“If you must blink, do it now…” What an opening line! I was captivated from the moment the film started, and Kubo & The Two Strings is without a doubt the best animated film I’ve seen this year, and in a long time. Kubo & The Two Strings is not a Japanese film, it’s an … Continue reading
A few weeks ago Bristol saw another fantastic Upfest street art festival take place. Upfest is Europe’s largest free street art and graffiti festival, and the event sees artists travelling from all over the world to take part. There was lots of great artwork there, but today I’d like to highlight a few Japan-inspired pieces … Continue reading
Whilst I was in London recently I popped in to see my old colleagues at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and was invited in to see the latest exhibition: Unexpected Stories by Umi Kumano (熊野海). Umi Kumano is a Japanese artist from Fukui, who currently lives in Berlin as a guest student at the Berlin University of … Continue reading
I’m incredibly proud to say that InsideJapan Tours, the travel company I work for, has recently released a stunning interactive website which allows you to explore the wonderful country of Japan, and here it is… Step Inside Japan! Step Inside Japan encourages the user to ‘explore’ Japan by scrolling across the country and clicking on … Continue reading
Can I just start this post by saying I adore Kurashiki (倉敷)! Kurashiki is somewhere I had wanted to go for quite a long time, and I was so please to have the chance to squeeze it in to my holiday last year. I visited as a day trip between a night in Okayama and … Continue reading
With Smiling Sushi Roll lunch can resemble great works of art, like Munch’s “The Scream,” and Rodin’s “The Thinker.” In this unique and humorous sushi book, illustrator and maki artist Tama-chan (Takayo Kiyota) shows how basic ingredients like rice, seaweed, pickles, and cucumber can be used like paint and ink to create maki that is … Continue reading
Somehow it’s May, and I’m still writing about December! It was Friday 11th December when I arrived in Matsuyama (松山) in Ehime Prefecture (愛媛県). I was excited to be there, and excited to finally be having a two night stay in my busy trip where I had been hopping from one destination to another. Matsuyama … Continue reading
I recently had the pleasure of receiving some sample copies of one of Seigensha Art Publishing‘s latest offerings: 360° BOOK. These two books, Mount Fuji (富士山) and Snow White (白雪姫), are really fun, beautiful books, and they would make great gifts. Seigensha say of this series: The 360° BOOK is a new revolutionary format that enables the … Continue reading
Wednesday 9th December was to be one of the absolute highlights of my trip to Japan. Naoshima (直島), the ‘art island’ in the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海) is now one of my favourite places in Japan, without a doubt. It’s gorgeous. I arrived on the island fairly early having taken the ferry from Takamatsu, and took … Continue reading
Ever since watching the Grand Designs episode about the Japanese-style house in Monmouthshire, east Wales (and possibly for a long time before that), I’ve dreamt of having my own, beautifully designed Japanese house here in the UK. (I’ve just discovered that this property is actually available to rent for holidays now and have started dreaming … Continue reading
Haikugirl's Japan 