Jonelle Patrick's Blog, page 2

First-ever sighting of a mother bullet train and its…

vacuum. Expert-level only-in-Japan points to Shuri Fukanaga for snapping these priceless photos! • If you love strange Japanese stuff you’d never see anywhere else…

The Tokyo Toilets…lit up at night!

If you thought the Tokyo Toilets were beautiful in the daytime, just wait ’til you see them lit up after dark! The public restrooms that were so mindfully cleaned by the main character in Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days were designed by sixteen famous Japanese architects, and if there’s one thing famous architects know howContinue reading "The Tokyo Toilets…lit up at night!"

Places to go before everyone else discovers them

The Pink Season is coming, hand in hand with crazy crowds and high prices. But just because everyone and their cousin is heading for Japan in the next month doesn’t mean you have to sharpen your elbows to enjoy fabulous Japan goodness! Here are some only-in-Japan spots that I love (and some undiscovered gems inContinue reading "Places to go before everyone else discovers them"

Not sure how to tell them, but…

…not THAT kind of Indian. • If you love strange Japanese stuff you’d never see anywhere else…

Frankenthirst

Obviously, the best way to boost the careers of boy band idols who are now stretching the definition of “boy” is to cast them in a stage production of…Frankenstein? Move over Rocky Horror—there’s a new monster on the block! • If you love strange Japanese stuff you’d never see anywhere else…

The artist who shows us everyday things in a deeply Japanese way

Miyawaki Ayako Retrospective: I saw, I cut, I applied Quilters and other textile artists were the first to see how arts formerly dismissed as “womanly” or “decorative” could be harnessed to convey powerful insights and messages. Ayako Miyawaki didn’t begin to use appliqué as a medium until she was forty—after raising her three children—but herContinue reading "The artist who shows us everyday things in a deeply Japanese way"

The artist who makes us see ordinary things in a deeply Japanese way

Miyawaki Ayako Retrospective: I saw, I cut, I applied Quilters and other textile artists were the first to see how arts formerly dismissed as “womanly” or “decorative” could be harnessed to convey powerful insights and messages. Ayako Miyawaki didn’t begin to use appliqué as a medium until she was forty—after raising her three children—but herContinue reading "The artist who makes us see ordinary things in a deeply Japanese way"

Why is there corn on my…

Japan isn’t a land where it’s understood what an abomination it is to eat corn if it’s a) not the cob, b) dripping with butter, and c) being served any time of year that’s not summer. In fact, the question that arises every single time I enter a Japanese supermarket or convenience store is… WHYContinue reading "Why is there corn on my…"

Tube food

A wander through any grocery store in Japan will quickly persuade you that putting something in a tube shouldn’t be confined to toothpaste, hand cream, and athlete’s foot cures. Plenty of foods are best served squeezed! If you subscribe to Japanagram (my free deeper dive into all things only-in-Japan), you’ll already have drooled over theContinue reading "Tube food"

What do Japanese people crave most in the depths of winter?

A table? Yes, a table. But a kotatsu isn’t just any old table. Designed to make it possible to survive winter without frostbite in Japan’s criminally underinsulated houses… the kotatsu’s secret weapon isn’t just the cozy oversized quilt held in place by a tabletop used for everything from homework to dinner. It’s the heated fanContinue reading "What do Japanese people crave most in the depths of winter?"