Sara Harris - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 21, 2002

JAPAN BY RAIL, by Ramsey Zarifeh. Trailblazer Publications, 2002, 416 pp., $18.95/2 yen,900(paper) "Perfect timing," I thought when I picked up this guide book, barely two weeks before a trip I was planning out of Tokyo. I flipped to the index to look for my destination: Mashiko, a pottery town close enough for a day trip from Tokyo. Nothing. The only listings for its prefecture, Tochigi, were Nikko and Utsunomiya, at a scant two paragraphs each. I looked some more. No Ibaraki. Nothing in Chiba outside of the airport. In fact, only one of the last five places I'd visited outside of Tokyo was in there.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Mar 10, 2002

A picture-perfect millennium tribute

THE TALE OF GENJI: Scenes From the World's First Novel, by Murasaki Shikibu. Illustrated by Masayuki Miyata, translated by H. Mack Horton. Kodansha International, 2001, 240 pp., 3500 yen (paper) "The Tale of Genji," renowned as the world's first great novel, is now nearly 1,000 years old. The intervening centuries have not only elevated and reinforced its status as a literary paragon, they have also seen its characters and themes depicted in a multitude of pictorial arts.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jan 27, 2002

In search of a new life and identity Down Under

FAREWELL TO NIPPON: Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia, by Machiko Sato. Japanese Society Series, Trans Pacific Press, 2001, 161 pp., $29 (paper) At the turn of the millennium, the number of Japanese permanent residents in Australia surpassed 30,000, the highest figure since emigration Down Under took off some 30 years ago. These individuals, argues the author of this slim new volume, belong to a new generation of "lifestyle migrants," who move abroad for pleasure or to experience relative freedom from social restrictions, unlike their predecessors, who migrated for economic reasons. A writer and resident of Australia since 1973, Sato interviewed nearly 200 immigrants for her award-winning 1993 book "Shin kaigai teiju jidai: Osutoraria no Nihonjin," the basis for the English volume under review.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jan 6, 2002

A fresh look at a familiar subject

A SNAKE IN THE SHRINE: Journeys With Nobby Through Middle Japan, by David Geraghty. University of Otago Press, 2001, 222 pp., $29.95 (paper) Perhaps there's something about coming to Japan that brings out the writer in a person -- the peculiarities of the culture, the rarity of the experience, the seemingly unending appeal, on the "outside," of an "insider's" view of this inscrutable place. The Japan memoir -- often a young Westerner's first experience of living overseas -- has become its own genre: my year in Japan, me as a JET, me as an OL, me and Zen. Here it takes the form of a compilation of vignettes from the author's three years working at an English language school. Hesitation is the reader's first reaction. In such well-tilled ground, is there really anything new to say?

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Dec 16, 2001

Bringing young and old together

GENERATIONS IN TOUCH: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood, by Leng Leng Thang. Cornell University Press, 2001, 209 pp., paper ($39.95) As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly pressing public issue. While the cost and delivery of medical services tops the list of concerns, Japan's changing demographics require solutions to problems stemming from the social effects of the changes as well.

CULTURE / Books

Jun 10, 2001

Japan, America and women's place

THE ROAD WINDS UPHILL ALL THE WAY: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan, by Myra H. Strober and Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan. The MIT Press, 2001, $21.95. The image of Japanese women walking several steps behind their "master" husbands is alive and well in the American popular imagination. Appearing both literally and metaphorically in academic as well as popular literature, such images are responsible for the idea that Japanese women are decades behind their Western sisters in terms of rights and status.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 22, 2001

Anmitsu dishes up some hot licks

In junior high school, going to shamisen lessons was something Yuka Annaka and Kumi Kindaichi hid, even from their friends. "There was this image that it was something our grandparents did," says Kindaichi. "Other kids reacted like it was strange. I didn't talk to anybody about it all through junior high school," Annaka says.

CULTURE / Music

Dec 5, 2000

Blues for the new millennium

The new CD puts a contemporary spin on classic blues-rock. "It's a ticket to the show." That's how Canadian band leader Robin Suchy describes the newly released CD he produced with his 10-man blues band, the Howling Loochie Brothers.

