Long before Japan opened to the Western world in 1850s and Japonism became the latest trend, Europe already knew about Japanese lacquerware. The first items were imported to Europe by Continue Reading
Someone once said that when you spend a month in a foreign country and culture, you are likely to want to write a book, having spent at least six months Continue Reading
You may remember the movie “The Last Samurai”, where Tom Cruise was playing a US captain who joins to fight alongside the last samurais in Japan. What you may not Continue Reading
A conversation in the office after the Golden Week (as you may know, Japan had a record long Golden Week this year given the change of the Emperor and the Continue Reading
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris Continue Reading
“With clouds and mist In a brief moment a hundred scenes Brought to fulfillment” (Matsuo Bashō, translated by D. L. Barnhill) I have always been the one to claim that Continue Reading
Imagine a samurai in Saint-Tropez, a coastal town in the French Riviera. Sounds like a scene from a comedy movie? That was my first reaction as well. The fact remains Continue Reading
I wake up to the sound of rain, the start is not promising. By the time I am about to leave my hotel, it is pouring. If I told you Continue Reading
Some years back there was a movie called “Silk” with Keira Knightley. The story itself aside, it was about a Frenchman traveling to Japan for silkworm eggs, as at the Continue Reading
It all started with a TED idea, or, to be precise, with its title – “The art of stillness in the Japanese wilderness” – it was the first time I Continue Reading