Most Viewed Content

I went back into the statistics for this blog to see what readers have been enjoying the most. My reports on Yu Darvish have drawn some serious traffic this year with his upcoming season in the major leagues. Readers have also checked out and sent around various reports and posts on Tokyo culture. Thankfully some of my favorite pieces to write have also proven to be popular with readers of this blog. At any rate, here are the top 20 most popular pieces of content over the last year. I hope you find something interesting and maybe learn something new about life in Tokyo, Japan. Thank you for your continued support of Oyl In Tokyo!

Most Popular Content on Oyl In Tokyo:

1. Yu Darvish Scouting Report.

2. A Brief History of Nike.

3. Two Strikes Against Yu Darvish.

4. Minimalism’s Next Door Neighbor Maximalism.

5. Play Ball Tokyo.

6. Being Tall In Japan.

7. Koshien.

8. Nike Football Soccer Note.

9. Nike Football Ignite Legends.

10. Tsutaya Daikanyama Is the Future.

11. PlayStation Playfaces.

12. ‘Slurp Voraciously.’

13. Nike Japan New Beginnings.

14. The Definition of ‘Linsanity.’

15. Tokyo Ballers.

16. Nike Ignite The Game.

17. My Thoughts On Fukushima.

18. Alternative America.

19. Baseball In Japan.

20. On the Ekiden and the Existence of Finish Lines.

Logo Design: New York Connection

I really like this logo.

I like how the letters are hand done, but still look like they were perfectly designed shapes, consciously placed within the outline of the apple. It isn’t just haphazard scrawling. It is sophisticated hand penned design.

Look at the way the bottom right stem of the K dovetails and creates a uniform width line of negative space against the extended serif of the N below it. Beautiful.

Look at variation of line widths, the kind of variation you get with a calligraphic pen. You can’t even get this with a sharpie, as much as I love sharpies. These lines are interesting to look at, where ever you choose to look.

I love the shape and flow of the wavy double underline at the bottom. And love the artist’s decision to break the lines into a longer set of two and a shorter set of two. It’s those kind of unexpected decisions that make this really stand out for me.

How cool is the loop at the beginning of that first T?!

And I like the rather clunkily shaped, but well placed, chunk of black space beneath it. Delicious!

The back to back N’s in the bottom word have subtle variation to prove their craftsmanship and show that they are not the generic mass offering of a type foundry. No, these lines come from a specific place.

I love this logo as an emblem for this particular exhibition. It’s an exhibition that features wildly colorful works of street artists, all around the theme of New York. But this logo face, doesn’t try to be the literal cover for this book. It exists in an Apple-like minimalism, black and white, confident and bold. Serving as an emblem or shield for the show, while not trying to compete for attention with the works at all.