Japan Navigator

This brief History of Japan’s culture of techno-toilets from CSMonitor.com is a useful summary of the subject. If the level of sanitary fixtures is an indication of the cultural level of a given country, Japan has jumped the scales since the days of hole-in-the-floor facilities and now s(h)its at a lonely peak. [Via NewsonJapan]

Our blogging [...]

Read Full Post »

Hamo. Daggertooth pike conger (Muraenesox cinereus). (Fishbase). Also called “pike eel.” Scary-looking, 2 meter long eel. It has a deep ripped mouth with sharp teeth at the upper and lower parts of the jaw, and a fierce nature. Inhabits soft bottoms, also found in estuaries.  Feeds on small bottom fishes and crustaceans. In [...]

Read Full Post »

Culture Day is coming up (November 3), so it is again time for the Order of Culture. Recipients have just been announced. Among them is Donald Keene, the foremost authority on Japanese literature. My only question is why he had to wait untill he became 86! Another well-known recipient in the cultural field is conductor [...]

Read Full Post »

With autumn and falling temperatures, the time for drinking hot sake is again arriving – or is it?
Visitors to Japan often make the acquaintance of Japan’s national drink via the warm or even hot variant in a flask and small cup of ceramics. Unfortunately, the sake they get served in those cases is usually of [...]

Read Full Post »

The other day, I had a chance to talk with Gion Kobu maiko Yasuha. She reminded me of Komomo, the young woman whose life as maiko and geiko has been recorded in the beautiful book A Geisha’s Journey, My Life as a Kyoto Apprentice (see my review) – another young woman who endeavors to follow [...]

Read Full Post »

Datsu. Needlefish (Strongylura anastomella). (Fishbase). Can become 1 m. long. In the coastal waters of the Sea of Japan, East China Sea and warm waters of the western Pacific. Has very long and pointed jaw filled with sharp teeth which looks like a needle.
[Needlefish. Picture from Japanese Wikipedia]
Is not especially tasty (contains only little fat) [...]

Read Full Post »

The language spoken by the inhabitants of Kyoto…. Don’t make the mistake of calling it a “dialect” – the language of Kyoto has for centuries been the norm in Japan and Kyotoites are proud of their heritage!
Its roots are in the language of the court and the aristocracy, as well as the townspeople – the [...]

Read Full Post »

Bera. Wrasse (Pseudolabrus japonicus). (Fishbase). [Dutch: Lipvis]

Brightly colored fish, max. size 25 cm.
Usually lives in shore waters near rocky coasts or coral reefs. Retires under rocky ledges at night. Feeds on small crustaceans, mollusks and sponges. Hibernates in the sand in winter.
Central Japan to Okinawa; South Korea, southern China.

[Picture from Fishbase]
In Japan, mainly used [...]

Read Full Post »

Published in 1962, The Woman in the Dunes is a surrealistic and sometimes even absurdistic novel that reminds one of Sartre and Beckett. It has been called “the most famous postmodern tale of a person who went missing” (Dan Harper in Senses of Cinema).

The premise is as follows. A school teacher called Niki Junpei has [...]

Read Full Post »

A new event, trying to compete with Hideyoshi’s historical Grand Tea Ceremony in Kyoto, is the “Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony” to be held at the Hama-rikyu Gardens (Tokyo) on Sat Oct 25 and Sun Oct 26. It will feature an “Indoor tea ceremony,” a “Casual outdoor tea ceremony”, and “Tea ceremony in English for foreign [...]

Read Full Post »