Issue 24: J-Book Review
♂ Learn Japanese and dress street chique with Street Jack!
ll you fashionistas and metrosexuals out there, it’s SUMMER (It was summer when I wrote this and it has been sitting on my desktop till now. Lame excuse, I know, but let’s pretend it’s still summer 
)!
What better way to kick back and relax with a glass of ice tea with fresh mint and a good fashion magazine… (err… was that too much?). Sure, Cosmo is great and GQ has lots of style tips, but we’re not interested in that! WE WAN’T JAPANESE MAGAZINE’S! In our four-part『チョコチョコのおしゃれな EXTENDED SUMMER』special, we’ll review four popular Japanese fashion magazines. Starting with this issue’s men’s fashion mag review,『Street Jack』.
Japanese Magazine → awesome!
Admit it, a Japanese magazine is cooler than anything else. Why? BECAUSE IT’S JAPANESE!! Maybe it’s the overly-busy-in-your-face approach or the fun layouts or the fact that they’re always crammed with lots of stuff. Japanese magazines are visual, very visual. Who needs to read a lot when a picture says more than a thousand words! (wanna read? grab a couple brochures at your local pharmacy) WE WANT PICTURES, LOTS! I’m pretty sure the chief editor’s thinking is: “cram as much stuff into the mag as is humanly possible!”.
Jack lives on the streets
Young Japanese men aren’t afraid of experimenting with clothing and will wear anything they like (Cosplay anyone?). If your style is streetwear, you might wanna check out『Street Jack』. Street Jack is a monthly magazine (comes out 24th of every month) and focuses on street style for men.
Vintage-ey, grungy, stylish geek and sneakers are the key words. Lots of photos of people on the street (love that) let's you get a sense what today’s street style in Japan is. Apart from main featured items like T-shirts, polos and sneakers, accessory items such as bags, hats, belts etc. are also covered letting you create your own nerdy-chique street look. Prices and shops are also included.
Kurt Kobain and even more T-shirts
Every magazine has its share of interviews and Street Jack isn't missing out. From your local Japanese rockband to the (quote)『伝説のおしゃれ人ランキング：１位、伝説のロック•アイコン、カート•コバーン』, though it's all about what they're wearing (or used to wear). No street style is complete without accessoiries and Street Jack pays detailed covering of smart and stylish accessoiries.
Apart from being a ‘T-shirt bible’, Street Jack is also good to learn street fashion words, terms and slang such as『柄ポロ（polo shirts with patterns）』and『カモフラカーゴショーツ（cargo shorts with camouflage print）』. This way, you can extend your vocabulary to the Japan of today (instead of learning how to greet Mr. Tanaka for the gazillionth time).
Street Jack is one of the more popular street wear magazines for men in Japan.
Street Jack is as real as street wear can get since most of the stuff you’ll find are inspirations taken from actual people. Street Jack is not merely a ‘T-shirt bible’ but a complete outfit magazine from『トップス』to『ボトムス』. 『AJATT』to go with your Japanese study? Why not give yourself a Japanese street-style makeover too with Street Jack!
Book Info
• title: ストリートジャック – Street Jack
• pages: approx. 178
• dimensions: 29.7 x 21 cm
• extra: n/a
• language: Japanese
• publisher: KKベストセラーズ (www.kk-bestsellers.com)
• order: www.amazon.co.jp
• ISBN: n/a
• special Chokochoko rating: 90%
J-Music Album 紹介
Great post! First time commenter here, but I’ve been following you for a few months now and I always look forward to updates
I must agree that there is something more appealing about Japanese magazines than say, American ones. It’s amazing how much you can learn language and culture-wise just after reading one page of a Japanese magazine.
Hi~! It’s been a while! How have you been?
Great post, I love how you put language learning with something that’s not so serious? Now, who says language learning has to be serious anyway? Haha~
Seriously, this is a great post, and learning Japanese in this manner helps one to pick up Japanese faster~ since it’s SO interesting!
Yes indeed a while!
To keep the study fun and light, I think it’s necessary. And textbooks can only teach you so much, and theres a whole lotta stuff yoou just can’t find in it.
Nice post dude, I love Japanese fashion magazines. You should see my bathroom, I have a stack of “Men’s Knuckle”, “Men’s Joker” and “Samurai” in front of my toilet that’s almost a foot high! I’ve never seen “Street Jack” where I buy my Japanese magazines though, where do you buy it?
It’s so true though, American fashion magazines just don’t cut it. Maybe it’s the lack of sensory overload (would that just be called “sensory load”?)…
I like “Men’s Non-No”, “Popeye” and “Street Jack”. I’ve heard about “Men’s Joker”, is it any good? I usually order my stuff off Amazon Japan (they literally have everything).
Yeah, that’s what I like about those Jap mags, they’re full of everything and nothing.
I like it, the style is cool and classy, but sometimes the models are… “odd” to say the least. lol The clothes and accessories are all really expensive though, like Lanvin and Gucchi, but it’s not like I buy from the magazines, I just read them.
I’ve seen “Men’s Non-No” and “Popeye” before, but I’ve never bought them. What kind of clothes?
I really love going back to your site to read your story and see more pictures that are really taken with great care.
Wow, this whole blog looks so impressive *___* /bookmarks
Ahum, okay. About magazines, I LOVE reading Japanese magazines. Though I mostly read idol magazines such as Myojo, hahah. Still, it’s very useful, especially once you try translating some of the interviews and such. It really gets you thinking about the language. I, for one, will never forget the hours I pondered the meaning of the word プチ only to finally figure out that the guy was trying to be interesting by throwing in some French
Also, I recently attended a seminar about fashion in Japan (it mostly focused on ‘kawaii’ culture) where one of the speakers was a young anthropologist who had been to Japan to do research on the guys in those street pictures (more specifically the guys in Tune magazine). Turns out that most of those pictures are not at all spontaneous, rather it’s all a big vicious circle of magazine photographers hanging out in the same places and young people hanging out a lot around these photographers, hoping to be ‘spotted’ and get their pictures taken (though Tune was a whole different story).
She (Anneke Beerkens, the anthropologist) actually wrote a book about her research. It’s called Modegoden. I’m still considering buying it, it seems really interesting to read about her research. I mean, she just went to Tokyo without speaking a word of Japanese! Anyhow, I’m rambling, mostly wanted to comment to tell you to keep up the good work but it somehow turned into a post-length comment. XD
Bye!