Moka was born on the new moon in the middle of a typhoon. The rains brought welcome relief from months of record heat. The sound of all that falling water seemed to calm her. That’s how the story of my daughter’s life begins. Continue reading
These people waited in line for hours to get free grilled fish at the Sanma Festival. About 5,000 sanma (Pacific saury) were given away. And they remained in line to get their lime and grated radish. Continue reading
Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal) was like the Forest Gump of 20th Century Europe, a real life Zelig. He lived through the Russian Revolution, narrowly escaped the Nazi attempt to extinguish Jewry, painted next to the most celebrated of modern French painters, and even designed costumes and sets for operas in New York when America was making its ascendency. Continue reading
After years of being told about The Longest Shopping Arcade in Japan, I visited the Palm Plaza, which indeed was very long. It was much like any other shopping arcade in Tokyo, which is to say it was awesome. I’ve noticed even in the few years I’ve been in Japan that these arcades have slowly been taken over by chain stores, but many of the shops remain mom and pop operations with lots of cheap stuff and more dried marine life than you can shake a chopstick at. Continue reading
For all the metaphysical and neurophysiological bellybutton gazing that goes on in Inception, the story is just an old-fashioned heist, albeit with a spectacular twist. There are the familiar characters in the scam: the forger, the point man, the mark, the mastermind, and the shadowy powerful figure they all work for. But the con is not to steal anything, but rather to implant an idea in the victim. And the scam happens in several layers of dreams. Continue reading
This is the Gulf Oil Disaster superimposed on a map of Japan if the spill had originated in Tokyo. The website, If It Were My Home, allows anyone to ‘bring home’ the catastrophe to their doorsteps to better understand the scale of the catastrophe. As you can see from the map, the spill would smother the entire Kanto region, stretching out past Nagoya, over to the other side of Honshu to the East Sea.
The oil could easily drift down to Kyoto and Osaka. Yokohama and Tokyo Bays would be thick with petroleum far out into the Pacific.
I was curious about some of the other places I’d called home. Continue reading
Japan is known for its high-tech innovations. The Washlet comes to mind. It warms the toilet seat, self-cleans, and it’s primary function is to give you a hands-free bum cleaning, with sprays of water, then a dryer. Some of the advanced ones play soothing music and analyzes your stool. The control panel for this thing sometimes resembles a control panel on Star Trek.
After five years in japan I’ve never taken advantage of the Washlet. I’m old school, preferring good old toilet paper and a high fiber diet. It reminds me of the study in the US which found that recent immigrants don’t use the automatic dishwasher, instead using the appliance as an expensive dish rack.
I can’t fathom using jet sprays that emanate from the toilet, even though I know it’s just as sanitary as toilet paper.
In Japan it’s all about making life convenient and this idea manifests in numerous designs that smoothes every day processes. These are my favorite low tech things I like about the Tokyo Toilet. Continue reading
