Posted in architecture, intercultural on Oct 25th, 2006 No Comments »
What is the largest building in Tokyo? You never would guess: the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway! This concrete monster on heavy pillars is now about 280 kilometers long and crawls like a mighty dinosaur through the metropolis. It runs along the third or fourth story of buildings, stamps on high legs through Tokyo’s pityful canals, splits […]
Posted in writing and poetry, haiku on Oct 24th, 2006 No Comments »
Several of the haiku Basho wrote on the Sumida River have been printed on text boards standing along a path skirting the river in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. This is the part of Tokyo where Basho lived since 1680, a fact commemorated in the Basho Museum, which also stands here. Thanks to the Oedo line, access […]
Posted in temples on Oct 23rd, 2006 No Comments »
Dwarfed by the orange obscenity of Tokyo Tower, surrounded by golf ranges and bowling halls, debased by a modern hotel and the stench of traffic before its gate, Zojoji still manages to repeal the onslaught and maintain its character as a great temple. The soothing smell of incense, the serene Amida statue in the Main […]
Posted in travel and places on Oct 22nd, 2006 No Comments »
“The fancy took me to go to Noto,” writes astronomer Percival Lowell in his travel book Noto (1891) - and off he went, to a place at that time virtually unknown. The man who would later discover the canals on Mars and speculate about intelligent life on the red planet, seems to have enjoyed wild […]
Posted in temples, kyoto on Oct 22nd, 2006 No Comments »
Cursorily, the impression may exist that there are many temples and many art treasures in Japan. Compared with China, where the destruction by war has been even fiercer, that is indeed the case. And in absolute numbers, such an opinion may not be far off the mark. On the other hand, if we compare what […]
Posted in travel and places on Oct 21st, 2006 No Comments »
According to an article in the Asahi Shimbun, the many new, foreign-owned hotels that are taking the Tokyo hotel world by storm, will not hurt the established giants as the Imperial, the Okura and the New Otani.
The new hotels are superluxurious but have rates to match, often starting at 50,000 yen a night or even […]
Posted in Japan, art and photography on Oct 21st, 2006 1 Comment »
The Autumn Exhibition of the Miho Museum features art critic and book binder Aoyama Jiro (1901-1979). Aoyama was born with a silver spoon and collected antiques from his early teens. But the man who was in the envious position that he never had to work had a sharp and critical eye and was generally praised […]
Posted in movies on Oct 21st, 2006 1 Comment »
Today the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival opens (it will run until next week Sunday).
Among the opening/closing line-up is a new film by 91-year old veteran Ichikawa Kon, a remake of his own 1976 Murder of the Inugami Clan, after a complex detective novel by Yokomizo Masashi, featuring Ishizaka Koji as sleuth Kindaichi. Ichikawa Kon […]
Posted in Japan, food, travel and places on Oct 20th, 2006 1 Comment »
Omotesando is the name of the tree-lined avenue leading up to the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. It is the most fashionable part of Tokyo and also features the highest number of shops by famous fashion designers; adjacent Harajuku is the fountain of youth culture. Omotesando is a place often crowded with photographers trying to capture […]
Posted in internet, life, kyoto on Oct 20th, 2006 3 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 this 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 […]