Tag: Japan

Documentary Movies To Stream!!

Jiro Dreams Of Sushi! 

A Documentary that I had a heard a lot about and while reading the “The Ride Of a Lifetime” I wanted to watch it as soon as possible. While browsing what to watch next on Netflix, I found Jiro Dreams of Sushi A Documentary on Jiro Ono who is the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a Japanese sushi restaurant in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan and who has been running the sushi restaurant for the last fifty years, Today he is ninety-five years old.

The documentary is about how he strives to perfect the sushi and how considerate towards their guest, Right from observing the clients whether they are right-handed to left-handed and accordingly they were served and how his dreams were also about perfecting the sushi.

It’s The World’s Best sushi place & Worlds Most expensive restaurant each plate of sushi cost 30,000 Yen ($300) and you require a reservation at two months in advance with three Michelin stars and has served the All the dignitaries from around the world at his restaurant.

One of the key learning – Octopus are massaged for forty- Fifty minutes to give the soft texture & Best Tuna & Shrimps are sourced from Tsukiji Market.

As this documentary was made in 2011 by David Gelb. You might not know by the name. But must have watched or heard about the Chef ’s Table & Street Food Series on Netflix. He is the creator behind these two successful series. Also since it’s been nearly a decade there has a lot happened in those years and have shared the insights as Trivia below.

Trivia :

    • Tsukiji Market Which is the largest Fishmarket in the world and is known for the TUNA Auction that happens at 5 am to 6:30 am and can be viewed by the tourist. The Tsukiji market has now been relocated to Toyusu and is known as The Toyosu Fish Market.
    • Also, The auction is held on Green floor as Tuna is determined by the red stains and Red stands out on Green Backdrop.
    • Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo is now open reservations only from regulars, people with “special connections,” or those who use a luxury-hotel concierge
    • Restaurant has also lost it’s Michelin Stars.
    • Jiro Ono is the Worlds oldest chef alive at 95. 

American Factory

A Story about a  Chinese Billionaire opening up a Factory in The United States of America and the conflicts between the American labourers & Chinese working styles are highlighted in this documentary. This is an interesting documentary to understanding the challenges the two nations face & the difference in working styles.

The Game Changer

The lifestyle of going green & vegan is one of the biggest changes today and with the situation, we are all in this is the biggest game-changer. And the ninety-minute documentary-style film worth watching on the streaming platform for both the ones against going green in their diets and ones thinking about changing their diets and for the ones who have always followed this diet. It’s truly one of the biggest Game changers – The Food we are consuming today and the food we should be consuming now.

McQueen

Why some designers are considered the well-known one in the industry and how they establish themselves with the competitions in the very competitive fashion industry. Alexander McQueen is a documentary about his early & fast success in the fashion industry and The eccentric styling & fashion showcases he displayed in his period has been one of the influential and aspirational designers to collaborate with and own.

Untouchables – Harvey Weinstein

A Hollywood Mogul who exploited his power by taking advantages of an aspiring actress who wanted to make it big in the industry. This story is about how he was finally caught after being, The Monster for three decades who successfully owned & managed one of the most successful studios of “Hollywood” Miramax named after his parents and a studio who had quite a few Academy Awards for the films he produced with his brother Bob. This is about the #Metoo movement that was a revolution that started for everybody to speak up, the one’s who was once a victim of harassment not just in Hollywood industry, But in the other industries.

 

2020 Lockdown Itinerary!

More than halfway through 2020. I ended up reading about a dozen books, Losing track of time. It hardly made me realise it’s been five months, I haven’t travelled anywhere at all. Not even Mumbai which is the closest Metro city from my hometown Nashik.

This also made me question am I liking it to be in one place, without moving at all.

Well, To be honest. It’s a first for me and while I couldn’t travel physically anywhere. Not even to a restaurant or cafe.

I have been having the best of food cuisines right from Thai, Chinese, and Italian pizzas to freshly baked desserts and cakes at home. This doesn’t mean I don’t miss going out.

