Yesterday I travelled up to London for the first ever Festival Asia. Billed as ‘London’s largest indoor festival on all things Asia’, it sounded like it would be right up my street. The 3-day festival was held in London’s Tobacco Dock, which is not a venue I had ever been to before. It’s a little out … Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago I went to see Yamato, a taiko (太鼓) troupe from Japan, perform at the Hippodrome in Bristol. I’ve seen lots of taiko performances before, and I think I’ve seen Yamato perform once before in London, but I’m always excited to see another taiko performance. The show was great! They are … Continue reading
Last Saturday I spent the day in London at the Japan Matsuri – London’s annual event celebrating Japanese culture. The event has grown over the few years that I’ve known it, and is now in its fifth consecutive year. For the second year running the event was held in Trafalgar Square. I admit I was … Continue reading
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
On Saturday 6th October Trafalgar Square in London was taken over by Japanese culture for the annual Japan Matsuri. Each year the venue has changed, starting at Spitalfields in 2010 and moving to County Hall last year (see my post about last year’s festival), and I wasn’t sure if the new larger venue would work, … Continue reading
Next Saturday, 6th October, Japanese culture will once again take over central London, as the Japan Matsuri arrives in Trafalgar Square. The festival will kick off at 11am with a formal opening by His Excellency Mr Keiichi Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan in the UK, and The Chairman of the Japan Matsuri Committee, Mr Keisaku Sano. Entertainment … Continue reading
As I said in my last post, there’s an awful lot going on in London at the moment. Right now there are two Japanese festivals happening at the same time. On Thursday last week I attended Japan Festival 2012, which you can read about here, and on Saturday I went along to Arigato in London. … Continue reading
There’s so much going on in London at the moment, and with not one by TWO Japanese culture festivals happening right now I was spoilt for choice. Japan Festival 2012 started on Wednesday 25th July and continues until Tuesday 7th August, at Broadgate Circle, near Liverpool Street Station. I popped along on Thursday after work … Continue reading
When I went to the Brighton Japan Festival last year (weekend 1 & weekend 2) I had only recently returned from Japan and was dying for a hit of Japanese culture. I had been living in Bognor Regis where the only way to get a taste of Japan is to buy sushi from Tesco (yuck!) … Continue reading
Last week’s post was about kamishibai (かみしばい/ 紙芝居), so this week I need to start with い (i). I decided to write about… Iwate (いわて/ 岩手) (Map: Google) Iwate Prefecture (Iwate-ken / 岩手県) is located in the Tohoku region of Honshu (the main island of Japan), and the capital city is Morioka (Morioka-shi / 盛岡市). I’ve never been … Continue reading
Haikugirl's Japan 