Metropolis Feb 7-20 . 2014

GIVE ME THE BIRD

WHEN you watch Kazuo Okanoya on stage, bobbing up and down, chirping, you know he is passionate about his work. His lab at the University of Tokyo is alive with the sound of the birds that inspire his performance – row upon row of cages full of Bengalese finches. You can see why he is so taken by them. They are beautiful and good-natured, and they sing like a dream.

Okanoya was brought up in rural Japan surrounded by farm animals as well as his own menagerie of pet hamsters, turtles, hermit crabs, chipmunks and finches. "As a child, I loved animals more than humans," he says. That he ended up studying birds is hardly surprising. But what he has discovered certainly is. He set out to explore how singing cements the intense bond between pairs of Bengalese finches and underpins their devoted parenting. Instead, his experiments might have implications for one of evolution's most enduring mysteries: the emergence of human language.

FOLK SUSHI

The Lumineers

The folk-rock group from Denver reveals how working for a sushi joint influences their approach to music as well as what they have in store for fans at the upcoming show at Shibuya-AX.Read more »

METROPOLIS 24 JAN - 6 FEB 2014

World War II's last holdout dies at 91

Hiroo Onoda, Soldier Who Hid in Jungle for Decades, Dies at 91

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Mr. Onoda was one of World War II's last holdouts, a Japanese Imperial Army officer who guarded his post for 29 years, returning home in 1974.

Ramen Museum at Shin-Yokohama

Published on Jan 7, 2014

Located a few minutes away from Shin-Yokohama Station the Ramen Museum features nine restaurants serving big bowls of ramen from different regions of Japan.

YOKOHAMA —

In 1958, instant ramen was invented in Japan and the country has been mad about noodles ever since. The GaijinPot TV crew went to visit the Ramen Museum in Yokohama to get our fill of this ubiquitous noodle dish.

Ginza's Rooftop Bees

A profile of Ginza Bee-keeping Project 

co-founder Atsuo Tanaka 

by local documentary filmmaker Louis Dai.

NEW YEAR 2014

おめでとうございます。
今年も宜しくお願いいたします！

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013