Whether made at home or bought in one of countless shops all over the country, the humble bento — or lunch box — is arguably just as much a part of Japanese culture as sushi and sake. A meal regularly enjoyed by tens of millions of locals everyday, along with even the odd alien or two.
Archives for September 2013
A typhoon battered higanbana, Japan’s flower of death
After months of unrelenting control, summer’s horribly clammy fingers are finally beginning to lose their grip on the capital’s climate. Not that it’s currently all that obvious, as the temperatures are still high and the humidity very similar, but the arrival of the late summer/early autumn flowering higanbana (red spider lily), does at least confirm it.
Known as the flower of death, the higanbana is a beautiful, slightly otherworldly sight, that easily lives up to references in its name to, ‘the other shore’.
Poisonous to rodents and other wild animals, they were often planted in and around graveyards during Japan’s pre-cremation days to stop the dead being eaten. Plus their bright colours are said to guide souls into the afterlife, which one would assume explains their use at funerals.
Yet while in many ways representing death, they are nonetheless very resilient to it, as despite being battered by typhoon Man-yi yesterday, this particular flower is still alive, well and just as wondrous.
Tokyo gamblers
Some things are the same wherever you go. Many other things most certainly aren’t. But racetrack gamblers are far and away the former.
Dirty looks in a dirty Tokyo bar
Tokyo’s grittiest greengrocers?
In the middle of Shibuya, it would seem that people are far more interested in graffiti than grocery shopping. Yet somehow, in some way, this fascinating little shop soldiers on, creating a bygone sanctuary of sorts amidst the noise and modernity of the busy streets nearby.
The oddest of odd Japanese conversations?
Maybe they were discussing the merits (or otherwise) of Tokyo 2020. There again, maybe they weren’t. But what does seem more certain is that after a long summer of standing dutifully together, the spark in their relationship has become somewhat dimmed.