Japan
Japanophile~
Japan
John Tarrant quote (found this from Rob Tourtelot)
... See moreThe Temple of Engakuji was destroyed by fire in 1374. The entire library was consumed and the rare books which the founder, Bukko, had brought from China were reduced to ashes. Priests of the Hachiman shrine came to Enkakuji, concerned about the tragic loss of these ancient texts.
Fumon, the master,
Makiko looked old. Everyone looks older as the years go by, but that’s not what I mean. She wasn’t even forty, but if she told you “I just turned fifty-three,” you’d wish her happy birthday. She didn’t look older. She literally looked old.
Mieko Kawakami, Sam Bett, • Breasts and Eggs
Imagine the perfect urban neighbourhood. Residential streets are peppered with shops and cafés. Schools, museums and theatres can all be reached on foot. Green spaces offer a quiet escape. Some cities, such as Copenhagen, Paris and Tokyo, already function this way. These “walkable” cities—sometimes called “15-minute cities”—offer everything that... See more
When I watch a Miyazaki film I can’t help but think about his attunement to the world, the presence it requires to transmute the real world into a fantastical one. That’s the interesting contradiction of writers and artists, I suppose: alienation is a necessity, but so is participation. The point of getting better is to be more in the world.
In Heidi, we had started showing characters walking in different ways, with shortened steps, or with a quick pace, or in a way that seems to go on forever. But in most traditional cartoon movies, the characters reach the horizon in about three steps. For example, I love the cartoon character Farmer Alfalfa who practically comes bounding at us. It’s
... See moreHayao Miyazaki • Starting Point: 1979-1996
If your life, or mine, for that matter, were to come to an end here and now, it would not do to refer to either of them as unhappy. The life that ends at the age of twenty and the life that ends at ninety are both complete lives, and lives of happiness.
Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga • The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
Kaizen is a state of continuous improvement where people naturally look for ways to improve poorly performing practices.
Tonianne DeMaria Barry • Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life
A great story about simplicity from Akio Morita, the instigator of the Walkman project at Sony:
Engineers had the technology to add the recording function to the Walkman and it would’ve cost only 50 cents to a dollar per unit. Morita decided against it. He wanted the device to have one function, which it performs very well. Walkman should only play