As an Australian I am lucky to have one of the world’s niftiest travel destinations a surprisingly short (and often crazy cheap) flight away. As a result, a lot of my friends post “Going to Japan, tickets booked!” messages on Facebook. As someone writing this in anticipation of his fourth trip and having lived there for six months, I thought I’d make a note of some useful things I learned. Some of it is attractions that are easy to miss. Some of it is just handy advice.
For the most part this is just intended as an info dump for friends of mine who are planning to travel there soon. It shouldn’t be taken as formal recommendations, nor should it be acted on without double checking stuff. A trip to Tokyo doesn’t need to be super formal, but you really should check maps and know where you want to be.
Tokyo is an amazing destination, and if you ignore all of this or don’t read it you’ll absolutely still have a killer time. But maybe there’s just one thing in here that makes you go “hey, that sounds like exactly my sort of thing”.
Specific destinations and areas
Akihabara
Akihabara is also known as Akiba, and is the “geek centre”. You really don’t want to miss it. It’s pretty much amazing. It’s the area with the maid cafes and comic shops and anime figures. So many anime figures. There are also two or three excellent adult shops, three or more stories high. There is also the famous SuperPotato store, which is mostly retro gaming consoles, often difficult to find outside Japan.
SuperPotato: 1 Chome , 1–11–2 Sotokanda, 千代田区 Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō-to 101–0021, Japan
Of particular interest is Kotobukiya Akihabara. The Kotobukiya brand are some of the better quality anime figures, and a lot of the big names (DC, Marvel, etc) are licensed to them. The Akiba store is amazing, but it’s not just their stuff, it’s also weird shit that’s only popular in Japan or with irredeemable weaboos, and an excellent range of popular stuff (Evangelion, Ghibli, etc). Well worth a look.
Kotobukiya: Okashima Bldg., 1–8–8, Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Mori Tower
Roppongi is a shithole made to give American fratboys a place to hit on Japanese girls without infecting better suburbs. But Roppongi Hills is beautiful. The highlight is Mori Tower, the tenth tallest building in Japan, and a residential and commercial estate. The top floors are a modern museum and lookout. The bar there is fantastic, and weirdly enough the giftshop for the museum is a highlight. Lots of fascinating things.
Mori Tower: 6 Chome-11–1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 106–6108, Japan
Yoyogi Park
Located in southern Shinjuku, Yoyogi Park is about 130 acres of green shit. It’s a popular destination for cherry blossoms, and has a number of beautiful shrines, Japanese gardens, a clear and cold natural spring, etc. Yoyogi Park runs right from near Shinjuku all the way down to Harajuku, and on Sundays that edge is the meeting place for the lolita girls. Oddly enough, Yoyogi station is nowhere near Yoyogi Park. I made that mistake. Shinjuku or Harajuku stations are better choices. The Meiji shrine is particularly beautiful.
Meiji Jingu: 1–1 Yoyogikamizonocho, Shibuya, Tokyo 151–8557, Japan
Shibuya Crossing
Shibuya is a very trendy suburb. It’s not as upmarket as Shinjuku, or posh as the Ginza, but it’s definitely the place for street fashions and nightlife, clubs particularly. Womb is one of the top clubs in the world. At the station there is a statue to honour the dog Hachiko. Read that and cry on your own time. Seeing him is worth it, and it’s just outside the station. Right next to that is the famous Shibuya Crossing, the single largest pedestrian crossing in the world. When it’s busy, it’s amazing. I don’t have specific places to go there, it’s just fun to walk around.
Ginza
Ginza is the most upmarket area. I saw a TV travel show that referred the main street there as the most expensive street in in the most expensive suburb in the most expensive city in the most expensive country in the world. It has two Tiffany’s. I’m genuinely not sure how to punctuate that word. Tiffany’s’? Tiffany’s? Tiffanys’? Tiffanies’? Anyway, a Bulgari and a Cartier. Chanel, Dior, Gucci, etc, all have their flagship stores here, and so do high-end electronics companies like Sony. There is an especially well respected department store called Mitsukoshi. The bottom floor of it, the basement, has amazing food and treats in a market style. (This arrangement is pretty common to a number of large Japanese department stores.)
Mitsukoshi Ginza: 4 Chome-4–6–16 Ginza, Chūō-ku, Tōkyō-to 104–8212, Japan
On Saturday and Sunday afternoons the main street, Chuo Dori, is shut down and the whole place becomes a really upmarket… market. Running parallel to that street (south east) is a smaller one that has amazing shops for less fancy stuff. Fossils and antiques, cafes, pancakes and chocolates. It is particularly pretty in the early evening when the lights turn on. Despite the upscale nature of the Ginza in general, one of the highlights is not expensive — Hakuhinkan Toy Park. It’s a four (I think) story toy store, with lots of surprisingly awesome things. It really is a must-see.
Hakuhinkan Toy Park: 8 Chome-8–8–11 Ginza, Chūō-ku, Tōkyō-to 104–8132, Japan
Shinjuku
Shinjuku is full of things to do. The centre is the world’s largest train station, with a number of shopping centres, restaurants, etc. The northern tip of Shinjuku Station is particularly cool. There is a massive crossing, surrounded by restaurants and shops, video games arcades, etc. This specific area is my favourite place in the world. It’s… amazing. There is a huge street (Yasukuni dori) with Shinjuku proper on one side.
