Japanese Light

Shameless Promotion

2008-08-27T00:57:00.007+09:00

This is just one of the enigmatic, colourful and comic paintings featured on the earth based artist Finian Lynch's website here.

A very brief request to my former housemate about his favourite kind of jam and whether the local colour (surrounding environment) influences the colours he uses in his paintings brought this reply:

"My favourite jam is marmalade. Is this a jam? not sure, but I like it so haho. The everyday greyness an stiffness of the U.K makes me rebel an paint looverly colourlfull stuff, cos the world needs a twinkle even if it's mundain."

Couldn't agree more!

Fin spent 2007 working on a new series of paintings in Spain. Be sure to check them on the website before they sell.

Bear Semi

2008-08-26T21:49:00.004+09:00

Before he dashed off to try and persuade my 3 month old daughter to try and fit both fists in her mouth, my 10 year old nephew informed me that the little fella above and the cicada featured in a previous post are known as 'Kuma Semi' (熊蝉).

Bear Cicada?

Sushi

2008-08-26T01:27:00.001+09:00

O Ji

2008-08-24T22:12:00.001+09:00

"Olympics finished then."

2008-08-22T09:41:00.001+09:00

Semi Interesting

2008-08-14T16:52:00.005+09:00

In Japanese, Cicada are known as Semi (蝉). There are many types (and I just can't find out which one this is), and they live very unusual lives. For those of us who live next to parks or in the countryside they are the background noise for at least one full month of the summer, day and night.

The link above offers you a chance to hear the Cicada singing (screeching). To get the full 'Japan in Summer' experience, download the sound onto an MP3 player and listen to it in a sauna.

Below is the caste (空蝉　うつせみ meaning 'empty cicada') disgarded after the larval stage of the Cicada climbs out of it's hole in the ground to commence it's very short life as an adult. Both photos taken this afternoon while waiting for the girls to come back from a visit to the family for Obon.

Flash Bang

2008-08-08T23:31:00.002+09:00

Perhaps more impressive than the fireworks at the opening of the Beijing Olympics (didn't watch) was the electrical storm overhead this evening.

I tried very hard to avoid including extraneous items, such as electricity cables, when setting up, but then if you notice in the top left hand corner there is.... an electricity cable! Nice lightning though.

Legend

2008-08-08T19:00:00.003+09:00

Sign outside restaurant in Nishiki, Nagoya.

Uchi Mizu

2008-08-07T16:55:00.006+09:00

Did I mention it was hot here?

I wrote last month about the local outdoor shopping center using 'Cool Mist' to keep the shoppers shopping (not dropping). Today as I was walking to the bank I encountered a more traditional method.

打ち水 (Uchi Mizu) means 'Thrown Water' if translated directly from the kanji, but is explained in the Japanese dictionary as the act of sprinkling or spreading water. It pre-dates the air-conditioner as a method of cooling air by evaporation and you can still see people wetting the pavement or streets outside the entrances to their shops.

For those living in apartment buildings, special moisture retaining stone slabs are available in home centers. These can be laid on the veranda and wet during the day helping to cool the air entering through the windows and also helping to reduce the need for air-conditioners. According to the Wikipedia article (follow link above), environmental groups in Japan ask people to sprinkle water on the streets during the summer using 'recycled water' (used bath water?).

The rise in the number of fully air-conditioned indoor shopping centers and the associated youth culture centered in and around these mecca of mocha & mac may cause a decline in this practice as the older generation passes on and the old shopping districts shut up shop; but historical cities and towns in Japan that rely on the tourist trade to support the small independent shops which give the towns much of their character are likely to continue sprinkling the streets with water for years to come.

CosPlay 2

2008-08-04T19:01:00.002+09:00

CosPlay

2008-08-03T12:59:00.003+09:00

Son Goku... evidently in his Super Sayan form at the world CosPlay summit yesterday in Osu, Nagoya.

A place in the light

2008-07-30T14:48:00.002+09:00

A place in the light

2008-07-27T10:13:00.001+09:00

Much Maligned

2008-07-25T20:02:00.004+09:00

Natto is one of Japan's most infamous of foods. Amongst Japans foreign residents and the Japanese people alike, lines are drawn in bold when it comes to the eating of this supposedly healthy dish.

