journal upon my visit back to japan this year! tldr; japanese aesthetics updating as a series real estate; general investments - research upon @moribuilding -> medium-large sized boutique building developer *after* big 7; in charge of minato-based RE. toranomon, azabudai, roppongi, omotesando (business-trendy areas); in tandem w/ mori living, mori trust on diff paths (leaning towards hospitality in Mori H&R; conrad, laforet, edition et cetera) - p1: high traffic / tier density spreads in branded luxury rental homes/apartments in sister or daughter brands of bigger real estate kaisha's; i.e. open house development, la tour, moriliving (aforementioned), park axis (premia) - chiyoda, chuo, akabane area heavily intended towards japanese-born elites; minato-ku heavily intended towards 归国子女 (returning overseas fams) slash overseas expat elite families - review upon warren buffet's investments in sogo shoshas gaining high revenue in japan from non-trade activity -> managing up-to-downstream and daily operations of citizens, extremely extensive of overall economy of japan - p2: 東京DEEP案内; interesting research on vibe map of areas of tokyo (upper rich, lower poor, left commercialised, right "trad-japanese") - venture capitals & overseas lps in japan gaining momentum late 2024; (shameless plug to @skylandvc); risk-averse but still there. fun skew of research to youth scholarship foundations like son's @masason_f; mext by the us gov for ug students in japan. resorts/hospitality/experiences - @notahotel_inc (@notahotel_dao) biggest ieo/most creative coin offering/rwa adaptation in japan thus far; *actual* decentralisation - @HoshinoResorts; high levels of business in signature hoshinoya line hot spring kai ryokans; extremely dedicated to r&d upon different consumer lines - @amanresorts (operating areas in tokyo); expensive af i do not care to expand but still cool - the more localised fufu hotels around karuizawa / kyoto - high interest in foreign travel/tourism/RE personal concierge services misc books/materials/galleries - series of books by tsutaya books founder muneaki masuda; owner of private series of bookstores that sold the lifestyle concept of "bookstore 'x'"; "cultural business" - the tokyo toilet; descriptions of toilets in japan as landmarks of hospitality; urban redevelopment project in shibuya by Koji Yanai (founder of of uniqlo and fast retailing) in tandem w/ japanese gov - the pokemon x kogei gallery in azabudai; fascinating japanese craftsmanship (shokunin) x local japanese consumer IPs - teamlab; art collective in creative interactivity x unique, technical practices. azabudai one very mid, toyosu much better. amazing experiences though (especially across international expansion) re; @sershokunin his beautiful thread on japanese investments "You may ask—why do I find Japan so exciting? The Japanese people take pride in the shokunin, or artisan, spirit—relentlessly striving towards perfection in their craft, taking pride in practicing even the most menial tasks day in and day out to improve. A sushi apprentice will clean, scrub, and prepare ingredients in the kitchen for years until they finally touch sushi rice for the first time. A Little Leaguer will practice eight to ten hours every Saturday and Sunday, dedicating hours to repeating the same movements and perfecting the same simple plays. Even Toyota’s Kaizen philosophy which propelled them to become the number one automaker in the world is rooted in this shokunin spirit. This tireless drive for perfection explains how Japan developed its world-class talent base; its unique coolness, and ubiquitous culture; and its reputation for producing the finest-quality products globally. I strongly believe that the next decade for Japan will be quite the opposite from the prior twenty." 🗻 home, sweet home.

incorporation >>

a legend makes his debut today.

found this banger on instagram

whole plane watching the knicks game except for one dude watching Love Live

We just launched @eightsleep's first retail activation, and it has no fixed address. The House of Sleep is a fully equipped Pod on wheels that drives to your neighborhood, parks outside your door, and gives you up to 30 minutes to feel what your bed has never done before. Everyone told us to open a store. We made the store come to you. Now live in the Bay Area. eightsleep.com/house-of-slee…

Mira Murati says human-AI collaboration needs models that can listen while they think: "The types of models that we work with today, they're very turn-based. You talk, they talk, then they go off and think." "While they're thinking, it's almost like they're deaf and blind. They cannot perceive anything else about what's going on." "By contrast, our interactions with each other are very rich. There is a lot of information in our interactions when we are silent, when we're thinking, when we're interrupting one another." "Interaction models are able to capture all of this nuance. They're not turn-based. They're more like time-based interaction, where they're continuously taking in audio, text, video, and continuously providing output." "This enables you to catch things like interruptions and simultaneous speech, and really create a rich, high bandwidth interaction between humans and machines." @miramurati at Bloomberg Tech live with @emilychangtv

every dying mall in my area has now been saved by asians whether its adding a round 1, asian restaurant or milk tea shop, or miniso/chinese figurine shops lmaooooo

i want this so bad

This is about to hit the cutecore tiktok users like crack

they’re saying that it’s a gochujang summer

The real money in the future is making toys for adults.

pay by magic

liminional spaces

If PE was a serious asset class they would've bought brandy melville the second ozempic got fda approved

wow

This looks like a festival lineup 😭😭

why is gengar lowkey the kuromi of straight men

shoutout @tritongamingsd because i truly did not know collegiate gaming events could be this cool. this is what every collegiate event wish they were posting artist alley haul later 😝