I’ve been keeping track of my daily activities since I arrived in Japan (mood, weather, places I go, things I buy, projects I’m working on and people I meet). Last month I started designing a book to house this information, and realized it was missing a pictorial layer. So although it’s late in the year, [...]
When people ask me to describe my research there’s always an awkward pause. “It’s a little, complicated… ,” I start. I don’t want to seem lazy or condescending, but it’s impossible to prepare a single appropriate response. The issue has come up a number of times recently because of the range of people I’ve met, [...]
Recently, my advisor drew this simple diagram to explain the difference between Japanese and Western conceptions of surface. While we generally value exterior as a direct extension/expression of core meaning (toward authenticity), in Japan omote (front) compliments, but is not necessarily derived from ura (back/hidden side). That surface may be (acceptably) detached from meaning seems [...]
