TOKYO NOTICE BOARD

Plain Talk

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JULY 23. 2021

Natto, a stinky Japanese superfood by Olivia

Fermented soybeans are a staple in any Japanese home. Well, almost. According to the survey conducted in 2017 by @nifty, about 13% of Japanese dislike natto (8% of them actually hate it).

When I first came to Japan, I couldn’t agree more. I didn’t care about the distinctive smell or consistency, but I wasn’t taught to properly eat natto. So, I just ate it without mixing or adding the sauce! After such experiments, my stomach complained very, very loudly. Each time I tried to eat natto, I had a stomach ache. So, after finishing my 3-pack set, I threw in the towel and stopped trying. Until my husband taught me how to properly eat natto. It was 3 or 4 years later. I ate natto, but I wasn’t too excited about it. Fast forward another 4 years, and a miracle happened! We went to Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture, an area famous for its fermented soybeans. I instantly fell in love with natto there. The thing is, in Mito it was so fresh and plump! Instead of smaller-sized soybeans, we accidentally bought a pack with huge ones. Although it is a matter of taste, I loved them.

Natto became deeply rooted in the lives of Mito citizens. It is an ingredient for pot stickers (gyoza), Japanese omelet (omuraisu), natto tempura, and as a topping for almost anything. It is truly a natto paradise!

But what is so good about fermented soybeans, except for the taste? It is considered to be a Japanese superfood. It is particularly good for blow circulation and to reduce the risk of a stroke. Like all fermented foods, it contains probiotics that work wonders with digestion, gut health and relieve constipation. Maybe you won’t even need that big mug of coffee in the morning! Some even say that natto consumption makes you look younger and prevents osteoporosis.

Are you a natto fan yet? I am now.

発酵した大豆は、日本の家庭では欠かせない。まあ、たいていの家庭ではそうだ。２０１７年に＠niftyが行った調査によると、日本人の約１３％が納豆を好きでない。（実際に嫌いな人は８％）。

私が日本に来たばかりの頃は、まったく大賛成の食べ物だった。独特の匂いや粘り気は気にならなかったが、納豆の正しい食べ方を知らなかった。だから、混ぜたり醤油ををさしたりせず、そのまま食べていた。そんな風に食べていたら、お腹の調子が非常に悪くなってきた。納豆を食べようとすると、毎回お腹が痛くなってしまうのだった。それで、3パックセットを食べ終わった後、私は降参し納豆に挑戦することを止めた。それから３、４年たってから、主人に納豆の正しい食べ方を教えてもらった。納豆を食べていたが、あまりおいしいものとも思わなかった。それからさらに４年経ち、奇跡が起き！私たちは納豆で有名な茨城県の水戸に行った。水戸の納豆があまりに新鮮でふっくらしていたので、私はたちまち納豆が大好きになった。小さめの大豆ではなく、間違って大きな大豆が入ったパックを買ってしまったのです。好みの問題もあるが、私はこれが気に入った。

納豆は水戸市民の生活に深く根付いている。ポットステッカー（餃子）、オムライス、納豆天ぷらの具材として、そして何の料理にもトッピングできる。まさに納豆パラダイスだ。

しかし、味覚以外に納豆の何がそんなにいいのだろうか？　日本のスーパーフードとも言われている。特に血行を良くし、脳卒中のリスクを軽減する効果がある。他の発酵食品と同様、プロバイオティクスが含まれており、消化や腸の健康、便秘の解消に効果がある。もしかしたら、朝、大きなマグカップに入ったコーヒーも必要なくなるかもしれない。納豆を食べると若返る、骨粗しょう症にならない、という説もある。

あなたはもう納豆ファン？　今では、私は納豆ファンだ。

Plain Talk

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD TNB Throwback: JULY 22. 2016

Fuji Goko Five Lakes, just two-hour drive from Tokyo 1 by Hiroko

This past Golden Week in May my husband and I went on a camping trip to Motosuko Lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture. I had never camped out except when we rented a small tent on Kozu Island in Tokyo for two nights. This time, we were equipped with a larger tent and screened shelter as well as folding chairs, and planned to stay there for four nights. Borrowing the camping gear and their car from my sister’s, off we drove heading west.

