Japan Video Topics 2008/10
Tiny Satellite Carries a Big Dream (4'14")
A scientific satellite launched on Jan. 23, 2009 was unusual in a number of ways. This tiny 50cm cube was the independent project of a group of small factories in Higashi-Osaka. Machi-koba is the term for small urban factories working under contract to major corporations, and these have been responsible for many of Japan’s technological advances. Instead of simply supplying parts for other companies’ products, this group wanted to design their own project and complete it using their own technology. The result is now in orbit, helping research into lightning storms.
A Stroll Through Old Kawagoe (4'03")
Kawagoe is a popular tourist spot not just because of its easy access, an hour’s train ride from Tokyo, but also because this small town offers a unique opportunity to stroll through streets that have survived intact from different periods of Japan’s long history. There are rows of old shops and houses from as far back as 350 years ago when Kawagoe was a prosperous trading center, western-style buildings from the modernizing 19th century, and a whole street of old-fashioned confectionery stores still making candy the way they did in the 1930s.
Carry Your Own Chopsticks (4'11")
When eating at home, it’s a Japanese custom for each family member to use their own chopsticks, rice bowl and other utensils, the familiar feel of these personal items adding to their enjoyment of the meal. That’s one reason for the recent boom in carrying personal chopsticks to eat out at work or in restaurants, a boom encouraged by stores selling a wide range of chopsticks and cases in fashionable designs. The other reason is the cultural sense of mottainai – an aversion to waste that now makes people reluctant to use disposable restaurant chopsticks.
Tsukemono - The Pleasure of Japanese Pickles (3'32")
No Japanese meal is complete without a dish of pickles, or tsukemono. Pickled with salt, vinegar, rice bran, even soy sauce - tsukemono come in a bewildering choice of varieties, colors and tastes – any combination of ingredients you can think of is bound to be pickled somewhere in Japan as a treasured regional delicacy. Originating as a way to preserve vegetables for winter eating, tsukemono retain their enormous popularity today for their health benefits and for the refreshing taste contrast they bring to a meal.
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