The brilliant Satoshi Kon, creator of Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers, died earlier this week at the age of 46 from pancreatic cancer. He only had a few months left to live when he found out he was terminally ill.

There were so many people that I wanted to see before I died, to say even one word of greeting to. Family and relatives, old friends and classmates from elementary and middle and high school, the mates I met in college, the people I met in the manga world, with whom I exchanged so much inspiration, the people in the anime world whose desks I sat next to, went drinking with, with whom I competed on on the same works, the mates with whom I shared good and bad times. The countless people I was able to know because of my position as a film director, the people who call themselves my fans not only in Japan but around the world, the friends I’d made via the web.

There are so many people that I want to see at least once (well there are some I don’t want to see too), but if I see them I’m afraid that that the thought that “I can never see this person again” will take me over, and that I wouldn’t be able to greet death gracefully. Even if I had recovered, I had very little life force left, and it took a lot of effort to see people. The more people wanted to see me, the harder it was for me to see them. What irony. In addition, my lower body was paralyzed due to the cancer spreading to my bones, and I was prone on my bed, and I didn’t want people to see my emaciated body. I wanted most of the people I knew to remember me as the Satoshi that was full of life.

I’d like to use this space to apologize to my relatives, friends and acquaintances, for not telling you about my cancer, for my irresponsibility. Please understand that this was Satoshi’s selfish desire. I mean, Satoshi Kon was “that kind of guy”. When I envision your faces, I only have good memories and remember (your) great smiles. Everyone, thank you for all the truly great memories. I loved the world I lived in. Just the fact that I can think that makes me happy.

The many people that I met throughout my lifetime, whether they were positive or negative, have helped to shape the human being that is Satoshi Kon, and I am grateful for all of those encounters. Even if the end result is an early death in my mid 40s, I’ve accepted this as my own unique destiny. I’ve had so many positive things happen to me after all.

The thing I think about death now. “I can only say, it’s too bad.” Really.

Read the full translated transcript on Makiko Itoh’s blog. It’s one of the most honest, humbling, heartbreaking things I’ve ever read.

The world has truly lost one of its greatest, most creative talents. RIP, Satoshi Kon.

American Apparel is on its dying legs, and not a moment too soon. I think the writer of the article summed it up best: “Live by the hipster, die by the hipster. American Apparel is learning an important branding lesson about being on the bleeding edge of cool. Nothing ‘cool’ lasts too long.”

Time Out New York‘s list of the top 50 foreign films of all time. Although it’s missing some brilliant contemporary foreign films – such as Amelie from France and Departures (aka おくりびと) from Japan – it’s a nice, well-rounded list.

Japanese bra that makes breasts appear smaller. Interesting how different the take is on female sexiness (from a female perspective) in a different culture. In this case, there seems to be a lot of Japanese women who think larger breasts are an indication of being overweight. In the USA? The bigger, the better is the popular school of thought.

Being over-productive is apparently doing us more harm than good in the long term. It makes sense, I guess. We’re bombarded with information and stimulation every waking minute these days, which of course doesn’t give our brains the time to process anything. So if I were the ruler of the world, my first order of business would be mandatory siestas for everyone.

Friday night and, as a young healthy male, how did I spend it? I was up until 2am reading every entry on my old Blogger blog. I don’t know what came over me, but I have to say, I was captivated by my own soap opera life four years ago. The blog was certainly an interesting journal that documented the before, during, and after of going to Japan and the highs and lows that came along with it.

Particular favourite entries include…

• Packing it up, from July 20, 2006, in which I struggled with packing to leave for my extended Japan adventure;
• The Surreal Life, from August 29, 2006, and adjusting to my new life in rural Ehime, Japan;
• Wishful Thinking, from September 22, 2006, and being stood up on a date that was never actually set;
• Episode 13, from October 3, 2006, and apparently I had the worst and the best day of my life (?);
• Lonely Planet: Japan, from January 15, 2007, where I was being my typical emo self and dealing with the homesickness associated with coming back to Japan after spending the Christmas holidays back in Vancouver;
• Reunited, from March 22, 2007, where, after moving from Ehime to Chiba, I was finally reunited with my best friend: the internet;
• Happy Anniversary, from July 20, 2007, and reflecting on my one year anniversary in Japan;
• Hello World ’08, from January 7, 2008, and deciding to move back to Vancouver to pursue dreams (Editor’s Note: Worst. Decision. Ever. In hindsight, I would never have left Tokyo. Ever.);
• I’ll Miss Tokyo, from February 12, 2008, where it was two weeks and counting before it was time to move back to Vancouver;
• It’s so quiet, from March 4, 2008, and I was back in Vancouver and feeling the effects of reverse culture shock.

Kind of crazy to read through the blog posts in that order. Those old posts basically summed up the emotional ups and downs of my life from the time I was preparing to leave for Japan, until I finally came back to Vancouver. It feels like a lifetime ago that all of this happened, and I was a completely different person back then.

If nothing else, I was far more interesting of a person, just a little on the melodramatic side.

Solve a puzzle and live in super expensive Roppongi or Aoyama for free. This is perhaps the greatest promotion ever: Japanese real estate company HOME’S is offering people a chance to live rent-free for two years in a high-end apartment in Tokyo’s Roppongi or Aoyama districts – both of which are very expensive places to live in Tokyo. As for the puzzle? Uh, good luck with that.

Business of Fashion’s Imran Amed x Searching for Style: The Business of Fashion and the Digital Revolution event in Vancouver. We don’t get many good fashion heavy-weights coming to Vancouver very often. The Business of Fashion is one of the best and most popular fashion blogs online today. If you’re lucky enough to have gotten an invite to this event, please fill me in on what happens. [8/19/2010 Edit: Got an invite! I'm going!]

The accidental confederate and t-shirt culture in Japan vs North America. Néojaponisme put up an interesting post a couple of days ago sparked by a Japanese youth wearing a t-shirt with the confederate flag on it. I think it’s safe to assume the guy was not actually a racist confederate, so why exactly did he wear that shirt? Interesting thoughts both from the author and the commenters.

New York Times sits down with Vice Magazine’s founder, Shane Smith. VICE magazine is huge for street culture and hipsterdom in general, so we should be proud of the fact that Shane Smith is Canadian.

Complex Magazine lists the 50 greatest Saturday morning cartoons. They’ve got a lot of good cartoons covered (I used to love Kid ‘n’ Play and Ewoks!!), but they’ve also missed out on a lot of huge cartoons such as Teddy Ruxpin and My Pet Monster, while including some random bad cartoons like Street Sharks. Still, it’s a nice nostalgic list of shows I used to love and would love to see old episodes of again.