I Sure do because, when we go out, We go for the experience of going somewhere, Trying something new, different or sometimes just for the ambience and service of being served, rather than helping ourselves. You also go for the occasional noise that’s part of the environment. People chit-chatting having conversations, to you finding the solution and clearing your doubts from not knowing what to order, to going with the suggestion by the waiter serving you to missing out a menu option, that the order table guest has just ordered.

As far as travelling goes as a tourist- The Books have been helping me by taking me to America by going on a history tour by having a well-researched guide (Bill Bryson) To telling me about Indian history by making me meet Historians such as William Dalrymple. Reading makes me feel sometimes “Lost in Japan” by either overhearing a mysterious case “Under The Midnight Sun” or giving it a realism-magical sense of the place by letting me know about “Kafka on The Shores” To making me Revisit Turkey But this time also making me experiencing the “Snow” by a local Orhan Pamuk and taking me to a lesser-known city in the country Kars.

Reading made me understand a doctor’s life by sharing the concept of “Being Mortal” to making me meet some interesting personalities, Michelle Obama & Robert Iger.

All these experiences while sipping coffee and hopping around the different corners of my home, enjoying the weather and trying to do my best while sitting at home.

But, Yes Travelling physically cannot be replaced by reading books. But, reading can comfort you in planning out your next travel journey.

What I Talk about Running, When I talk about Running by Murakami.

Yes, This would be after ages! Where I have been a fan of not just somebody’s craft but the person itself. So, you might think I would be biased and defence on my analysis for this book reviewing. What I talk about” Running by Murakami “is a Memoir by his on admission.

The only reason I was eagerly wanting to read this book is – How many Writers write their own autobiographies and How many write on the process & their passions.

Murakami had first titled his book “What I Talk about Running When I talk about Running” After being inspired by a short story collection from his favourite writer Raymond Carver.

The Book describes his first instinct of starting to run. He feels he started late at thirty-three he began started learning, And that was because he wanted to in shape and running practically needed no investment besides a pair of shoes and tracks and he wasn’t good with team sports and admits he is a loner. “ I am the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone”

The book also highlights and makes you feel, He was in many ways a late bloomer. He wrote his first book at the age of Twenty-nine. He had this idea he could write stories after witnessing a baseball game And so his first novel was “Hear the Wind Sing”

He has completed a total of twenty-six marathons and has also done ironman Triathlons that involve (Swimming +Running + Cycling ) 4 km (2.4 miles) swimming,180.25 (112 miles) cycling and 42.20 km (26.22 miles) of running. Done in the same order and ultramarathons that’s more than the 42.20 km.

And he describes his process & fears of just following his passions.

And do you know why the running is a race called marathon?

I had never found this piece of information in any of the travel articles until I read the book and it’s so-called because first it’s a place in Greece that’s 42.20 km ( 26.2 miles) And the history behind is the information : Military runner was delivering news to Athens about their victory over Persians at Marathons and hence it’s a standard Marathon is 42.20 kms (26.2miles) long.

Now coming back to his writing. Murakami enjoys being a writer as he is a quiet person who doesn’t seek validation and relies on his inner motivation.

And Murakami believes to be a writer one should possess the qualities such as a talent (An inclination with some skill)

Should be able to focus (Being able to concentrate, and having patience to staring at blank pages and to patience to write for about months ) And Endurance – Writing can be difficult and uncertain but if you can overcome this it would pay off the patience you have invested in the profession.

The book is humorous and funny in many ways, And if you are a runner or into sports you would immediately click with them

Trivia:

  • Just like every other book – There is a playlist of Murakami that’s he has for his running and he uses a traditional music player and not an iPod as he believes you can’t mix music with computers to just like it’s not good to mix friends, Work & Sex.
  • There is a City named Murakami in Japan in Niigata prefecture ( Just like we have states Japan has prefecture and there are a total of forty-seven in Japan), no it’s not named after him, but after the Murakami castle. They have a marathon which Murakami participates in.
  • They are three translators Murakami works with – One translates the music and the other translates the story.
  • An Israeli illustrator, Noma Bar designs all his covers.
  • There is a playlist of Murakami Vinyl on Spotify.
  • He has a stamp that goes with his signature.
  • And for all those who have read his works surely know he once owned & ran a Jazz Bar in Japan.
  • This Book has taken a decade to write & publish and rightly so he doesn’t believe in deadlines.

