Mio Yamada - The Japan Times

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Mio Yamada

A freelance arts and lifestyle editor and writer, Mio Yamada focuses on design, crafts and architecture. When she’s not visiting galleries and trade fairs, you'll find her taking photos of everything and being distracted by shiny objects. She's also surprisingly British.

For Mio Yamada's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF

Nov 26, 2010

'Catalysis for Life: New Language of Dutch Art and Design'

Museum of Contemporary

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Nov 19, 2010

Rethinking traditional urushi lacquerware

London, it appears, is a good place to learn about both past and present Japan. Last year, as Britain celebrated 150 years of cultural exchange with Japan, it hosted a number of major shows, including a large-scale matsuri (festival) in Spitalfields Market, a comprehensive exhibition of Utagawa Kuniyoshi woodblock prints at the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as a collection of ancient dogu ceramic figures at The British Museum.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Aug 20, 2010

Going back to school for alternative art

A first-time visitor to 3331 Arts Chiyoda might be equally intrigued and confused. To the left of the entrance, there's a wide open space with only tables and chairs; in the center, a small booth with shelves stuffed with toys; to the right, a stylish cafe; and, around the corner, huge photos of expressionless faces.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF

Jul 9, 2010

Science exhibition / 'Sensor in the Life'

Sony ExploraScience

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jul 2, 2010

Vernacular photography — a means to avoid an end

A woman in a corseted, white-lace dress stares straight ahead as she unveils a framed funerary portrait of another young woman. This sepia-toned 19th-century photograph is historian and curator Geoffrey Batchen's choice for the very first image of "Suspending Time: Life - Photography - Death" at the Izu Museum, in Mishima.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF

May 14, 2010

'Fear Experiment: Science in "Haunted House" '

National Museum of Emerging Science

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse

Oct 21, 2009

The right platform for selling to women on the go

Miss Metro Manners might be asking women to 'Please do it at home,' but the stationmasters are clearly saying, 'Please shop here.'

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF

Sep 18, 2009

"Showa Boys SF Guide"

Yayoi Museum Closes Sept. 27

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 28, 2009

'Hafu' focuses on whole individual

"I always found it really strange," says Natalie Maya Willer, 30, a photographer based in London, "how I thought I could spot half-Japanese people in the street. . . . Then at the same time, with me not really looking Japanese, I also wondered if there really isn't a half-Japanese look after all!"

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Nov 29, 2008

Second Harvest gets the food to those who need it

Sitting at the wheel of a 4-ton truck, Charles McJilton suddenly says, "Oh wait, wait!" before pulling off his T-shirt and swapping it for a white one with a bright orange Second Harvest Japan logo on the chest and "Food for all people" spanning his back. "It's all about branding," he jokes, as he slips the truck into gear and pulls out into the street.

CULTURE / Books

Oct 26, 2008

Memoirs of a modern-day geisha

BAR FLOWER: My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess, by Lea Jacobson. St. Martin's Press, 2008, 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth) There will never be a lack of visitors to Japan who want to share their impressions in print; and the stream of tears from confessional memoirs will never run dry. The demand for such books is obviously strong, but so is the risk of the expat/confessor sounding like a fool. To tackle both genres in one book doubles that risk. Fortunately, Lea Jacobson's gamble in "Bar Flower" pays off.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Sep 13, 2008

Anjinsai: Briton is Japanese tradition

On Aug. 10, on the eastern shore of Izu Peninsula, the usually laid-back city of Ito was showing signs of hustle and bustle. Near the beach, street stalls served traditional snacks and drinks while other vendors delighted children with goldfish, candy and brightly colored masks. Further into town, locals and visitors gathered and waited along the streets in anticipation of the city's pride and joy — the parade celebrating its annual three-day summer festival.

CULTURE / Books

May 6, 2007

In Japan, dogs 'wan,' cats 'nya' and cows 'mo'

HIRA HIRA KIRARI: Michey's Word Play, Onomatopoeia 1, 2, 3, by Mitsuko Hasse, illustrated by Haruko Nakaune, translated by Darrel Frentz. Fuzambo International, 2006, 155 pp., 2,000 yen (paper) Those familiar with The Japan Times' bilingual page will know Michey, the star of Word Play, a cartoon column focusing on the Japanese language's rich onomatopoeic vocabulary. Michey would not just snap, crackle and pop (or even "buchi, bachi" and "boko") his way through life, he would also teach readers how Japanese onomatopoeia is ingrained in culture and can describe movements, senses and even feelings. In Michey's world, a couple in love "pecha kucha" excitably, new school satchels "pika pika" brilliantly and fish on the grill goes "pun."

CULTURE / Books

Mar 25, 2007

Traveling light at heart, heavy in mind

JAPANESE FOR TRAVELLERS: A Journey Through Modern Japan, by Katie Kitamura. Penguin, 258 pp., 2006, £7.99 (paper) When Katie Kitamura's parents left Japan for the United States they left behind three different generations: Katie's cousins, her aunts and uncles, and her grandparents. In "Japanese for Travellers," Kitamura re-acquaints herself with these relatives while using milestones in Japan's modern history to highlight their generational experiences. Pride wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba's crushing defeat in 2001 to a Brazilian introduces a chapter on a drastically changing younger generation; the sarin gas attack is described before an analysis of the burst bubble economy and its consequential social decay; and the bombing of Hiroshima prefaces an account of a guilt-ridden and graying Japan.

CULTURE / Books

Sep 17, 2006

Adding some passion to our plastic world

PLASTIC CULTURE: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World, by Woodrow Phoenix. Kodansha International, 2006, 112 pp., fully illustrated, 3,150 yen (cloth). Plastic toys were once considered cheap, disposable and replaceable -- bright and cheerful mass-manufactured dolls, model cars and trinkets that needed little care and attention. No one could have imagined that somewhere along the line they would become something of value, or that anyone would happily bid hundreds of dollars on eBay for a slightly deformed, 15-cm-high action figure with a skull head and Lego-like legs.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 31, 2005

SEEING JAPAN (three-volume boxed set), by Charles Whipple, Juliet W. Carpenter, Kaori Shoji. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, approx. 90 pp. per volume, 11,400 yen (cloth). "Seeing Japan," the boxed set, presents three different visual journeys: Japan as a whole, plus the country's two famous cities of Kyoto and Tokyo.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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