Spoon and Tamago

This entry comes from associate editor Jordan Kushins, and Spoon and Tamago is a site she quite adores. It's a great spot for the latest in Japanese graphic design, art, and culture, and we always like to check in on writer Johnny Strategy's Tokyo-New York musings. Check out this post on furniture designers Satoshi Itasaka's love of conceptual design.

Neojaponisme

If you take your ideas as hot as your industrial design, the social commentary, design criticism, and Marxist bent of Neojaponisme should strike you just right.

Wakiiii on Flickr

Flickr is often a good bet if you aim for little more than browsing endless photos, and the user wakiiii has a killer set of photos of Japanese architecture, modern and otherwise. Lots to see here. My favorites tend to be the small houses like this one.

Gurafiku

Graphic designer Ryan Hageman has a great tumblr site going that catalogs loads of Japanese posters, book jackets, illustrations, magazines, and more. In addition to being a pretty eye-popping site, Hageman allows users to sort the images by decade, offering a glimpse into what in the mind-bending compendium came when.

Tokyomango

In our Japan Style issue we leaned on writer Lisa Katayama to report on what kinds of design opportunities can come out of a disaster, like the horrible tsunami in March. To get a greater sense of her take on all things Japan and design, visit her personal blog. A quick perusal includes a photo essay of drunken salarymen to the particular design of smoking lounges in Japanese train stations.