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Kimono Sundays

 What a nice surprise. When you stopped by to say hello to Hayashi the seal-maker in Asakusa this afternoon, you find a new store has opened next door. That makes a change from places shutting down. Called Chikyuugi, or something like Earth Technique, it came about when Masataka and Chie Kato decided to take their…

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First Saturday June (Event)

 Torigoe Matsuri is one of Tokyo’s most treasured festivals, in a classic blue-collar neighbourhood. Sanja may get the mega crowds and publicity, but Torigoe is…deep. Come and see the four-ton o-mikoshi being carried through the streets. Or just stroll and take in the streetscapes, street-food and locals. Runs Saturday through Sunday. Surrounding neighbourhoods are fully involved too. Other…

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Fast Eddie

 Yes, I’m taking him for a walk. What’s that? Why, I’ve always liked turtles. About two years ago I was wondering where to get one and someone told me there’s a fellow down near the Sumida River who sells them, so I went to see him, and you know what, he said I could have…

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Colours

 Her shop is a total world, you step in and it engulfs you, carries you somewhere, maybe to your childhood, maybe someone else’s, maybe one from a book, or a dream. At Mademoiselle Yako you can pick up a dead-stock pop gun or other vintage made-in-Japan toy, a candy-coloured necklace, an unauthorised 1964 Tokyo Olympic…

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Mooncakes

 It was Dad’s idea, says the young pâtissier with a shrug. Dad said, Why don’t you name the shop after the light of the moon. And why not in French, since you have been working in France. So that’s why we called it Clair de Lune. Yoshifumi Otosaka packs your purchase into a paper bag…

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Steam Boy

 Heat is the secret to good Chinese, don’t you think, heat and the way you slice, so it all cooks just-right – and fast. One thing for sure is that Takayoshi Yao cooks just-right, and fast. In the few minutes before opening time he fills some phone orders, reeling off a couple of mabo dofu…

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Look Sharp

 See this, says Shigeru Hasegawa, shop manager at kitchen store Kama Asa. He holds out a knife and rests a ruler across it at right angles. You peer at the slight gap in between. The blade has a subtle hollow, a concave. So when you are cutting something like daikon very thinly, he says, the…

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Childlike Fascination

 Excerpted from Child’s Play, a translation of Takekurabe (たけくらべ）by Ichiyo Higuchi (1872–1896). Translated by Robert Danly Lyons, In the Shade of Spring Leaves, 1981 Yale University Press He was ready to forget what he’d been angry about. For the price of a carriage ride, he was baby-sitting again, walking round with the child on his…

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More Good Will Come

 He looks a little surprised, the gentleman in the blue suit, as well he might, because suddenly you speak to him, as he is walking on the footpath near Inaricho, as you have to share what you have seen, a strange phenomenon, and you utter the word, Rainbow, and point to the sky on this…

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Light and Warm

 Distant lanterns in the spring night air stir an odd nostalgia. Odd, because since these lanterns have only just gone up, it means a festival is coming, it’s not behind you. So, be happy!   A school-boy and -girl couple stroll under them. A cyclist passes. A week passes. You sort of forget about the…

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