As we bid a sad farewell to the sakura season, we look upon April with a warmer smile as the outdoors become a place to visit and enjoy. If you’re looking for some local entertainment, try Noge Daidougei (Noge street festival) this April 22nd and 23rd. Engaging all your senses, the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is home to the “2023 Flower Garden Festival” with over 25,000 flowers arranged in pastel colors spread all across the area held until April 23. As the old proverb goes “April showers bring forth May flowers”–instead, let’s all wish for glorious sunny weekends to get…
Author: Seasider
Sabatora Shuhan is a unique establishment in the Yoshidamachi neighborhood, tucked away on the second floor of a building on a narrow backstreet. The single-room standing bar operates as both a bottle shop and a tasting room for natural wines and craft beer. The shop opened about five years ago as a sister store of Sabatora Kajitsu-shu Shoten (currently closed), a bar in Ishikawa-cho. The concept for the new location was to provide a place where customers could casually try new natural wines at a reasonable price and then purchase bottles of those they fancied, as opposed to buying an…
Saint Maur International School will host its annual Food Fair on Saturday, April 29, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Food Fair has been a Golden Week tradition since 1988, but the pandemic forced its cancellation for the last three years. This year, as the school celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding, it will be bigger and better than ever. As always, it is open to everyone! Food from around the world will be on sale, representing the cuisines of Australia, Britain, China, France, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, and Spain. You won’t go thirsty, with beer,…
Need to escape the city? How about a refreshing day-walk in Hakone? Set out after breakfast, be back in time for dinner. Sneakers or hiking boots fine. Take a picnic. All for under ¥4000! Begin on the wonderful Hakone Tozan railway. The bus is faster, but the railway is more relaxing. After the jangle of the urban railways, relish the view from three scenic switchbacks, while driver and conductor stroll an external catwalk to change ends. Leave the train at Kowakudani Station, cross the main road and ascend the steep concrete road with the rustic sign pointing to Chisuji Waterfall…
The month of March heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring with cherry blossom viewing throughout the city. Many places to discover including Negishi Forest Park, Mitsuike Park, Ookagawa River and of course, Sankeien Garden. In this issue, we feature our “Pioneers of Yokohama” series with insight on architect Antonin Raymond and a look at another wonderful hiking trail through the prefecture. We also feature an article supporting community charity work as part of our Community Arts and Action mission. As the famous composer Gustav Mahler once said “Spring won’t let me stay in this house any…
Chūya Nakahara (1907-1937) was one of 20th century Japan’s greatest poets. He’s admired by both casual readers and scholars alike. The former are drawn to his intimate voice and his universal themes (love, heartbreak, personal doubt, wonder, happiness). Scholars discuss his rich rhythms and expert use of techniques adapted from European poetry, especially French Symbolists. He’s most closely associated with Yamaguchi prefecture, where he was from, but he spent formative teen years as a student in Kyoto before moving to the Tokyo area, where he lived out most of the rest of his life. He died young in Kamakura of…
Reading childhood picture books aloud is key to nurturing the minds of children. Through illustrations, one’s reading style, warmth of voice, and the atmosphere, children engage their senses more than adults imagine, absorbing the material and grasping meaning. Four minutes on foot from Hiyoshi-honcho station is Kodomo no Hon no Mise, Tomodachi (Children’s Bookstore, Friends), where you can pick up pointers on parenting and where rows of carefully selected books for reading aloud line the shelves. Its roots go back to 1964 in Hiyoshi when the couple Akira and Tokiko Tokumura founded the bookstore Nisshindou Shoten. There were few spaces…
Yokohama has a reputation as an open-minded, cosmopolitan city, welcoming newcomers from across Japan and around the world. The reality is sometimes less carefree, especially for those caught in cross-cultural conflicts. How would you resolve a dispute with your landlord? Labor relations can be fraught with complex problems. Even more troubling are family issues, such as divorce and inheritance. Situations such as these are hard enough for the ordinary Japanese without specialized legal or welfare knowledge. They can seem insuperable for foreigners who are less familiar with Japanese custom and law. Tomoya Yamada and Kei Sumikawa understand these obstacles and…
It’s with great pleasure that we greet the new year with a preview of our exciting activities planned for 2023. As of this writing, we have submitted our official application and look forward to establishing our NPO status early this winter. We plan to expand our featured series of articles including “Anaba: Hidden Spots”, “Pioneers of Art and Architecture”, “Yokohama: Past and Present” and, of course, our restaurant and cafe reviews. We toast the year of the rabbit–all of us at YSM wish you and your families health and happiness in the new year ahead.
As I mentioned in last month’s column, I want to talk about jibie for this issue. The term is borrowed from the French word referring to wild game. For most of Japan the official hunting season is a three-month period from 11/15 to 2/15. Back in the day, the French considered jibie a luxury generally only consumed by the upper class and aristocrats. Game was commonly eaten in Japan long ago, but meat consumption declined with the introduction of Buddhism. Meat regained popularity following the Meiji era, though it was mostly farm-raised meats. Game stayed predominantly in the shadows. As…