The weather was not perfect for camping, though. It was heavily clouded when we left Tokyo slightly after 4 am to avoid the expected heavy traffic. Later it started drizzling. Fuji-san was nowhere to be seen. By the time we got to Motosuko Campground, with a little excitement at the sight of the grey, quiet lake, it was raining steadily. But first we had to find space to pitch our tent. It was the biggest concern I had all the way if we could find space at all. Obon is the highest of the high season. We came to Motosuko Campground because it operates on first come, first served basis, without reservation. By the time I called some other campgrounds, they had been all booked out for obon. I was mentally prepared for what could take on the look of a “refugee camp” according to some blogs I had checked out.

We walked along the wet dirt path with puddles through treed area, colourful with pitched tents. It was still well before 7 am and campers seemed to be slow on the rainy morning. Luckily we found a spot off the track and against the forest. Neighbouring tents were spaced generously from one another. We decided to pitch our tent there, but first we took a nap in the parked car to wait the rain out. I hovered between wakefulness and slumber, listening to the rain drops on the car roof.

An hour or so later, the rain lightened and the sun came back occasionally. We found the spot lovely when the grassed ground dappled with pools of the sunlight through the trees. When we almost finished setting the place, two caretakers of the campground came to collect the charge, and we received cards with dates on strings.

On the first day, it drizzled off and on all day, and everything felt damp inside the tent. The lake was five minutes’ walk along the dirt track. It was interesting to see how people were well equipped with tables and benches, hammocks, lanterns, cooking stoves, volleyballs, dogs, even rabbits. They could live there perfectly comfortably, I thought.

We didn’t have anything like that; we didn’t, even a cooker. We had canned food, boiled eggs, fruits, some vegetables, breads, crackers, energy bars, jars of honey and jam, 2 liter bottles of water and some mugicha tea bags. We regretted a lot that we left cheese in the fridge at home. (To be continued)

Unfinished business

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD MAY 17. 2019

Farewell to a Japan Jazz Icon by David Gregory

The messages from all over Japan read aloud during the service helped us realize how widely Koyama-san touched lives and how many like us were feeling something newly missing from our worlds. But, although wonderful and sometimes saddening us, they did not trigger crying. That happened next.

Those first few notes of the "'Round About Midnight" Miles Davis version, the cut Koyama-san always used to open Jazz Tonight, performed by a live piano and trumpet duo up front near the coffin, did it: Instant recognition, recollections, sighs around the room, eyes closed, arms crossed, heads dropped back or down, and tears, at least for me. How many times had we heard, after Miles breathed his somber opening, Koyama-san's low, raspy voice welcoming us into the studio with, "Minna-san, gokigen ikaga desho-ka everybody, how are you feeling?"?and never thought that someday we would hear him ask about us no more?

Koyama-san's widow, whom, like him, had never known me, stood alone at the coffin head and bowed in silence to everyone in turn after they placed flowers around his body as the duo continued with another slow number, the trumpet sounding so strong and crisp and unusual in a memorial service hall. After we placed our flowers, she responded to my hand on her shoulder, a touch just meant to console her, by immediately turning and reaching for me?a total stranger?burying her head in my chest, and breaking down. She needed that hug that everybody sometimes needs. She let go after her respite when she was ready to face the coffin and everyone else again, and returned to her position. Going to Kashiwa in a snowstorm was worth it just for those few moments when I could do something for her.

So our Kashiwa day was both sad and good. But, why did I even want to go a funeral for a man whom I only knew by voice, and who, although linked to jazz, was not even a musician?

Koyama-san and his Jazz Tonight program I listened to since at least the early 2000s. For more than sixteen years, while my life in Japan has been filled with huge uncertainties, he has been here Saturday nights on the radio, reliable, keeping me connected to the world's music and opening my ears to music from Japan I would not know without him. Listening to him always made me feel good, no matter what had happened in my life during the week or what was coming up in the weeks ahead. Koyama-san and Jazz Tonight were my respite. How well can I replace that comfort?

Koyama-san, thank you for helping this foreigner feel good in Japan. Please rest well in jazz heaven.

NHK Radio, thank you for giving Koyama-san a way to connect with us. Please encourage other DJs to continue doing what he did so well.

