2025年12月21日日曜日

I walked around New York for 1 minute.

■ I walked around New York for 1 minute.


I feel depressed when I come to New York.

Going from Tokyo to Paris and then to New York feels like a decline for me.

Police sirens and horns were blaring nonstop.

A meal of grilled minced meat dipped in ketchup and washed down with sweet sauce.

I had no choice but to go into Ootoya and muttered how expensive it was.

It's good that there's MOMA.

They say New York is a melting pot of races, but it actually seems quite uniform.

Coming from Paris.

There were people with hijabs, Middle Easterners, Africans, and all sorts of outfits, and I blended in wearing a haori and hakama, but since New York fashion is the norm, I stood out and people called out to me, "I love your kimono." Leave me alone.

I came here for work, a job that requires me to walk around in a haori and hakama.

New York Fashion Week.

It's a job that only requires a one-minute walk.

Wearing the kataginu (shoulder garment) used in Kyogen (and everything else, from hat to shoes, is his own, which is revolutionary!), he walked back and forth down the runway.

taller than the other models , and her role was to lead them.

This year I had the opportunity to walk around in a kimono twice: once in Kyoto for the Gion Festival and once in New York for Fashion Week.

Sound of Ikebana.

A project by Professor Tosa Naoko of the Kyoto University Disaster Prevention Research Institute.

The fashion pieces are punk art and technology pieces that turn the sounds of babies crying into flower arrangement designs .

This time I'll be parading around as a special professor at Kyoto University.

I hope you understand!


It's been exactly 20 years since New York Fashion Week last took place.

I was working in Kyoto that time too.

fabric to an artist in New York to create a design, and in the end the uchikake that I brought in without any design work was the most popular.

It seems that the Kyoto side had no confidence in the value of Nishijin 's 500-year-old materials, colors, patterns, and designs.

This was two years after 9/11.


911. I got caught up in Manhattan.

The job was at a venture company founded in New York by a female MIT PhD student named Idit Harel .

This is one of the things that makes me feel depressed in New York.

I was 40 years old. I reset my life. It had been 20 years since I returned to Japan from the United States.

Coincidentally, it was September 11th that I walked around New York this time.

Once again, the woman was invited.

I think the goddess smiled on me on this job.


Jet planes in skyscrapers.

It pits cutting-edge 20th century tech against cutting-edge 20th century tech.

That was the beginning of the 21st century.

It was a terrifying yet magnificent piece of design that marked history.

Twenty years have passed. There have been earthquakes, epidemics, and wars.

its pursuit of digital transformation and is sinking.

I feel depressed when I come to New York.


2025年12月14日日曜日

Cool Japan: Snow

 ■Cool Japan: Snow


NHK Cool Japan: "Snow" edition.

Approximately half of Japan's land area is subject to heavy snowfall.

It is rare for a country to have so much snow, especially in populated areas.

That's why there are so many cultures and ingenuity involved in living with snow.


"Big city"

Japan is one of the snowiest countries in the world, but because it is a small country, it is impossible to avoid it.

In some places, snow falls for as long as six months, from November to April.

Since ancient times, people have continued to use wisdom and ingenuity to find ways to live comfortably and enjoyably during the snowy season.

Snowball fights and snow huts. We had fun playing in the snow.

Even in cities, there is a long-standing culture of enjoying snow, such as snow viewing.

The book Edo Meisho Zue describes a snow-viewing banquet held at a high-class restaurant at Tomioka Hachiman Shrine in Fukagawa.

This culture of enjoying snow is surely what makes Japan, a snowy country, so appealing to foreigners, unlike anywhere else.


"Snow Removal Team"

Mastering snow removal. A truly Japanese style.

Not only Aomori Airport has White Impulse, but Akita Airport also has a snow removal team called Yuki Sentai Namahage.

Asahikawa Airport in Hokkaido also has a snow removal team, most of which is done by local farmers, providing an important source of income during the winter.

White Impulse also holds tours, and many people visit to see their tricks.

It also contributes to revitalizing the local community.

If we master snow removal, we can create new jobs and tourism, turning the severe heavy snowfall into an advantage.


"Japanese paper"

It whitens paper and cloth and sweetens vegetables.

This is wisdom and ingenuity that can only be discovered by living deeply in snow.

It was born out of a long relationship with harsh snow.

"Risetsu," which I introduced previously, is one of them.

Snow can be used for storage, as refrigeration energy, and for tourism and local development.

I'm familiar with snow.

I believe there is still a lot of potential hidden in Japan's snow.

I used to have the image that snowy countries were difficult and gloomy, but I feel like that has been turned around and is now becoming more interesting, more work-oriented and more positive.


I thought we might be able to discover more of the power that snow has.


2025年12月7日日曜日

I walked around the Gion Festival.

■I walked around the Gion Festival. 


It accompanies the Yamahoko procession and Kamakiriyama mountain.

I designed a praying mantis hand towel and T-shirt.

tupera I walked with tupera Kameyama.

This is the first time since I turned 60 that I have gone from being a viewer to being a performer.

Congratulations!


It was 40 degrees. Five hours. A full round through.

From Shijo to Kawaramachi to Oike, walk down the middle of the road.

It was also my first time being bombarded with a barrage of tens of thousands of cameras.

I'm aiming for the praying mantis behind me so I don't need to be nervous.

Somehow, I managed to complete the walk.


There are 23 floats. Some are huge, others small.

A fleet of ships, including warships, destroyers, and patrol boats, along with their crews.

Slowly, slowly.

They march in an orderly fashion, circling left around Shijo Kawaramachi and Kawaramachi Oike.

The command and control and on-site response taught me a lot about management.

You'll only understand once you walk there.


Finally, on the way back from the wide Oike pond to the narrow Shinmachi area,

Local people overflowed on both sides,

He was enthusiastically rewarded with cheers and applause.

I was so moved.

This 1200-year-old festival is not something that aristocrats or temples or shrines hold.

It belongs to the townspeople.

Thank you.