Metropolis is looking for a full-time editorial assistant to join Japan’s number-one English magazine!

Responsibilities include:
coordinating photo shoots and communicating with PR companies
attending press conferences and conducting interviews in either Japanese or English
contributing and researching articles for the print magazine
updating social media accounts and other online content
translating press releases and other materials for articles

The ideal candidate will be J/E bilingual (native-level fluency in at least one language is a must), with strong attention to detail and an interest in the latest trends in Tokyo’s dining, entertainment and arts scenes. We are located in Roppongi and our office hours are Mon-Fri 9:30am-6:30pm. Ability to start immediately is a plus.
To apply, please send cover letter and resume to editor@metropolis.co.jp

Metropolisではフルタイムの編集アシスタントを募集しています！
仕事内容：
PR会社などとの対応（日・英）
翻訳（プレスリリース、ウェブサイト）
企画書作成や取材スケジュールを整理
記事のリサーチとライティング

募集資格：
几帳面で英語ができること
東京のトレンド（ダイニング、ファッション、エンタメなど）に関心を持つこと
すぐにでも入社できること

場所は六本木駅近くで便利、勤務時間は９：３０～１８：３０です。
応募はeditor@metropolis.co.jpまで履歴書とカバーレターを送ってください！

–Metropolis Editorial Staff

The nice thing about working at a place like Metropolis is getting invited to lots of awesome concerts!
And I’ve been taking full advantage of that over the past couple of weeks.
At the beginning of December I went to check out a(nother) show by former JB-ers Please Please, who were performing at a new livehouse in Shinjuku called Orebako. It’s smack in the middle of Kabukicho host club territory, which makes for some interesting surroundings. I also appreciated that their website included directions for a) how to get there, and b) how to get there if you want to avoid the host clubs.
One of the other bands on the bill that night was a four-piece called Chrovio. Interesting music, but the most standout thing was their unusual formation– the lead singer is the drummer. Not something you see every day, and provides some challenges in terms of staging as well. They did a really interesting rock cover of that breathy “Kokoro wo nani ni tatoeyou..” song from the Ghibli Tales of Earthsea film. (I mean, who even thinks of that?!)

Then this past Tuesday, I headed over to Fever in Shindaita to see two bands–a flood of circle, and Serial TV Drama (there was a third group on the bill, but I missed their set).
I’m a fan of Flood’s sound–sort of 70s-influenced rock with a very bluesy groove to it that makes me start dancing in my chair at work. Plus, they actually went crowdsurfing (and successfully, too!) during the show. I think that’s officially the first time I’ve seen a Japanese band do that. The security people were freaking out a bit, trying to grab the guy’s legs and haul him back on stage, but he was already too far out in the crowd.
I only learned this later, but Tuesday was also the very last show for flood’s bassist, who announced he’s leaving the group due to severe tendonitis. But he’s being replaced by Hisayo of Tokyo Pinsalocks, so I’m not really worried about their future as a group.

While musically speaking, I’m more a fan of flood, Serial TV Drama was a huge standout, performance-wise. They’re just…really good. A quick peek at their Wiki page reveals they cite The Beatles, Queen and Extreme as their influences–and you can really tell. (The vocal harmonies alone will cause serious Bohemian Rhapsody flashbacks).
Add to that lots of 80s-inspired classic trashing guitar solos and some incredibly tight vocals, and it was a hell of a ride. As I said, not my favorite musically speaking, but they were so charismatic on stage that I found myself wishing I were more of a fan of their music.
The other thing I found myself thinking was, “Man, they really ought to do a cover of Sweet Child O’Mine!” It’s not so apparent on their CDs, but the singer’s voice had some definite Axl Rose moments, so I just couldn’t help it.

Check out a video from their latest album, Space Opera. Anyone who doesn’t spot the Queen influences within the first 5 seconds is officially fail.

Went to two other shows over the past few weeks as well, but this is getting a bit long.
So…that’s all for now, folks!

–Sarah

This past Saturday evening I went to check out Bad Noise! over at the Ruby Room in Shibuya. www.badnoisetokyo.com

It’s a monthly live band showcase put on by friend and occasional Metropolis contributor Daniel Robson. He’s been running the event for over a year now, featuring various bands he’s discovered around the city.
This month’s theme was, to quote Daniel, “Tokyo’s most bonkers young bands.” As it turns out, he wasn’t exaggerating.

First on the bill was a schoolgirl punk fourpiece called Still Flag. They took the stage wearing giant Gachapin-style fuzzy animal suits and announced that this was their final show, and they would be disbanding after. At the end of the set, the lights went dark only to flick back on a moment later and reveal the girls dressed in skirts, holding up a sign announcing that they had re-formed as a new band called Skirt no Naka. They then played one final song.
Even Daniel wasn’t sure if they were actually disbanding or not.

