Yosuke the parrot

Police in the town of Nagareyama were at a loss about how to return an escaped African gray parrot to its owner, so the bird, tired of waiting, did the natural thing—he recited his name and address.


And when I say "name," I mean Yosuke provided his first and last name to the police.


Not bad, bird.



"I am Yosuke Nakamura, and I live at ..."


—Mellow Monk

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A Zen garden's lesson

The karesansui garden at Kyoto's Ryoanji Temple contains 15 rocks, but only 14 can be seen from any one location. The idea is that no matter what your perspective into any situation is, you're always missing something.

Karesansui means "dry landscape" and is more commonly known in English as a Japanese rock garden.


There are more pictures of the beautiful Ryoanji Temple here.



As you sip your green tea, close your eyes and imagine you are contemplating this serene garden.


—Mellow Monk

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If you like Japanese food, you'll just love Just Hungry and Just Bento

A sister site of the super well-done Japanese food site Just Hungry is the equally excellent Just Bento.



"Spring pasta and chickpea salad bento."


—Mellow Monk

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Another D.C. cherry blossom panorama

Below is another panorama I found of Washington, D.C.'s famous cherry trees.


A previous pic is here.



Click to see the glorious full-sized panorama, then click again to zoom in.


—Mellow Monk

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Coffee in a can from a vending machine is big (and manly) in Japan

It's interesting, if you think about it, that Japan's beverage industry decided to market canned coffee as a manly drink.


For instance there's Suntory's Boss, whose label features an iconic man who looks suspiciously like Ernest Hemingway.


I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to market green tea as a manly drink. After all, we green tea drinkers include some pretty tough monks, for instance.



Just a few of the wide variety of canned coffee drinks sold out of Japan's ubiquitous vending machines.


—Mellow Monk

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Japanese girl group Tokyo Pinsalocks

Here are a couple of music videos from Japan's Tokyo Pinsalocks, who have a very unique sound.


Their music may initially seem somewhat cacophonous, but I find their rhythm and melody soothingly entrancing:


"Plutonium"







"Repeat"





—Mellow Monk

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Kitaro's mucho mellow "Matsuri"

Here is the incomparable Kitaro performing his piece "Matsuri" ("festival") for a live—and lucky—audience:





—Mellow Monk

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Roll reversal: American sushi

Sushi is popular in America—and worldwide, for that matter—not just among those who eat but also among those who cook, and these sushi chefs are putting their own personal and cultural touch on their culinary creations:





—Mellow Monk

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Rubberduckzilla

Rubberduckzilla is the mascot for Japan's "Oasis" bottled beverage, which is billed (get it?) as the drink for "people who don't like water."


I would normally, at this juncture, point out that green tea is a much healthier alternative, and is great for people who do not like to drink plain water, but then I would not want to incur the wrath of Rubberduckzilla:





—Mellow Monk

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Mellow moon movie

Japan's space agency has taken some ultra-clear, close-up videos of the moon's surface with its Kaguya orbiting spacecraft.





—Mellow Monk

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Two pics: Suizenji Park in Kumamoto and a tea estate on Yakushima

From my collection—a picture of Kumamoto City's Suizenji Park (top) and a tea estate in the hills of Yakushima Island (bottom).








—Mellow Monk

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Another animated slideshow from my tea-buying trip to Kyushu, Japan

I've created another high-resolution, animated slideshow from pictures from a recent tea-buying trip to Japan.


To watch it in full-screen mode, click on the icon in the lower-right corner of the player, between the "Vimeo" name and the sound bars.





—Mellow Monk

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Mellow Monk featured on European TV—again!

Last year Mellow Monk was featured in a German-French TV network's documentary about green tea in Kyushu.


Well, that show was so well received that this year, a crew from France's TV 5 went to film one of the same growers for a French TV documentary.


Below are some photos taken by the program's director:











—Mellow Monk

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Scrumptious Japanese food photos!

Japanese cuisine as a reputation among some as being exotic—if not downright strange at times—but everyday food in the land of the rising sun is actually quite approachable:



Yummy—grilled salmon with kabosu; simmered deep-fried tofu and mizuna; avocado and tomato salad; rice; and potato miso soup.


