Jayhan Sim, Author at Jayhan Loves Design & Japan - Page 16 of 44

3 Free Grid WordPress themes + inspiration & resources

20 Feb 10

3 Free Grid WordPress themes + inspiration & resources

Somewhere around a year ago, I wrote a post regarding the new trend in grid based designs. Well indeed the trend is getting popular now and is spotted by other website too like InspiredMag. I really like this design style because the layout is well organized and professional looking too.

Here I found three Free unique WordPress themes that utilizes grid as the main feel. The themes are really cool in my opinion and I would like to try it out somewhere in the future. Is it just me or what the grid based designs somehow concentrated in grayscale color?

Dajare – interesting Japanese word play

31 Jan 10

. Japan

Dajare - interesting Japanese word play

Recently I stumbled upon this interesting and funny Japanese word play called “駄洒落” (Dajare). According to Wikipedia, Dajare is similar in spirit to an English pun relying on similarities in the pronunciation of words to create a simple joke. Below are some of the interesting examples that I found from various websites. Please have a look! 😀

アルミ缶の上にある蜜柑。
Romaji – Arumi kan no ue ni aru mikan.
Meaning – An orange on an aluminum can.

Amazing Japan HDR photos by Stuck in Customs

29 Dec 09

. Inspiration, Japan

Trey Ratcliff, also known as Stuck in Customs, a world famous HDR photographer, was recently visited Japan for travel and photography opportunities. And he posted up a set of Japan photos that he took on his Flickr page and all I had to say is the pictures are stunning and almost took my breath away!

Wow, I really amazed by the colors and the textures captured. Have to be impressed by his creativity and unique eye of photography. Below are some of the shots from the set. Be sure to check out more of his other breathtaking HDR photos at Stuck in Customs.

Merry Christmas 2009!

25 Dec 09

. J-Pop

Merry Christmas 2009!

It’s been a while since I last update this blog and I would like to take opportunity to wish all the readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope you guys enjoy your holiday! 😀 Here I share with you two lovely Christmas songs from a great Japanese singer Hiromi from her album call “Hot Chocolate”. I really like her songs and she is one my most favorite artists in 2009.

It’s been a very busy year for me as you can see I can’t keep up with the updating of the blog, and I had been thinking to get this blog a fresh new look, but with the busy schedule, I don’t know whether I can make it or not. Hopefully in the future I will get back to be more active in blogosphere again. Once again, Merry Christmas!

Tokyo Train Map (Click for larger image)

10 Sep 09

. Japan

Here I present you the useful Tokyo Train Map! This map is written in Japanese and feel free to download or print it for your own usage. The map will be very useful for people who wants to travel in Tokyo by train. Look at the complicity of the route, but the train system will bring you everywhere!

By the way, you can also use this useful site to check the available train services to go certain places in Japan. Just key in where you are from and the destination you want to go, and it will generate route for you. I used that to confirm my train route and it is really handy!

Rate your favorite “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto” Cards

01 Sep 09

. Art & Design

Here we go again, this is the latest Foldees designer’s greeting card competition called “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto”. From the name itself you will know that the competition theme involves around robot and a total of 85 cards are selected to be the finalists. That’s a huge collection of cards and now it’s time to rate those cards!

From the cards that are available for rating, below are some of the cards that I think are creative and nicely done. Besides that, people who spend some time and rate all the cards will be rewarded a free card. So sign up for an account and start rating the cards, and remember give your favorite cards a 5! Remember rating ends 1st of October 2009.

10 years of ARASHI

27 Aug 09

. J-Pop

ARASHI 10 years

To be honest, I was a little shock that ARASHI already formed for a decade! Time is running really fast and really congratulate them for their success! It’s not easy to be together for such long time and prove that they are really a fan favorite group. I still remember that I actually bought their first album 9 years ago which together with a big poster and I still keeping it. Ah what a nostalgic moment when I look at the poster. But actually they seemed didn’t change a lot compare to their early era.

To celebrate this great moment, ARASHI released a compilation album which I think is a great collection. Inside the tracks there’s a song call “5×10” which is really nice and meaningful, especially in the lyric it says “Because of you (fan), we are able to shine and be until this moment”. What a great song! 😀

Free fonts download at FFonts

10 Aug 09

. Resources, Typography

FFonts is a great new website that allows for the exploration of and download of fonts (for Free!) There are huge numbers of fonts on this site and they are organized in a logical manner with previews of each one as well. Teachers and students are sure to find the perfect typeface that will make their paper or presentation come to life with on this site. Users can even submit their own fonts. A wonderful resource for the modern day classroom.

The fonts are being categorized in alphabetical order as well as type styles for easy navigation, I think this site is a cool alternative fonts resources sites besides dafont.com and many others like the two mentioned in the previous post.

Download quality free fonts from Font Squirrel and Fontex

06 Jul 09

. Resources, Typography

When comes to free fonts resources, dafont normally will be the first sites that comes to mind becasue of it’s great font library and easy to use interface. However, there are also other alternative font resources sites that showcases top quality free fonts in the world too, they are Font Squirrel and Font^ex.

Both sites tend to make the quality free font searching easier and present in clean and simple way. According the Font Squirrel “Free fonts have met their match. We know how hard it is to find quality freeware that is licensed for commercial work. We’ve done the hard work, hand-selecting these typefaces and presenting them in an easy-to-use format.” Indeed Font Squirrel site is clean and easy to use. The fonts are listed in a list format and categorized in style. It also previews the font and its family too.

Spring Japanese drama

18 May 09

. Japan

Spring Japanese drama

I had been watching Japanese dramas for a while and definitely I won’t miss out the current season dramas. The current season is Spring season and it actually going to enter the 2nd half of the season. I watched a couple of shows and would like to share which drama I quite enjoy watching it.

First is Shiroi Haru. The story involves around Haruo, a former yakuza member who is just released from prison after completing his sentence. With nine years worth of prison gratuities in hand, he stops at a restaurant to enjoy a good meal, but all of his money ends up being stolen. With nothing left, he spends the night at a net cafe, and he manages to look up his old friend from his yakuza days.

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