Hakone

Last week we made a short trip to Hakone, a mountain area about an hour and a half by train West of Tokyo. In fall, it attracts lots of visitors like ourselves to admire the brightly coloured autumnal trees. Using the Hakone Freepass we were able to easily travel to and through the area using trains, buses, ferries, ropeways and cablecars.

Mount Fuji as seen from the ferry while crossing Lake Ashi.

At night we stayed at a traditional japanese hotel with private hot spring baths. We had a bathtub both inside and outside our room.

The next day we took a ropeway up to Owakudani, where we ate pitch black eggs boiled in the hot sulfuric volcano water. Each egg you eat is said to prolong your life by 7 years; I ate three.

The bright reds and yellows that the Japanese maple leaves turn are indeed spectacular.
Hakone is also the home of many modern art museums. We chose to visit the Hakone Open Air Museum, which features many sculptures by the likes of Henry Moore, Picasso and Jean DuBuffet (above).

100% Design Tokyo

Today I visited the 100% Design Tokyo trade show, the main event of Tokyo Designer's week 2007. The show is organised in collaboration with the 100% Design trade show in London and the Design Association. Hence a lot of the designs on display here were from European origin, although there was plenty from Japanese designers and manufacturers. I spent about 2 hours at the show, and here are a few things that caught my attention.

The roller buggy by Valentin Vodev of pixstudio. This child carriage transforms into a scooter for added speed and fun. The front wheels turn when you lean sideways. Looks like fun even without a child on board! Information: pixstudio.net.

The write-bulb by Japanese studio sample case. The light is turned on by drawing a coil (or any other line) between two contact points with a regular pencil. The light is switched off by erasing the line! Information: tel. +81(0)90-3629-9429, or samplecase-j1@nifty.com.
The heatwave by Jaga and Joris Laarman. This modular neo-rococo central heating radiator is made from polyconcrete and is truly impressive in real life. It has already been added to the collection of several modern art museums in the Netherlands and France. Information: theradiatorfactory.com, jorislaarman.com.

My favourite object at the show was this zuse toaster by Inseq design. The compact design of the object is great in itself: the bread is inserted from the top and is toasted as it travels through the toaster, to be caught by a minimal metal wire tray. On top of that, it burns a random design from a selection of images kept in a memory chip inside the toaster. Information: inseq.net.