little irish jackhammer
Here’s a creepy story (really creepy if you have ever seen Juon) about a woman who snuck into a 57 year old man’s house and started living in the storage space above his closet.
… the man had become increasingly uneasy as he found food missing and couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t alone… LINK
Apparently, police suspect she was a serial closet hopper, moving from house to house. Wow, eh?
J-Pop Diva and everyone’s favorite cutey-pie Amuro Namie has teamed up with Japan’s slinky queen of R&B Double and the results are jaw-droppingly hot. Listen out for a 懐かしい echo of Double’s legendary “Shake“.
(lyrics are here if you want to sing along)
Update: The video keeps disappearing from Youtube but you can still watch a bigger and crystal clear one here.
The Mainichi Daily News site is running a series of interviews with popular novelist Murakami Haruki this week in which he talks about his influences, the rhythm of translation, his latest epic (on which he is now working) and the greater purpose of storytelling…
“What I fear more than anything else is ‘psychological enclosure’ imposed by those who are pushing a particular cause. Most people need some sort of boundary, and it becomes unbearable if their boundaries disappear. …but there are lots of cages, or enclosures, and some people get caught up in these and find themselves unable to get out if they’re not careful,” Murakami says.
Murakami says it’s because of this situation that literature is important.
“Stories must exist to work against those psychological enclosures. A good story is not something you can see, but it should give depth and width to people’s minds. And a broad, deep-thinking mind is not something that likes to be shut off in a narrow space,” he says.
And if you want to know what three novels have proven most significant for Murakami’s own writing the list runs as follows: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Raymond Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye”, and “The Brothers Karamazov,” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Hmmm. I can feel another amazon order coming on.
Links to 1st article, 2nd article and 3rd.
There’s yet another post up on Deep Kyoto tonight of vegan & organic restaurant Hale ～晴れ～ which means “sunny”. Hmm. I’m sensing a trend for “sunny” organic restaurants here; Sunny Place, Sunshine Cafe…Now here’s a bunch of Japan related links so I can avoid actually writing anything.
http://www.globalcompassion.com/ has an exhibition of photos by Masaru Goto of Burakumin:
The Burakumin are a nearly invisible (yet identifiable) group of Japanese people. They are the remnant of a caste system that formally passed away long ago. Their ancestors were the untouchables. Despite being racially and ethnically Japanese through and through, the Burakumin still face discrimination and struggle together under the weight of their shared history. (Quoted from globalcompassion.com)
The photographs, a series of portraits, are colorful and reveal a remarkable zest for life in each of the participants (like the guy who says he wants to die shouting “Whoo!”). Each picture is followed by a short account of each persons experiences. I found bamboo artisan Keigin Ishida’s story of his relationship with his father especially touching. LINK TO MASARU GOTO’S EXHIBITION
Recently, Greenpeace have been making a big hullabaloo about Japanese whalers filching whale meat at the tax-payers expense. Now the news has gone global. Here’s a link to the BBC article: LINK And here’s what Greenpeace have to say about it:
We did it! Within 72 hours of our exposé of corruption in the whaling industry and embezzlement of whale meat, 40,000 Greenpeace supporters wrote to Japanese officials demanding an investigation.Despite denials from the company that runs the whaling ship that the stolen whale meat was just “souvenirs” the Tokyo public prosecutor’s office agreed there were grounds for an investigation. It’s working!
By law, the sale of whale meat outside the official “scientific whaling” programmme is not supposed to happen — all proceeds are supposed to offset the taxpayer-subsidized whaling. This means the entire whaling programme is illegal and needs to have its permits revoked and subsidies cancelled — let’s get 80,000 messages in the NEXT 72 hours demanding that! LINK TO GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN
I wonder why it is, that despite broadly agreeing with pretty much everything Greenpeace stands for, I find myself increasingly irritated by them and reluctant to post links to their campaigns. Ah, I know. It’s because of ridiculous videos like this. What genius came up with the idea of “average Joe vomiting off the back of a ship” as a marketing campaign? How is that appealing? Really? Ah, oh well…
Speaking of vomit, this article isn’t particularly enlightening but the headline kind of grabbed me: 54 sickened at hospital after farmer’s chemical-fuelled vomit generates toxic gas. Wow, eh?
I’m in a book! Or rather Deep Kyoto is. Old Lado buddy Masaya Kanzaki writes:
I know an editor at 実務教育出版, and I told her about Deep Kyoto a while ago. She liked it, and so she included the link to Deep Kyoto in their new book called ネットの英語技術 with a short introduction.
http://www.jitsumu.co.jp/books_navi/toeic/net_eigo/index.html
…I’m promoting Deep Kyoto, you see? I like the way you describe restaurants and bars, and your photos are good too. I want more people to visit Deep Kyoto.
Wow, eh? Thanks Masaya!
There’s a fresh post up on Deep Kyoto tonight of Nest; a wan-chan cafe for dogs and dog-walkers.
