Summer is hotting up early in Tokyo. We have already seen a few festivals bringing the music, and the next major event, on June 2, will take us to the beach.

Big Beach Festival ’12 will be a mega-party for 20,000 music lovers, next to the sea! We knew the lineup – The Chemical Brothers (check out their video below), Sven Väth, John Digweed, Shinichi Osawa, Beardyman and more, but now we have a timetable.

Take a look and get plotting your day. The 150 minute Chemical Brothers set is guaranteed to be a highlight but beatboxing UK act Beardyman will provide a fun, genre defying warmup. With three stages, you will not be short of choice. We hope it’s a sunny day and you can enjoy as much of the music as possible – along with a couple of beers of course!

For ticket information, have a look here or see the official site.

In Tokyo, businesses and individuals will soon be issued with their targets for the period between July 2 and September 7 – dates which are slightly adjusted in the North and South of the country. The plan has been drafted, according to a government spokesperson, on the assumption that nuclear power plants stay offline.

Perhaps the most obvious sign for those of us living in Tokyo, other than pressure from our boss to try and help reach targets, will be the so-called “cool-biz” campaign.

Cool Biz is the government initiative which started in 2005 and aims to reduce the need for air-conditioning through encouraging the abandonment of ties and long-sleeved shirts. This year, the campaign started officially, for public workers, on May 1 – one month earlier than it had started prior to 2011. Energy conservation targets were initially made in consideration of the pledges to cut greenhouse emissions under the Kyoto protocol but are increasingly important.

In 2011, some companies sen their employees to work early, closed entire floors and encouraged increasingly ‘casual’ workwear. “Super Cool Biz” will begin again on July 1st, so we might see salarymen getting their Hawaiian shirts ready.

Clear skies permitting of course, the sky will be the place to look until 11:49 a.m., because the moon will give us the first solar eclipse visible from Tokyo since totality in 2009. The last time Tokyo experienced an annular eclipse – the phenomenon which occurs when the moon moves in between the Earth and sun but is at the stage of its orbit not quite near enough the sun for 100% cover, meaning the sun appears as a fiery ring shape surrounding the moon – was 173 years ago, in September 1839.

The rare treat for sky-gazers will be visible from much of Japan, Tokyo perfectly positioned just 10km North of the central line. Have a look at this NASA data for more information about which other countries you can see it from.

If you are not able to get in the firing line, ready with your safety glasses, Panasonic has had a great idea. From a base at the top of Mount Fuji, the company is providing a live webcast of the eclipse. They have produced an amazing website to teach the world about their plans!

They will set up a base camp at Fuji-san with solar panels, before professional climbers scale the volcano with high-capacity batteries that will “broadcast this moment of the century.” Filming the sun, using the sun, is the motto; harnessing solar energy for all equipment needed for the broadcast is surely a great idea. Take a look at the video at the bottom of the page and watch with us on Monday morning!

The astronomical quirk that the sun being not only 400 times bigger but almost exactly 400 times further away than the moon means that from Tokyo to Albuquerque, we had better look up.

Key Times: First Contact 5.56 a.m., annular phase reaches its peak at at 8.52 a.m. and will last for 5 minutes and 45 seconds – the moon covering 94.3% of the sun, up to 96.9% for a brief moment. Eclipse ends at 11.49 a.m.

Where to Look: Not directly at the sun, but South-South East in the morning sky. Sunrise on May 21 will be at 04:32

For more details, have a look at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan site, in English.

Sky Tree is the one that is grabbing all the headlines and rightly so. The world’s highest free-standing communications tower stands at 634 metres. Reaching for the sky the tower hopes to attract tourists – and their money – back to the East side of Tokyo.

Back in the already entertainment-heavy Shibuya and Harajuku areas, the new additions will provide a boost, refreshing the area with spectacular architecture and hoping to appeal to a new demographic which feels timely in 2012.

Such major scale centres opening in times of economic uncertainty, though, may come as a surprise to many of us, especially in a country still slowly recovering from a major financial crisis and a natural disaster.

“Retail is playing catch up,” says Shinichi Miyazaki, a retail development specialist who was in charge of expansions for major global brands such as Disney, MotherCare and Tommy Hilfiger. “After the earthquake last year the already struggling developers – many of these projects had been in planning since before the Lehman collapse – judged consumer sentiments to be just too negative to push these projects through. When added to other problems such as electricity shortage and safety concerns, it just wasn’t a good environment.”

This year things are looking a bit better in Tokyo and the environment seems to be safe enough for grand openings. Do these companies see entering such a crowded market as profitable? Nagasaki tells us that “a major issue for developers in ‘hot’ areas such as Shibuya and Harajuku is that rent is so expensive they would need incredibly high sales figures to compensate for the low profit margins.”

