At Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, Tokyo’s most well-loved tourist spot, people clap their hands, throw coins in the offering box, waft incense over themselves and stare up at the city’s latest landmark, the Sky Tree, a soaring television tower, currently the tallest of its kind in the world. When I was here last year, right … Read more
I’m sitting at a low table in a tatami room in the little old geisha house where I normally stay, in Miyagawa-cho, just down the road from Gion. It’s somewhat low class – the lowest class of the five Kyoto geisha districts – and therefore friendlier. Every time I come to Kyoto I discover all … Read more
Il Giappone e le sue tradizioni: una storia di amore e dedizione Intervistare Lesley Downer, affermata autrice di saggi e romanzi di ambientazione nipponica, contribuisce a sfatare il mito-maledizione secondo cui il più delle volte l’immagine che ci costruiamo di un autore che abbiamo amato va a cozzare inevitabilmente con la realtà, facendoci uscire dall’incontro … Read more
Today when the summer thrush Came to sing at Heron’s Nest I crossed the Bridge of Dreams. Have decided on the title for my new book: Across a Bridge of Dreams. The ‘bridge of dreams’ is an incredibly resonant concept in Japanese culture – it’s our short human lives, a bit like the Anglo-Saxon concept … Read more
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