Kurashi - News From Japan

If you like traditional Japanese food, you will love this film. How did the current amazing food culture here evolve? Well, we'll never know exactly, but Japan created a food culture that recently got UNESCO status. I agree with that, but I would also like to know more about what people ate back in the old days. Much of it came from the Buddhist temples, but here we have a fresh take on what made it all available to a lot of people. Bushi no Kondate (Recipes of the Samurai) was released here on December 14, 2013 and I love all of it. The Japanese website has all kinds of bells and whistles, do explore bushikon . The film illustrates dishes for all sorts of occasions—tai no karamushi (steamed sea bream stuffed with a mixture of okara bean-curd lees, pine nuts, ginkgo nuts, lotus root and others) for a wedding banquet; jibuni, which is a local stew containing duck meat or chicken, vegetables and sudare-fu (a type of wheat gluten) with soy sauce, sugar and other seasonings; a...

Preferring the rural to the urban? Happen to be more happy in the countryside? Farm rather than firm? Could that be "hard-wired" into your brain? Interesting piece of work by psychologists, who decided to take a look at how we are all trying to cope with our environment. While I have issues with the language, the study is interesting. I don't feel "hard-wired" but I do prefer trees to concrete. Thanks (as always) to Tom for finding. If you live in a mansion (apartment) in a high rise building in a city like Tokyo, Seoul or Beijing, you are obviously not in touch with what your brain is prepared to deal with. Make that London or New York, or wherever. Or Rio. Or Kiev. Or Stockholm. No wonder so much of the news is just about issues that do not really matter. People living in superlarge cities will find it more and more difficult to secure food, energy, news, "feeling at peace" than before. Rural vs. urban may become the most serious battle, on...

Get the latest Japanese newsletter from Consumers Union of Japan, in Japanese . CUJ was founded back in 1969 and has been an independent voice for a long time. Do check out the CUJ history, in English . I remember how proud we were when we got the NPO legislation status. Our main focus has been on the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, and the WTO, and the TPP. We also care about food labels and other cases of consumer fraud. Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) is a politically and financially independent non-governmental organization (NGO). CUJ is funded by membership fees, sales of its publications and donations. CUJ was founded in April 1969 as Japan's first nationwide grassroots consumer organization. It was officially certified as a non-profit organization on May 1, 2006 by the new Japanese NPO legislation. NPO, NGO... these are the ways the government tries to keep people at bay. But Consumers Union of Japan and its many campaigns have managed to stay independent ov...

... but a month later, NHK World reports that almost 4 million people are still displaced by the November 8 typhoon. NHK World: 4 mil. still displaced in typhoon-hit Philippines Almost 4 million people are still living in shelters in the Philippines one month after the year's most powerful typhoon hit the country. Typhoon Haiyan swept through the country's central region on November 8th, bringing torrential rain and storm surges. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council says 5,796 people are confirmed dead and 1,779 others remain missing. On Sunday, people in the affected areas attended Masses. In Tacloban, the main city of hard-hit Leyte Island, hundreds of people gathered at a local church from early in the morning and prayed for the victims. The island's coastal regions still lack electricity and running water. The Philippine government and international organizations are continuing relief activities, distributing supplies and ...

I was interviewed today about food safety by ABC Radio and it should be broadcast in Australia on Wednesday. If Kurashi has any readers down under perhaps you will be able to catch it and tell me how I did. I like radio, and sometimes quote Ralph Nader from back when he was a consumer advocate who used to say that local radio is the most important channel to reach people. Might have been so before facebook and twitter and mixi and whatnot. But I still do like radio. Also, just back from The Philippines and a great meeting with Third World Network in Quezon City, near Manilla. Photo attached shows how seriously in 12 Asian countries we all take the issue of genetic engineering and the onslaught by American (Monsanto) and Swiss (Syngenta) and German (BASF, Bayer) corporations that aim to take over the world's food supply through patents and immoral practices. Be it rice or eggplant, they want to control it. And next is animal genetic resources, as ETC Group pointed out during ...

Just a personal note here from Koinzan Saihoji, the Moss Temple of western Kyoto, which I had reason to visit today. Didn't know it was the site of a villa (abode? hut? cottage? retreat?) of Prince Shotoku, then lots of water under the bridges, then more gardening mumbo-jumbo until Zen priest Muso took up residence and constructed this marvelous place. But I digress. But before I stop digressing, I should add that 120 kinds of moss thrives here, something for all of you fans of biological diversity. I have had reason to visit it frequently, as a matter of fact, and they recognize me there. Today, the kind fellow in a distinguished cloak greeting us at the gate to check if we have the proper post card which allows us to enter or not, later found me sitting in one of the garden's many resting places. He approached me and asked, again as a matter of fact, if I knew the Swedish lyrics of jazz standard Dear Old Stockholm . Well, there I am, enjoying the 120 different kinds of...

A great enka singer has passed away and it was big news. Her tunes were in movies from the 1950s, and here is her big hit, Jinsei Iro Iro. 死んでしまおうなんて　悩んだりしたわ バラもコスモスたちも　枯れておしまいと 髪を短くしたり　強く小指をかんだり 自分ばかりを責めて　泣いてすごしたわ ねぇおかしいでしょ　若いころ ねぇ滑稽(こっけい)でしょ　若いころ 笑いばなしに　涙がいっぱい 涙の中に　若さがいっぱい 人生いろいろ　男もいろいろ 女だっていろいろ　咲き乱れるの I once wanted to die and I was really in trouble. I needed no roses nor cosmos flowers and wished they would all die away. I often cut my hair short and bit my finger. I thought I would be blamed alone and kept crying all day long. Don't you think now that was youth itself? There were things so funny when we were young. We cried so often for every story. And there was always a lot of youth in our tears. There are many kinds of men and there are many kinds of women. So we women are once in a while free to enjoy our lives. (...) Here is a rare live version with Mori Masako (left). Mori-san breaks down, the lyrics must be too cl...