21st Century Samurai: Somanomaoi Festival
The Somanomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima was one of the last stories I covered before we moved back to the UK last summer. It’s an… Read More »21st Century Samurai: Somanomaoi Festival
Tony first moved to Japan in 1999 and, apart from a year spent at a Japanese broadsheet’s bureau in London, lived there until 2013. He has worked as a journalist, photographer, editor, translator and speechwriter. He is director of www.wedojapan.com.
The Somanomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima was one of the last stories I covered before we moved back to the UK last summer. It’s an… Read More »21st Century Samurai: Somanomaoi Festival
How do you explain the taste of sake to someone who has never drunk it? It’s a pressing question for anyone working to popularize sake… Read More »How to choose sake (with pictures)
This is an article from 2003 about the work of Japanese-boat builder Douglas Brooks. Brooks was helping to preserve Japanese boat-building skills, which were rapidly… Read More »The Last Boat-Builder
It’s safe to say that kintsugi is one of the more obscure Japanese arts. I’ve had blank stares even when I mention it to Japanese… Read More »What is kintsugi?
This – believe it or not – was the first article I ever wrote about Japan. Still one of my favourites, and definitely the one… Read More »The Shikoku Pilgrimage
There are about 1300 sake breweries in Japan. How many of them actively welcome Japanese tourists? Not many. How many of them welcome foreign tourists?… Read More »Time for Sake Tourism?
Last November I was at London’s World Travel Market to report on Japan’s booth for the Japan Journal. (Scroll down for the full story). WTM… Read More »Selling Japan Tourism at World Travel Market 2013
Sake labels that work in Japan don’t always work for overseas markets. As sake appears on the cusp of a major export boom, could it… Read More »Sake labels: Q&A with Neil Tully, wine label designer
For a speechwriter, writing speeches is definitely easier than giving then – at least for me. I’ve penned my fair share of speeches, but I’ve… Read More »Speechwriter gives a speech
Philip Harper was introduced at the Daiwa-Anglo Japanese Foundation in London as “a very unusual man”. That’s a bit of an understatement. He’s the only… Read More »Philip Harper – Sake Brewer