LETTERS FROM A FLOATING WORLD

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis Some believe it is the pine; and the trademark Japanese pines, especially when they become bonsai, the well known dwarf-trees/sculptures certainly evoke instant memories of Japan...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis We know them as Vega and Altair, two of the brightest stars in our skies but the Japanese call them Orihime (織姫, “weaver princess”) and...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis They have been called something more than a group: a social phenomenon. And I will probably agree since even casual visitors of Tokyo can hardly...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis Today was the final day of the summer sumo tournament in Nagoya; sumo tournaments are held every two months, always on an odd month. These last...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis It was originally built in 1889, it was destroyed by fire in 1921, its rebuilding started in 1922 but before it was completed it was...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis Anyone who will walk the extra mile while wandering behind Sensoji, Tokyo’s most famous Buddhist temple, will see him in a place between a tourist...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis It might sound pompous but I am deeply convinced that the biggest crime that has been committed against Japanese gastronomical culture was that of sushi...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis Among the numerous obsessions of the Japanese, there is none as striking as the one with sports; visitors of Japan in an Olympic year will have...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis The various sources don’t agree about its exact beginnings; they do about its birthplace (it is Tokushima Prefecture in Shikaku Island) but no one seems...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis The adverse comments that followed the virtual fireworks in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony would have never been uttered in Japan if only for one reason:...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis Although, at least according to some sources, they are related the casual (and the not so casual) observer will have a hard time finding similarities...

text and photo by Grigoris A. Miliaresis They appear suddenly, when the Japanese summer reaches its peak, after the tsuyu, the monsoon and before the typhoons. In theory you can find them...