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.
March in the capital and across the country welcomed in seasonal offerings and the fruits of spring. Notebook also visited Kanazawa, went Geotagging in Shinjuku, looked back at some Japanese cinema as the world celebrated International Women’s Day and much more.
Revisiting March
03/31
Renowned Japanese actress Tomoko Naraoka passed away. COVID-19 cases in Japan went up by almost 4,000 from the week before. Chinese authorities shut down one of the largest suppliers of pirated Japanese anime, while Japan's Finance Ministry investigated the possibility of a digital currency. And in Part 2 of our 'Edoverse' conversation with Shinwa CEO Yoichiro Kurata, we discussed the 'real' versus the 'digital', a 'decentralized' market steered by a 'central' historical figure, taking inspiration from peer-to-peer pioneers like Satoshi Nakamoto and the success of Pokémon GO.
03/29
Lithographs of an Indian elephant taken in the aftermath of 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake were found in the vaults of Hanayashiki, Japan’s oldest amusement park in Asakusa. Japan's Cultural Affairs Agency moved from Tokyo to Kyoto as the country's first quantum computer began working at the Riken Research Institute in Saitama. And in Toyama, the Meteorological Agency announced that its Somei-yoshino cherry trees were in full bloom, the earliest since records began in 1953. Omicho Market has long been a stable part of Kanazawa’s food culture for more than 300 years, with it referred to locally as “Kanazawa’s Kitchen." Notebook captured it winding down at the end of one busy day.
03/27
Nara's Prefectural Government announced plans to allow its employees to study aboard. Japan struggled with the recent bird flu epidemic. As a result an alternative to the humble egg was proving increasingly popular in supermarkets. And JR Tokai, otherwise known as Central Japan Railway, also announced plans to automate its Tokaido Shinkansen service from 2028. Two and a half hours west of Tokyo is Ishikawa prefecture and the city of Kanazawa where Notebook walked along to the birdsong of a Japanese bush warbler (uguisu) and the sound of running water.
03/24
Parts of Fukushima were set to have their evacuation orders lifted while a new group advocating Japanese LGBTQ came together ahead of the annual G7 summit in Hiroshima this May. Carmaker Toyota discontinued sales of its popular Camry sedan, while a man went on the run for injuring the manager of a sushi restaurant during a robbery but not before injuring himself with the machete he was carrying. A Hokusai ukiyo-e print fetched $2.8m dollars at an auction house in New York. And having already sold an Andy Warhol print from 1963 for ¥2.3 billion last year, Shinwa auction house in Tokyo started developing its own virtual marketplace which Shinwa's president Yoichiro Kurata described in Part 1 of our conversation with him at his office in Ginza.
03/22
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida invited his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to the G7 summit this May in Hiroshima. Kishida also flew to Poland making a secretive trip by land to Ukraine. In Florida, Japan beat Mexico 6-5 at the World Baseball Classic semifinals before winning their 3rd Championships. And theatre plays by three female Japanese playwrights were performed in London earlier this year. Back home and there is little to do in Omotesando but shop. Should you find yourself leaving the metro station via its A3 exit, you’ll chance upon Akiba Shrine. We walked past the shrine to the sound of passing planes, pedestrians, cyclists and queuing shoppers.
03/20
The HEXA flying car aimed for the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz headed to Japan, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) built a plant in Kumamoto, while somei-yoshino cherry blossom trees bloomed in nearby Fukuoka. In Ginza. the landmark San-ai Dream Center building which has stood for six decades, was marked for demolished later that month. So we walked past the landmark one last time capturing the sound of screaming children and shoppers blowing through the shopping district late one Saturday afternoon when Ginza Dori was closed to traffic.
03/17
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol arrived in Japan for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida, the first time in 12 years. It didn't escape the attention of North Korea either, which launched an ICBM that very same day. The Tokyo stock market dropped amid concerns over Credit Swiss and two U.S. banks, while JNTO registered 1.47 million overseas visitors in February. In Shinjuku, we talked with artist Toru Yoshikawa at the kissaten and coffee shop “Times” about upcoming painting, his ceramics exhibitions, and his love of Geocaching.