LIFE / Travel

Oct 4, 2000

Step back in time to Sado Island

There is something about ferries that puts you in a frame of mind to think back in time.

CULTURE / Music

Sep 26, 2000

Aussie singer-songwriter finds an authentic musical voice

"I must admit the music I do is a bit daggy," says Tokyo-based singer-songwriter Donna Burke with a laugh, rejecting any slick, "groovy" image in favor of the old-fashioned, down-to-earth comfort the colloquial Australian term implies.

CULTURE / Music

Jul 28, 2000

The sonic dream life of global voyagers

With the recent release of their second CD, the Tokyo-based world-music trio Tatopani sums up two years of experimentation and growth. Following their 1998 release, "Forbidden Fruit," members Robert Belgrade, Andy Bevan and Christopher Hardy brought their eclectic brand of music to audiences around the country and have now documented that period in "Themes From Dreams."

CULTURE / Art

May 25, 2000

Draw the bow, ride and speak the truth

You could argue that in this age, we look to movies to preserve our traditions. But it begs the chicken and egg question: Where does the filmmaker go to authenticate the details?

CULTURE / Books

Apr 4, 2000

If Japan is under your skin, get dirt under your nails

CREATING YOUR OWN JAPANESE GARDEN, by Takashi Sawano. Tokyo: Shufunomoto Co., Ltd., 1999, 120 pp., 3,800 yen (cloth). This is the kind of book you might give to a committed Japanophile like Larry Ellison, Oracle president and CEO. While professional landscape architect Takashi Sawano does not say whether the corporate samurai spirit fits the bill, he does insist that without a studied appreciation of Japanese aesthetics, any attempt to build a Japanese garden is destined to fail from lack of soul.

