The Japanese love of order and ability to start anew will help them confront the earthquake crisis, believes Lesley Downer. In Japan, you are constantly made aware of the power of nature. Summer is hot and steamy; in September there are typhoons; and during the rainy season in June it feels as if someone has … Read more
In Japan, you live with the possibility of earthquakes. When I first arrived, in 1978, I was woken one night by the bed in my seventh-floor hotel room thudding against the wall. I was terrified, but soon discovered that tremors happen regularly; eventually, I came to take them almost for granted. As people there say, … Read more
Forthcoming lectures: Sunday July 17th Festival of Living History, Kelmarsh, Northants. 11.40 – 12.40 ‘WHAT WOMEN WORE – AND WHY’ Panel with Hallie Rubenhold and Laura Wilson – and re-enactors in costume! http://www.thehwa.co.uk/content/festivals http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/events/festival-of-history-2011/ Watch this space!
Heading for home after 3 weeks in Japan, just as the cherry blossom starting to fall. Chickened out and didn’t go north – though many friends have. It’s long exposure one needs to worry about. A short trip is fine. Instead went south twice – to hotsprings of Beppu, temples of Kyoto, and south again … Read more
In Kagoshima you can’t escape the enormous looming presence of Sakurajima, the craggy volcano which dominates Kinko Bay. It spews out black ash which hangs in the air above it; when the wind blows west it blows it over the city, when it blows east it blows it away from the city. There’s ash heaped … Read more
Back in Japan at last to research my next book – but what a time to be here! All the newspapers back home were writing of radiation risks, of water with radiation levels millions of times higher than they should be, and when I e mailed Tokyo friends one at least declared he was on … Read more
Forthcoming lectures: Monday April 11th 6.15pm Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Yurakucho Denki North Building 20F Yurakucho 1-7-1, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0006, Japan tel +81-3-3211-3161 Illustrated talk: The Yoshiwara and the world of Japanese courtesans Watch this space!
Forthcoming lectures: Tuesday March 8th WORDS BY THE WATER, Keswick, Cumbria Japanese Culture Many people are fascinated with the ancient traditions of Japanese culture: geishas, courtesans, Samurai. These two writers, travellers and experts on this mysterious country, tell of their research and travel. with John Man 5.15pm, Studio, £7.50 tel. 01803 86 73 73 Visit … Read more
I have recently reviewed Burmese Lessons: A True Love Story by Karen Connelly in the New York Times. Karen Connelly’s passionate and poetic memoir begins with her arrival in Burma in 1996 at the age of 27. Brash, naïve and bubbling with confidence, she is enchanted by the country, but also determined to “catch at … Read more
I have just reviewed Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows in the New York Times. When I used to ask my mother about her family village in China, she always said it was three hours from Canton by bus. A hundred years ago, when my great-grandfather left China for good, that couldn’t have been far, … Read more