“The key points for them are attracting the maximum number of customers and keeping them in the building once they come. This is why we are seeing retailers pushing their designers and architects the extra mile. If they attach their property to the Sky Tree or a major train station be it designing visionary buildings or just building a massive Gundam statue, customers will surely come.” he continues. “Such locations could also be seen as major boost for the retailers brand names rather then purely as a profit endeavor.”

Retailers’ motivation aside, we Tokyoites have plenty of new offerings on the scene, so let’s get out there and start enjoying them.

Hikarie, Shibuya. Conveniently linked to the Hanzomon and Fukutoshin Metro lines, shopping just got more glamorous in Tokyo; the Tokyu Corporation-owned Hikarie includes high-end cosmetics stores, food plazas and fashion floors. The eye-catching Hikarie will be a breath of fresh air to Tokyo’s recession-watchers. To keep everyone happy, there is a music hall and even intriguingly named art spaces amongst the striking 34 storeys.

Diver City, Odaiba. The name of the new mall, Diver City, seems to be a pun on the katakana-ised ‘diversity’ – the Vs and Bs in romanised Japanese script ending up the same – and, Daiba, the location. Add ‘City’ for a bit of metropolitan Tokyo glamour and there you are. Add in manga museums, game centres and an aquarium – not forgetting that enormous Gundam statue – and there is even more reason to cross Rainbow Bridge.

Tokyu Plaza, Omotesando/Harajuku. With its many-mirrored entrance right on one of the busiest retail corners in Tokyo, this one is sure to be a winner. With a garden on the roof for good measure, we might have a new favourite building on the Tokyo retail scene.

Sky Tree / Solamachi, Sumida-ku. Not much more can be said about this one. Piercing the sky and almost twice the height of Tokyo Tower – a shame for some traditionalists – will it be a landmark for a new dawn?

Sky Tree opens on May 22 but we may have to wait a while. Most of the tickets were alloted to a lottery, the winners of which were announced on March 30 with only 335 applicants gaining admission for one slot on the first day.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko beat the winners to it with a late April preview trip.

Fuji Rock Festival is getting close – as the rainy season approaches we, those of us in Tokyo at least, can feel summer on the horizon. Weekender can’t wait until July 27th, when the fun will start in Naeba.

It has already been announced that Radiohead and the Stone Roses will headline Fuji Rock 2012, and additions to the bill are always being made – check out the latest updates to the Fuji Rock lineup here.

If you can’t wait until July, though, there are more dates for the diary coming thick and fast. This week two Fuji Rock events are a must remember for fans. First, Friday 18th May is your final chance to get hold of Fuji Rock tickets at the “special advanced ticketing price.” Don’t worry if you miss out though, general tickets go on sale this weekend (on the 19th). If you go and buy them in person, it may not just be a ticket you pick up.

FUJI ROCK DAYS is happening in Shibuya, and the event organizers say you can “soak in the Fuji Rock feeling for two days and win great prizes in our annual lottery, check out never before seen footage of the festival and get first dibs on this year’s official merchandise.”

May 19th and 20th at the official Fuji Rock Shop, GAN-BAN, in Shibuya Parco (see the map below) and at nearby Tower Records, the summer festival season is starting. You might not need your boots and tent, but be sure to bring your mates who might not have experienced the festival before – it will be easy to persuade them to come along with you once they have felt the vibes. There are already some pretty cool looking T-shirts and other festival goods listed on the website, but at the store you might find some limited editions and newer designs. There will even be some festival food cooked up. Go check it out!

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The Tokyo Station Hotel first opened in 1915. Since 2007, though, as many visitors to the Marunouchi area will have noticed, a major preservation and restoration project has been underway, aiming to restore the Tokyo Station Marunouchi building to its former glory.

The beautiful red brick facade is being renewed with care and will provide a deserved “new” landmark for Tokyo Station and the city as a whole. Additions to the building seem tasteful but the real stars are the three large domes, two of which, on the north and south, were destroyed by Allied bombing in May 1945. The red bricks are more familiar to Europeans than those of us in Japan.

The interior, too, looks to the past for its design. East Japan Railway Co., which owns the building, found original documents inside the building and builders are following the designs to reproduce the reliefs of Chinese Zodiac animals and eagles that adorned the walls–it’ll be worth a stay just to get a peek inside!

Tsunami-hit Miyagi prefecture has received a welcome boost, with most of the slate used for the roofing produced in the prefecture. After the 2011 disaster, a company based in Ishinomaki and Tome salvaged the slate from their warehouse – some of it had been washed away – and found that it was, luckily, still in good condition. The slate will provide a perfect final touch to the new Tokyo Station Building.