Kabukicho
The other side is the entrance to Kabukicho. Kabukicho is named for traditional Kabuki theatre, and one was going to be built here but they didn’t ever build it and the name stuck anyway. Now it’s a red light district, most owned by completely legitimate Japanese businessmen. The main area of it is gloriously sleazy but the outer edge, the southern edge is fantastic. It’s here you see places like the Shinjuku Robot Restaurant. There is a CAPCOM bar. Along Yasukunidori you will see ads for themed restaurants. Dungeons, vampires, zombies, Alice in Wonderland. On the Kabukicho side of the street there is a huge and understated building with a shop called Don Quixote. I don’t know why. It’s a multi-floor department store, specialising in random Japanese shit. It’s a must-visit. Kabukicho is sleazy, but safe. Nigerian touts will try a little pushily to encourage you to come visit them, especially as a single dude or a group of dudes. Worth pointing out that almost none of the “action” is open to westerners. The touts can be shooed off easily enough and typically speak decent English.
As a personal aside, PSY Bar, an excellent and super friendly metal bar was one of my favourite locations.
Robot Restaurant: 新宿ロボットビル, 1 Chome-１-７-１ Kabukichō, 新宿区 Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to 160–0021, Japan
Don Quixote: 1 Chome-16–5 Kabukichō, 歌舞伎町 Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to 160–0021, Japan
BAR PSY: Japan, 〒160–0021 Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Kabukichō, 1 Chome−13−7, (2F)
Tokyu Hands
Note the miss-spelling, it’s not wrong, that’s what it’s called. Located at the south end of Shinjuku station, it’s actually a chain, but that’s one of the biggest ones. They’re a kind of homewares store. Lots of things, knicknacks, clever things. Everything from art supplies to leather goods to pillows. It’s oddly fascinating.
Tokyu Hands: Takashimaya Times Square, タイムズスクエアビル, 5 Chome-５-２４-２ Sendagaya, 渋谷区 Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 151–8580, Japan
Isetan Men
A very high-end men’s clothing and accessories store. If you’re looking for a four thousand dollar light, or a three thousand dollar pen, this is the place to go. Some of their stuff is stunning, and some brands (Hideo Kikuchi is my favourite) are more reasonably priced, nicely made, and interesting.
Isetan Men: 3 Chome-14–1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to 160–0022, Japan
Harajuku
It’s two stations south of Shinjuku, and is full of fashion, mostly for women. In particular, by contrast to areas like Shibuya and Shinjuku, it’s very much counter-culture fashion. It’s the world centre for Gothic Lolita fashions, and on Sundays the Lolita girls can be seen (and photographed) doing their thing. They’re usually shop girls, and work Saturdays, so Sunday is their day to get out. They often hang out for photo ops at the edge of Yoyogi park. I should note that this isn’t all the time, and in fact I’ve never successfully seen them. Your best chances are nice cool days, etc. Saturdays and Sundays, the main street (Takeshita Street) is completely packed. Like… difficult-to-move packed. That’s when it’s at full force. At other times it’s much more reasonable.
Takeshita Street: 1 Chome-19 Jingūmae, 渋谷区 Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150–0001, Japan
Ikebukuro
Pokemon Centre. Pokemon Centres are giant Pokemon themed stores. We went to the first one, and we went on the Saturday of a public holiday. Don’t do that. Ikebukuro is nice enough, though it was recommended to me in terms way too glowing for it. There are lots of statues of owls there, for reasons I’m not clear on. This isn’t a must-do, by any means. But it’s a nice thing to post about on Facebook to eat up all the jelly.
Pokemon Centre: Sunshine City Alpa, サンシャインシティ, 3 Chome-3–1–2 Higashiikebukuro, 豊島区 Toshima-ku, Tōkyō-to 170–0013, Japan
Rules and guides and some random things
Most of these are guidelines rather than fixed and formal things. Different people in different places will have different expectations. This is largely stream of consciousness, and not in any fixed order.
Japan is super friendly and easy, so any rules you violate will be met with at worst a “silly gaijin” smile. They’re not especially formal, at least not in the sort of situations you’ll find yourself in. You’re not going to a job interview or meeting your wife’s grandmother.
Don’t tip. Ever. It’s considered rude. Bars are the exception, but only if they have a tip jar.
Don’t give people money directly, in general there is a tray on the counter, put the money there and take the money off.
Speaking of money, nowhere uses credit cards/eftpos. (Hotels, major department stores, etc, are the exception.) You must have cash only. It’s perfectly safe to carry significant amounts. If you need more, no Japanese ATM will work for you except ones in a 7–11. For some reason those do.
The tap water is perfectly safe to drink.
Don’t eat while walking around. It’s considered rude. Drinking is fine.
There are three rubbish bins in the whole of Tokyo. How the place is so tidy is a mystery to many guests.
Japan is terrible at dairy and bread, barely adequate at coffee, and amazing at candy, pastries and chocolate.
Vending machines and convenience stores are sources of endless wonder. So are grocery stores. Yes, really.
Tokyo is less tall than I expected, but it’s consistently 7–10 storeys. And the things that you’re looking for, the restaurant or shop or whatever, are just as likely to be on level 4 as the bottom floor. It’s entirely common to be going up elevators for hidden retail stores. This is a stark contrast to Australia, which is usually retail and business at the bottom floors, and then the upper for commercial offices. I went to restaurants that could only be accessed by walking through the back-of-house of another restaurant.
Japanese addresses are a weird format. They’re a series of three numbers. The first is the suburb, the second is the block, the third is which house on the block. The numbers are assigned arbitrarily (even the block is assigned in order of the house being built, rather than circularly) so there’s no way to remember this stuff. You’ll notice a bunch of boards around. These are maps that help you figure out the last two numbers once you’re in the right area.