To Koyama-san's surviving family members: Please care well for yourselves now, and thank you for supporting and sharing Kiyoshi with us.

The Smallest Box by David Gregory

She came over to my table and asked if I remembered her.
“That’s my boyfriend over there.”
Their table hugged a pillar blocking the sunny Tokyo Bay view enjoyed by the other customers that afternoon in Chiba’s AquaRink ice skating facility café.
“Maybe we will marry next year.”

On my way out, I stopped to congratulate the potential groom to be. What I later heard happened with Hiromi and Hiroshi that night at another place also close to the bay sounded so too good to be true that I visited that place to confirm it really happened. It did.

Hiroshi had reserved for the course menu that night at OCEAN TABLE, next to Chiba Port, on the second floor, where tables sat by the huge windows facing Chiba Port Tower and Tokyo Bay. No view-blocking pillars there. And they had a wait, even with their reservation, because it was Christmas Eve, which in Japan matters much more than the following day; the Eve is the year’s couples’ night out, and single women without dates that night can feel their whole year was wasted.

Hiroshi had changed into a suit after skating, and had urged Hiromi, against her protests about overdressing, into a plaid one-piece, raising expectations. They had never come to a place this nice, one requiring reservations. Saizeriya was more their speed: fast faux-Italian, cheap, and everywhere.
The unexpected wait made Hiroshi antsy. He relaxed and all was perfect after they were seated.

They talked. They ate the Christmas Dinner courses. They ignored the soft Christmas background music. They admired the gleaming, golden Christmas Tree rising from the first-floor buffet area through the open center space across from their table. They could see outside the sparkling flashes and half the tree in Port Tower’s Christmas Illumination, and beyond, the lights from the ships on and facilities around Tokyo Bay, appearing almost twinkling. Perfect—but not for Hiromi.

She went to the toilet. Still he had not asked. The day was done. The reservation system only allowed them two hours there. They had been together all day. He had remembered her birthday-just by coincidence, also that day-with a necklace at AquaRink. Nice, but was that all? He had pestered her since early December about what Christmas present she wanted until she had finally exploded with, “Nothing! Don’t you know I just want a proposal?!” And had added she wanted it to be a surprise. Here he had the perfect chance, and he was wasting it.

She could try enjoying what was left of the evening. Dessert was next. At least here was better than Saizeriya….She was still stuck when she returned to the table, and had no chance to do or say anything, anyway. It was his toilet turn.

Their desserts came. Hiromi sat and waited and pondered the future. Outside, the tower stood alone against the dark sky and Tokyo Bay’s inky darkness.

Their desserts waited. Maybe his tooth was bothering him again. Maybe he was just tolerating it to make the night go well. Maybe for her. Maybe she should go to check on him. Wait-maybe she just heard his voice across the room.

No, only Santa Claus, posing for photographs with diners at the far table. He then started circling the room, giving a small present from his big sack at each table. She could check after he was done.

Hiroshi still had not returned to his seat when Santa reached their table. He handed Hiromi a big, red stocking, by far the room’s largest gift, accompanied by a squeaky, “Atari! You’re a lucky one!” Yeah. She set it aside and Santa moved on. What was he still doing in the toilet?

Santa finished his round, returned to Hiromi, and pointed at her unopened stocking with squeaky, “Un! Un!” grunts. The other diners had opened their presents. She forced a smile and said she was waiting for her boyfriend to return. “Un! Un!”

When Hiromi still resisted, Santa took the stocking in his white-gloved hands and opened it himself. Out first came a big, pink box, heart shaped. He opened that and pulled out another heart-shaped box, and then, from inside that, another heart-shaped box. Another smaller, heart-shaped box followed. He removed from that an even smaller heart-shaped box, and thrust it to Hiromi with one more squeaky, “Un!”

Still gone. Well, he’d miss it. Hiromi obeyed Santa this time and opened it, the smallest box in the room …and her mind and face went blank.

After that frozen moment passed, Hiromi looked at Santa. The second shock hit, and more followed. Santa Claus had ripped off his gloves, furry hat, sunglasses, and huge, flowing beard. He took the box from her?she was still speechless?dropped onto one knee, held the open box out and up to her in both stretching hands, and said in a voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, “Hiromi-san, boku-to kekkon shite kudasai! Hiromi, please marry me!”