—Mellow Monk

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Origami paper airplane sets new world record

The chairman of Japan's Origami Airplane Association has set a new world record for longest flight by a paper airplane:





—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, stressed-out city folk head to the hills for "farm therapy"

Stress-out city dwellers are discovering the rejuvenating properties of a day of farming in the country:






Pounding mochi: The farmer gets a helping hand, and the lass gets some much-needed sunshine, exercise, and stress relief.


—Mellow Monk

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Musical slideshow of tea-buying trip pics: The high-resolution version

Here is a higher-resolution version of the slideshow I posted recently of pictures from my tea-buying trip to Kyushu that was documented for European TV.


You can watch the slideshow in dazzling full-screen mode by clicking the icon next the "Vimeo" name in the lower right corner of the movie player.





—Mellow Monk

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The lessons of Japan's rural woodland villages

Satyoyama isn't a specific place; it's a generic term for Japan's rural woodland farming villages.


Anne McDonald has been studying these villages for decades and has been working to promote to the rest of the world the ecological lessons we can learn from them.





—Mellow Monk

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Three cups of tea

The book Three Cups of Tea isn’t about tea, but it does relate to the philosophy of tea.


First a little back story.


After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2—the world’s second highest mountain—Greg Mortenson became lost and eventually staggered, exhausted, into a remote village in northern Pakistan. The village’s children had no school or teacher. In exchange for nursing him back to health, Greg promised the village elder that he would return and build a school there.


Which he did—and then some: He and the organization that he helped found has built a total of 55 schools in the region.


The book’s title comes from a Balti proverb:

The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family. . .

In other words, tea is not just a means of achieving inner tranquility but also a way to bond with others.


In Japan, a cup of green tea offered to a guest is the foundation of hospitality. Perhaps it's the symbolism of sharing one's bounty with another.


But I also suspect that mellowness induced by green tea is infectious. Just as it helps us find harmony within, green tea, I believe, also creates harmony with others.


Greg Mortenson bonded over tea with people in a culture he previously new little about. Perhaps green tea can open a similar door for you.





—Mellow Monk

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Japan's Miss Universe contest gets an extreme makeover

Japan has revamped its Miss Universe competition—and why do I have a feeling this is coming soon to the rest of the world?—to include elements like martial arts contests.



The swimsuit competition will be followed by the Enter the Dragon-style martial arts death match portion of our program.


—Mellow Monk

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Heart-shaped melons

An entrepreneurial farmer in Kumamoto (where Mellow Monk tea is grown) has figured out how to coax melons to grow in a heart shape:


(The audio is in Japanese but can be summarized thus: "The farmer spent 4 years figuring out how to do this and has finally gotten to the point where the heart-shaped melons are just as sweet and tasty as regular melons, so you may see these melons on your grocer's shelves soon.")





—Mellow Monk

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A river of natural moss running through your house

What you see in the photo below is real, live moss matched to an eco-friendly spun-fabric base, allowing it to be used as an organic carpet.



It's like having a park running through your living room.


—Mellow Monk

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Mellow Monk's Tea-Buying Trip to Japan, Part 2

This is the latest in a series of photo, text, and video posts about my most recent tea-buying trip to Japan, which was documented by a film crew from Europe's Arte Network for its "360° Geo" TV series.





—Mellow Monk

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Stringing Tea: The Monk Who Said No

[This is part of a series of postings about my recent tea-buying expedition in Japan. Click here to see the other installments.]


What I most admired about the artistic approach taken by the film crew—and the producers back in Germany—was their desire to explore green tea not merely as a beverage but as a key element of Japanese culture.

In fact, the documentary's theme was that through green tea, you could understand every aspect of Japanese culture.

The director, Ilka—here is a clip of the English version of one of her documentaries—was herself keenly interested in the role of green tea in Japanese Buddhism. She had done plenty of research before coming to Japan and had learned that the Buddhism–green tea link began over a thousand years ago in China, after monks discovered that drinking green tea kept them alert and focused during marathon meditation sessions.

I myself knew a bit about monks and green tea. After all, our company's namesake is a Japanese monk who was one of the first to bring green tea to Japan from China. But I hadn't heard of tea's use in meditation.

So when our van finally finished snaking up the long and winding mountain road to Shogoji Temple (聖護寺), that was the second question we asked the gracious monks who greeted us. (The first being Where's the bathroom?)

   

Unfortunately for our intrepid director, none of the monks we interviewed would definitively state that the tradition was being strictly continued today. Some monks did drink green tea while meditating, but others drank black tea. Some drank coffee. Some even drank—gentle reader, are you sitting down?—instant coffee. It was, you know, a personal choice.