Thankfully Google Maps is super effective at Japanese addresses now. It used to be shit, but now it’s tops. Apple maps is still shit. Knowing in advance is half the battle.
Japan is totally safe. You’d have to be very stupid or very unlucky to have any issues. Roppongi has had issues with people getting roofied and robbed. But nothing violent. Tourists are not targeted in any way by anything. There is no theft. People leave bags, bicycles, or even shop stock just lying around. All of the advice people give — carry a money belt with minimal cash, keep your passport safe in a special pouch sewn into your flesh, etc — you can ignore all that. Just take a wallet.
Japanese money is a little bigger than Australian, and won’t fit in many Australian wallets. You may want to buy one there.
If you’re changing money, do it long before you go. Banks will give you a good rate, but currency exchanges at the airport (either end) will shaft you without lube. Some banks will charge very high fees to take out yen… $4 + x% of the transaction. Find out what your bank will do and possibly make another arrangement.
Don’t use the word gaijin in polite company. It’s actually considered quite rude. Even though you are a gaijin it’s just awkward. You become that black dude saying “nigger” and making everyone uncomfortable. Gaikokujin is fine. It’s basically the same word, but it’s like the difference between Paki and Pakistani.
Eat Tokyo Banana. They’re most available at Tokyo station, and they’re delicious. Also, buy/eat Japanese KitKats. They’re amazing, cheap, and make super-best gift treats for people. “Kitto-Katto” happens to mean “Good luck” in Japanese, and they’ve manipulated that to become a popular souvenir candy. Every region has its own, and there are lots of random ones — strawberry yogurt, white chocolate and cinnamon, green tea, etc.
Japanese don’t do “souvenirs” like we do, they have regional snacks and foods. They’re usually weird. Eat them.
Words and Phrases
I’m writing these fo-net-ik-lee so that they’re easier to get right. Some very basic info you probably already know: Japanese is entirely syllabic — they have no (with one exception) single letters. They all follow the same pattern: a — i — u — e — o. Ma — mi — mu — me — mo. Pronunciation of them is the same as the first syllable of the following words and names.
ramen, mitsubishi, subaru, extra, odd
Combinations don’t change pronunciation like in English. For example, in English, adding an E makes fin become fine. Lot becomes loot, again different. In Japanese this does NOT happen. Each syllable is spoken the same regardless of context. “too” doesn’t become “tuu” in Japanese, it is “toe-o”. Try to avoid the Westerner tendency to make them change depending on context. If you get the a i u e o sounds right, you’re totes there. Ra, ri, ru, re, ro, ma, mi, mu, me, mo. There are a few exceptions, there’s no si, it’s shi, and the t’s get screwed up as ta, chi, tsu, te, to. There’s also ya, yu, and yo, but ye and yi are completely missing. And there’s wa. For no reason. The only other character is n. Just on its own after another character. Ie, nihon for japan.
Useful Phrases
ikura desu ka (ickoora deska) — how much is it?
[thingy] ga hoshii desu (thingy ga hoshee des) — I want the thingy.
sumimasen (soomeemasen) — excuse me
wakarimasu ka (wakareemaska) — do you understand?
eigo dekimasu ka (eygo deckimaska) — do you speak english? can you english?
nihongo dekimasen/nihongo wakarimasen — I don’t speak/understand japanese
[place/thing] wa doko desu ka — (thing wa dohkoh deska) — where is thing
[thing] ga arimasu ka — (thing ga arimaska) — do you have thing? (Do you sell, etc)
[place] ni ikimasu (place nee ickymass) — going to place (useful for taxis, trains, etc)
eki (ecky) — train station (shinjuku-eki, yotsuya-eki, etc)
toire (toy-rey) — toilet
futari (foo-tarry) — two people
kekko desu (kecko des) — I’m fine, it’s fine. (Dismissive of an attempt to offer you something)
The “ka” is a question, but much like English, in fact exactly like English, a rising tone makes something a question. “Two people” as a statement, and “two people?” as a question are clearly different. It’s identical in Japanese.
One of the most useful techniques for being understood feels like outright racism. Seriously. If you can’t get people to understand, say it in English with mockingly over-the-top Japanese-ness. I’ve lost track of the number of times I struggled to be understood saying what I thought correct (even in Japanese) only to say something like “buraku shoozu” for black shoes, and have them immediately understand with a kind of “well why didn’t you say so” tone.
Tokyo Train System
Tokyo is probably not as big as you think. I think my impressions were formed on the basis of pictures of places like Hong Kong, or Shanghai, which are very tall. Tokyo doesn’t have massive buildings. It has medium sized buildings, but they’re horizon to horizon. In fact, everything there is smaller than you think. Someone I went there with pointed out that it feels like it’s at 85% scale. That’s pretty much spot on. Doors and seats and things are just that little bit smaller than you expect. A six foot tall person needs to watch their head a bit more than they’re used to.
Tokyo doesn’t have a “city centre” like most towns. Rather it has a ring around the outside, a large train line called the Yamanote line. The Yamanote is a major part of Tokyo life, and goes through all the big destinations. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, Akihabara, Ueno, etc. Roppongi and Yotsuya are in the middle there. It’s not a circle, really, it’s kind of deformed. I think of it like a melty Salvador Dali clock. It’s long at the bottom, and flat on top. But taking it as a clock like that, Shinjuku is at around 10 o’clock, Akihabara at 5, Harajuku at 7, Ueno at 2, etc. The Chuo line is also useful — it runs directly from the awesomeness of Akihabara and the Ginza to the awesomeness of Shinjuku, passing through a bunch of lovely places. And Roppongi. If you stay on it it also goes out to Nakano where Nakano Broadway is, and then to Mitaka, where the Ghibli museum is. Useful!