03/15
The number of people still wearing masks remained high, despite guidelines being relaxed on Monday. Japanese novelist and pacifist Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature, died peacefully in the early hours of March 3rd aged 88. While torches were lit in Nara prefecture for the annual 'Shuni-e' ceremony and two-week Omizutori ritual with water drawn from a well near Todaiji temple. And in Shimbashi, we focused on the sound of people enjoying the warm weather and the beginning of spring.
03/13
'Hanami' cherry blossom came early this year thanks to warmer weather. Astronaut Koichi Wakata returned from the ISS for the first time in five months. Japan's national baseball team competed in the WBC World Baseball Classics at the Tokyo Dome on the 12th anniversary of the March 2011 disaster as ministers pledged to restart idled nuclear reactors in an effort to decarbonize power production. And later this month, 10 films by the director Ishii Gakuryu played at Eurospace Shibuya celebrating Japanese cyberpunk cinema, featuring German Industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten and early appearances by the actor Tadanobu Asano.
03/10
Five were arrested for genetically modifying the Japanese killifish. Masks will no longer be required on JR East trains or 7-Eleven and FamilyMart convenience stores from March 13th. 'Hanami' parties returned to Ueno Park as the cherry blossom bloomed. Ever keen to stretch out, Notebook headed west of Shinjuku towards Shimo-Takaido on the Keio line, visiting the artist-run gallery space Goya Curtain to record a short interview with its proprietor Joel Kirkham and listen to his take on what's worth visiting.
03/08
The Tokyo stock market reached a 15-month high and domestic airlines stoked demand with cut-rate fares this spring. Meanwhile, 32% of women in Japan were said to have considered switching jobs due the gender gap at work, while one young actress accused her lawyer of being guilty of the very same thing he was fighting on her behalf: sexual harassment. And with it being International Women’s Day, films and documentaries at the National Film Archive of Japan celebrated “Women Who Made Japanese Cinema” from the Silent Era through to the 1960s.
03/06
Hiroshima's former mayor called for all G–Seven nations attending this May’s summit in city to declare a "no first use" policy for nuclear weapons. Mitsubishi signed a new deal to supply equipment for a new commuter rail network in the Philippines. And Japan’s new flagship H3 rocket was scheduled for its inaugural launch the next day. Back on Earth and Chinese restaurants have long been the source of fascination for Japanese food lovers, fueled by the phenomenon of local Japanese family-run Chinese restaurants or "machi chuka" and more recently the desire for more authentic cuisine from mainland China, from Kohakukyu and Sazenka, to Gyoza Fukuho and Asian Tuai.
03/03
The IOC announced details of its Olympic Esports Series 2023. Japan reported 13,950 new coronavirus cases as the Amadea docked in Shizuoka, the first foreign cruise ship to Japan in almost three years. In Mie prefecture, Kintetsu Railway announced it would start a service aimed at attracting cyclists from large cities, allowing them to bring their bicycles onboard. With Spring came the RE:FACTORY art fair. But this time, it shared its agenda with an exhibition across town and "The Original" at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, both longing for forms of longevity.
03/01
Japan were added to a growing G7 list of Russian sanctions. Advertising giant Dentsu, a former Olympic organizing committee exec, and others, were all charged with rigging bids for the 2021 Tokyo Games. Nissan planned to make nearly every car sold in Europe by 2026 electric, while Japan announced with would end its general testing of visitors arriving from China. And with March 1st marking the start of Women’s History Month, we took a brief look at female architects in Japan who think of "how best to create a space for collaboration."
NOTEBOOK episodes are published 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Things that don’t fit into each episode will appear here for when your visiting or thinking of visiting Japan.
We have recently been adding field recordings from different parts of the city and around the country, while interviews explore things that others might (or might not) recommend.
Should you have a question or request, send an email (notebook.podcast@gmail.com. Better still, Subscribe and add a comment below. Thanks for listening, thanks for reading, and feel free to use this space as your own NOTEBOOK.