Second was the true highlight of the night (for sheer surprise anyway), a two-man band called Anglipogachan.
The band is composed of a percussionist (drums, xylophone, etc); and a second member who plays fiddle with one hand and keyboard with the other. (Yes, I mean that literally). See for yourself:

Oh yeah, and there’s a kazoo duct-taped to the mic as well.

Taking the stage last was Za Ningen, a “young, demented slacker-rock” band from Kumamoto. They recently made a splash at School of Lock’s Senko Riot! teenage rock festival.
You can check out their songs and vids on their myspace page:
www.myspace.com/zaningen

We hear next month’s Bad Noise will be a Christmas party, featuring our favorite rock chicks Bo-Peep.

–Sarah

Last night was the opening reception for the new Ginza outlet of Joe’s Shanghai–the famous, line-around-the-block NYC Chinese joint.
Now, I’ve never been to the US locations (Chinatown, Midtown, Flushing) but judging by the photos, and writeups on Yelp, it definitely seems like your average casual Chinese place in terms of decor.
Let’s just say the Ginza restaurant is… not.
I had my flash turned off, but just to give you an idea of the interior’s splendiferousness…

Chandeliers. See what I mean?

The food was quite good, and of course elegantly presented. Shark-fin soup, grilled scallop, peking duck, a sort of hot ankake fried rice.
And of course we got to try the signature xiao long bao soup dumplings (the main reason to come)

These aren’t your average gyoza, that’s for sure. The trick is that the soup is actually inside the dumplings, meaning that eating them involves sort of biting off the top and slurping out the liquidy insides before going after the meat/dough portions (either that or bite right in and spray soup all over your chin–and possibly your fellow diners).

It was a tasty evening, but I think it’s safe to say that anyone familiar with the original will have trouble recognizing the Ginza restaurant.

–Sarah

It’s always fun to check in with people we’ve written about in the mag to see how they’re faring.
This weekend I got an email from Please Please, an up-and-coming indies band that I interviewed for our Japan Beat section a few months ago.

They were selected to play in a rock showcase called Kanto Guitar Eros over at O-West in Shibuya.
The show featured sets by 6 or 7 bands from a variety of genres (some more to my taste than others). Please Please rocked the house of course; and broke the news that their recent appearance on the TBS show Music Birth was well-received enough to net them a second slot on the program next month. Stayed for about the first half of the lineup then left; though I have to say I was disappointed not to catch a couple of the other bands on the bill–The Cattlefish Fritter and Piman Jiken. (Who wouldn’t want to see bands with names like those? lol)

In other news, another past JB band–also the only group to participate in our Saiko Rock Showcase twice–is celebrating some pretty big happenings of their own. Girl-rock trio Bo-Peep are currently in the middle of their first independent US Tour, after making appearances at SXSW two years in a row. If anybody’s reading this post Stateside, check them out all this week!

And speaking, of course, of Saiko, the office is busy gearing up for Vol. 7! Saiko vs. Kickstart Your Heart, featuring Yolz in the Sky, Molice, Wrench and many others. This Friday, Nov 19th at Club Edge.

Hope to see you there!

–Sarah

Yesterday was another full round of interviews here at Metropolis.
And by interviews, I mean people in the J-media wanting to interview us–and how neat is that?!

First up was Colorful, a styling magazine put out to salons 3 times a year.

They have a section called Meet the World, where they showcase various interesting companies (aka Metropolis, apparently. lol)
A team of about 3 people, plus cameraman came over to the office to interview me, James and Steve all about the history of Metropolis, our editorial philosophy, future goals–in a nutshell, how it is we manage to be so awesome all the time.

Our Art Director Kohji managed to snap some photos of the cameraman taking photos of us (very meta).

But then they noticed him, and before we knew it, they’d gathered pretty much all of the staff who were around for some big group shots. Including various Halloween/funny face takes (apparently we were too “stiff” at first, who knew).
Publication is scheduled for January, so keep an eye out!

Then yesterday evening it was off with our sales manager Dai to Kawaguchi, to speak at a Media Seven event. They hold a series of weekly talks for media-savvy folks, and this time it was all about Metropolis. (I’m getting really good at the “let’s talk about the magazine” speech, this is probably the 4th time I’ve given it in the last couple months)
We had a pretty good turnout in person, and the event was also broadcast live via M7′s Ustream account–we even had some q’s from people listening in on twitter during the end Q&A bit.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day!

–Sarah

Like we said, seems like everybody wants a piece of Metropolis lately!