If you’re taking long trips, such as to Osaka or Kyoto, you may well find that you’re better off with a JR Rail Pass. The rail pass covers all JR line travel except the very fastest class of bullet train. They’re for 7 or 14 days. They’re quite expensive (a few hundred dollars) but so is travel by long distance rail in Japan.
Trains in Japan are pretty crazy. The map of Tokyo stations and lines is utterly insane. But you can simplify it a lot down to major lines. Train lines are often privately run there. Some of the major departments stores, such as Odakyu have their own train lines and train company. The majority of big lines are run by JR, Japan Rail. It’s named in English for reasons. Yamanote and Chuo are both JR lines, as are the ones to the airport, and other cities. Sticking to the JR system might mean a slightly longer walk in some cases, but a shitload less confusion trying to change from system to system. There may be exceptions, I used to take the subway to my house, for example, because the nearest JR station was a fairly long way, and there slightly more convenient subway stations in the Ginza than the JR one.
Ticketing is relatively easy. You have two options. One is paper tickets. This means that you pay for a ticket, and stick it in the machine. Then you put it in at the other end and it either lets you through because your ticket was right, or spits it back out and you have to pay the difference between what you bought and what you actually travelled. The better and easier option is to buy a Suica card. These are the equivalent of a go-card, and you can just top them up with Yennies and off you go. Beep beep. They’re about $5 for the card, I think, then you have to put money on them. The machines have a button for English.
A third option is the JR Rail Pass mentioned above, which does work for local trains as well. But it would not be cost-effective to get one just for local trains.
Trains in Japan are much cheaper than Australia, but when you’re a tourist you use them a lot, so you’ll burn through it. You can also use Suica cards at trains to major destinations and lines go extremely regularly. Five minutes max. I’ve seen trains pull up literally as another one is leaving. They’re… regular.
Trains are also very much on time. If they say 3:23 they’ll be there at 3:23. They have a margin for error of less than 28 seconds.
Peak hour in Tokyo isn’t the same as ours, it’s closer to 7:30–8pm, because people work back too late. Avoid travelling then if you don’t want to be a sardine. Some trips, like Shibuya on a Friday Night, sardinity is inevitable. Just go with it.
It helps to learn the Kanji for major lines, such as Yamanote and Chuo. 山手 is the Yamanote. The first character is mountain, and quite distinctive and easy to find. Though most train stations have English signage in abundance, the Japanese ones are both larger and more common, and Japanese train stations can be confusing mazes.
Trains are super easy to catch. Buses are very not. Avoid them. They have no English support, don’t use the Suica system, require exact change, and are intended for very local transport. They’re more common in Kyoto than Tokyo for some reason.
GETTING TO AND FROM THE AIRPORT
You want to take the N’EX train. Narita Express. I don’t know what time you get in, so I don’t know if that’s an option, but if it is, it’s your best one. This is a reserved seat train, i.e., you need a ticket. This can be bought at the airport, for a cost of around $70 per person, each way. You can get a “round trip” ticket for your return for about $45 each. The trip is about an hour, and stops at a few major stops, including Kanda (where you can change to the Chuo line, and Shinjuku. Note that if you have a JR Rail Pass that will cover the N'EX as well.
The other option, if you are too late, is to get the “limousine bus”. The bus is a much longer trip (nearly two hours) but has the advantage of going directly to many hotels.
At the same time, the cost is around half the train. $35 or so each.
Given a nice early and rested trip, your best option is a train to Shinjuku or Tokyo, then either a taxi or another train to your hotel. If you need to get a bus, then so be it. It’s easy and you don’t have to think about it.
Better (and worse) than I expected
Better than I expected
Ghibli Museum: You have to book this around three months in advance. They go on sale three months out and start to get immediately snapped up. The sooner you book, the better. Especially if you need to go on a weekend or peak season. Tickets can only be bought through JTB travel, and they’re mailed to you.
Tokyo Robot Restaurant: You can book online now, or in person for later in the evening. Get the Bento Box, it’s good. This is absolutely mandatory.
Akihabara. All of it. It’s amazing. Especially the cube shops. So many things.
Shinjuku. Shinjuku is literally my favourite place in the world. Go there a lot.
Shibuya crossing. Staggering numbers of people.
Harajuku main street
Ginza toy store, and the parallel side street
Tsukuji fish market: Though a bullshit early morning this is a legit commercial fish market. It is staggering in scale. No pun intended. Pun a little bit intended.
Games arcades: I don’t know what is happening, but I like it
Nakano Broadway: Though similar in theme to Akihabara with its many anime figures, Nakano Broadway also has a lot of more vintage and classic collectibles. It is well worth a look.
Worse than I expected
Sega Joypolis: Sounds amazing, but waits are absurd. Three hour waits for 10 minutes of ride. There are better things to do with your precious Tokyo time.
Maid Cafe: Sounds like cute fun, but they’re stupid and tacky, horribly overpriced and the food is terrible. We spent about $75 on what I believe was two omelettes and a coke.
Gaming: Usually means gambling, which usually means pachinko, which makes no sense.
Ikebukuro: This was recommended to me in such terms that I thought a choir of angels would sing when the door opened. It’s just another mixed-residential commercial suburb.
GASHAPON!
Gashapon (or gachapon) is a brand, but also the generic term for all the capsule vending machines. There are major caches of these through Akihabara, but really they’re common all over the place. For the most part they dispense useless crap — like phone danglies with pictures of pretty boys from some random anime. But they also have some bizarrely awesome stuff… oddly large numbers of natural world stuff. Insects of Japan, Fish of Japan, Frogs, Mushrooms, etc.
