Nippon Connection's Virtual Bar / Skip City / Cannes

It's been a busy week.

Scoped out the location for the the "Virtual Bar" event being held at Nippon Connection as part of its Nippon Culture programme. For those of you going to be at NC, keep your eyes peeled. If the coat hanger antennae is angled just so and the drinks are mixed right, you'll be able to talk to Japanese directors live from our location in Shinjuku. In addition to Alex' invite list of luminaries, I'll hopefully be bringing a special guest of my own to answer fans' questions.

I'm still getting through all of the submissions for this year's Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (see my March 12 entry). There's a way to go yet, but I think a potential genius has emerged -- one with links to This World Of Ours' Nakajima Ryô (collected posts here).

Also working on my feature articles for our Cannes special Japan issue, which will include director & actor talent profiles, a Departures "case study", overviews of this year's CoFesta/TIFF/TIFFCOM and more. Read it on the Croisette while you eat a croissant.

Finally, it was good to hit a low-budget izakaya with Don Ryuganji and Nick Maboroshii the other day.