As any casual observer can tell, Japan is all about seasons and as the Japanese summer gets underway, there are a number of ways to not only survive the onset of the rainy season (and soon thereafter the typhoon season), but revel in it, most of them having to do with the sundry music festivals… »
“It now appears that books in the form so beloved by Uncle Alex and me, hinged in unlocked boxes, packed with leaves speckled by ink, are obsolescent. My grandchildren are already doing much of their reading from words projected on the face of a video… »
Imagine the scene in Ghost- the one when Demi Moore is sitting at the pottery wheel with a button-up shirt, slowly working clay into a bowl. Late 1980s sex symbol Patrick Swayze comes up behind her from the shadows and embraces her with strong, yet… »
“Whether people be of high or low birth, rich or poor, old or young, enlightened or confused, they are all alike in that they will one day die. It is… »
In 2008, just before the G8 summit took place in Hokkaido, another less covered event occurred on the same island. At the Indigenous People’s Summit, representatives of indigenous groups from… »
Walking with Charlotte Østervang in Christiania is an experience in humility. She knows, and is known, by almost everybody. And she interacts with them with gracefulness and kindness. One can… »
Who is the shôjo? There are two separate answers to that question, depending on your perspective, inside or outside shôjo culture. Although shôjo is usually translated into English as “girl”… »
The only time I’d usually watch this many films in a day is on a long-haul flight. 37,000 feet over Siberia, the combination of cabin pressure and free booze conspires… »
Launched in 2003, Japan’s premier crossover jazz music festival is setting a new world standard for large-scale parties of its kind. This year’s festival rounded up 35 artists from… »
Usually, it is the triumphant victims who become heroes in history. As it should be. But one Japanese lawyer has been fighting for victims his entire career, bringing them from… »
The Buddha said that life is about contradictions. Vegetarians wearing leather. Environmental bumper stickers on SUVs. The Fuji Rock Festival being nowhere near Mt. Fuji.
Truth is, Smash (the organizer promoting… »
Japan is most widely known for islands of the geological sort, but unfortunately the country is also the world’s premier spot for a completely different sort of island: Urban Heat… »