Outside, to anybody looking, Port Tower’s Christmas Illumination still flashed, and the lights on and around Tokyo Bay still appeared almost twinkling. Inside OCEAN TABLE, on the second floor, everything was happening so fast that Hiromi just did not know which was more difficult to believe: Hiroshi and the ring he first tried slipping onto the finger on her right hand, the one he had taken in his before she held out her left hand, or the following PAN! and PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! and PAN! PAN! and PAN! explosions ripping and ribbons shooting around the room as diners at the floor’s other tables popped the party crackers they had found with the notes in their presents from Santa Claus.

I Did It! by David Gregory

She had been here before. But, those were tour-guided or hand-held visits. After living most of her life in white-bread suburban USA, driving everywhere, shopping in giant malls and supermarkets, and needing only one currency and one language, my mother ventured out on her own, within and beyond Chiba, during one trip to Japan. From her notes, here are Dorothy's...

ADVENTURES IN JAPAN
Grocery Shopping in Neighborhood―Walk five blocks...buy only one bag...walk five blocks back. Survived it!

Shopping in City Center―Walk six blocks to bus stop. Ride bus fifteen minutes. Arrive at stores. Walk around. Look. Decide: cookies.

Buying: “Ikura desu-ka how much?” Hmm. “Kakimasu kudasai write please.”

Paying options: give large bill, let clerk figure change, or open change purse, let clerk take out correct amount. Decide to just give some cash.

Clerk shakes her head (“NO! MORE!”), then counts out correct amount needed from register and shows me. I mimic her action from my change purse. Smiles! Deep bows with many, “Arigato gozaimasu thank you very much!”-es.
(My error: thought there was decimal point in Yen price....)

