Top right: Liz Crain, editor; Below: Teruo Kurosaki, writer.
If Japan were to launch an intercontinental bullet train, odds are good it would run straight to Oregon.
Portland and Tokyo are in the midst of an intense love affair, and prominent Tokyo designer Teruo Kurosaki has played a big role in drawing his city’s trendiest to ours with a local guidebook, True Portland. This month, Hawthorne Books’ English translation launches with a trans-Pacific release party on June 22 at Reverend Nat’s Cidery.
Portland and Tokyo have had a free-flowing commercial exchange over the last few years, with Blue Star Donuts, Navarre, Voodoo Doughnut, Columbia Sportswear, and NikeLab opening stores in the Japanese capital, and acclaimed ramen shops (Marukin, Kizuki, and Afuri among them) putting down PDX roots.
