Paris Syndrome is Real

Last week I took a two-day trip to Paris for research. This post is my final post relating to the trip (after the posts my visit to the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France), my visit to the Concorde Memorials, my visit to the Paris Catacombs and Photographing Planes at Paris Charles De…

Photographing Planes at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport

Last week I took a two-day trip to Paris for research. I have already done posts about the elements that were related to my research in some way – my visit to the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France), my visit to the Concorde Memorials, and my visit to the Paris Catacombs. The…

Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World

Last week, I attended the “Hiroshima – Nagasaki – Fukushima – Articulations of the Nuclear. The Case of Japan” Conference at the University of Cologne. It was a fabulous conference and I will do a further post about it. In this post I will say a bit about my presentation. It is planned that a…

Book Review: “Or Else” by Joe Hart

I got this book as part of Amazon Firsts, where you get a free book a month or so before the main release. I was particularly attracted to this one since the protagonist writes novels, which is something that I also do in my spare time. In the end, while there was so much I…

“Protect and Survive” and Nuclear Imagery

As noted in my post Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Differing Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World, I am due to give a paper related to symbolism of nuclear weapons (primarily) at a conference in May 2022. This paper fits with my on-going research on symbolism and Visual Packaging Culture, and also builds on the…

Nuclear Imagery and Looking for Movies and TV Programmes

As part of my research on Visual Packaging Culture and also for a conference paper (see Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Differing Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World), and building on my previous work on disaster movies (see, for example, Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?) I am watching a number of movies and…

Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Differing Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World

All being well, in May (2022), I will be giving a paper on “Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Differing Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World” at the “Hiroshima – Nagasaki – Fukushima – Articulations of the Nuclear. The Case of Japan” Conference at the University of Cologne. While the concern back in 2021, when I…

First look at “Bullet Train”

Having been conducting research about the shinkansen (‘bullet train’) for over 20 years, when I learnt of the book Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, I knew that I had to get a copy and you can read my review on that here. In brief, however, I had many issues with the book – including the…

Ho-Ren-So: Japanese workplace mobile instant messaging communication in a social enterprise

Earlier this week I chaired the latest Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series, this time with Professor Hiromasa Tanaka (Meisei University). This was an engaging webinar and had things that will be useful for my update to Japan: The Basics and my work on Visual Packaging Culture. The topic was “Ho-Ren-So: Japanese workplace mobile instant messaging communication in…

Hokusai: What Makes Him Popular?

Recently, I attended a seminar on the topic of ‘Hokusai: What Makes Him Popular’ hosted by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. The main speaker was Alfred Haft, a Project Curator in the Department of Asia at the British Museum, focusing on Japanese art of the Edo period, especially woodblock prints, and Tsuyoshi Tane, is a Paris-based…

“Minamata” – Fabulous Photography and Telling of a Story that Shouldn’t Need Telling

This week I am leading some seminars at university to do with protest in Japan in the 1960s. It’s not possible to discuss this theme without Minamata and Minamata-byo (usually referred to as “Minamata Disease” although, technically, it is an illness rather than a disease) coming up. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to watch the movie…

Sakura Cherry Tree Planting in Cardiff

Yesterday I attended two cherry tree (sakura) planting ceremonies in Cardiff. The UK and Japan have a strong relationship, developed over more than 150 years. At the heart of the relationship is a desire for mutual understanding and to learn from each other’s way of life, culture and history. By planting thousands of sakura trees…