Posted in Culture, Kyoto on May 1st, 2008 No Comments »
Which of the five Flower Towns (kagai) or geisha districts in Kyoto is your favorite one?
Gion Kobu - the foremost of Kyoto’s Flower Districts, named after the Yasaka Shrine (”Gion-san”). The most traditional of the five. Dance and music training is in the classical Inoue-school. The major public performance is the Miyako Odori in April.
Gion […]
Posted in Culture, Kyoto, Society on Apr 30th, 2008 1 Comment »
Good news for Kyoto’s Flower Towns: the profession of Maiko is again popular under young women! As Asahi.com reports:
The number of maiko has bounced back to 100, the highest in more than four decades, thanks to the growing interest in Kyoto’s traditional geisha culture.
I do not know if this surge in interest is attributable to […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Osaka on Apr 20th, 2008 3 Comments »
Osaka often seems to be playing second fiddle to Big Brother Tokyo, but it actually is a city of many firsts. Calculators were invented here in 1964, the first automatic ticket gates appeared in Osaka in 1967, vacuum packed foods as curry were introduced in 1968, and the famous cup noodles made their first appearance […]
Posted in Art, Culture, Food, Japan, Nature, Religion, Web on Mar 21st, 2008 No Comments »
The Mitsukoshi Department Store has bought a small Buddhist wood statue carved by famous Kamakura-period master Unkei at Christie’s in New York for $12.8 million. The Dainichi Nyorai (Cosmic Buddha) figure brought in more than ten times the estimated price - this is the highest price ever offered for any Buddhist artwork in the world […]
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Japan, Religion on Mar 20th, 2008 No Comments »
Shunbun no Hi or the “Vernal Equinox” (when day and night are of equal length) is a Japanese national holiday established in the Meiji-period “so that people could commune with nature and show their love for all living things.” It is usually celebrated on March 20 or 21. Similarly, in September, there is an Autumnal […]
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Japan on Mar 2nd, 2008 4 Comments »
March 3 is the date of a festival that has various names: Hina Matsuri or Doll’s Festival, Momo no Sekku or Peach festival and Joshi no Sekku or Girl’s Festival. It is nowadays a festival for young girls, where sets of Hina dolls are decorated in the home, and certain foods as hishimochi (diamond-shaped rice […]
Posted in Culture, Temples, Travel on Feb 18th, 2008 No Comments »
What is interesting about Obama?
No, I am not talking politics - I am referring to the small town on the coast of the Japan Sea north of Kyoto that was catapulted into the limelight (also by its own PR) thanks to the fact that it shares its name with an American senator running for president.
So […]
Posted in Culture, Japan, Nature, Travel on Feb 15th, 2008 2 Comments »
Are you fond of smells? I remember how in Proust certain smells evoke long-forgotten memories, and indeed, the smell of freshly mown grass or hay reminds me of the long and lazy summers of youth.
Although I did not live in Japan as a child, I find that certain Japanese fragrances evoke atavistic memories which […]
Posted in Culture, Kyoto on Feb 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Kyoto Kentei or the “Kyoto Tourist and Culture Certification Test” was held for the fourth time on December 9 last year. I took part as a newbie in the Third Level test. Last week the results came out - I passed! I did not have much time for studying, but was certainly helped by my […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Japan on Jan 25th, 2008 No Comments »
Is rice still the soul of Japan? Perhaps not so strongly anymore when you see the advance of hamburgers, pasta en steaks.
But various things still remind me of the fact that this tropical marshland plant has shaped Japanese civilization as we know it. Rice and the Japanese share a long and deep relationship. Rice […]
Posted in Architecture, Culture, Japan on Jan 24th, 2008 2 Comments »
There is nothing more soothing than the fragrance of fresh, new tatami. In my first flat in Kyoto, I had several tatami rooms, and used to stretch out on the floor to inhale the smell…
Unfortunately, since then I have only lived in western-style apartments and houses. My dream is that my next place will […]
Posted in Culture, History, Japan, Writing on Jan 19th, 2008 No Comments »
Which royal house in the world is interested in poetry? Which royals can even write poems themselves?