(I have more bad news for the traditionalists: The monks all had cellphones, too—although there was no reception on the mountaintop.)

In fact, our smooth-headed friends would not even state on camera that the monks of yore actually did drink green tea for its stimulative properties. The closest we got to this confession—after much prodding—was getting one monk to confirm that yes, he had heard the theory—the theory, mind you—that Chinese monks had begun imbibing green tea to keep them focused during long hours of meditation.

"But does he personally—and his fellow monks—still drink green tea for that very same reason? Ask him," implored Ilka.

All the other monks whom we had previously asked this question—and we had asked them all—were too polite to come right out with a negative answer. So instead we received replies like Well, I wouldn't really say that or Not me personally, but others do, I'm sure.

But this monk was different: Tall, solidly built, and with a steely-eyed, quietly tough attitude to match, he clearly would not be one to mince words. When I finished translating the director's question, he paused briefly, with furrowed brow, then boomed out his reply: a deep, resounding "NEVER!"

The crew and I almost fell over laughing. Ilka naturally did not share our laughter but instead turned away, one hand pensively stroking her chin, with a look that resembled resignation and . . . something else.

That "something else" could have been the seeds of an idea—perhaps common in the filmmaking world—that would let her get the last laugh.

Months after I had returned home, a small, stiff envelope arrived in the mail: my DVD copy of the show. While viewing the program that night—cup of celebratory tea in hand—I noticed a highly amusing and creative edit: Our nay-saying monk's words had been deftly edited so that he seemed to be saying simply that "monks drink green tea to stay alert and focused during meditation."

Sneaky? Yes. But hey, that’s show business.

But I, too, have a confession to make: After our temple visit, I also engaged in some creative editing.

First a little backstory.

Whenever we interviewed someone for the documentary, we had to ask that person to sign a standard release form that Arte Network was required to have on file in order to broadcast the footage of that person.

(Because of the TV show's international scope, the law did allow the form to be filled out and signed in the interviewee's native language, as long as someone then wrote a few summarizing notes in German or English across the top of the page. This comes into play later in our story.)

Consequently, if the film crew forgot to get a signed release from an interviewee, or if the signed form was lost after filming, Arte would be legally unable to broadcast footage of that person.



But that’s exactly what I did after we filmed at the Shogoji Temple—I lost the bloody permission forms for the two monks we interviewed (including Dr. No).

More specifically, my brother-in-law—at whose place I was staying when in Aso—burned them along with the rest of the trash after dumping the forms into the dust bin along with the rest of the clutter on the kitchen table. After he told me, over the phone, about his trash collection and burning procedure, and that he had just implemented it the previous day, I knew that’s what had happened.

A chill ran down my spine when I got off the phone. The temple was at least 2 hours away, 4 hours round trip—4 hours I knew I could never squeeze out of our already air-tight schedule.

Panic began to set in.

Hold on a second, I told myself. Think, man. Think!

Then it occurred to me: The monks had signed the forms; it's just that those forms were no more. As far as the monks were concerned, their permission was still in effect. That wouldn’t change even if I, say, gave the director a “substitute” form written by someone else—and in a language unintelligible to the director.

So, I had my brother-in-law fill out two new forms, using whatever details I could remember and making up the rest.

("Place of birth? How about those islands Japan and Korea are always fighting over? Yes!" This was done over sake, you understand.)

The upshot: Ilka got her signed forms, and the monk interviews stayed in the film, with no one the wiser.

Sneaky? Yes. But hey, that’s show business.



—Mellow Monk

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Chino the adult and Chino the child—in the same photograph

Here is an interesting concept—photoshopping your adult self into old photos of you as a child.


Ah, the lessons and warnings I could give my young self . . .



Chino the adult in Paris with Chino the child.


—Mellow Monk

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New pics from my tea-buying trip filmed for European TV

I just uploaded some new photos from my tea-buying trip to Aso and other parts of Kyushu.


I was accompanied by a film crew who documented my trip for an episode of Arte.tv's documentary series "360° Geo."


(In fact, the photos I just uploaded were taken by Chris, the cameraman. You can really see his cameraman's sense of composition in these photographs.)



Manuel, the sound engineer, uses a phrase book to communicate with a local gentleman during a lull in the filming at Aso Shrine.


