Sublime

‘Well then, Mr Taro Yamada. Let’s get to business. What dish are you looking for?’ asked Koishi. ‘I’d like you to help me with a certain kind of mackerel sushi.’ ‘What kind, exactly?’ asked Koishi, scribbling away with her pen. ‘The refined type they serve at the Izu restaurant? Or something a bit more rough and ready, like you get at Hanaori?’

‘Shimogamo Shrine is unusual, even for Kyoto, in that you pray in different places depending on your zodiac animal. There are seven little shrines, known as kotosha. Five of them are dedicated to two animals, and the other two just one. The mouse and the horse each get their own shrine. That’ll be why you remember that he was born in the year of

Makiko was a hostess, but that can mean all kinds of different things. Some good, some not so good. Osaka is rife with drinking spots, but an address is enough to tell you what you should expect, in terms of clientele and atmosphere and hostesses. She worked in Shobashi, the neighborhood the three of us worked in for years after we ran off that

Without directly imitating or in any other way co-opting the principles and practices of the NAC, its ways may be able to serve as role models for the renaissance of effective ceremonial practices that will play an essential role in the birthing of the “Future Human” and the regeneration of sane and sustainable societies. The container created is

Kyoto is the quintessential traditional Japanese city, where many festivals and customs survive after having disappeared from the rest of Japan with the passage of time. In the Gion district, there are still nine working okiya, where maiko and geisha live. In the afternoon, they leave the okiya to work in a ryotei— luxury restaurant—or an ochaya,

Jiro, like Yukio Shakunaga, begins his work at “the source.” He goes to the fish market to find the best tuna; Shakunaga goes to the mountains to find the best porcelain. When they get down to work, both become one with the object they are creating. This unity with the object that they reach in a state of flow takes on special meaning in Japan,