Starting a month of lectures with a talk for the Japan Society North West in Liverpool. An enthusiastic audience with lots of interesting questions. I spoke on The New Japan and the Last Samurai, the real life background to Across a Bridge of Dreams – the extraordinary modernisation of Japan in the mid nineteenth century and the uprising and tragic demise of the real last samurai, Saigo Takamori. Liverpool has changed beyond recognition since I was here some 15 years ago – splendid new shopping complex with parkland and lawns several storeys up. Almost made me feel as if I was back in Tokyo, in fact!
And right in the middle of the shops, this dystopian scene – a lift, a bit like the TARDIS, bursting unexpectedly out of the paving stones … Also very Tokyo!
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, in fact …