I wrote about my adventures as a tea-buyer/film crew member in a series of posts titled "Stringing Tea."


"Stringing," by the way, is a reference to what my job was as part of the film crew—a stringer, who is a driver, interpreter, interviewer, travel agent, luggage carrier, and all-around gofer all rolled into one.


It was a tough gig, but as someone said, it's a long way to the top if you want to rock 'n' roll.



A Shinto priest at Aso Shrine blesses a young family's new car.


—Mellow Monk

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Stringing Tea: The Animoto Version

I used Animoto to make an animated slideshow—complete with musical soundtrack—out of the photographs I took during last year's tea-buying trip.


Animoto, by the way, is very cool.





—Mellow Monk

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Tokyo time lapse

Submitted for your approval—a time-lapse video Tokyo set to suitably atmospheric music:





—Mellow Monk

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Hanami at Kiyomizu Kannon Shrine, by Kunisada Utagawa

The spectacular painting below, by Kunisada Utagawa, depicts flower-viewing (hanami) at Kiyomizu Kannon Shrine—which you can still visit today.


More Utagawa images here.



This is only part of the amazing painting. Click the see the whole thing.


—Mellow Monk

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Box-diving Maru redux

Remember Maru, the cardboard box-obsessed cat?


Well, he's back—and taking on bigger challenges:





—Mellow Monk

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Super takoyaki balls in Tokyo

This Is Gonna Be Good—a great blog that, "in the spirit of Tony Bourdain, treats food as adventure"—reviews the fare offered by a takoyaki food van in Akihabara.



Mobile food factories like this are a common sight throughout Japan, although perhaps not quite as ubiquitous as vending machines.


—Mellow Monk

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Tokyo stereographics

A stereographic is a photograph taken in such a way that it makes the subject look like its own little planet. Here is a slew of stereographics of Tokyo locales.


I promise you that this will make for a very offbeat green tea break.



"The river which flows into the sky."


—Mellow Monk

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Please don't trample the geisha

Please try not to be too intrusive or aggressive when photographing the maiko or geisha on Hanamikoji street.



Like superstars, but without the superstar paychecks.


—Mellow Monk

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Bladerunner Tokyo

Remember the Harrison Ford science fiction film "Bladerunner"?


Dark Roasted Blend has put together a collection of large-format photos of Tokyo that look like they could have been taken in the futuristic city depicted in the film.



More pictures of Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge here.


—Mellow Monk

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Two cool sites for students of Japanese

It sure is a brave new world today.


In the old days, if you wanted to look up the meaning of a Japanese word, you had plod through a paper dictionary.


But no more.


Now, not only are there online dictionaries like Goo, but there's even the super-fast dictionary Nihongodict.com: Type in an English or Japanese word, and its other-language equivalent appears almost instantaneously.


Another cool resource: clickable kanji lookup by radical at Denshi Jisho (Electronic Dictionary).



This has nothing to do with learning Japanese. Instead, it's just a mellow photograph of a circumhorizon arc, also known as a summertime halo.


—Mellow Monk

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Kinkakuji in winter

A Japanese blogger has posted some beautiful photographs of the Golden Pavilion Temple (Kinkakuji) in the wintertime.


Of these pictures, this one is my favorite.



The titular structure in Yukio Mishima's Temple of the Golden Pavilion.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's most offbeat hot springs

UPI has two really cool slideshow—some of Japan's most offbeat hot springs (onsen), and the cherry blossoms blooming in Washington, D.C..








—Mellow Monk

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Yanaka, the twice-burned pagoda

In Tokyo's Yanaka district, on the grounds of the Yanaka Cemetery, once stood a pagoda. Originally built in 1664, the Yanaka Pagoda burned down in 1771 but was rebuilt in 1791.


After standing for over 160 years, however, the pagoda burned down once again, this time in a sad, bizarre case of double-suicide arson. Today, only the foundation remains.



The late pagoda in wintertime. Another nice image can be found here.


—Mellow Monk

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On Japan's rice farms, tiny shrimp fight weeds naturally

One of the all-natural techniques that Japan's rice farmers use to control weeds in their paddies is the tadpole shrimp.


This tiny crustacean controls weeds in three ways:

by uprooting small weed seedlings, by agitating the soil surface so that the water becomes muddy, thereby inhibiting photosynthesis of small weed seedlings, and—last but not least—by eating young buds and roots of plant seedlings.