The big news for Doctor Who nerds is that Russell T. Davies is stepping down from the helm and handing over the reigns of power to Steven Moffat. A wise move as pretty much everything Steven Moffat writes for the series seems to win some kind of major prize or award (scares the crap out of the kiddies too). LINK
I’ve been watching the current series over the last few weeks and I am very happy with it. Since the demise of Eccleston’s 9th Doctor, the writing has been quite patchy, but with the exception of last week’s episode it has all been top-notch; they’ve brought back UNIT, travelled to distant planets and ancient Pompei, reaquainted us with the Sontarans (old enemies from the classic series)… and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble has (surprisingly) proven to be an excellent companion, bringing the Doctor right down to earth (so to speak). However, last week’s episode seemed a bit crowded to me. We had Agatha Christie and a real murder mystery for the Doctor to solve - did we really need a giant (and rather silly) wasp from a far distant galaxy to be the perpetrator? Regardless, I remain a loyal Doctor Who otaku and shall watch Mr. Moffat’s next scripted episode in one week’s time with eagerness and glee (and possibly a bottle of sweet summery ramune). LINK TO TRAILER.
Today on Deep Kyoto, there is a fresh post on the delightful Shizuku cafe.
I just spent the day traipsing round town looking for a new sofa bed, failing to find one, getting frustrated by the dawdling crowds (why does everyone but me dawdle?) and upon going home ordering this little beauty from amazon.co.jp instead. Praise be the interwebs! Now I have to wait a week or so until I can test it out. Hope it’s comfortable. If you’re wondering why I need a new sofa bed, my old sofa is falling to pieces and my old futon - well, a dog peed on my futon. Don’t ask why or how. These things simply happen.
Last Sunday I went to see the Tale of Genji Millenium exhibition at the Museum of Kyoto; a very impressive collection of priceless manuscripts, emaki, beautiful folding screens and other precious knick-knacks to celebrate 1000 years since this tale of nobility and nookie first made a big splash in the Heian court. What really impressed me was just how popular and important this story has been to Japanese people down the centuries and still is today - the place was packed. Actually, it was a little too packed, and with quite a few ladies of a certain age with vicious elbows. I’d recommend going to see it, but not on a weekend. Anyway, I’ve been inspired to dig the two-volume copy out of the school library and have another crack at it. Or I could read it here I suppose but I prefer a paper copy.
Later, the same day I went to see Atonement at the Cocon Karasuma cinema. Wow. Great movie. It started off so slow I was thinking “This is going to be a very pretty but dull couple of hours…“, but then it started to build and build, and the story had me totally in its clutches until the devastating ending. I heartily recommend it. The sort of movie that makes you very very thankful for whatever happiness you’ve got. Here’s a trailer.
Today on Deep Kyoto, a pleasant chain of Indian curry houses you can find dotted throughout Shiga and Kyoto: Raju.
And here on the home-blog, Mr. Shakespeare says:
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and cheque’d even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
To change your day of youth to sullied night;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
Lovely, aint it? That’s Sonnet number 15. To sign up for your daily sonnets, click here: Mr. Shakespeare’s Sonnet A Day.
Tomorrow: A Tale of Genji and Obasans & Atonement.
A collaborative creative writing Stanford class project to write a 224 page graphic novel over six weeks, resulted in “Shake Girl” and the results are now available as a free online book. I read it today and was very impressed. The story is based on real events, and its purpose is to raise awareness of violence against women in Cambodia. It’s not a happy story but I’m glad I read it. From journalist Eric Pape’s original article on the tragic story of Tat Marina whose story inspired the book:
The government …is dominated by former Khmer Rouge members who have shown their willingness to use any means necessary to retain their positions of power, from the murder of political opponents to widespread spying and torture. In high society, wives are prepared to battle tooth and nail to avoid losing their husbands and thus their social status to “second wives.” There is even a traditional Cambodian warning to pretty young girls: Beware of powerful men: They may kill you if you refuse their advances. And beware of their wives: They may kill you if you do not.
Link to Eric Pape article.
We had a very nice evening on Tuesday night at Nakano-kun’s house. He invited us over for a takoyaki party and I have to tell you making takoyaki is really good fun. Besides “tako” (chopped octopus) you can put pretty much anything you like into the batter mix. We tried shrimp, cheese, pumpkin… I’d like to have a go at chocolate ones next time. Those takoyaki machines are pretty cheap too. Nakano-kun’s cost him less than ￥1,000. I think I may have to get one. Much better than a fondue. I can’t abide fondues.BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.
Anyway, sitting round a table with good people, making something tasty, chattering away and quaffing a few frosty beverages was the perfect end to my Golden Week. Went back to work yesterday. And then I had today off again! Ha ha! Great life.
Oh, and today is my sister Bernadette’s birthday. Happy Birth… ah, I’d better give her a ring… she never reads this.
And before I go… for my most recent post on Deep Kyoto, having previously written here on bar “Bollocks“, I am delighted to present to you Tits.
It’s a cafe.