JAPAN

Dec 17, 1999

Art group attempts to heal those ravaged by war

Staff writer In these days of "Pokemon" mania, who wouldn't want a personal note from Pikachu? Hector Sierra, 34, a fine arts doctoral student from Colombia, might not seem like the most likely recipient. But the filmmaker and NGO coordinator was as tickled as any kid. Arriving days before Sierra was to leave on a humanitarian mission to Kosovo for his 8-month-old organization, Artists Without Borders, the message was more than just a friendly hello. "[Pikachu] wrote that 'me and other Pokemons are very interested in helping you help the children of Kosovo and Yugoslavia'," Sierra recalled in a recent interview on his return from Yugoslavia. "'What do you need?'" Based on the offer, he was able to add 9,000 crayons -- more than 2 tons worth -- to the group's "My Friend is in Kosovo" campaign. An ongoing effort, the aim of the campaign is to collect sketchbooks, pens and other drawing supplies, as well as drawings, messages and photos from children in Japan, to donate to and to share with children in Yugoslavia. It is AWB's first project and was inspired by Sierra's work taking video footage in Belgrade and Kosovo last spring. Sierra, who is fluent in Russian, interviewed Serb, ethnic Albanian and Roma residents of Kosovo for a documentary on the conflict until he was forced to leave shortly after NATO's Balkan bombing campaign began March 24. Back in Japan, he founded AWB, which aims to bring art to the service of healing. AWB proposes that the psychological release provided by art is essential to communities victimized by conflict. "Art is no less important than food and water," Sierra says, "because art and entertainment will give people opportunity to gain catharsis." Children across Japan sent pictures and letters, often with their own photo attached, for the children overseas. They wrote kanji characters, simple introductions and messages of friendship in English. One popular theme is the image of a check, in the currency of friendship, made out to children in zones of conflict. The illustrated message assures that "The bank of Japanese children will pay 10,000 smiles." Sierra took the messages to Kosovo in September, where he estimates he worked with 1,000 children in workshops in the divided city of Mitrovica. He picked the northern city as "it would be the only place that I could find Serbs," he says. "The Serbs have been cleansed from Kosovo." In addition, he notes, "It would be the place that would allow me to work in total neutrality, on both sides of the river that divides the city." The bridge over the Ibar River, now guarded by U.N. troops from France, was, Sierra recalls, the site of often violent demonstrations on the future of the city. The ethnic Albanian community is concentrated on the southern side of the river, while Serbs, Roma camps and minority Gordanza families have settled in the north. The workshops usually lasted five days. On Day 1, he gave the donated drawing supplies as presents to the children, then had them draw "My City." The following day he brought the drawings and letters from Japan, and had the children write back. The groups spent two days making origami cranes and doves and drawing Kanji characters, such as "heiwa" (peace) and "jiyuu" (freedom). On the final day, Sierra asked the children to draw "My Ideal City." He speaks at length of the children's simple enjoyment and laughter, as well as their joy and yearning for peace. However, visiting schools in Mitrovica also showed Sierra that in many cases children "were being taught to hate." He found that speaking of neutrality and co-existence was often the most dangerous stance. And where hand signals such as the "V for peace" -- ubiquitous in snapshots in Japan -- reveal political allegiance, staying neutral in the face of questions was often his most difficult task. In Japan, the group faces a different set of problems. Despite the familiar-sounding name (a tactic the group is also using for a planned concert tour, United Colors of Kosovo), AWB has struggled to get support for its effort. Sierra says contacting other Japanese NGOs working in the region, in hope of joining forces or sharing information, was a "waste of time." AWB planned its original mission to Kosovo for August, but with only 40 kg of donations in hand by the beginning of the month, Sierra delayed his departure. He had also hoped to collect more letters from children once schools were back in session. It was slower going than he expected. AWB introduces kids to Japanese culture, while children here who send messages to their counterparts overseas "learn English, practice art and learn about the global community," Sierra says. But too often, he says, such arguments have fallen on deaf ears. "For us, Westerners, charity is something 'atarimae,' something you do naturally, but in Japan charity is a kind of taboo, it's kind of 'meiwaku.'" Yet, little by little, the group has gathered supporters -- Pikachu and others. As Sierra acknowledges, perhaps for a new organization it is simply a matter of time. AWB has 22 core members, who have come up with a seemingly endless list of projects and ideas. Works from AWB's Kosovo workshops will be displayed at a benefit concert today. The "music party" will feature a Javanese gamelan ensemble and Javanese dance, "hogaku" and jazz. The group continues to look for gallery space, not only for the children's works, but to introduce adult artists to a wider audience. Furthermore, as the first release on AWB's recording label, members have proposed a collection of lullabies and children's songs written by Japanese artists. Sierra continues to collect student contributions and has his sights set on returning to Kosovo in early 2000. He hopes to add a performance art element to a Yugoslavia tour in April with clowns and mimes and later with a Japanese drumming group. In the interim, AWB has shifted its attention to a situation closer at hand. AWB has been wrapping presents for another shipment overseas. With a mission that left Japan on Dec. 15, AWB hopes to bring a merry Christmas to East Timor. E-mail Artists Without Borders at: [email protected]

CULTURE / Music

Nov 27, 1999

Finding freedom through 'Affirmation'

The liberty and experimentation of the 1970s still hold a nostalgic place in the memory of jazz pianist and composer Tomoko Ohno. It is a period, she says, that "most people remember fondly."

CULTURE / Music

Aug 25, 1999

Drumming up interest in traditional music

Your buddy asks if you're up for a night of dancing and you're likely to think: crowded, sweaty hall, vibrating with a booming backbeat.

JAPAN

Aug 12, 1999

Japan Return students learn of war and peace

Staff writer

CULTURE / Music

Jul 20, 1999

Lotus Sutra gets rhythm on Ono's 'Gyo'

As much as it is tempting to believe the adage "like father, like daughter," sometimes a person like Toshiro Ono comes along to turn the saying on its head.

CULTURE / Music

Jun 29, 1999

Beating powerful drums of tradition

Honoo Taiko, an all-female Japanese taiko drumming troupe from Ishikawa Prefecture, is ready to set the stage ablaze July 12 as they kick off their seven-city world tour in Tokyo.

JAPAN

Aug 26, 1998

Return program serves as bridge for youths

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