Check it out -- the BlackBook guides have expanded into four new international metropoli. Now you can plan that next jaunt with the best shops, restaurants, nightlife, and hotels for Berlin, Hong Kong, Rome, and Tokyo. We're well past 50 destinations worldwide, and our guides are only getting bigger and better. Coming soon: Houston, New Orleans, and more.

In Japan, the culture around work is very very serious. You work. All day long. And by all day I mean 8am to 9pm or longer. And to cap off your long day (before going to a karaoke bar, of course) your travel is bookended with crammed trains. The foot traffic on the trains is so legendary that you might be able to get away with being a white-gloved Japanese subway-passenger-pusher for Halloween tomorrow. Enter H1N1 though, and the commute becomes all the more dangerous because of the shoving and cramming and the tight spaces in which people can spread their infectious swine flu throughout the train. To counter the spread of the flu, Japanese clothing company Haruyama Trading has developed an anti-H1N1 business suit. That's right, a business suit designed to repel the swine flu. The suit is available in four colors and is coated in the same germ-killing chemicals used in toothpaste.

Japanophiles are creepy. With their assortment of Pocky, wacky Hello Kitty paraphernalia, their odd yen to mimic the behavior of Tokyo tourists trapped in Times Square, and even casual cosplay, these Japanese culture fetishists are an unlikely demo for Hollywood to tap. Yet here we are, at this horrible crossroads. One street packs in the car crashes of bastardized childhood dreams like G.I. Joe and The Smurfs. And the other street bears, well, a similar assortment of scrap metal, but with Japanese license plates. Everything from Speed Racer to Astro Boy.

By now you're probably on Fashion Week overload. Well, as long as people in different parts of the world will insist on wearing different styles of clothing, we'll have to continue tracking what's basically a yearlong shuffle of Fashion Weeks. See for yourself! Perhaps one of the dark horses among top Fashion Weeks worldwide, Japan Fashion Week is about to head into its ninth year in October. There's no denying the far reach of Japanese street fashion or how the country has carved itself out as a monolith of contemporary pop culture formidable enough to rival style breakthroughs of Paris, London, New York, and Milan. A cheat sheet for proper Japan Fashion Week decorum follows.

In Tokyo rush hour trains that are so packed they have a white-gloved official pushing people into the cars so they can be sure that trains are filled to their utmost capacity. Now, the gloves are off as passengers are now facing a groping epidemic inside the packed trains.

Not one but two major New York boutiques are expanding their repertoires this week. Opening Ceremony's new digs in Japan have debuted; the boutique already has outposts in both NYC and LA. Men's Style.com has a first look at the whopping eight-story wood-heavy shop Tokyo's Shibuya district. Like Opening Ceremony's LA abode, in Tokyo designers will essentially be allotted small shops within a shop: "the megastore will house shop-in-shops from Nom de Guerre, Band of Outsiders, D.A.P. Books, New York cult record shop Other Music, and more." Needless to say, the space is sure to be an international shopping destination and one that will confirm Opening Ceremony's rise to the ranks of mega retailer on par with Barneys, Bloomingdales, and the like.

● Tokyo (Plateau) - The perfect crossection of played Vice aesthetic and lower St-Laurent douche baggery. Weekends are filled with dudes from Boston who heard that this was "the spot", but making an appearance on the massive terrace for Wednesday Rock night is a must for those who know, i.e. us.
● Casa Del Popolo (Mile End) When Spin magazine pegged Montreal as the "next big thing" in 2005 (much to the dismay of scene purists), this quaint indie music hub was its unofficial headquarters. The buzz train has since left town, but the cute girl with the pixie cut and flower print dress reading a dog-eared copy of Moby Dick in the corner, hasn't.
● Bar Korova (Plateau) - Classic table-top video games, tawdry PBR signs, religious icons, a giant stuffed caribou head, neon sunglasses hovering over a DJ that spins dream pop, krautrock, no-wave, and post/proto-nu rave (of course). This place is what hipster diarrhea looks like.

Here at BlackBook, we pay a lot of attention to where cool customers go out -- bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, you name it. So why not flip the frame and let you see where we go out? Here's a periodically updated, exhaustive list of hotspots currently favored by everyone at BlackBook, from the mighty bosses down to the humble interns, from the charming local lounges around the corner to the jet-setting temples of luxe living.

EDITORIAL
● Editorial Director/Editor-in-Chief - Ray Rogers, Café Mogador (NYC) - Hummus, crack-caliber coffee, and outdoor patio for primo people-judging and "novel writing."
● Creative Director - Jason Daniels, Babettes (East Hampton) - Don’t let the word “organic” turn you off .
● Executive Editor - Chris Mohney, Pegu Club (NYC) - OCD cocktail heaven. Pith helmet and ivory cane optional.
● Senior Editor - Nick Haramis, The Jane Hotel and Ballroom (NYC) - Latest smash from Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode gets all Edwardian on the WVill.

Luxury seems to be on everyone's mind these days. And "Louis Vuitton seems to be taking the idea to heart with the opening of their new temporary shop in Tokyo called Louis Vuitton Underground," says PSFK. Literally -- the shop is subterranean and outfitted with not so traditionally chic "wood crates and plain shelving," as well as "a bright yellow tow motor and lots of caution tape" to boot. Located in the Seibu department store in Ikebukuro, the shop is open for a limited time. And on hand to help ring in its debut this weekend was none other than Kool Keith.

Japan’s new fashion guard is ready to rumble. At Aguri Sagimori’s awe-inspiring show during Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo this March, statuesque models clad in black military combat boots, trench coats, sculptural shoulder pieces and black net capes, marched with stone-white washed faces to strangely eerie music, like futuristic warriors in the fashion trenches. “I wanted to embody strength with dignity,” says Sagimori, 23, of the stark, sophisticated designs in her “Iconic Memory” collection, which delivered a mega-dose of raw power.