Kafka On The Shore By Murakami !

 

 

 

“Kafka on The Shore by Haruki Murakami”

“Kafka on The shore by Haruki Murakami”

Is the seventh or eighth book in the Murakami collection that I have read so far and Kafka on the shore has been one of the most enjoyable mysteries to unfold. 

Murakami has stuck to his elements in his writing.

Cats, Painting and characters we want to know more about.

Though I read “Killing Commemorate” Last year, Before reading Kafka on the shore and though both were on the same lines. Kafka on the shore has been a breeze to read.

Like all the other Murakami books, Japan has always been a backdrop with every story and a new town or new side of the city is portrayed.

Kafka on the Shore is a story of Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old boy who runs away from home to escape an awful oedipal prophecy, and Nakata, ageing and illiterate simpleton who has never completely recovered from a wartime affliction. Kafka’s journey brings him to a small private library in the provincial town of Takamatsu and to a mountain hideaway where the ordinary laws of time no longer apply. But, like Oedipus, the more Kafka tries to avoid his fate, the closer he comes to fulfilling it. Nakata also sets forth on a quest for an enigmatic entrance stone, the significance of which he does not understand. Intellectually ambitious, emotionally intense, and beautifully written.

Japan Made Easy by Sandeep Goyal

Japan Made Easy is one of the best books to know more about the Japanese lifestyle, Business Ethics, Culture, Spiritual and Food Habits and all these are shared by the Japanese words used to describe each situation or word. This makes the book an interesting read for anyone who wants to know more about Japan or the basics before they would be travelling or after they have travelled.

This book is split into eight sections with an average of ten chapters in each section.

The book also shares insights of  Japan through the years.

In the miso soup !

The author Ryu Murakami is another author from Japan and is no way related to Haruki Murakami who has had many well known books written to his name, and have also been adapted to movies.

Ryu Murakami has written quite a few books “Audition” and “Piercing” are two of his other popular books apart from “in the miso soup” written by Ryu Murakami. 

The other two books too like the”In the miso soup” are centred around the dark backdrop of Japan, disillusion, drug use and Murder 

The book  titled “In the Miso soup “ is a apt title  for  two reasons – One because the character compares his life with the miso soup and phara phrase  the quote “I’m in the miso soup myself- Just like those bits of vegetable. I’m floating around in this giant bowl of it, and that’s good enough for me. 

And the other  the book is titled “In the miso soup” because the character’s  purpose to visit Japan was to find out what the people who eat the miso soup on daily basis might be like.Again to Quote from the book. As he once ordered it in an  America  restaurant and was intrigued  about it. He decided  travel to Japan. 

The moment I read the title of the book and turned over to read the blurb mentioned below,I was interested in reading this book. . 

It’s just before New Year, Frank an overweight American tourist, has hired kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo’s nightlife.

But, Franks behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion : His client may in fact have murderous desires. 

Although, Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen year old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Yeah, It’s a coincidence that this is my second book in a row from a Japanese author. But,The Japanese authors have such interesting storylines ,written in a captivating way that you become so engrossed in the storytelling, you only want more and more of it.

The book is written in three chapters. 

Chapter 1 – Describes and establishes what the story is about – The beginning of how the characters meet. 

Chapter 2 – The relationship between the two and why Kenji becomes suspicious  about his client. 

Chapter 3 – Is the reason behind why  one  should read the book. 

The Book highlights the American and Japanese culture,What makes each different and similarities amongst the two. The ideology between the two nations amongst the locals and the identities each of the nation has created for itself. 

Since the book was written long back ago, You might agree/disagree about some of the points discussed. 

“In the miso soup” Is a crisp, well written physiological thriller set in the dark backdrop of Japan,that you will only put  the book down once you read it.