For some time now, I have been on the lookout for examples of Japanese street art. The uncanny means by which Japan adapts Western culture, reprocesses it and then spins it out as something altogether hyperreal, combined with the ever-prevalent superflat movement suggested that there must exist something extraordinary in the darker corners of the Tokyo streets.

So it was great to read PingMag’s recent piece on The Ghetto, a former love hotel in Shin-Okubo that has been converted into a skater shop/graffiti space. The article also provided links to flickr groups on Tokyo Street Art and throughout Japan. But I found what I was truly looking for in the calligraphy of designer/artist USUGROW which is an incredible hybrid of not just Western and Japanese scripts but also Arabic influences. Kakkoii desu yo!