September 1 is the day that in 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, claiming more than 142,000 victims - many due to the terrible firestorms. On top of that, the most destructive typhoon on record, the Isewan Typhoon, hit coastal regions in Central...
Topics: earthquake, Japan, Kobe, Nature, Society, Tokyo, typhoon

This weekend, as an experiment, I have started listing books I read recently (the last year or so) on Goodreads. Here are a few short reviews I wrote there today. The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy by Sasha...
Topics: Uncategorized

Nogami Teruyo was the script supervisor and loyal assistant of Kurosawa Akira (1910-1998). This extraordinary women was at his side from the filming of Rashomon on to the very last. She wrote some of her personal memories down after Kurosawa’s...
Topics: Book, Film, kurosawa, review

Terayama Shuji (1935-1983) was Japan’s infant-terrible of the sixties of the last century. Genius, avant-gardist, iconoclast, photographer, director, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, cultural critic and poet. In his time, his work incited scandal...
Topics: Economy, Haiku, Temples, Uncategorized, Writing

Reimen (“Cold Noodles”) is one of my favorite summer dishes – how hot it may be, or how low my appetite, this delicacy always works its wonder! It always helps to revive me thanks to the sourness of the vinegar in the sauce and the lightness of the.
Topics: China, Food, food summer Japan, Japan