Opening this October, The Tokyo Station Hotel began taking reservations on May 8th and has an English website in development. Weekender is looking forward to the October 3, when the doors will finally open. The Tokyo Station Hotel is currently making preparations for a grand opening event and says it will begin “a new chapter as a unique establishment with advanced facilities, the refined class of an Important Cultural Property, and nearly 100 years of history.”

The first grand-openning of The Tokyo Station Hotel was in 1915

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Anime, otaku, cosplay and maid cafes are for many a reason to come to Tokyo. Some say the culture is as unique to the city as geisha are to Kyoto, and it is hard to disagree.

Weekender asked Xavier Bensky, event coordinator and cultural liaison to “J-Geek”, to describe some history and tell us about the event’s latest incarnation. Here are his thoughts.

According to J-Geek producer Kenzo Saeki, of Pearl Brothers, the last ten years have seen a growing number of large-scale anime festivals around the world as well as geeks passionate about this culture who choose to make the pilgrimage to Japan and, particularly, Akihabara.

Once they arrive to Japan, however, making sense of the rich variety of offerings available can be a daunting task.

In the hope that they don’t get disappointed, we created “J-Geek”. It aims to provide an experience, curated by cultural experts, where foreigners and Japanese geeks alike can easily enjoy the best and most interesting aspects of the Akiba pop culture scene: be it anime song music, Hatsune Miku, denpa-kei music, idols, otagei dancing, maid cafes, cosplay, figures or hi-tech gadgets, we cover it all.

The series launched in March 2012, and plans to continue with an event every other month. I hope everyone will come on down and get their geek on.

We also hope people will throw away their stereotypes of sedentary otaku cloistered in their apartments when they come down to Seco Lounge in Shibuya. J-Geek is a celebration of anime, idols, cosplay, gadgets and other geek culture with an international audience in mind – there are no borders. To give the event an even broader appeal, our latest party will have a special “old school” twist, with remixes and clips from anime classics that were also broadcast on television outside of Japan.

We think we have an impressive lineup in store. DJ Kazu (pictured at the top), spinning a nonstop jam of anime songs, will be met by veteran voice actor (turned DJ for the night) Yu Mizushima. Famous scenes from classic anime will come back to life in an unprecedented collaboration performance sure to please both fans of anime and voice actors alike.

DJs for the night will be “animetic idol” Minami Momochi, popular Vocaloid song producer Captain Mirai and DJ Kazu, who has just released a collection of hit anime song remixes.

VJ Kitune will dazzle partygoers with video mixes, too – it’s a perfect medium to show off anime – and the international crowd will get a mini lesson in otagei, the dance form popularized by fans of idol groups, with English translation provided.

Of course, otagei wouldn’t be fun without the idols, and J-Geek will not disappoint in that respect. An original idol show will feature idols direct from the stages of Akihabara.

Idol groups from Dear Stage, a popular destination for international tourists, as well as Maid Cafe Pinafore, and more, will be singing a medley of popular classics.

According to event organizer Rie Arai, from PearlNet YK, there will also be a special AR gadget that will give party goers “a chance to become a famous anime heroine.” You’ll have to see it for yourself to believe it.

There will also be an “idol bar” where all drinks are served by idols, “moe” merchandise stalls, and more.

Tickets are ¥2,000 on the door, but cheaper in advance. Cosplayers also receive a discount!

Have a look at the event flyer, below, for more information check out the website, here, or find them on twitter @JGeekTokyo (use the hashtag #JGeekTYO2.) It sounds fun, and with the English translation there is no reason for even “beginner otaku” to get involved.

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Judging by the shelves of the fridges in the convenience stores, and a lot of the flashy LCD screen adverts on Tokyo’s trains, there is burgeoning interest in the brews. And as the big four beverage companies – Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin and Suntory – tempt us with ever-improving recipes and multiple re-launches, they seem keen to bring in not only casual drinkers, but, so much as they exist, connoisseurs of “zero” style beer.

The traditional market for non-alcohol beer was drivers and pregnant women but, with recent sales surge, the brewers are seeing a wider demographic sipping their products. The health conscious, calorie counters and those hoping to save a bit of money – the price is usually around two-thirds that of true beer – are just some of the new sets of fans. Not kids, though – the companies are keen, as are the convenience stores that sell it, that the product is restricted to the over-20s.

Japanese businessmen are known to enjoy a drink after work, but many people are not able to drink heavily and with packaging more and more aimed at “drinkers”, the companies hope their product is a true alternative, not just a compromise. Developing 100% alcohol-free beer has been a big boost to profits.

This is a major growing trend in Japan, the brews are described as “soda with a beer like taste“, but marketing seems directly towards beer-drinkers, not soft-drink fans.

