Last year I had picked up the first US translation of one of Arimasa Osawa’s books – Shinjuku Shark, and just recently I’ve found a new translation in his series around a cop in Tokyo in our local Japanese bookstore. The title is The Poison Ape, and where Shinjuku Shark was an in-depth study of [...]
Last weekend we had a chance to see the Japanese movie “Departures” as a preview of its official release in the US during the San Francisco International Film Festival. Departures won this year’s Academy Award for best foreign film, and it must have been a close call as best film all around. Where to begin? [...]
Japanese restaurants traditionally display artificial menu items in their shop windows, and every visitor to Japan has been dazzled by the amazing quality and realism of the plastic models for every conceivable food item that can be found in restaurant windows. Sooner or later it dawns on the visitor that there must be a massive [...]
Today I’ve stumbled over a great blog if you are interested in Japan: Walking in Japan by Kurt Bell is all about his hikes in the Japanese Alps and the interesting things he finds along the way. Kurt clearly enjoys his walks through the mountains and that shows in the photos and videos that he [...]
Several blogs have been linking to this remarkable image over the last few days and I see no reason to hold back. If you click through to the large panorama at Wikipedia, you’ll see one of the earliest existing photos of Edo, which was rename a few years later to Tokyo. This panorama is from [...]
I wanted to talk about this movie for a little while, but we were traveling and I have now a backlog of blogging material to work through… Paprika is the new movie by Satoshi Kon, the director of Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, two of my favorite Japanese animation movies. This new movie is very [...]
Over the last few years Japan has developed into a cultural powerhouse with Muji Stores in faraway places like Germany, Anime movies being shown in local art cinemas and occasionally even in the Multiplexes and there are now Mangas in corner bookstores everywhere. We are bombarded by new Japanese gadgets that look unrealistically futuristic and [...]
Markuz has posted a commented compilation of his amazing art project on the Momentarium site. I am amazed at the amount of work and creativity Markuz has invested in this project and this compilation shows touching moments where he interacts with everyday people who have been pulled out of their shell and who put their [...]
A good friend of mine, Markuz Wernli Saitô, is currently working on a monumental art project called Momentarium. Over a period of eight weeks Markuz is inviting people in the streets of Kyoto in Japan to become a part of a daily, one-hour art performance. He is following a strict schedule for these performances, so [...]
Japan must be one of the countries that has changed the most since World War II… it is almost impossible to imagine what Japan must have looked like only two generations ago while wandering through its modern streets. It now embodies the 21st century more than any other place in the common subconscious of this [...]