Set back from one of Takada’s main streets, Honcho-dori, you will find the “Takada Sekai-kan”, one of Joetsu’s hidden treasures. It is one of Japan’s oldest running movie theaters with a history going back to 1911. It shows a broad range of Japanese and foreign movies. “Sekaikan” translates into “outlook on, or appearance of the …
Continue reading TAKADA SEKAIKAN – The rehabilitation of a blue movie theater
The prestigious “Cool Japan Award 2019” was recently added to a list of other domestic and international recognitions of the products of K-Ino Inomata Art. Mr. Inomata, its principal owner proudly showed us the certificate and talks about the background of his business. Basically a woodworking craft, he has managed to turn what is known …
The Chubu, or central, region of Japan consists of nine prefectures, lying to the west of the Kanto region. The region is characterized by high mountains. The Japanese Alps, as they are called, are the divider between the economically dominant Pacific side, known as the front of Japan, or Omote-Nihon, and the climatologically very different …
Joetsu has not remained untouched by the blatant commercialism that spoils so many small and large Japanese cities. It has also not been able to escape creation of what Alex Kerr in his “Dogs and Demons” describes as demons. Large infra-structural projects benefitting the construction industry more than ordinary citizens. Passing through Joetsu is the …
Having moved from Tokyo to Joetsu towards the end of last year, I often have had to explain to friends and acquaintances in Tokyo where exactly Joetsu is located and what, if anything, is special about it. The majority of people living in the major cities along Japan’s Pacific Coast are generally not very familiar …
“The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The earth lay white under the night sky.” Kawabata, transl. Seidensticker (英語の後に日本語が続きます。) A nice and sunny day in Kanto. Typical late autumn weather. I was on my way to Joetsu by car on the Kanetsu Expressway. Beautiful colours of the changing leaves in …
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