Open cookies, expecting pirouettes with chocolate centers. Instead, peanut butter waffle rolls, no chocolate. No wonder, now I see peanut sketch on package. “Shoganai can’t be changed,” I did it to myself. It could have been worse!
~~~
Travelling to Visit Friend’s Family on Other Side of Chiba―Walk ten blocks to train. Purchase ticket. Electronic lady on ticket machine screen says, “Arigato gozaimasu” and bows. Ride train twenty minutes, watching for correct stop, get off, walk seven blocks to house. I did it myself!

Visiting Hisae Overnight―My Japanese study partner in USA returned to Japan, now lives on other side of Tokyo Bay.

Take large purse and large tote bag with jacket, nightie, toothbrush, cosmetics. Walk six blocks to bus stop. Ride bus to train station. Ride train eighty minutes to Yokohama. Find correct exit from station. EASY. Did not even look at note in pocket explaining route and Japanese signs. And, look! Hisae and three-year old Kei are waiting! “Hello!” they say! Many hugs!

I did it!

Then, still more travel: train together fifteen minutes, short taxi uphill to lovely apartment, sunny and bright.

Returning to Chiba, just reverse process. Next time, we can meet at a station halfway in between. I can do it.
I can do it!

Book Review

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD MAY 11 2018

Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami by Rey Ventura
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014,
291 pp, USD34.00 www.ateneo.edu/ateneopress

Reviewed by Randy Swank

video maker and scriptwriter Rey Ventura won the 2015 National Book Award for his third collection of essays, Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami, but for some strange twist of fate you will find very little information on this book. You can’t even buy it on Amazon. This is a shame because Cherry Blossoms... is a beautiful, insightful and thought-provoking book.

These 11 essays, some of them autobiographical, see Ventura travelling back and forth between the Philippines and Japan, his adopted country, often portraying the many ways Filipino lives have been shaped and affected by their rich quasi-neighbor. Like in "A Suitable Donor," where the young men who live in the Manila slum of Banseco tell of how they came to "donate" a kidney or another organ to help a rich person in need － often from Japan.

Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami
by Rey Ventura
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014, 291 pp, USD34.00 www.ateneo.edu/ateneopress

In "Miniskirts and Stilettos" we meet Ginto, a young lady who comes to Japan dreaming of making it big as a singer and entertainer but has to deal instead with a much darker reality; while "Mr. Suzuki Tries Again" and "Into the Snow Country" are tragicomic tales of arranged marriages where the dreams and expectations of bride-starved farmers from Japan's Deep North clash with those of young Filipino women who want to escape their poverty and go into marriage "as a girl goes into a convent." Ventura tells these stories with a great eye for detail and manages to find a ray of light even in the darkest corners, or poetry in the midst of a nuclear disaster.

The book's first essay is called "The Slow Boat to Manila" and indeed, slowness is the first word that comes to mind when considering Ventura's approach to writing. Everything Ventura does is slow. He is no magazine reporter after all, and will spend days or even months getting to know a person he wants to write about. That's the kind of personal commitment and deep connection with his subject that one feels when reading his essays.

Tokyo Fab
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JUNE 25. 2021

Senshu Beach Lantern Fest

Experience one of the most magical moments as you watch hundreds of Sky Lanterns fly through the sky. Sky Lanterns, a small hot air balloon made of paper lit with a small fire from inside, carry people's wishes and dreams and float away into the sky. In Japan, lanterns are believed to light the passage and to dispel evil spirits. In this COVID crisis, now more than ever, these lanterns could illuminate the dark time with people’s prayers for the COVID-free world.
Sennan Long Park is a beach park and you can see sky lanterns floating over the sea and its water reflecting the light creating a breathtaking and glorious scene. Let the hundreds of glowing lanterns add to the beauty of the moment of celebrating your life.

Date：July 3rd (Sat), 4th (Sun) and 7th (Wed)
Venue: Sennan Long Park in Osaka

https://www.senshu-beachlantern.com/

Tanabata (The Star Festival)

Tanabata (the Star Festival) is a Japanese summer festival involving the story of the deities Princess Orihime and Hikoboshi, represented by the stars Vega and Altair, which are prominent in the summer sky. The two lovers are separated by the Milky Way and are allowed to see each other once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunisolar calendar as long as the skies are clear. Tanabata is celebrated nationwide to commemorate the romantic story of two lovers.
Make a wish and write it down on colorful paper to tie it to a bamboo tree, learn the folktale and constellation watching twinkling stars at the planetarium as you don't have to worry about the weather!

Date：July 4th (Sun)
Venue: Fuchu City Local Forest Museum (Fuchu-hommachi Sta.)

http://www.fuchu-cpf.or.jp/museum/1000077/1003702.html

What’s App With You?

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JULY 23. 2021

YouTube TV:

Start a Free Trial to watch Tokyo Olympics! Watch cable-free live TV. While some video streaming services primarily feature on-demand or original content, others can completely replace your cable subscription. YouTube TV takes the latter approach, offering over 80 channels of news, sports, and entertainment in one package. It also integrates excellent DVR features and supports a ton of platforms. A new 4K Plus add-on pushes its capabilities further by adding 4K streaming, the ability to download DVR recordings for offline viewing, and support for an unlimited number of simultaneous streams on your home network. Despite its high (and ever-increasing) monthly cost, the service still offers one of the best combinations of channels and streaming specs.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock:

NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock, will stream all major events like gymnastics, basketball, and track and field. Peacock is an American over-the-top video streaming service owned and operated by the Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The service primarily shows content from NBCUniversal studios and other third-party content providers, including television series, films, news, and sports programming. Peacock Free offers live coverage of the games, but you will have to watch commercials on this tier, while premium tiers include a larger content library and access to additional NBC Sports and WWE Network content.

Tokyo Voice Column

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD TNB Throwback: JUly 22. 2016

Travel to Tokyo by Vera Krisnawati

Last week, I went to Tokyo with my cousin. We wanted to explore the city thoroughly, so we went to several places such as department store, restaurant, government building and subway station. Japanese Railways was so efficient and we could save a lot of time to travel everywhere.

First destination was Shibuya, a southwestern Tokyo area with many awesome places around. Stores, restaurants, tourists and entertainment places exist in Shibuya. I also took a picture at Hachiko statue and we visited Tokyu Hand department store. But the most amazing part about Shibuya that this is the most crowded crossing in the world, called Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It’s the most busiest and hectic crossing in the world. Then, after from Shibuya, we went to Harajuku using Yamanote Line. Harajuku is famous because of Takeshita street with lot of street vendors, we can purchase anything without need to enter the store. Harajuku station was also very authentic because the building looks like an ancient European style. The third destination for our journey was Shinjuku. Shinjuku filled with sky-scraper buildings makes Tokyo the modernist city ever. We went to the government building and lifted up to floor 45th to watched Tokyo from the highest point of the building. There was no ticket for entering the building, alias free. At the same time, there was an exhibition that introducing many kinds of cultures from each prefecture in Japan. It was very interesting because they offered so many traditional foods and lots of brochures given away to the visitor. The last destination was Akihabara and would be the climax of our adventure of the day. Akihabara presenting so many anime features started from the gift shops, theater, cafe´ and restaurant, electronic stores, and people who wore costume like character in Japanese comic book or Manga called Cosplay. Lucky for me that I was buying a digital camera for only ￥9000, compare to other places that sell above ￥10.000 for a new camera. It was absolutely affordable in my opinion.

Overall, my trip was amazing because I have the opportunity to visit Tokyo with the famous places inside. Hopefully it will not be my last trip ?

先週、従兄弟と東京に行った。街を散策したくて、デパート、レストラン、政府関連の建物や地下鉄の駅等、様々は場所に出かけた。JRは快適でどこにいくにも時間のロスなく行けた。

最初の目的地は渋谷。東京の南西部にあって、渋谷には店、レストラン、観光施設や映画館、劇場等がいっぱいあって最高な場所だ。ハチ公の銅像で写真をとって、東急ハンズに行った。渋谷でもっとも目を見張る場所は、渋谷スクランブル交差点と呼ばれる世界でも大勢の人で混み合った交差点だ。渋谷の後、山手線に乗って原宿へと行った。道沿いに小売りの店が並ぶ竹下通りはとても有名だ。店に入ることなく商品が買える。原宿駅は古いヨーロッパの建物のようですばらしかった。３番目に目的地は新宿だった。新宿は高層ビルが建て並び近代的な街だった。都庁に行って４５階まで上がり建物の上階から東京を眺めた。無料だった。そのうえ、日本の都道府県の名産を紹介する展示コーナーがあった。さまざまな名産品がありとても興味深かった。まだ無料のパンフレットがたくさんあった。最後の目的地は秋葉原でその日の旅を締めくくった。秋葉原にはアニメに関連する商品、博物館、カフェ、レストラン、電気店がいっぱいあった。日本のコミックやマンガに出てくるキャラクターのコスチュームを身にまとった「コスプレ」の人が大勢いた。幸運なことに９０００円でデジタルカメラが買えた。普通では１万円で売られているものだ。自分にとってお買い得商品だった。

とても満足のいく旅だった。東京の有名所を観光できてとてもよかった。ぜひまた行きたい。

MUSEUM -What's Going on?-

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JUNE 25. 2021

Fashion in Japan 1945-2020

The World’s First Major Exhibition of Postwar Japanese Fashion from Monpe Work Pants to the Sustainability! Japanese fashion designers began gaining worldwide acclaim in the 1970s. Until now, Japanese fashion has been discussed as if it suddenly came out of nowhere with the emergence of these designers, but this is not the case. After Japan began modernizing, dressmaking and tailoring were introduced in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and became widely popular after World War II, and Japan developed its own unique sartorial culture.

This exhibition follows the unique trajectory of Japanese clothing, especially in post-World War II Japan, as seen from both sides: that of designers who transmit culture by creating clothes and ideas, and that of users who receive it by wearing the clothes and at times create era-defining grassroots fashion movements. It offers a comprehensive overview that references the predominant media of each era, such as newspapers, magazines, and advertisements.�
This is the world’s first large-scale exhibition to unravel the varied threads of modern Japanese fashion history, from the dawn of Westernstyle fashion in Japan to the latest avant-garde trends, while providing social and historical context.

Period: - September 6 (Mon), 2021
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Hours: 10:00-18:00 / -20:00 on Fridays & Saturdays
