Last year on 10th March I attended a concert by Joji Hirota and the London Metropolitan Orchestra at St John’s Wood Church in London (read more about that here). It was absolutely incredible and, as you can imagine, I was thrilled when I heard Joji was back this year with another ‘Beyond the Requiem’ concert … Continue reading
If you’re a regular reader of Haikugirl’s Japan you might recognise the name Hibiki Ichikawa. Hibiki Ichikawa (一川 響) is an incredibly talented London-based shamisen (traditional Japanese stringed instrument) player who seems to crop up at just about every Japanese event I attend in the UK. Born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, Hibiki started playing the … Continue reading
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Okinawa Day 2012 in Spitalfields, London. The event celebrates the culture of Okinawa Prefecture; the southernmost prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture (沖縄県) consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島 / Ryūkyū-shotō or 南西諸島 / Nansei-shotō) in a chain over 1,000 kilometres long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū (九州) (the southwesternmost of Japan’s … Continue reading
Haikugirl's Japan 