Sometimes building up the motivation to hike a mountain in the Tokyo area is tough. Not the hikes themselves, though they can be challenging, but the often extremely early wake up times necessary to catch the train to the mountain. This had been a problem for the past couple weekends for me and my wife. […]
Books with this much hype don’t usually appeal to me. There may have been some sort of collective unconscious peer pressure at work here, urging me to put this book on my Christmas list. What is more interesting is that I am not really an Apple guy, I only own one iPod that I bought […]
Usually when visiting a particular place that gets raving reviews from critics of contemporary design I am left feeling a bit let down. This is especially the case in Japan, where critics often praise particular locations but neglect to mention just how overwhelming expensive those locals are (Omotosando, Roppongi, Ginza) and the type of clientele […]
A sudden, cathartic end to one of my more mammoth undertakings. And to think that two equally sized volumes remain! Biblio-exhaustion is rarely so enjoyable. As I read this massive tome, I came across an excellent article on The Millions about ‘Literary Stockholm Syndrome’. In essence, it is the theory that long, seemingly tedious works, […]
Prior to reading this novel I had read reviews by both established authors and critics. Harold Bloom gave the most negative of Wolfe, stating rather bluntly the Asheville native’s body of work exhibits no literary merit. Others were more favorable, especially those coming from more renowned writers, most notably William Faulkner, who considered him one […]
For students hoping to grasp the political and cultural underpinnings of Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration, Conrad Totman’s Japan Before Perry: A Short History is an excellent starting point. This work deals mainly with abstract elements, focusing on aesthetic primary sources like early warrior tales, No theater, and popular treatises. Surprising, very little is […]
One particular Christmas present that stood out for me was an assortment of Nanoblock sets from my wife that rekindled the lost engineer in me and retaught the glory following simple schematics. What Nanoblocks are, quite simply, are microsized LEGO’s with kits ranging from the intense Neuschwanstein Castle to simple wildlife. Manufactured in Japan by […]
Christmas in Japan can be both exhilarating and a minor bummer for those more accustomed to the gluttony of American-Style celebration. The exhilaration, as for myself, comes from the knowledge that come Christmas morning I will be doing something unique in the particular neighborhood I live in – opening oodles of presents, listening to Christmas […]
Finding places to walk, hike, climb, outdoor exercise in general, can be a harrowing experience in the Tokyo Metroplex. This is especially true if you lived part of your life outside of urban centers – outside of Asia. You do need a bit of an imagination, the ability to cancel unwanted visual (and auditory) information […]
During the Edo era, there was two main routes from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). The lower, most widely know route, was the Tokaido. The other, more interior route, was called the Nakasendo. Preserved along a portion of the Nakasendo are a series of old post towns that keep that old Edo charm focusing on traditional wooden architecture […]