Aw, what a cute little feller. And useful, too.


—Mellow Monk

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A teahouse too high

If you are ever in the city of Chino, in Nagano Prefecture—which can get quite foggy—you simply must visit architect Terunobu Fujimori's teahouse on stilts. The structure's name is Takasugi-an (高過庵)—literally "Too-Tall Teahouse."


Peruse more pictures of Mr. Fujimori's creation here.



Sorry—no TV and no Internet access.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea may help keep gums healthy

A study published in the Journal of Periodontology found that the more green tea you drink, the less likely you are to get gum disease.


Researchers postulate that this is because the polyphenols in green tea inhibit the bacteria that cause gum disease.



Muko Shrine in Kyoto. (More great pics here.) What, did you want to see pictures of gum disease?


—Mellow Monk

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Little tea house on the prairie

Perhaps a cooler, more relaxing place to drink green tea than this can be found. I am just not aware of one presently.


Seriously, though. Ain't it cool?


Update: This teahouse is not in Japan but in the vicinity of a U.K. locale called Mere.





—Mellow Monk

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Mellow melodies from Masaaki

Here, for your listening enjoyment, are two acoustic guitar pieces from Japan's Masaaki Kishibe.


Hana (Flower)







Hajimari (The Beginning)





—Mellow Monk

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A life of bento

From preschool to high school to the golden years—Just Bento chronicles the wonderful variety of Japanese bentos that are eaten in Japan in each stage of life.



Even this collage gives only a tiny glimpse of the truly varied and wide world of bento. And please do not even think of washing down your bento with anything other than green tea.


—Mellow Monk

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High on Hiroshige

Submitted for your approval—a nice, mellow woodblock print by Ando Hiroshige (1797–1858). I could literally spend hours gazing at his wonderful artwork. So here is more of it.



"Otsujuku" (Otsu Station), from Hiroshige's "Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road" series.


—Mellow Monk

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Keiko's Moroccan ashes

One of my favorite Keiko Matsui songs is "Moroccan Ashes," from the album "Doll." You can listen to the song in its entirety at Rhapsody.com.


And yes, it's perfectly legal.



Click on the album cover to go to the photo gallery at her official website.


—Mellow Monk

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The hall of a thousand tatami has no tatami

Located on Ikutsushima—also known as Miyajima, or "Shrine Island"—the building known as the Pavilion of a Thousand Tatami Mats (Senjoukaku) actually has no mats inside. "Thousand mats" simply refers to the size of the interior.





—Mellow Monk

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Seiho the painter

The Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art is having an exhibition from its permanent collection of the works of Takeuchi Seiho (1864–1942), who at the turn of the century was considered the leader of modern Japanese painting's Western school.



Takeuchi's "Green Pond" (circa 1927).


—Mellow Monk

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Mindfully mellow

Mindfulness—focusing on the here-and-now, on what is going on all around you at this moment—is a fundamental element of meditation, including Zen. This state of mind is also key to the green tea ceremony and to happiness in general.


In contrast to mindfulness is rumination—obsessing over the negative—and it's not conducive to mellowness.


When you brew your green tea, do so mindfully. Watch the water boil. Listen to it boil. Take in the aroma of the dry leaves. Feel the warmth of your teapot or cup as the tea brews. Before sipping, breath in the luscious aroma. Sip, and focus on the flavor tingling in your mouth. Then feel the tea's warmness travel into your belly.


There. Don't you feel better already?



We can all create our own mindful ceremony whenever we drink green tea.


—Mellow Monk

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Learn Japanese online

Many online resources for learning Japanese exist, but here is a list of ten exceptionally good ones.



After brushing up on your Japanese, you can practice it at Itsuku Island, known for its famous torii (gate).


—Mellow Monk

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Mellow Monk debuts on European TV

A while back I wrote a series of blog posts entitled "Stringing Tea" about my tea-buying adventures in Kyushu and working with a European film crew that was documenting my journey for Arte.tv's "360° Geo" series.


Well, the show was finally broadcast late last year and I received a copy, a clip of which I humbly present to you here.


The German/French narration is stripped out of this clip. There are no subtitles yet, but in a nutshell, a tea grower is showing off his fields and his tea-processing operation. He explains how he maintains healthy fields through proper soil management and discusses the demanding business of harvesting and processing tea leaves in just the right way to assure the highest quality tea.


