The Mainichi web site has recently published an interview with Murakami Haruki in five parts, about his inspiration in American literature, his translation work, his upcoming new novel, and the situation in the world: one, two, three, four, five.
Test your poetic inspiration by participating in the 12th Mainichi Haiku Contest.
The Japan Times feautures an interview […]
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Posted in Web, Writing on May 26th, 2008 No Comments »
This weekend, I happened to come across a NY Times review called “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” by Peter Boxall. The reason I bring it up here, is that this list is unbelievably and unashamedly Anglo-centered (including the U.S.) - it is not even a list of great Western literature, let alone […]
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Posted in Travel, Web, Writing on May 19th, 2008 1 Comment »
In Neomarxisme, Daniel Morales writes expertly about a neglected collection of short stories by Murakami Haruki (”Dead Heat on a Merry-go-round”) from the mid-eighties and its pivotal importance in understanding Murakami.
“He who would travel happily must travel light,” said Antoine de Saint Exupéry. His maxim has been translated into practical advice in this post […]
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Posted in Review, Web on May 18th, 2008 No Comments »
Just north of Kiyomizu Temple, Kodaiji is one of the most elegant temples of Kyoto: it has two beautiful tea houses from around 1600 and a nice garden. Kodaiji was founded in 1605 by Nene, the wife of Toyotomo Hideyoshi to give repose to the soul of her husband. Note the great lacquer work in […]
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This somewhat creepy, robotlike Japanese woman follows your cursor with her eyes as you move it over the screen! The technology was developed by Japanese company MotionPortrait. (Via Jean Snow)
Billiken, the fiendish-looking God of Good Luck in the Tsutenkaku Tower, Osaka, has celebrated his 100th birthday.
During the ceremony, a birthday cake was presented to […]
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Japan Newbie has a nice piece on a kushikatsu restaurant in Juuso, Osaka, run by an elderly couple. The cook wears berets and the wife is extremely forgetful, but the taste is great.
The New York Times features Mori Minoru of Roppongi Hills fame in The Builder Who Pushes Tokyo Into the Clouds. Yes, Mr Mori […]
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As the International Herald tribune reports, foreign minister Komura Masahiko has appointed Doraemon as Japan’s first cartoon ambassador. The robot cat, who is especially popular in Asia, promised:
Through my cartoons, I hope to convey to people abroad what ordinary Japanese people think, our lifestyles and what kind of future we want to build.
Perhaps the […]
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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 […]
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Translator’s Tools is a new blog by Gururaj Rao that conveniently introduces tools to make translation from and to the Japanese easier. In his most recent post, he introduces the Glova Bilingual Database, a contextual database/dictionary that will not only be of help to translators, but to anyone studying Japanese.
Asiajin is a blog on webservices […]
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Janne in Osaka shines light on a matter to my heart: how to shelve your books…
Japan Probe has a round-up of videos that recently appeared on the web about the town of Obama (also see my post about this town chock-full with ancient temples and Buddhist statues - a great destination for a weekend trip).
Japan […]
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Watashi to Tokyo writes about yoshoku, “Japanese original Western food” as Turkey rice, American dog and Napolitan Spaghetti - a category sadly ignored by Michelin.
Ampontan has an interesting piece on the Imperial Warehouses (Gyofu) where originally the spoils of war were kept - except a Chinese rock (Korosei) of great historical importance these have now […]
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Posted in Japan, News, Web on Jan 21st, 2008 4 Comments »
There are three English paper-based newspapers in Japan plus one published exclusively on the internet.
I rank them as follows:
Paper-based:
- My favorite is The Japan Times. The only independent English paper, with lots of new content (not translated from the Japanese press) and many articles on Japanese society and culture. Regular contributors are also famous, […]
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Posted in Japan, Web on Jan 20th, 2008 4 Comments »
What are the best blogs on Japan? Those providing real, tangible content, strong opinions, useful information - in a well-written format - and not to forget with frequent postings!
What Japan Thinks had a reader’s poll at the end of last year, with interesting results, but I feel challenged to formulate my own best ten […]
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Posted in Japan, Sake, Web on Jan 15th, 2008 No Comments »
Interested as I am in various aspects of sake (nihonshu), from the production process to actual consumption, I also like to read about my favorite drink. Here are some of the best websites and blogs about sake I have found.
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In the first place we have the website “Sake World” of sake-guru John Gauntner, who has […]
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Posted in Web on Aug 19th, 2007 No Comments »
Japan Navigator is a new website and at the same time a double continuation - of my former site, {Inter} Cultural Japan as well as of the materials about Japanese temples and haiku I was offering on my webpage at Xs4all under the general title The Japan Pages. I know you loose readers […]
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Posted in Animation, Museums, Web on Mar 19th, 2007 No Comments »
The Tokyo Anime Fair will start on Thursday in Tokyo Big Site and as a warming up Yomiuri.co.jp has published an interesting article about the state of the industry. One thing is that the domestic film boom of last year was fueled by anime. 100,000 visitors are expected, the public opening days are in the […]
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Despite the expected boost it will give the economy, not everybody in Nagasaki is happy with the government decision to register 20 Christian sites with the Unesco World Heritage List. As Asahi.com reports, the priests are afraid noisy tourists will disturb the peace of the believers by snapping their picture, leave graffitti on the walls […]
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Posted in Web, Writing on Mar 6th, 2007 No Comments »
2001 Waka for Japan 2001 is an extensive collection of classical waka poems from major anthologies, such as the Manyoshu, Kokinshu and Shinkokinshu. Besides the translation, a romanized version as well as the original Japanese are included. Brief introductions are provided; in a separate section you will also find information on the poets and some […]
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Posted in Web, Writing on Nov 29th, 2006 No Comments »
When you say “haiku,” you say “Matsuyama.” Matsuyama on Shikoku is the hometown of Matsuoka Shiki (1867-1902), who in his short life transformed the Edo-period hokku into the modern haiku. He is greatly honored in his hometown, with a Shiki Museum and numerous haiku stones. What is more, Shiki was not Matsuyama’s only famous haiku […]
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Posted in Travel, Web on Nov 26th, 2006 No Comments »
A Guide to Kamakura is a huge labor of love and the best site to read through before planning a visit to the old capital.
The website was written by Mr Tadahiro Kondo, who as he tells in his profile, worked his whole life as salaryman in the paper industry before retiring in 2001. He has […]
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Posted in Art, Web on Nov 16th, 2006 No Comments »
Yes, your read it right: Ukiyo-e and other Japanese paintings on medical subjects. The site is not very large (a series of yamato-e paintings and 30 ukiyo-e), and comments are not perfect or even totally lacking and replaced by question marks, but the whole is weird enough to mention here.
After all, what does the virtuous […]
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Posted in Web on Nov 10th, 2006 No Comments »
The Night View of Seto is a site with stunning panorama pictures of famous night views. The maker, Mr. M. Murakami, is not someone with a “night view mania” as he insists - he just likes to take pictures, put them together in panorama views, and so share night views with people […]
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Posted in Kyoto, Web on Oct 20th, 2006 2 Comments »
Ichimame has been called “the first and probably only maiko to write a blog” and she is creating quite a stir, attracting about 1,000 visitors a day, according to an article in the Daily Yomiuri. Since last December, the eighteen year old Ichimame blogs twice a week, mainly short pieces about her daily life: her […]
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Faces are open books, but in case of an other culture, you may have to learn a foreign language.
I mean, what do you look at when you look a person in the face? Do you watch the mouth or the eyes? This is culturally determined: Westerners usually look at the mouth, because we use the […]
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