(last admission 30 minutes before? closing)
Closed: Tuesdays
Admission: General: ￥1,700 / University and college students: ￥1.200 / High school students: ￥800

For more information, please visit

https://fij2020.jp/

Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging
- 16 Women Artists from around the World

Recent years have witnessed growing moves worldwide to right inequalities around aspects of identity such as gender, race, ethnicity, and beliefs, and attach greater value to diversity. Also in contemporary art for the past decade or so, attention has turned increasingly to female artists who began their contemporary art careers between the 1950s and 1970s and continue to stay active as artists today.
Another Energy focuses on 16 of these female artists in their 70s or older, from across the globe, who continue to embark on new challenges. Ranging in ages 71-105 with their careers spanning over 50 years, they are originally from 14 different countries, and equally diverse in their current locations. Nonetheless, what these women share regardless of recognition or evaluation by art museums and the art market is a determination to pursue their own distinctive creative paths in turbulent environment and times.

Miriam Cahn o.t. (untitled) December 29th, 1999
Oil on canvas 28.3 x 21.3 cm
OKETA COLLECTION, Tokyo

Showcasing their wide array of powerful works from paintings, video, sculptures, to large-scale installations and performances, about 130 works to total, this exhibition contemplates the nature of the special strength or what one may call the driving force - “another energy” - of these artists. Amid the unprecedented condition of the world, perhaps the sight of 16 artists, who all have spent their lives walking their own paths with such immovable conviction, may offer us just the strength to tackle the ongoing challenges and to face the future with resilience and determination.

Period: - September 26 (Sun), 2021
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Hours: 10:00-22:00 / -17:00 on Tuesdays (last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (*If Monday is a national holiday, Monday will be opened and Tuesday will be closed. )
Admission: Weekdays (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays): Adults: ￥2,000 (￥2,200) / University and High school students: ￥1.300 (￥1,400) / (Age 4 through Junior High School Students) : ￥700 (￥800) *Advance booking is recommended

For more information, please visit

https://www.mori.art.museum/en/

Strange but True

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JULY 23. 2021

A Million Dollar Questions

Back in the year 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute announced the “Millennium Prize problems”, which is basically a group of the most important maths problems that still remain unsolved. The problems were selected by a 'scientific advisory board’ with the criteria for selection being "a classical problem that has resisted solution for many years”. They are proving to be difficult to solve and they were chosen precisely for that reason. However, this does not mean they cannot be solved. The institute offers an incredible $1 million prize to any maths fanatic who thinks they’ve got what it takes to solve the problem and bag the cash - as long as their solution is peer-reviewed and of course, rigorous.
So, let’s take a look at the six all important maths equations that are worth the huge cash sum.
The Navier-Stokes equations
This equation basically governs the flow of fluids, like water and air. There’s basically no proof of an equation for some pretty basic questions like “do solutions exist?” and “are they unique?”.
Yang-Mills and Mass Gap
Long story short, experiments and computer simulations apparently suggest the existence of a “mass gap”. The quantum particles have positive masses even though the classic waves travel at the speed of light.
The Riemann Hypothesis
Without getting too technical, The Riemann Hypothesis is a conclusion that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative, even integers and complex numbers with real part 1/2 .
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
We then move onto the rather complex named “Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture” which is basically widely recognised as one of the most difficult mathematics problems to solve.
The Hodge Conjecture
Ah, the good old Hodge Conjecture. This is an unsolved maths equation in algebraic geometry that relates to the algebraic topology of a non-singular complex algebraic variety.
P vs NP
This unsolved maths equation is all about computer science, and basically goes by the rule of “if the solution to a problem is easy to check for correctness, must the problem be easy to solve?”
If you see yourself as a bit of a maths whizz then why not try your hand at these puzzles that come with a huge cash prize!

The Latest Foodie Craze

The latest foodie craze is pasta chips (or crisps, if you prefer) and it involves cooking pasta and adding some olive oil, seasoning and parmesan cheese, before sticking the whole thing into an air fryer for 10 minutes to let it crisp up. "Start by cooking pasta and mixing it with olive oil, parmesan cheese and spices. Air fry at 400F for 10 minutes, tossing halfway through." The food lover goes on to say that she served her pasta chips with a whipped feta dip, but you could use just about anything you fancy - other TikTokers have served theirs with pesto and marinara sauce. Those without an air fryer could still give the recipe a go, by baking in the oven at 400F (200C) for 20 to 25 minutes, turning halfway through - but sadly, they won't come out as crispy...

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