Stay tuned for more clips!





—Mellow Monk

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Japanese bladesmiths

Kohei Ebuchi, a third-generation bladesmith, doesn't make samurai swords, but perhaps his ancestors did. Instead, he makes kitchen knives (houchou) in the city of Sakai, where some of the world's best — and most expensive — knives are made.


And when you read the article about Mr. Ebuchi, don't forget to check out page 2, too.





—Mellow Monk

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Grassy Tokyo

Tokyo would be a much mellower town if the streets and sidewalks were covered in grass, wouldn't you agree?





—Mellow Monk

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Shigeo Fukuda, master of illusion and the impossible

The recently deceased artist Shigeo Fukuda was known as a master of optical illusions and the impossible.



A poster for a Fukuda exhibit at Keio Department Store in 1975.


—Mellow Monk

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The book of tea

Written originally in English by Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea is one of the most well-known books about Japanese green tea.


In the book, Okakura emphasises that tea taught the Japanese many things, including the simplicity that can be seen in Japanese art and architecture.


One of the most famous quotes from the books concerns teaism—a word that Okakura coined himself and which he defines as "a religion of aestheticism":

Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence.

In addition to the above-linked version, you can find a free, no-frills copy at Project Gutenberg, or view a nonprintable PDF with fancier typesetting.



A cup of humanity.


—Mellow Monk

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Miyako festivals

Kyoto, famous for its generations-old tea shops, was once the capital of Japan and, as such, was the site of numerous festivals and other events.


Miyako nenju gyoji gajo ("Picture Album of Annual Festivals in the Capital") is a two-volume album of paintings that chronicle these many colorful events.



"Kannenbutsu ("Winter prayers").


—Mellow Monk

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Geisha out for a stroll

The photo below, which shows two geisha on their way to Maruyama Park, is part of a set succinctly titled "Japan."






—Mellow Monk

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Chitose snow festival

With sights like this, it's no wonder the ice festival at Lake Shikotsu attracts so many visitors each year.





—Mellow Monk

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Lakeside painting

There's something hauntingly beautiful about Seiki Kuroda's Lakeside, isn't there.



That Mona Lisa mystique.


—Mellow Monk

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Green train tracks

Europe's grass-lined streetcar tracks sure are mellow on the eyes.


Japan's city of Kagoshima also has a similar streetcar track. The grass is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also absorbs heat during the summer and reduces streetcar noise year-round.





—Mellow Monk

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Japan's northern territories

Sovereignty of the two southernmost islands in the rugged but serene Kuril archipelago is disputed by Russia and Japan, the latter of which refers to the islands as the Northern Territories.


Although it's a touchy subject among some folks there, the majority of people seem only vaguely aware of the issue. So let's just sip our tea and enjoy the photographs instead.



Dispute? What dispute? You'd never know it from peaceful scenery like this.


—Mellow Monk

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A snowy village illuminated

For a short period each winter, the villagers in Shirakawa — a World Heritage site — light up their distinctive thatched-roof homes to the delight of locals and tourists alike.



More winter pics here.


—Mellow Monk

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Furuta family photos

Akihiro Furuta has published some interesting and touching photos of his family.



"Love" is the title of this one.


—Mellow Monk

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Shinto shrine near Seattle

If you live in or will be passing through the Seattle, Washington area, consider stopping by the Tsubaki Shrine, one of the few Shinto shrines in all of North America.



The entrance to Tsubaki Shrine.


—Mellow Monk

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Japanese manhole covers

Now here's a photo collection you don't come across every day—Japanese manhole covers.



Technically, a lot of these covers aren't manhole covers but covers for curbside fire hydrant valves, which in Japan are mostly located underground.


—Mellow Monk

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Coming-of-Age Day

A Stormtrooper-costume-wearing blogger has written about his visit to a Japanese Seijinshiki ("Coming-of-Age Day Celebration").



See if you can spot the one who's different from the rest.


—Mellow Monk

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Kyushu tops list of bathing spots

Not only does Japan account for two of the world's 10 most extraordinary places to take a bath, but the number one spot—Beppu City—is on Kyushu, only a two-hour drive or train ride from where Mellow Monk's tea is grown.