When the royals of this world are in the news, it is seldom for literary activities. No, they have been drunk, promiscuous, gambling… you name it. Of course there is a bias in the press for scandals, but […]
Posted in Culture on Jan 17th, 2008 No Comments »
The Thousand-armed Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, is my favorite Buddhist statue. I found this wonderful Youtube video of the Kannon coming alive and fanning out its myriad arms in a dance by young Chinese women, the China Disabled People’s Performance Art Troupe.
The dance troupe imitates the Kannon in a most expressive and artistic way… […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Kobe on Jan 14th, 2008 No Comments »
We have tachi-yomi (standing and browsing the magazines and manga in a bookshop), tachi-shomben (public urinating in an upright position), and this is tachi-gui, eating at a stand-up restaurant. The diners are enjoying bowls of hot Hakata Ramen, something quite enviable.
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Japan, Kobe on Jan 14th, 2008 3 Comments »
Today was Seijin no Hi, the day with Coming of Age ceremonies - see my post of last year about the meaning of this day. I had almost forgotten about it until I spotted these young women in their gorgeous kimono near Sannomiya in Kobe.
There is still tradition in Japan.
Even in modern Kobe.
With a modern […]
Posted in Business, Culture, Food, Japan on Jan 13th, 2008 2 Comments »
Food crazes come and go in Japan, one after the other, sometimes many simultaneously, but the fervor for “black foods” is remarkably steady – it has already been with us for almost ten years. And indeed, black is better, as black foods often contain more anthocyanin (a type of polyphenol found in high concentrations in […]
Posted in Culture, Japan, Nature on Jan 12th, 2008 No Comments »
It may be strange to be writing about flowers in the heart of winter, but Japan has flowers for every season - in winter the narcissus breaking through the cold earth, or the deep red camellias with their shining green leaves against the snow. So that is how the hanagoyomi, the floral calendar, was born, […]
Posted in Culture, Kyoto on Jan 12th, 2008 No Comments »
A Kannon statue stands next to a number of traditional grave monuments. But I wonder who would put the owls on his grave, or the big black tire?
Posted in Business, Culture, News, Society on Jan 11th, 2008 No Comments »
Japanese couples are spending themselves silly again on weddings. Couples that held a wedding reception in 2007 spent an average 3.4 million yen, an increase of about 200,000 yen compared to three years ago, as Asahi.com reports.
Japanese weddings have come a long way from the boring, standard affairs that were held in hotels in the […]
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Japan on Jan 10th, 2008 No Comments »
The First Calligraphy in the New Year is called “Kakizome” or “Kissho-hajime” and it is one of many “firsts,” as we have hatsugama (the first tea ceremony), hatsu-ike (the first flower arragement) and hatsu-ni (the first cargo), etc.
The custom which is usually held on January 2, seems to go back to the Kamakura period (1192-1333). […]
Posted in Business, Culture, Technology on Jan 10th, 2008 No Comments »
Rickshaws are something nostalgic, as on the picture below, and at the same time they fill me with a certain indefinable guilt, because of the contrast between the well-fed person (often a foreigner) in the backseat and the emaciated figure of the puller. This despite the fact that originally there was nothing colonial about the […]
Posted in Culture on Jan 10th, 2008 No Comments »
Every first-year student of Japanese knows the names of the months: ichi-gatsu, ni-gatsu, san-gatsu etc… it could not be simpler, just the counters from one to twelve plus “month.” It is also a bit boring. Happily, there is a more poetic way of naming the months in Japan - but less easy to remember:
1. Mutsuki […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Japan on Jan 9th, 2008 No Comments »
When you want to show off in a sushi restaurant as THE connoisseur, you can of course order an omakase course and let the sushi chef, the Itamae-san, serve you the best delicacies he has been able to find at Tsukiji that day.
That may however be dangerous for your wallet. Sushi chefs have a […]
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Food, Japan on Jan 7th, 2008 No Comments »
January 7 is the day of the Nanakusa or Seven Herb Festival. This day, many Japanese eat rice gruel that contains the seven medicinal herbs of spring as a prayer for good health in the coming year. The custom goes back to the Heian-period, when according to tradition the Emperor Saga was very fond of […]
Posted in Culture on Jan 1st, 2008 No Comments »
2008 is the Year of the Rat (Ne no toshi), and the start of a new round of the Oriental zodiac. Why the rat, that obnoxious rodent? In Japan, rats were a pest just as much as in the cities of Europe. People kept cats to chase rats away, and often a picture of a […]
