My first lecture in Japan was at the Vantan Design Institute in Osaka, Japan.

I thought that this idea was amazing. I guess Japanese people use this square-barcode on everything. They have barcode readers on their cell phones, so when they see a flyer or poster that peaks their interest, all they have to do is scan the bar code and all of the information loads in their cell phone. I’m not sure if this happens in America, but it’s huge here in Japan.

This character on the soda machine in the school is awesome!

I had an interview beforehand, with Senken newspaper. I think it’s like the WWD of Japan.

Last summer they did a nice feature on my Los Angeles shop.

I had to cut my lecture a little short because since I had a translator it made the lecture double in length. I also had to cut a bunch of my jokes out, because Japanese people don’t understand a lot of American humor. I still figured out how to get a bunch of laughs out of them. Thank you Mariko for being a wonderful translator + host!

I thought it was neat that there were a few people in the crowd with Johnny Cupcakes t-shirts on.

The school set up a workshop which immediately followed the lecture. Everyone was given an assignment. If Johnny Cupcakes were to open a shop in Japan, design/concept a poster that would best get peoples attention. There were a lot of great ideas!

The school supplied all the students and attendees with print outs. It was funny seeing Japanese people playing with enlarged versions of all of my close friends.
Ha!

Hello, I’m Mr. Cupcakes.

Thanks for helping out everyone! Even with the language barrier/translation – it was a success!