Also some unspeakably strange things. Cats. So many cats. Cats that hang on your glass. Cats that are also a dessert. Cats that have a poop for a head. Natural world figures. Natural world figures after they’ve been dipped in panko crumbs and deep fried.. Like… a whole shark.
It’s very weird and I love it. Keep an eye out and you’ll find some fun souvenirs for prices less than $5.
One of the most common uses of a JavaScript framework is creating Single Page Apps, and the central feature required to do this effectively is a router. All modern frameworks have one of these, and for the most part they operate similarly.
With that in mind I got curious recently about how different frameworks implement their routing logic. What I found was a surprising variety of implementations, which reveal quite a lot about the way the frameworks are structured and the intentions behind them. The frameworks I investigated were what I consider to be the most common and modern frameworks in JavaScript at this time: Angular 2, Ember, React, Vue, Meteor and Aurelia.
Each of these frameworks has a sizable and vocal following. Further discussion will focus entirely on the syntax and structure of the router alone, and shouldn’t be taken as a criticism or praise of the framework in its entirety. It should also go without saying that the following is largely subjective. I’m not an expert on all of these frameworks, and am attempting to take an open and honest look at these features based on their official documentation and some supplementary information. Every attempt has been made to provide well-intentioned and accurate information, but if features are not discussed correctly, please feel free to comment accordingly and the record will be corrected.
The same site structure is to be replicated in all routers — a site index, a static “about” page, a posts list page, and a page for an individual post. Ideally the post should be a child or nested route of the posts, though this is not universally supported. Every effort has been made to make the code represent idiomatic usage of the framework, and various bits of boilerplate and setup are omitted.
I want to acknowledge up front that my chief experience is as an Ember developer, and this article is written from that basis. The intention here is to share my learning around a range of technologies, not to engage in endless debate about framework specifics.
The Router
// posts
export const PostRoutes: RouterConfig = [{
path: '/posts',
component: PostListComponent,
children: [
{ path: ':id', component: PostComponent },
{ path: '', component: PostListComponent }
]
}];
Angular’s router syntax is very clear. It’s TypeScript, which adds a bit of unique flavour, but it’s clear and readable. The only thing that complicates or undermines the router is that recommended usage seems to be to have pieces of RouterConfig for app sections scattered throughout the app. Having the site’s entire route structure visible upfront can be helpful to get an understanding and overview. Whether these should be managed centrally or separated to areas of their concern is pretty subjective and not really worthy of criticism. Like many framework choices this one is very much open to interpretation.
Simple Links
<a routerLink="/about">About</a>
<a routerLink="/posts">Posts</a>
Router links are clear as well, with custom attributes to handle the actual path. This is a not uncommon solution. It’s simple and short, without a lot of extra fluff added.
Dynamic Links
<li *ngFor="let post of posts">
<a [routerLink]="['/posts', post.id]">{{post.title}}</a>
</li>
Unfortunately it’s at this point that Angular 2 descends into special syntax soup. Let me just say subjectively and completely as a matter of opinion: this is gross. I know there are reasons and meaning and I know that’s how Angular has always operated, but… ew.
On a more objective note, this is actually not supported by default. Not all components can be routed like this off the bat. They need to be set up as an ActivatedRoute through the linked component’s constructor, and the linking component needs to have a shouty directive added to it as well. Why this isn’t default behaviour is something of a mystery and I’m sincerely concerned I’ve missed something.
I get the feeling that if I’m wrong, someone will let me know…
The Router
FlowRouter.route(‘/’, {
name: ‘App.home’,
action() {
BlazeLayout.render(‘App_body’, {main: ‘app_rootRedirector’ });
}
});
FlowRouter.route(‘/about’, {
name: ‘About’,
action() {
BlazeLayout.render(‘App_body’, {main: ‘About_page’});
});
});
FlowRouter.route('/posts', {
name: 'Posts.list',
action() {
BlazeLayout.render('App_body', { main: 'Post_list_page' });
}
});
FlowRouter.route('/posts/:_id', {
name: 'Posts.show',
action() {
BlazeLayout.render('App_body', { main: 'Lists_show_page' });
}
});
Meteor is unusual in that there isn’t a single router. There are two. I initially focused on Iron Router because my reading suggested it was the “default” for Meteor. However, Meteor’s official guides use Flow, so I’ve changed tracks. There seems to be a lot of discussion back and forth about which one to use. I have to say in advance I count this against Meteor. This is exactly the sort of decision I don’t want to be making in a framework.
I also have to admit, and this is highly subjective, that I don’t like Meteor’s structure on this. It feels like each FlowRouter.route() is doing way too much. Most of all this reminds me of the basic implementation of routing in the Laravel framework.
Route::get('/posts', function () {
return Posts::all();
});
However, that usage is only really intended as a naive illustration or a specific case. In actual usage on any reasonable system you would link to a [email protected]/* */ structure much more often. Meteor doesn’t seem to have that potential for improvement. Note that the competing Iron Router doesn’t actually change this. Its structure is the same.
Note also that there is no nesting in the posts route, no programmatic logical connection between that route and its children.
Of all the frameworks, Meteor’s router has been the hardest to come to grips with. Finding documentation of the cases I wanted to cover, which seemed very reasonable, was not simple.
And perhaps I’m out of line, but the casing and structure seem to be all over the shop, and pretty hard to like. It might just be a poorly written example, but if so it’s a poorly written example from the official docs.
