intense.

YouTube - The Pacific - Part 5 "Peleliu Landing" Promo [HQ]

Expo '70

Now that the Shanghai Expo is coming up, let's look back at the previously mentioned Osaka Expo 1970. That was a kind of exciting future represented there!

EXPO 2005 photo essays - weekly report from the World Exposition in Aichi, Japan

Reflection of mineral

Reflection of Mineral is a crazy small house in Tokyo, covering just 44 square meters, designed by Yasuhiro Yamashita. Really neat though and it has a covered area for a car. I like!

Toxel.com: Modern Compact House in Tokyo

Japanese industrial posters

Way cool: here are various posters from different expositions held in Japan from the late 1920 to the early 1940s. It could be argued that the changes in visual style resulted from the development of Japan from an expanding industrial nation to a warring empire, but I guess it has more to do with the selection of the topics of the exhibitions. In general, these are just cool and stylish.

Vintage Japanese industrial expo posters ::: Pink Tentacle

Pictures of old Japan

Breathtaking, mind-boggingly stunning photographs of Victorian-age Japan by Italian photographer Adolfo Farsari, taken in the 1880s. You know that I'm a big fan of old photography, especially when they are beautifully arranged (or in color, like the stunning pictures of Prokudin-Gorskii). Farsari's hand-colored photos are extremely rare as he was one of the only photographers during his sojourn in pre-modern Japan. Check out the whole article for a lot more photos and background to his work.

Adolfo Farsari – The Man Who Shot Old Japan | Quazen

Abandoned places in Japan

One of the great joys of the internet for me was the arrival of the "abandoned places" kind of sites. I recently came upon these fantastic images by Japanese photographer Shibakoen Kotaro, featuring all kinds of ruins ranging from abandonded amusement parks, resorts, schools, and also the fort island of Hashima.

Haikyo Defure Spiral