LETTERS FROM A FLOATING WORLD
Their other face
Like the manga, about which I wrote last year, another big pop export commodity of Japan, cosplay (コスプレ) is also among of the aspects...
In the kitchen
In a little over a year from today, a big change is going to happen in the urban landscape of one of the most...
Arts of war
Yes the cliché is true: the martial arts are indeed omnipresent in Japan. Especially the nine that Japanese authorities have agreed to call “Nihon...
Perfect storms
After earthquakes, the natural phenomenon that brings more concern to friends and relatives of expatriates living in Japan are typhoons; especially those living in...
Homes with a view
I'm absolutely certain that no one among those who dream of Japan's houses with the tatami flooring, the sliding doors and the windows with...
Water and color
Like last year and the one before it, this summer the magazines reporting on (and guiding) the new trends in Tokyo, devoted pages upon...
Listening to the heat
The first time I read “Genji Monogatari”, my Japanese was pathetically inadequate to allow me to understand why the author had used the word...
This land
Of all the possible conversations between a non-Japanese and a Japanese, the one that will cause the latter the biggest awkwardness and will probably...
You rang m΄lord?
In the face of all those arguing that contemporary-pop culture is much shallower than its classic counterpart, the word-concept “moe” (萌え) defies any easy...
As for the trains
“Is it so hard to put in one more train during the big rush hour?” is the most frequent question of those who see...
July morning
For the last five years, every year on July 22, I always do the same thing: I go to Shinjuku, I buy a tea...
Eye in the sky
I don’t know –and I don’t know if anyone knows- how many among this country’s thousands of temples is dedicated to the Buddhist entity...
It’s the little things
Two years ago, on September 2013, and during Tokyo’s presentation to the International Olympic Committee as part of its bid for the 2020 Olympic...
Cool? Japan?
The recent commentary by (ageing for showbiz but otherwise still influential) singer and actor GACKT has been all over the Japanese media: in his...
It don’t cost nuthin’
The Japanese scratch their heads in disbelief: in a country with so many things to see and experience, old and new, classic and modern...
Over and under
I first came across the terms “sempai” (先輩) and “kohai” (後輩) in a martial arts’ context and outside Japan; as usually happens with most...
Flowers of good
I was writing last week how unique can symbols be but the opposite is equally remarkable: how often they meet over the tight boundaries...
Manually
Symbols work in mysterious ways: a hundred different people might witness the same scene but each one of them will notice a different detail...
ΤΑΞΙΔΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΙΑΠΩΝΙΑ
ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΕΝΑΝ ΑΙΩΡΟΥΜΕΝΟ ΚΟΣΜΟ