Simple Links
<a href="{{pathFor route='About'}}">About</a>
<a href="{{pathFor route='Posts.list'}}">Posts</a>
Though the usage of a simple handwritten url would be perfectly valid, this is considered more maintainable. Unfortunately, the syntax shown above isn’t included by default, and needs to be installed. This seems like a surprising omission. Meteor’s syntax for this should be familiar to many – it uses Spacebars, a variant of Handlebars.
Dynamic Links
{{#each list in lists}}
<a href="{{pathFor ‘Lists.show’ _id=list._id}}">{{list.name}}</a>
{{/each}}
Again, this is Handlebars style syntax, which some will love and some will hate. And again, this pathFor is not part of a default Meteor install. I’d be interested to see if the pathFor binding is doing any more than string generation, or if it actually facilitates any sort of watcher on the link. But that’s out of the scope of this article.
The Router
Router.map(function() {
this.route('about');
this.route('posts', function() {
this.route('show', {path: ':post_id'});
});
});
Ember’s router is impressive in its brevity. Ember has a rather unique object entity called the Route. This is simply the object connected to any given URL pattern, and handles lifecycle hooks, model data, etc. Ember has extremely rigid naming conventions that enforce things like template names and project structure, so in this case, for example, there is a Route that lives in app/routes/about.js. Because this must be the file backing this url there’s no need to specify.
This implied nature is a blessing for those who know Ember’s conventions and requirements, but may well be a burden on people who don’t. There’s no explicit statement about what method or module handles the about route, where it gets its data from, or how it functions. There is no explicit statement about what template is used.
Simple Links
{{#link-to 'about'}}About{{/link-to}}
{{#link-to 'posts'}}Posts{{/link-to}}
The syntax for links is similar to Meteor, again due to the Handlebars-derived templating system. This is the “link-to helper”. This differs wildly from the land of JSX or component-included templates, but some people prefer a more separated strict MVC pattern.
Ember’s draconian conventions, strong opinions and forced separation of concerns is either its biggest benefit or a major flaw.
Dynamic Links
{{#each model as post}}
<li>{{#link-to 'posts.show' post}}posts{{/link-to}}</li>
{{/each}}
Again, highly subjective whether this is clean or not (I like it) but there is a more objective benefit. In this case we’ve passed the post object through to the link-to helper. Because Ember now has a model for that route it does not need to run the model hook when it makes that transition. This means the initial XHR call to get the posts collection will be the first and last one that needs to be made. A nice default behaviour I believe not supported by the other frameworks without explicit setting and state management.
The Router
render((
<Router history={hashHistory}>
<Route path="/" component={App}>
<IndexRoute component={Home} />
<Route path="about" component={About} />
<Route path="posts" component={PostList}>
<Route path=":id" component={PostShow}>
</Route>
</Route>
</Router>
), document.body)
There’s no way I can find to say this objectively. I think JSX is awful. I think this is gross. It violates the principles of good software development I’ve used all my career, and IMO just looks plain ugly. Everything about this makes me cringe. React is a fantastic library but this XML nonsense is weird. There is an alternative syntax that will bind down to JSX later, but I wanted to stick with idiomatic standards, and this is it. May God have mercy on its soul.
It’s also a mystery to me why what is essentially internal config has to “render”. And even more mysterious why config needs to render on a specified DOM element.
Simple Links
<ul>
<li><Link to="/about">About</Link></li>
<li><Link to"/posts">Posts</Link></li>
</ul>
Atypically, but not uniquely, React replaces out the entire anchor tag with a custom one. Again, not much to say about this.
Dynamic Links
{this.state.posts.map(user => (
<li key={post.id}>
<Link to={`/posts/${post.id}`}>{post.title}</Link>
</li>
))}
Much like Angular 2’s example, the clarity of this gets a little bit lost in slightly esoteric syntax. Though in fairness it’s more ES6 than it is React. This is solid use of ES6 template literals. It’s obvious enough at a glance what it’s going for. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s clear and contemporary.
The Router
router.map({
'/': {component: HomePage},
'/about': {name: 'about', component: About},
'/posts': {
name: 'postList',
component: PostList,
subRoutes: {
'/:postId': {name: 'post', component: ShowPost}
}
}
})
Vue’s router is clean and easy to read. It does a nice job of effectively tying together a route with an object that contains the stuff it needs, particularly a component. Like Angular 2 it is explicitly nesting the subroutes, which is a definite preference.
The example I’ve shown is a simple style, but Vue can also be set up to lazy-load components from its routes. However, this is largely based on Webpack’s code splitting functionality.
Simple Links
<a v-link="{ path: '/about' }">About</a>
<a v-link="{ path: '/posts' }">Posts</a>
Again not unlike Angular’s approach, Vue uses a custom attribute to control the route link.
Dynamic Links
<li v-for="post in posts">
<a v-link="{ name: 'post', params: { postId: post.id }}”>{{post.title}}</a>
</li>
The Angular is strong with this one, too, particularly in the syntax of the loop itself. The structure of the link makes perfect sense thanks to the use of the named route. Note that the same could have been done with the simple links above, using a name instead of a path.
The Router
config.map([
{ route: ['', 'home'], name: 'home', moduleId: 'home/index' },
{ route: 'about', name: 'about', moduleId: 'about/index', nav: true },
{ route: 'posts', name: 'postList', moduleId: 'post/index', nav: true },
{ route: 'posts/:postId', name: 'postShow', moduleId: 'post/show' },
]);
This is pretty decent. Only two things aren’t obvious. First of all, what’s the moduleId? None of the examples or documentation actually explain it. It’s taken for granted in Aurelia Land and used without explanation. A substantial amount of searching turns out that it’s specifically a view/viewmodel pairing.
