Posted in internet, history, anime, news 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 […]
Posted in food on Mar 18th, 2007 No Comments »
In the bottled tea wars, competing manufacturers are doing their best to differentiate their product. “Golden stick tea” is an interesting example from The Coca Cola Company, which sells various Japanese teas under the name Hajime.
This is not normal green tea, but roasted green tea or Hojicha (Hoji Tea). The custom of roasting tea leaves […]
Posted in writing and poetry, movies, art and photography, news on Mar 17th, 2007 No Comments »
Earlier this month the Akutagawa Prize for new writers of literary fiction was awarded to Aoyama Nanae for Being Alone. Here she is interviewed by the Japan Times (registration required).
Kadokawa’s latest overblown epic film, Aoki Okami (Blue Wolf), about Genghis Khan, is found “somewhat empty and soulless” by Daily Yomiuri’s Aaron Gerow. Although there are […]
Posted in travel and places, intercultural on Mar 16th, 2007 No Comments »
There is an old Chinese legend telling that the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (Qin Shihuangdi, 259-210 BCE) sent his court sorcerer, Xu Fu, with 3,000 virgin girls and boys overseas to find the elixer of eternal youth and eternal life. Supposedly, that elixer could be found on Penglai, a paradisical island-mountain in the […]
Posted in internet, food, culture, art and photography, travel and places, museums, news on Mar 15th, 2007 No Comments »
From March 20 to June 17 the Tokyo National Museum will host The Mind of Leonardo, an exhibition with as its centerpiece The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci. This exhibition is part of the Italian festival in Japan this spring called Primavera Italiana 2007. Not everyone in Italy was happy that this priceless work was […]
Posted in internet, culture, movies, travel and places, museums, news on Mar 14th, 2007 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in nature, calendar on Mar 14th, 2007 1 Comment »
The cherry blossoms will bloom early this year. Whether that is a good thing is the question, as according to popular belief strong winters make good sakura, just like hot summers cause deep-red koyo. And although in normal years the blossoms advance over Japan from the south, like a nice frontline (the sakura zensen), this […]
Posted in design, museums on Mar 12th, 2007 No Comments »
Although I made a special study of Japan’s art museums, it remained long hidden even to me that Osaka has a modern art museum. I am not talking about the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art (this Tennoji Park museum is anyway in the first place dedicated to ancient art forms, although it hosts temporary modern […]
Posted in calendar, temples on Mar 9th, 2007 No Comments »
Osaka Tenmangu is dedicated to the 10th c. courtier and poet Sugawara Michizane, who was deified as the patron of scholarship and literature. There are thousands of Tenjin Shrines all over Japan, but Osaka Tenmangu is one of the most famous, together with the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto and the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in […]
Posted in food, intercultural on Mar 9th, 2007 No Comments »
This is a pet bottle of Tochu-cha, tea made from the leaves of the Eucommia tree, in China called Duzhong. The Duzhong has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine. The bark of the 15 meter high tree is, for example, believed to alleviate lower back pain and aching knees.
The deciduous leaves contain rubber (it […]