Posted in Japan, Sake on Jun 1st, 2008 2 Comments »
In comparison to the giant sake centers of Nada and Fushimi, the other areas in the Kansai are mere dwarfs. That does not mean you won’t find excellent sake there - especially Nara Prefecture boasts some excellent local makers.
There is one more mitigating factor in Nara: after all, sake originated here and the ancient Omiwa […]
Posted in Book, China, Japan, Writing on May 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Whether I will make it to 1001 108 books, or get bored along the way, I do not know, but I have started reading in order to build my own “canon of great books.”
(After just two days I have lowered my target from 1,001 to 108 - 108 is a Buddhist number and a safer […]
Posted in Book, Japan, Writing on May 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
Japanese popular culture is “cool” and for the first time in history, mass fiction is riding along on the high wave of manga popularity.
Although Nobel Prize winner Oe Kenzaburo is sadly lingering in the shadows, with too many important novels still going untranslated, today more popular fiction is being translated than ever before. Long established […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kobe, Museums, Sake on May 21st, 2008 4 Comments »
The largest sake producing area in the whole of Japan can be found in Hyogo Prefecture, at the seaside of Nishinomiya and in the eastern part of Kobe. This area is called “Nada” and as there are five sake producing districts, one speaks about the “Five Nada Districts” (Nada Gogo). From east to west these […]
Posted in Architecture, Japan, Technology on May 18th, 2008 No Comments »
In the past I have written a post about “lists of three bests” in Japan, based on a huge list I found on the Japanese Wikipedia. But also the English Wikipedia has a page called “List of Records of Japan.”
It contains a mix of both national records and world records. I have picked out 10 […]
Posted in Book, Food, Japan, Manga, Osaka, Tokyo on Apr 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
Food manga are not always about gourmet food, even when they are called The Solitary Gourmand (Kodoku no Gurume). For there is not a shred of fancy food in all these stories. Instead, they introduce us to the daily dishes and common eateries of the ordinary Japanese, and that is all the more interesting.
The setting […]
Posted in Business, Food, Japan, Society on Apr 3rd, 2008 1 Comment »
In Japan, food is judged on its health properties, real or imagined, and fads of such foods are fed by media frenzy. It is only a short time ago that all Japanese were eating blueberries for better eyesight and natto to slim down. Drinks, especially of the sort sold in 350 or 500 cc pet […]
Posted in Animation, Food, Japan, Osaka, Technology, Web on Apr 2nd, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Architecture, Art, Business, Food, Japan, Museums, Photography, Web on Mar 31st, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Festivals, Gardens, Japan, Kyoto, Nature, Tokyo on Mar 26th, 2008 1 Comment »
What is this year’s sakura timetable? You will find the best English guide here, at the Japan Metereological Agency!
But don’t leave just yet, as here are some more interesting sakura links:
Stories from Japan Navigator:
Sakura, sakura - some literary associations from the cherry front
One of the best sakura viewing spots in Kyoto: Nishiyama
An even better […]
Posted in Festivals, Japan, Nature, Writing on Mar 24th, 2008 No Comments »
Look here for a sakura (cherry blossom) timetable!
As spring finally draws near, the first warm days bring a certain giddiness. And expectation. The great “sakura (cherry blossom) wave” is about to roll over our heads, enveloping us in its pinkish extremeties… sake and sakura, what better combination could there be?
[Sakura. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
The sakura […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kyoto, Museums, Sake on Mar 23rd, 2008 1 Comment »
I am starting a new series where I will look into the regional varieties of Japanese sake. The first one is Kyoto!
[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]
Kyoto Prefecture is in volume the second sake producing prefecture in Japan - after Hyogo’s Nada district. That is all thanks to the breweries in the southern part of the prefecture, […]
Posted in Animation, Book, Food, Japan, Manga, Nature, Web on Mar 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
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 Japan, Nature, Technology, Web on Mar 15th, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Book, Film, Japan, Review on Mar 14th, 2008 Comments Off
Why do I watch horror films? I do not even believe in the supernatural, let alone ghosts. Probably some childhood fear of darkness stays lodged in our minds, providing even those who consider themselves enlighted with a bridge to horror. And the atmosphere of horror films grabs you: the slow threat, the sure sense that […]
Posted in Book, Film, Japan, Society, Travel, Web on Mar 10th, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in History, Japan, Museums on Mar 8th, 2008 1 Comment »
Fourteen hundred years ago, Asuka (now a quiet village) was the cultural and political center of Japan. Here for the first time a unified state was established, based on the introduction of the more advanced culture, technology and administrative systems of China and Korea. Buddhism was introduced as well and the first temples were built. […]
Posted in Economy, Food, History, Japan, Web on Mar 8th, 2008 No Comments »
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 […]
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 Film, Japan on Feb 29th, 2008 No Comments »
It takes a lot of nerve to make a film with the same title as Kobayashi Masaki’s Kaidan, for you will unconsciously be measured against that impressive predecessor. It would be unfair to do so in the case of Nakata Hideo’s Kaidan, for this is not one of the many “remakes” we are being flooded […]
Posted in Economy, Japan, Society on Feb 19th, 2008 No Comments »
A Reuters article makes a case for a link between the hairstyle of Japanese women and the state of the economy.
Women tend to wear their hair long when Japan’s economy is doing well and short when there is a slump, the Nikkei business daily reported, citing a survey conducted by Japanese cosmetics company Kao […]
Posted in Film, Intercultural, Japan on Feb 19th, 2008 No Comments »
Cult director Miike Takashi pulls out all stops in big budget Sukiyaki Western Django, his very post-modern, Japanese “Sukiyaki-style” take on the Spaghetti Western. And this “fusion Western” is not such a bad idea at all. In the fifties and sixties, the great Kurosawa Akira made The Seven Samurai, which was later remade as The […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Review, Tokyo on Feb 15th, 2008 No Comments »
Newsweek has taken up the Michelin-story in an interesting and knowledgeable article called The New Food Capital of the World by Christian Caryl and Akiko Kashiwagi.
“Japan is a food-crazy nation like few others,” they say - and as I fully agree with their judgement, I’d like to pick up a few points from the article […]
