On my way from Kanazawa down to Hiroshima, I took a detour in Fukui Prefecture to visit Gotanjoji, a Sōtō Zen temple in Shoden-cho, Echizen City, known informally as a...
Sinikka Langeland — Channeling the Spirits of the Forest at Mokkiriya, Kanazawa, 4/21/24
Here I am at the historic Mokkiriya jazz cafe and live house, founded in 1971 in Kanazawa, Japan, with the unique Norwegian-Finnish musical artist Sinikka Langeland. Meeting her in western Japan is as fortuitous as it is unlikely. Sinikka performs jazz-inflected songs...
置き去られた鏡 The Forsaken Mirror by Chie Matsui 松井智惠 at Gallery Nomart, Osaka 4/20/24
On my last night in Osaka, I scrapped my plan to see a concert whose musicians had not gotten back to me in order to attend a performance at the closing night reception for the solo exhibition 置き去られた鏡 The Forsaken Mirror by the celebrated artist Chie Matsui 松井智惠. From...
KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Photographer Group “WOMB” (Masami Ueda, Rino Kawasaki, Kalina Leonard, Sana Kohmoto) 10th Anniversary Exhibition (April 26, 2024)
WOMB photographers Masami Ueda, Rino Kawasaki, Sana Kohmoto, and Kalina Leonard in front of the exhibit of WOMB magazines and photo books at their 10th anniversary exhibition at the Kyoto Museum of Photography I had circled the KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Photographer Group...
Asuca Hayashi 林明日香 — Song of the Earth, Tokyo (May 5, 2024)
On a sunny 5th of May — Children’s Day in Japan — I made my way to what seemed like an unlikely venue, Mifa Football Cafe, for a matinee child/family-friendly concert by the J-Pop singer Asuca Hayashi 林明日香. Mifa is located in Toyosu, which is one of a series of...