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
Paris or Tokyo, popular museum exhibitions have equally long lines, especially on weekends or towards their final days. Interestingly enough, this weekend I was discovering how Japanese art was influencing Continue Reading