Un petit détour
The Japanese word kōgei (also as kougei) [工芸], basically translates as 'crafts', or even 'handicrafts'. In many places in the world, such products are generally considered as something lesser than...
View ArticleBack to the future
If you've been to Tokyo anytime in the past few months, you can't have missed seeing the new Tokyo Sky Tree [images | official website]. The tower is not quite finished, but is already the world's...
View ArticleSome holoalphabetisms - in Japanese
Inspired by a recent AskMe, a search for videos featuring the 'Iroha Uta' turned up a number of interesting versions. The iroha is a pangram based on the Japanese syllabary, and thus uses each of the...
View ArticleYou weren't going to eat that butter, were you?
Got a bit of free time this weekend? Have a hankering to make some art? Here's just what the doctor ordered - a (wordless) YouTube video on how to make a real lithograph on your kitchen table, using...
View ArticleHow WIDE is your love?
The Smallest Hotel in the World [autoplay of 'La Traviata']. So here's the story: it's 1728 and you live in Amberg, a little Bavarian town somewhere north of Munich. You and your lady friend really,...
View ArticleFrom 'Sage on the Stage' to 'Guide on the Side'
A radical new idea is turning schools upside down. 'Flip the Classroom' is based on a simple concept: kids watch podcast video presentations of lecture material on their own time - at home. They then...
View ArticleEight Ferraris and one Lamborghini ... in a $4 million pileup
"Flashy sports cars valued at as much as $4 million became a mangled mess in a matter of minutes on Sunday when a Ferrari leading a pack of exotic sports cars on a trip from Japan’s southern island of...
View ArticleCome and see for yourself ...
On Monday, Google released Memories for the Future, a website that allows you to "... walk the scarred coastline [after the Japanese tsunami] virtually". "... it is possible to see the full extent of...
View ArticleBattle of the Turners
In the summer of 1545, the Mary Rose, one of Henry VIII's most powerful warships, was sunk in the English Channel while preparing for battle with the French fleet. But this post is not about her, it...
View ArticleMaking a shakuhachi with (and by) feel ...
The Japanese shakuhachi (flute) is not a particularly complex device - not much more than a length of bamboo with 5 holes drilled in it. Might be kind of easy to make one, don't you think? Well at...
View Article