This is the only framework that did not support explicit nesting. You can see the postList and postShow routes are on the same level. Objectively that doesn’t make a huge difference, but it can remove some optimisation as well as making the structure a little less clear.
Of note is the nav: true, which I left in place despite being out of scope. This key tells Aurelia what the top level navigation elements will be, and facilitates this capability:
<li repeat.for="row of router.navigation">
<a href.bind="row.href">${row.title}</a>
</li>
Quite a nice piece of default behaviour out of the box.
Simple Links
<a route-href="route: about">About</a>
<a route-href="route: posts">Posts</a>
Aurelia’s routing is nice and clean. It explicitly states some of the things Ember users have to infer. But the linking process is oddly messy and unclear. Should you use href.bind? Or route-href? The latter seems typically preferred, with the former being used for internally generated links.
Dynamic Links
<li repeat.for="post of posts">
<a route-href="route: post, params.bind: { postId: post.id }”>${post.title}</a>
</li>
This is very similar to the Vue example shown above. In fact I copy and pasted the Vue example and just changed the syntax. To be honest, that was the only way I was able to do so. I’ve pieced this syntax together from disparate examples, as the documentation doesn’t do a particularly great job of covering it.
Conclusion
There seem to be three basic patterns in terms of the syntax of routers. The default implementation is to map a string (or string pattern) to a given component. This pattern is followed by Angular 2, React, Vue, and Aurelia (through a moduleId).
The two exceptions are Meteor and Ember. Meteor’s idiomatic method appears to run through a closure, which then explicitly sets template and data. That’s discussed in more detail in the Meteor-specific section. Ember is the other drastic variation. Its structure is impressively terse because of its reliance on its rigid conventions. But developers less familiar with those conventions will struggle with the lack of explicit detail — they can see that the ‘about’ route is supported, but not how.
Looking at these examples it’s immediately apparent the impact Angular had on the landscape. As well as the obvious of Angular 2, Aurelia and Vue show pretty clear signs of its influence, especially in the <li repeat.for> style syntax. Ember and Meteor look superficially similar, but that’s just because of their use of near-identical templating engines. React is very much forging its own path as ever.
To summarize: Ember as always requires knowledge about its structure and conventions. React is not bad but JSX is an affront to God and Man. Aurelia looks good and works well, but its documentation is deeply lacking and I’m surprised it doesn’t nest routes. Angular 2's route structure is excellent but its templating is a nicely documented garbage fire. Vue was a standout, a clear and expressive router with a range of solid features. Its documentation is excellent and its templating, though rather “angularish” is well implemented and capable. Meteor (to my great surprise) stood out for the opposite reasons. With two competing routers potentially capable of operating in two different contexts (server and client), iffy documentation, minimal example code, and a structure that doesn’t seem very maintainable. Even its use of handlebars templates are marred by ugly conventions.
TokyoWhispers
In the Garden,
A Royal treat:
Dragonflies & helicopters,
Spiders & police…
Fenced by Stone & steel,
Herbs for all times:
Past & present,
A Perfect Now,
Cicada concerto!
StateOfTokyo.com it’s here!
It has been a while since this project started to boil in my head. It has taken a while for me too to clear my own mind about what I really wanted to do. Mainly because, I thought, it is hard to do something new and original in a world where photography is everywhere and instantly consumed.
But no matter how many times I thought about it, I could not stop thinking about this. I needed to do it. It’s not for the money, it’s not for fame (what’s that?), it’s because the world is inspiring and full of art. And it’s not just the world, it’s the humans that inspire me. Every single of us has a story to tell, has a hidden expression to share, a universe within our minds.
And this is the reason why I am starting this project called State of Tokyo. This is more about the people and less about the city, but it is about both. It is also about you. About people that inspire and about the people that I know. About friends, and strangers, grandpas, colleagues and people I still have to meet. I want to capture and share what inspires me so it can inspire you too.
It’s a humble blog, with a bit of a spartan design that no doubt can be improved, but at the end it’s about the names and about the people who are on each post.
If you are based in Tokyo and know someone that inspires you, or a store that amazes you, or a little bar or a business that you think it’s unique and deserves to be know, please let me know. I will do my best to try to photograph that special person or place.
I will be waiting for your email here: [email protected]/* */
Julia was born and raised in Germany. One day she decided she wanted to live her own life, quit her job, cut all ties and moved to Japan about 5 years ago. She didn’t plan much, just had the feeling it was the right time, and went for it. Since then she’s been following her instincts and living her own life. Julia doesn’t like to think too much about things and the future, learning from the good and bad things from the past she became the way she is now, a kind and joyful spirit. She enjoys travelling around the places she hasn’t been yet in Japan, and loves nature. As you will see from the photo shoot, loves to change herself constantly on the way she looks and dresses, or new designs for her tattoos.
We got in touch through Instagram; I thought her style was really original so I dropped her a message asking if she would like to do some collaboration. The result was great! There was good synergy and we shot the 3 different styles we discussed and improvised in the same location. The first one, a colourful and natural style; the second, a dark and vampiresque look with a slight steampunk influence; and the third, a white and blond look with some ballet influences on a slightly dystopian background.
Photography Alex Abian
Make up and Stylism: Julia Shibata
Model: Julia Shibata
Translation: Seiya Watanabe
Feel free to contact Julia for collaborations or bookings by email here.
