Welcome to NOTEBOOK, a cultural guide to art, design and architecture along with a resource of local news and information in English giving a realistic view of Tokyo and further afield.
Welome to 2023!
Revisiting January
01/30
Footwear giant Nike said it would officially sue the Japanese fashion label BAPE over a trademark infringement relating to several of the sportswear brand’s sneakers. Japan’s Immigration Services Agency announced the number of foreign travelers had surged 12-fold to almost 4.2 million in 2022. A vending machine selling the Korean ‘kimchi” at Keikyu Kawasaki Station was recognized as one the 100 best products of Kanagawa, while Hollywood actor Michael B. Jordan said that his boxing film "CREED III" had been influenced by Japanese anime and the classic anime boxing story "Ashita no Joe".
01/27
Japan successfully launched a rocket carrying a data gathering satellite from its Tanegashima Space Center. On the ground, a bronze mirror and an iron sword were unearthed from a burial mound in Nara, while old brick foundations were discovered across the street from Tokyo’s Toshima City Office in Ikebukuro, an area that once belonged to a photographic chemical maker later known as FujiFilm. In Kanazawa, the ‘Town Hack’ initiative brought Daido Moriyama's “Brightness/Contrast” exhibition to the Shintenchi shopping street, with both Town Hack and photo exhibition supported by the nearby Kamu Kanazawa.
01/25
Japan's Meteorological Agency said people should brace themselves for heavy snow and a big drop in temperature while cabinet members called for Prime Minister Kishida to dissolve the Lower House in the National Diet and to call a general election. Theatre director Daniel Kramer readied his modern take on Puccini's final opera “Turandot” scheduled to open in March at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Ueno Park with sets designed by the Japanese collective TeamLab.
01/23
Japan re-submitted an application for the historic mining complex on Sado Island to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Tour operator Hato Bus re-started its Chinese language tours throughout the city just in time for the start of the lunar New Year. In Tsukuba city, Japanese researchers developed a black pigment capable of absorbing 99.98% of visible light that hits its surface, while Takasaki Masaharu's 1995 building, the Kihoku Teikyukan observatory and telescope based in Kagoshima, Kyushu, waits to hear whether it had won this year's JIA 25 Year Award for a building that has contributed to both the local community and wider environment for the last 25 years.
01/20
A Japanese patrol ship ran aground off the Niigata coastline in search of a working lighthouse. Meanwhile, the price of eggs was increased as bird flu spread through parts of Japan. In Jakarta, a Japanese company opened a school to train prospective workers but the foreign cryptocurrency platform Coinbase Global called time on its Japanese operations. Japanese sports cars were recognized for their prized status around the world and electric scooters were officially license free with anyone over the age of 16 able to ride the bike. As exhibitions around the city told one story, “Kaleidoscope of Books” described another with a series of digital exhibitions from the National Diet Library of Japan.
01/18
China tentatively approved a number of visas for citizens from both Japan and China , while Ehime prefecture begins harvesting its crop of ‘Kanpei’ orange in Matsuyama. With January 17th marking the 28th anniversary of Kobe's Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, the Ikebukuro Life Safety Learning Center offers the chance to experience what a future earthquakes might feel like. Elsewhere in Ikebukuro, Chinese 'Gachi' restaurants give an authentic flavour to Chinese food and Aloha Whisky demonstrates its rare, unfiltered array of Whisky from the comfort of a small 3rd floor bar.
01/16
The car maker Toyota outlined its conversion from fossil fuels to electric motors at the Tokyo Auto Salon, while the Japanese government considered lifting its request to wear masks indoors, a policy change for later in the spring. In parts of Hokkaido Spring was also making an earlier than usual appearance with unseasonable weather causing avalanches on Mt. Yotei last Friday which took the life of one foreign skier. The weekend also bid farewell to Yukihiro Takahashi, legendary drummer with YMO, the Yellow Magic Orchestra, who sadly passed away at weekend aged 70.
01/13
As consumer prices rose, the price of chocolates was also on the up with Valentine's Day fast approaching. Meanwhile, Japan started 2023 with the world’s most powerful passport. As worldly as institutions like the Tokyo National Museum are, they can also struggle to to make ends meet and safeguard the artefacts in its possession. Other museums battle the belligerent weather. Museums, like Aomori's Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, showing Yoshitomo Nara, and Towada Art Center, hosting Aya Momose. But despite their challenges, time is on their side, unlike 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo was scheduled to close in March. Before then, it will look back over a 13-year history with the exhibition “3331 Transformed Art into …”.
01/11
Against the backdrop of yet more troops being stationed on the island of Okinawa, countering future movements by China in Japan's southwestern waters, Fujitsu developed a new ultrasound tool using AI for measuring the freshness of frozen tuna, a fish expected to become even more popular over the next 5 years. In Fukuoka, the 'Onisube' fire festival at the Dazaifu Tenmangu Temple was dramatic, mysterious and stirring stuff, with visitors invited to takes the temple's burnt ashes home, warding off the threat of misfortune. Rural and seasonal, Japan also prepared for the year ahead in Yamagata, leading up to its International Documentary Film Festival this October. All this and more, as Hirokazu Koreeda released a new series on Netflix while preparing to release new film “Monster” later in the year.
01/09
Seijin-no-hi celebrates those who turn 20 on what is the first bank holiday of this year. Meanwhile, travel disruption, some planned and some unexpected, affected both trains and planes. The JR Yamanote line was partially suspended over the past weekend as portions of track were moved, while a Jetstar flight from Tokyo en-route to Fukuoka was rerouted due to a bomb threat. And with the Visit Japan Web entry procedure now greeting foreign visitors who arrive at Narita and Haneda, the alternative art space and hostel Center, just north of Tokyo, welcomed two analogue film makers this week from MONO-NO-AWARE, a non-profit organisation that specialises in film from New York.
01/06
Welcome 2023. Some Japanese companies began the year pessimistic for business in the year ahead while Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its 'Starlink' service in Japan targeting rural areas where the internet was next to non-existent. And with the New Year holiday running into a second week, we dug into the archives of the National Diet Library, Kasumigaseki, and looked at old Japanese Sugoroku board games from the Edo period, with 'ban-sugoroku' (Backgammon) and 'e-sugoroku' (Snakes & Ladders) featuring domestic landmarks and the hope of traveling aboard.
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