Beppu offers many such hot spring resorts, where you can achieve a whole new level of mellow.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's scariest bridge

Deep in the Japanese Alps is the Muso Suspension Bridge, known as Japan's scariest bridge. Are you brave enough to cross it?


Because I'm not.





—Mellow Monk

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Tony the Tiger—in Japanese spoon form

This spoon was in a box of cornflakes we bought in Japan back in the '90s. Even if no one told you, you would know with near one hundred percent certainty that this Tony the Tiger hails from Japan.


How? Because he's giving the peace sign, of course.



Showing his age but still going strong!


—Mellow Monk

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The yabusame arrows still fly

The ancient art of yabusame—firing arrows from the back of a horse—still thrives in Japan.



A yabusame event in front of the Aso Shrine—not far from the groves where our green tea is grown.


—Mellow Monk

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New Year's preparations in Japan

In Japan, getting ready for New Year's is serious business.



Rehearsing a New Year's event at Tokyo's Sunshine International Aquarium.


—Mellow Monk

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Golden Ebisu

A jewelry story in Osaka has put on display a solid-gold statue of Ebisu, the traditional Japanese god of good fortune and other nice things.


If you can't afford the $8 million price tag of this 16-inch version, smaller models are also available, such as a tiny 1-gram charm on a cellphone strap for only $100.


[Source: Sankei/MSN Japan]



Ginza Tanaka's pride and joy—alongside its $8 million gold statuette.


—Mellow Monk

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Origamical art

Here is a list of 17 wonderful works of origami and other forms of paper art.


(Purists might point out that some of these are technically not origimi, hence the term "other forms of paper art.")



"Grulla" is the title of this piece.


—Mellow Monk

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Beautiful bonsai

From Sweden, Petri Borg runs a beautiful and comprehensive website on the art of bonsai.



An example of sharimiki, also known as driftwood-style bonsai. This particular one reminds me of the late, great Jeffrey pine on Yosemite's Sentinal Dome, made famous partly by an Ansel Adams photograph.


—Mellow Monk

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A tatami mat for your desktop

Click on the image below to bring up a desktoppably larger version (about 3 megabytes).





—Mellow Monk

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More skinny buildings

The super-skinny Japanese home I wrote about previously is only one of many, many such buildings in land-scarce Japan.



Perhaps they pre-fabbed this building and dropped it in from the top.


—Mellow Monk

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There's no stopping the shoji cats

A warning to anyone contemplating installing shoji doors in your home: Don't expect them to keep out a determined cat ... let alone two determined cats:






—Mellow Monk

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Bring on the monkeys!

In the wintertime at Nagano's Jigokudani Wild Monkey Park, people come from all over the world to photograph the wild monkeys enjoying the natural hot springs there.







And if walking amongst a large troupe of wild monkeys sounds like your cup of tea, then Mt. Takasaki, in Kyushu's Beppu City, is the place for you:





—Mellow Monk

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Furoshiki wrapping demonstrated

This video demonstrates a few clever ways to wrap gifts in a furoshiki, a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth—which is also reusable.


You can buy genuine furoshiki here.





—Mellow Monk

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Remote places

The island of Tristan Da Cunha is so remote that it's nearest neighbor — the island where the British exiled Napoleon after Waterloo — is 2,430 km away.


And here are some pics of an abandoned Japanese mining town.



No Blackberry service here.


—Mellow Monk

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A narrow home in Tokyo

Land prices being what they are in Tokyo, you sometimes just have to make do with a tiny plot even when building your dream home.



Be it ever so humble.


—Mellow Monk

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Like a hermit crab in reverse: the crabs that house warrior spirits

Speaking of the Heike Monogatari, as anyone who has seen the classic film Kwaidan knows, in the waters where the Taira clan was defeated in a decisive naval battle lives a species of crab that is said to harbor the spirits of the Taira warriors.


This legend arose from a pattern on the crab's shell that — cue the Twilight Zone theme — bears an uncanny resemblance to a human face.



A scene from Kwaidan.


—Mellow Monk

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Thanksgiving in Japan

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.


If you're too tryptophaned up to move right now, why not read about one man's account of a Thanksgiving in Japan.



Click on this ikebana photo to see more of this gallery.


—Mellow Monk

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Heike art

This collection of centuries-old Japanese artwork portays the vicissitudes told in Heikei Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), which chronicles the power struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans from 1180 to 1185.