The market-leader in Japan is Suntory’s “All Free”, which has had its sales target for 2012 increased by 30% – about a million more cases. Pleasing stuff for the company.

Asahi has been so encouraged by sales of its “Dry Zero” that it too has increased sales targets and production levels. Four million more cases than anticipated are expected to be sold in 2012. One case is equivalent to 20 633ml bottles, so we will see 50,640,000,000 litres more non-alcoholic beer hitting the shops. Restaurants, too, are getting in on the act – 200,000 of them are stocking Dry Zero, up 150% year-on year. The company will cater to the super-thirsty, too, with a 500ml can expected from June.

Kirin Free changed its recipe in January 2012 and is 10% up on 2011 sales so far and Sapporo will launch Premium Alcohol Free Black on May 23. Hoping to capitalise on the new fashion, it too has upped targets, by 20%.

Non-alcohol beer is booming in Japan but it remains to be seen whether this is a passing fad or real movement of drinking style. Whether or not younger people, who might have been “ashamed” to drink it can be encouraged by packaging and marketing angle is another concern for the major brewers.

It is hoped that the stigma attached to non-alcoholic beer will disappear and those who cannot drink alcohol easily will enjoy the brews without feeling left out. They will also, even though precise health benefits are not clear, feel better the next day.

Draw your mum for Mother’s Day, a campaign, one would think, destined to inspire cuteness and creativity.

Not so at the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, or indeed many other department stores and shops around Japan. At least, not all so. Giving away sheets which simply say “Mother’s portrait” and expecting kids to want their mum’s special day to be marked by her image being shown to all-comers has produced some ‘interesting’ results.

It’s a popular choice for shops at this time of year with many people getting involved, decorating the shop with the face of their loved one, in some cases in competition for a prize. At some point in all of our lives we will have drawn our families and here in Japan, budding artists take it seriously; these images range from the bizarre to the oddly captivating.

Take a look at some of these pictures, which are big hits on many Japanese blogs this week, and you can see manga-influenced creativity has shown no bounds – these aren’t average crayon drawings with simple facial features, some of these ‘big-kids’ (some in their 60s!) have etched, painted and written masterpieces which will really make people stop and look next time they pop in to buy some snacks or pay some bills.

May 13 is Mother’s day in Japan, a day off for mum, perhaps, or just a chance for kids and grown-ups alike to show her they love her.

It was not until 1949 that the date of the second Sunday in May was adopted as official in Japan. In the Showa period the birthday, on March 6, of Empress Kojun (mother of Emperor Akihito) was the celebrated day and, in the 1930s and 40s, “Praise Mothers” day was May 8.

Carnation and chocolate sales will receive a boost, but the many cynics who claim the day has become overly commercial are missing out on a lot of fun – perhaps that’s why they were moved to enter the portrait gallery competitions which, however they look, are sure to be appreciated.

Happy Mother’s day, everyone, and remember, if you are thinking of drawing a picture for your mother, be sure to have some fun!

In Japan’s sweaty summers, a salty upper lip and dripping shirt may be a reminder that it is after-work beer time. Now, licking those minerals and taking them back into the body may be a good thing.

According to Japanese confectionary giant Lotte Co., there could be a salty solution to summer which may in turn help us slash our electricity use – something which seems increasingly necessary while the country comes to terms with and seeks alternatives to nuclear power.  A new angle on pushing chocolate to the masses, maybe, but perhaps there is some science behind it.

Sodium in salt, as most high school students should be able to tell us, is vital for controlling the amount of water in the body and maintaining blood pH levels. Salt is a diuretic, meaning that it will effectively dehydrate the body, but if we don’t have enough of it – that is, if our body sweats too much and our liquid levels are low - the symptoms of heat exhaustion can develop.

We need to strike a balance. And that, is where, apparently, chocolate comes in. Could it be true? Is salty chocolate good for you? Well, probably not as much as a cool glass of water and a sensible salad, but what we can assume, is that it will have some major flavour benefits.

A Summer version of Crunky cookies means white chocolate mixture sandwiched between two biscuits which are flaked with salt. It sounds pretty tasty (as does the vanilla ice cream and salt flavour, pictured on the right) and would, perhaps, go down well even in Spring. We will get our chance to savour the salt on May 15th, the company say.

Then, we will have Koume-chan plum sweets. Umeboshi, Japanese salty, sour pickled plums which may turn your face inside-out, have often been associated with the heat in Japan; these sweets have plum salt which, according to Lotte, will give a milder saltiness with a sweet and sour flavour.

There is even room for premium Alpine – 70% German, of course – and French and Italian rock salt. Lotte will dust grapefruit and lime candies, and fill caramel cookies with with sweet European salinity.