Japan Navigator
Guide to Japan by Ad Blankestijn: Sake and food, Kyoto and travel, literature and art.



Fear and Trembling (Jan 6)
Fear and Trembling is the imposing, almost Biblical title of a small novel (originally published in 1999) in which Amélie Nothomb describes the experiences of a young Belgian woman who works for a year in a large Japanese office in Tokyo. The protagonist, who is also called Amélie, is a well-intentioned and eager person, who [...]


Crossfire (Jan 3)
Crossfire is a supernatural mystery novel by prolific author Miyabe Miyuki (1960). The complex story is seen through the eyes of two women. One is Aoki Junko, a “human flame thrower” - she can start fires through willpower, and she uses her “pyrokinetic powers” to avenge unsolved rape cases - a comic book premise if [...]


The No-Car Life (Jan 3)
I was pleasantly surprised to find this article, “Japan auto sales plunge as young lose interest,” on Japan Today. It is about the phenomenon of “kuruma banare,” or “demotorization“ among young people, who regard owning a car as more trouble than it’s worth. I could not agree more, as Japan certainly is the country least suited [...]


Keitai novels (Jan 3)
Dana Goodyear, poet and staff writer of The New Yorker, has an excellent piece on the phenomenon of the keitai novel - cell phone or mobile phone novels (I found the article thanks to Metanotame, which also has an interesting and lively discussion section on this subject). Keitai novels are meant to be read in [...]


Hyakunin Isshu (Jan 3)
New Year is the time for poetry card games based on the famous poetry collection Hyakunin Isshu or “One hundred poets one poem each.” See my previous article about this subject. I have also written about visits to locations associated with these poems in Kyoto. Here is another poem from the collection, situated in the [...]


Practical advice for New Year in Japan (Jan 2)
Here is some practical advice I followed this year with New Year in Japan to make life more pleasant (comparable to my advice to stay indoors at midnight on New Year’s Eve when you are in Europe, as private fireworks (worth 65 million euro in Holland alone) will be blasted in your face): Don’t watch television [...]


Legends of Tono (Jan 2)
It is almost 100 years ago that Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962) wrote his famous “Legends of Tono” (Tono Monogatari) and to celebrate this the 1975 translation by Ronald A. Morse has now been republished in a beautiful expanded version. It is an excellent translation that captures the terseness and realism of the original. In addition, there [...]


New Year links (Jan 2)
In the first place: a very Happy New Year to all readers! I hope the Year of the Cow will be a bullish year for you! Start the New Year with sake and mochi! Five Ways to have a Japanese New year anywhere in the world (Tokyo Mango). Japanese food is going global, not only as expensive “health [...]


Japan on the web (Dec 20)
Japan Inc has a fun article about how to eat your way around Kyoto for a full day. I miss sake here! The National Diet Library has an English section on its website with for example a fine chapter called The Meiji and Taisho Areas in Photographs. In the “Column” section you will find elaborate descriptions [...]


Aoki Yuji and The Way of Naniwa Finance (Dec 19)
If you want to know why you should never borrow money in Japan from a “loan shark” company, or if you want to know all the tricks of this dirty trade, then read the popular manga The Way of Naniwa Finance (Naniwa Kin’yudo). These comics form a powerful exploration of the dark side of society, [...]


Japanese Book News (Dec 19)
For those interested in Japanese literature, the Japan Foundation publishes an excellent quarterly called Japanese Book News. The most recent issue is 58 (December 2008); since issue 43 all magazines are published on the web as PDFs. For some good reading ideas go to the Japan Foundation Website and click on Japanese Book News. Issue 58 [...]


From the web on Japan (Dec 18)
Pink Tentacle wrote this must-read article about the top 60 popular words and phrases in Japan in 2008. An indispensable lesson in trendy Japanese. The Kanji of the Year 2008 is HEN, which means both “Change” and “Strange” - fitting, isn’t it? The author of the above-mentioned article, Matt Treyvaud, is a frequent contributor to NeoJaponisme, but [...]


Arashiyama versus Kiyomizu (Nov 30)
For 21 years now, the Kiyomizu Temple area has stood at the popularity pinnacle of Kyoto’s tourist destinations. But runner-up Arashiyama is coming closer, as the Kyoto Shinbun reports. This year has seen a surge in popularity of Kyoto’s western outskirts thanks to the extension of the Tozai subway line to Uzumasa-Tenjingawa, which makes a [...]


Japanese culture on the web (Oct 31)
This brief History of Japan’s culture of techno-toilets from CSMonitor.com is a useful summary of the subject. If the level of sanitary fixtures is an indication of the cultural level of a given country, Japan has jumped the scales since the days of hole-in-the-floor facilities and now s(h)its at a lonely peak. [Via NewsonJapan] Our blogging [...]


Names of Sea fish in Japanese (4) (Oct 29)
Hamo. Daggertooth pike conger (Muraenesox cinereus). (Fishbase). Also called “pike eel.” Scary-looking, 2 meter long eel. It has a deep ripped mouth with sharp teeth at the upper and lower parts of the jaw, and a fierce nature. Inhabits soft bottoms, also found in estuaries.  Feeds on small bottom fishes and crustaceans. In [...]