Though still no fan of Natto on rice, I thought that some of the readers of Japanese Light would be interested in a simple and tasty recipe that does for Natto what California did for Sushi. Natto, tomato and avacado salad.

Chop half a ripe avacado and put in a small bowl (miso soup size), then chop half or a whole tomato according to tatse and add to the bowl on top of the avacado. Now mix the Natto and add that to the bowl as well. Top with a little soy sauce and mix it all together.

The juice from the tomato acts to make the Natto less sticky and stringy, and the soy gives it that little salty kick and goes well with the avacado. It's healthy and tasty and, should you be at all bothered by that sort of thing, allows you to answer "Yes" to that question we all ask ourselves sooner or later; "Can you eat Natto?"

Hot in the city

2008-07-23T16:34:00.003+09:00

With daytime temperatures at around 35 °C and humidity to boot, it ain't half hot, mum.

2008-07-22T22:23:00.001+09:00

A place in the light

2008-07-17T20:43:00.001+09:00

Cool Mist

2008-07-16T10:28:00.003+09:00

Have I ever mentioned that it's hot in the summer in Japan? This year sees chilled mist sprays being used for the first in Kanayama, Nagoya, in an effort to keep the shoppers in the open air shopping center cool.

This may be the 'Dry Mist' technology used at the Nagoya Expo held in 2005 as an environmentally sound way of cooling the air, although the mist is actually still wet in Kanayama due probably to the height of the nozzles above the crowd. For a more detailed explanation of 'Dry Mist' check the expo website here.

Trivial

2008-07-15T17:32:00.004+09:00

At a time when the fishermen of Japan are protesting about the price of fuel driving their business into the ground, here am I snapping trivia in Sakae, Nagoya.

Sign of the times

2008-07-13T00:07:00.004+09:00

photograph from Fujifilm Healthcare Labo homepage

Perhaps I am slow on the uptake, but Fuji film is making skincare products!

Nice to see they have continued to develop.

This is not a test

2008-07-10T20:13:00.002+09:00

...rather it was a very successful lesson in the high school (sixth form) today. Yesterday I bought some plastic hanging wall pockets from the 100 yen shop (pound shop) and hung them on the wall in the classroom. The pockets were to hold the student's mobile phones.
Concentration? Or was is the shock of having a limb removed?

Summer Scene

2008-07-08T23:53:00.003+09:00

Saturday afternoon in Sakae, central Nagoya. American style punk band playing live in 'Central Park' and the temperature and humidity have risen to the occasion. Green tea and a white towel.

Yatai Ramen

2008-06-28T19:40:00.007+09:00

A yatai is an movable eating place. It's traditional shape is depicted in red in the window of the photograph from the inside of the ramen shop above. You can still see the occasional noodle seller setting up shop on the pavement late at night on the weekends. They serve from traditional style trolleys or converted vans and wait in the drinking areas of Nagoya to catch drunken salary men with the lure of noodles in cholesterol soup, but otherwise Nagoya does not have a very lively yatai scene.

Nearby our old apartment was a small warehouse building called 'Yatai Mura' (the yatai village). Inside were spaces for eight small counter spaces, with each space serving their own speciality dishes. These non-movable eateries were microcosms of the larger Japanese Izakaya, and each place had it's own regular clientele that seemed to provide the entirety of the business.

It was an interesting space that I haven't visited for a year. Now that we have a baby in the house I am unlikely to do so for a while yet. The customers were always down-town born to the city types, with the occasional politician or salary man thrown in. If you are ever in the Kanayama neighbourhood I would recommend it for a bite and a drink. I would, of course, be happy to join you. Make haste though, because places like this are slowly being swallowed up by office blocks and chain restaurants, and the owners aren't getting any younger.

Human Scale

2008-06-17T23:38:00.002+09:00

Shirai

2008-06-12T06:59:00.001+09:00

The enigmatic owner of previously mentioned bar "Smash Head", Shirai-San.