Posted in calendar, kyoto on Jul 26th, 2006 1 Comment »
August is hot and humid in Japan, the time expats fly out to cooler climes, but early August is also the month of the great (and wild) summer festivals - the Nebuta Festival in Aomori, the Awa Odori dance festival in Tokushima, and many others. The middle of August is the period of Obon, the […]
Posted in Japan, food, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 23rd, 2006 No Comments »
What is the best summer food in Japan? Most people will answer: eel. Unagi is a popular food in Japan and it never sells so well as during the hottest period of summer, as it is believed to give lots of stamina to bodies freaked out by the heat. In the traditional calendar, that […]
Posted in culture, life, calendar, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 19th, 2006 1 Comment »
The hot and humid summer in Japan tends to wear people out. It is therefore custom to inquire after the health of friends and acquaintances during the greatest heat, which lasts somewhere from July 20 to the first week of August. Since the Taisho period, this is done by sending a special postcard which […]
Posted in writing and poetry on Jul 19th, 2006 No Comments »
The Akutagawa Award is a bi-annual literary award for upcoming authors in the field of pure literature and the winner of this summer was announced just a week ago. It is Takami Ito with Hachigatsu no rojo ni suteru (Throwing Stuff Away on a Road in August).
The prize is named after the famous author Akutagawa […]
Posted in food, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 16th, 2006 1 Comment »
Wagashi is a general term for traditional Japanese confectionery. The term was coined in modern times to differentiate Japanese sweets eaten with green tea from Western-type cakes. Although already the prehistoric Jomon people ate cookies made from chestnut powder, wagashi as we know them are of more recent origin.
In fact, there were five stimuli:
1. Chinese […]
Posted in Japan, crafts, art and photography on Jul 16th, 2006 No Comments »
This summer, two interesting temporary events in the field of Japanese art are held in Tokyo, both fitting in the category “restored art.”
The first concerns a rediscovered mural by 20th century avant-garde painter Okamoto Taro called The Myth of Tomorrow. This work measuring 5.5 by 30 meters was created in 1968/1969 for the walls of […]
Posted in books, culture, religion and philosophy, intercultural on Jul 16th, 2006 No Comments »
What can go wrong when a foreigner who knows no Japanese but has very romantic ideas studies a particular Japanese “way” (Do) under a somewhat eccentric Master? Everything, according to The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery by Yamada Shoji (published in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies). Surprisingly, the foreigner in question […]
Posted in nature, travel and places on Jul 16th, 2006 No Comments »
A few days ago, a heatwave announced the end of the rainy season in Japan. Time to head to cooler climes, such as Hokkaido. Popular among the Japanese themselves are the lavender fields of Furano in the center of the large island. Furano derives from the Ainu word “furanui,” fragrant flame, but that probably refers […]
Posted in culture, life, kyoto on Jul 12th, 2006 No Comments »
Together with sakura (cherry blossoms) and Mt. Fuji, there is nothing more typically Japanese than the geisha. Despite this, the institute is surprisingly young: the first geisha (in fact called geiko, ‘art person’) operated in Tokyo (then Edo) in 1761. In contrast to what is sometimes thought in the West, a geisha is not a […]
Posted in architecture, travel and places, design, museums on Jul 12th, 2006 No Comments »
In the Middle Ages, all Japanese cities imitated the then capital Kyoto, which resulted in a large number of “small Kyoto’s,” as lovely Tsuwano; in the Edo-period, the model was Edo, so we have numerous small Edo’s as, for example, Kawagoe. Now the model is Tokyo and all cities in Japan seem bent on imitating […]