Gio, abandoned by Kiyomori, tearfully leaves his estate.


—Mellow Monk

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Real-life robot takes the stage in Japan

Thespians at Osaka University took the stage Tuesday for three performances in what has to be the world's first-ever play to feature an honest-to-goodness robot as one of the characters.


The robot is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Wakamaru, who, if you live in Japan, is also available for rent [Japanese only].


In the 20-minute production, Wakamaru plays a housekeeper robot who loses the will to work. (He probably got too used to the cushy life of making appearances and being a personal shopper.)



"You say you feel unappreciated? Well, welcome to my world!"


—Mellow Monk

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Three more from Keiko

If you liked yesterday's musical offering — and how could you not? — here are three more enchanting songs by the lovely Keiko Matsui.


Nighthawk's Dream







Ruins of Sonora







Night Waltz







—Mellow Monk

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Three from Keiko

Here are three lusciously mellow songs by Japanese pianist Keiko Matsui:


Water Lily







1942, From Russia







Light Above the Trees







—Mellow Monk

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An architectural time capsule of Japan's go-go years

This slideshow highlights the architecture that the city of Fukuoka — Kyushu's largest city — commissioned in the cash-rich days of the '80s and early '90s.


You can read the related article about Fukuoka here.



The Nexus World housing development.


—Mellow Monk

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Movies of the Aso Valley

Here are a couple of short videos of the Aso Valley (where yours truly's tea is grown), both with and without the unkai ("sea of clouds").








—Mellow Monk

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Aso in a sea of clouds

One of the sights for which Japan's Aso valley — where Mellow Monk's tea is grown — is famous is the unkai, the "sea of clouds," which happens when fog rolls into the valley and fills it to the rim. Here are a couple of clickable pics of this beautiful, most mellowing phenomenon:








There is a whole page of pictures of Aso's unkai here. You can also see a 3-D map of the Aso Valley — which, technically speaking, is actually a horseshoe-shaped caldera.


—Mellow Monk

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Ninja-cat Toyota commercial

I am fairly confident that this is one of the stranger commercials you will see today:






—Mellow Monk

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Maru the box-diving cat — Japan's Internet sensation

The antics of Maru, a very curious Japanese housecat, have become a veritable Internet sensation in Japan. One of my favorites is of Maru box-diving, shown below. Maru has a whole slew of videos here.





—Mellow Monk

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In Tokyo, a giant snake that's safe to sit on

A long, snakelike bench was one of the highlights of DesignTide Tokyo 2008.



It's a snake, it's a bench, it's ... Super Bench.


—Mellow Monk

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Leaf-strewn stone stairs in Kyoto and the Preacher's Pulpit

Here are two great pictures to mellow out to: a stone stairway in Kyoto strewn with red autumn leaves and Norway's breathtaking Preacher's Pulpit rock formation.


As always, click on the pics below to see the full-size versions.








—Mellow Monk

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Bladerunner minus the flying cars: Shinjuku, Tokyo

Pull up a chair and mellow out to the atmospheric music and enthralling images of Tokyo's Shinjuku district at night:


.


—Mellow Monk

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Photos of Aso, Japan

Our green tea is grown in the pristine environment of Japan's Aso region, a valley centered around the majestic Mt. Aso volcano.


Here, for your green tea break, are three images that capture the area's natural beauty (click on each to see the larger version):











—Mellow Monk

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World's first truly blue roses on display in Japan

It took them 13 years of research, but Japan's Suntory finally did it — they created the world's first truly blue roses.



The blue color is definitely mellowing, but personally I still find rainbow roses cheerier.


—Mellow Monk

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Birds and a rare Japanese cat

Submitted for your approval: bird photographs and an article about a rare wild Japanese cat found only on the island of Iriomote.



The rarest of all cats, the Iriomote cat.


—Mellow Monk

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Beautiful Japanese garden tree in autumn. And clouds over Africa.

Here's a captivatingly beautiful photograph of an autumn-colored tree in a traditional Japanese garden.


(Click on the photo below to see the full-sized version.)







And courtesy of NASA, a satellite photo of a cloud formation over Africa:





—Mellow Monk

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Mellowness-inducing sights in Kanyakumari, India and Kyoto, Japan

Take a look at some photographs of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar Statue in Kanyakumari, India.


And here is an interesting set of photographs of Kyoto, Japan.





—Mellow Monk

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