日本語
ドイツ生まれ育ちのユリア。自分自身を生きようと、仕事を辞め、これまで生きてきた世界を離れ、来日したのが約５年前のこと。物事や将来について理屈で考えるのが好きではない。自身の経験やその価値観から生まれる直感が道標となり、彼女の「今」を創っているのだろう。趣味は旅行と、自然に向き合うこと。身体に付与する装飾やタテゥーに常に変化を求め、新しい自分になりたいと思う気持ちを大切にしているそうだ。
彼女の独創的なスタイルに惹かれ、インスタグラムで声をかけたのが今回の撮影のきっかけとなった。今回は「色彩と自然」、「スチームパンク調のヴァンパイアと闇」そして「ディストピアとバレエの融合」をテーマに、３つの異なるパターンで彼女を表現してもらうことにした。
ユリアへの撮影協力・タイアップ等に関するお問い合わせはこちら。
Look 1:
A look around the location, in Hatagaya.
幡ヶ谷近郊の風景。
An old Seiko clock oversees the little semi abandoned park.
廃墟化した公園を望む、古びたセイコーのポール時計。
Look 2
Look 3
Originally published at State of Tokyo.
“Our product has traction in Japan! What now?”
If you find yourself asking this question, you’re in good company. Japan is an amazing place to have a following, as many startups have discovered. With 115 million internet users and a sophisticated consumer culture, anything is possible here. Twitter, for example, who invested early in Japan-specific research, content, product and marketing, grew from 7 to 35 million users over the last five years in Japan.
As a product design studio based in Tokyo, we’ve helped teams around the world navigate the massive opportunity and unique cultural challenge that Japan represents.
A year ago, Medium began to explore how it could better serve Japan, working with local editors and ambassadors to support writers. Recently, we sat down with Luke and Marcin from Medium’s international and design teams to map out what to do next: information architecture? UI translation? help content? After looking at the product from every angle, we realized what was most important: typography!
Why type? In our 12 years of UX research for internationalization, careless Japanese typography has consistently hurt perceptions of product quality, yet it usually takes teams years to address the problem. We’ve heard Japanese users described products as “unnatural”, “foreign”, and “suspicious.” Pinterest, in Japan since 2013, began refining Japanese type last year after an employee described their homepage as “when someone tries to overcome a language barrier by talking louder.”
The work to get from unnatural to perfect is not hard, and there are more interesting challenges for you to spend time on, so we’ve put together a little primer to get you most of the way there. (If you want to go further, we’re happy to help.)
Designing in Japanese
Written Japanese consists of thousands of characters across four character sets, hiragana, katakana, kanji and the latin alphabet. The four character sets are used in combination within the same sentence, each with its own purpose and rules, as well as its own visual weight and texture. Visually complex kanji combine with each other to represent most objects, ideas and actions. Flowing hiragana connects and conjugates kanji among other uses, while angular katakana represents non-Japanese proper nouns and concepts.
In my former work as a print designer, I often worked into the early hours of the morning, carefully combining fonts, replacing characters, tracking and kerning, to achieve an expressive, readable body of text.
As a UI designer, none of these techniques are reliably available to me. The major operating systems have only a few font families each, with nearly no overlap. Web fonts, now a common luxury in English, are still unviable in Japanese if you are designing for speed. Even kerning tables are not a certainty.
To date, these limitations have reduced design diversity and created a different, arguably less beautiful standard for Japanese text on the screen. If you are a designer new to the language however, these limitations might be helpful constraints as you begin to become familiar with the fundamentals of the language, and learn to see when something looks right.
A few simple rules for perfect Japanese typography
Match sans serif with gothic, serif with Mincho.
There are dozens of type styles in Japanese, but like English, only two dominant and readily available. Gothic families share the aesthetic and functional qualities of sans serif Latin typefaces, and Mincho those of serif. Adding one of each to your respective font stacks will result in a harmonious combination of Japanese and Latin characters within the text.
2. Don’t use italics.
Italics don’t exist in Japanese, but CSS italic rules will force an unnatural-looking oblique on Japanese text in some browsers. Use font weight variation or brackets to offset Japanese text as you would with italics.
3. Keep line length between 15 and 35 characters.
Shorter for just a few lines of text, multi-column layouts, and captions.
Longer for longer, single-column body text.
4. Justify your text, once browsers catch up.
In print, body text is almost always justified, the most natural treatment of the predictable width of Japanese characters. Screen rendering engines still don’t know how to deal with inline URLs, creating huge white gaps in the text, but hopefully they will soon.
5. Reduce font sizes by 10, 15%.
The full-cap height and square profile of Japanese characters make them appear larger than the Latin alphabet. Compensate by reducing your body text by around a bit, and your headlines by a bit more.
6. Increase line height by around 10, 15%.
The high-density, square profile characters of Japanese need more breathing room between lines to allow the eye to travel across the page without jumping lanes.
Increases to line height must be balanced against decreases to font size, however. With shorter line lengths, you may only need to adjust one of the two. And if you are setting columns of Japanese and Latin text side by side, changes to line height will disrupt the harmony of the page, so you’ll want to reduce font size first.
7. Stick with horizontal.
It is true that Japanese is set both horizontally and vertically, sometimes on the same page. Vertical typesetting is well suited to the horizontal flow of scrolls and printed texts, but is awkward to read and paginate in apps and websites which scroll vertically, which is most outside of e-readers.
We’re making a book!
We get into web fonts, punctuation, font pairing, Japanese type terminology, text decoration and more in our little book of Japanese type, available for pre-order here: http://eepurl.com/b86D2z
This was originally published on the AQ website.
A big ありがとう to Medium for letting us publish this, and to Craig Mod, Tomoyuki Ishida, Ian Lynam, Jihun Lee and Raphaël Mazoyer for reviewing.