On Thursday, spent the day out on location filming for an upcoming MX TV show to be called Tokyo Culture Research.
The idea was to get three foreign journalists who live here and can talk (in Japanese) about all the cool things there are to do in Tokyo. So of course they wanted someone from Metropolis in on the action! ^_^
The other panelists were fashion correspondent Clara and journalist Etienne.

We started off at Tokyo station bright and early at 9 in the am (and were quickly forced to move along since apparently the Emperor was scheduled to pass right by that morning); then progressed on to Ginza, Harajuku and Shibuya.

Witness our fantastic mode of transportation below:

In Ginza, we stopped in to check out the newly revamped Mitsukoshi store (the rooftop terrace is really nice!) and then drove over to Omotesando, where we stopped into several shops along Takeshita-dori.
Our next mission was to comb through Harajuku Daiso in 15 minutes to find one really cool item for just 100 yen. (I came up with a neat pottery mug).

Then it was over to a clothing store in Shibuya for an 80s-style makeover. I honestly have not seen that much neon in one place in a very, very, VERY long time.
But they were kind enough to post about our visit on their blog.

*disclaimer: these clothes are the sole responsibility of the shop staff and do not in any way represent the fashion of Metropolis or its employees.

Just kidding. Really, it was lots of fun. (Check out the full blog post here)

We finished at the Shibuya scramble crossing at about 5:30pm and parted ways. All in all, it was an awesome day!

The show is scheduled to air sometime in November on MX, so we’ll update you as soon as we hear more. And we hear that it will be show in Korea as well!

Gee, I feel so famous…

–Sarah

Metropolis is looking for a part-time editorial assistant to help with listings and other duties. The position is for two days a week, ideally Thursday + Mon/Tues, although some flexibility is possible. Applicants should have at least a working knowledge of Japanese (i.e. enough to be able to understand websites/press releases) and an attention to detail.
Contact editor@metropolis.co.jp with CV if interested.

Metropolisはパートの編集アシスタントを募集しています。イベントや映画のリスティング制作などの仕事で、勤務は毎週2日です（出来れば月/火+木曜日に来られる人）。几帳面で英語が出来る人なら未経験でも歓迎です。
ご応募はeditor@metropolis.co.jpまで！

–the Editors

Week 1 of advanced deadlines begins…
See, when you work at a weekly paper and big vacations are coming up (like Silver Week), you can’t just say take off and finish everything when you get back–the show must go on, so to speak.

So in order to take those two days off next week, we’ve got to bump up the production schedule and get that work done before the holidays.
Typically, Metropolis operates on a 5-day production week, with each issue going to the printers on Friday one week before it pubs. But this week the mag has to get sent off on Thursday (aka tomorrow *gulp*); and the next issue, 862, will go to print on Wednesday.
Essentially, you have to do in 4 days what you usually take 5 to accomplish. Some late nights around the office this week and next.

But all is not gray and dreary. Mr. Kamasami Kong stopped by the office today to record the Metpod. Ever the gentleman, he handed out a red rose to me, Chinatsu-san and a couple other lucky girls.

Back to work, but at least now my desk’s a bit brighter!

–Sarah

This Saturday, James and I headed down to Hashimoto to visit the set of CUT.
The upcoming film is directed by the godfather of Iranian cinema, Amir Naderi, and stars Hidetoshi Nishijima, Takako Tokiwa and Takashi Sasano. Nishijima plays an aspiring filmmaker who gets in over his head after borrowing money from the yakuza.

The set in Hashimoto is built inside a warehouse; it’s meant to be an old boxing gym that the yakuza have turned into their HQ.

So of course there’s still a ring in the center of the building.

We showed up just in time to see them film the final take of the scene they’d been practicing all morning, and then it was time for a lunch break. It was incredibly stuffy in the warehouse, so no surprise when the cast took refuge in the air-conditioned dressing room (we got to join them!)
Sasano-san, in particular, was very friendly–the adorable grandpa type in person. He tweets at sasano61, because, he informed us, “I started when I was 61 years old.” He’s already got nearly 6,000 followers, a fact of which he was extremely proud.

Check out some more photos from the set, below!

Bar area where the yakuza hang out

Mahjong tables in the yakuza lounge; absolute mountain of (real, smoked) cigs in the ashtray

Bathroom set--an incredible recreation in every filthy detail. You expect it to smell absolutely foul (it didn't)

Faded, 80s-90s era boxing posters on the walls. I liked the slogan: Start with a bow, end with a bow!

James is interviewing Amir for a longer story on the film, so stay tuned for more in-depth coverage in the mag in a few weeks.

–Sarah