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 Mio Yamada

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Mio Yamada
A freelance arts and lifestyle editor and writer, Mio Yamada focuses on design, crafts and architecture. When she’s not visiting galleries and trade fairs, you'll find her taking photos of everything and being distracted by shiny objects. She's also surprisingly British.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 25, 2011
Inside a construction site of an artist's mind
Tokyo-based Scottish artist Jack McLean's creepy-cute anthropomorphized planks of wood are weird enough on their own, but crammed together inside The Container, a new art space in Tokyo's Naka-Meguro district, they are even more unnerving. Huddled in corners, leaning against walls and hanging precariously...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 25, 2011
'Wing Shya: Female Trouble'
Gallery Speak For
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 7, 2011
Realizing the genius of Leonardo da Vinci
A temporary pavilion in Tokyo's Hibiya Park seems like an unlikely venue for showcasing the hallowed works of Leonardo da Vinci, but for this particular exhibition, the big top-like structure is appropriate. "Leonardo da Vinci: The Genius" is aimed straight at the general public. Designed, produced,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Nov 26, 2010
'Catalysis for Life: New Language of Dutch Art and Design'
Museum of Contemporary
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2010
Rethinking traditional urushi lacquerware
London, it appears, is a good place to learn about both past and present Japan. Last year, as Britain celebrated 150 years of cultural exchange with Japan, it hosted a number of major shows, including a large-scale matsuri (festival) in Spitalfields Market, a comprehensive exhibition of Utagawa Kuniyoshi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 20, 2010
Going back to school for alternative art
A first-time visitor to 3331 Arts Chiyoda might be equally intrigued and confused. To the left of the entrance, there's a wide open space with only tables and chairs; in the center, a small booth with shelves stuffed with toys; to the right, a stylish cafe; and, around the corner, huge photos of expressionless...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Jul 9, 2010
Science exhibition / 'Sensor in the Life'
Sony ExploraScience
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2010
Vernacular photography — a means to avoid an end
A woman in a corseted, white-lace dress stares straight ahead as she unveils a framed funerary portrait of another young woman. This sepia-toned 19th-century photograph is historian and curator Geoffrey Batchen's choice for the very first image of "Suspending Time: Life - Photography - Death" at the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
May 14, 2010
'Fear Experiment: Science in "Haunted House" '
National Museum of Emerging Science
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 21, 2009
The right platform for selling to women on the go
Miss Metro Manners might be asking women to 'Please do it at home,' but the stationmasters are clearly saying, 'Please shop here.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Sep 18, 2009
"Showa Boys SF Guide"
Yayoi Museum Closes Sept. 27
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 28, 2009
'Hafu' focuses on whole individual
"I always found it really strange," says Natalie Maya Willer, 30, a photographer based in London, "how I thought I could spot half-Japanese people in the street. . . . Then at the same time, with me not really looking Japanese, I also wondered if there really isn't a half-Japanese look after all!"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Nov 29, 2008
Second Harvest gets the food to those who need it
Sitting at the wheel of a 4-ton truck, Charles McJilton suddenly says, "Oh wait, wait!" before pulling off his T-shirt and swapping it for a white one with a bright orange Second Harvest Japan logo on the chest and "Food for all people" spanning his back. "It's all about branding," he jokes, as he slips...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 2008
Memoirs of a modern-day geisha
BAR FLOWER: My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess, by Lea Jacobson. St. Martin's Press, 2008, 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth) There will never be a lack of visitors to Japan who want to share their impressions in print; and the stream of tears from confessional memoirs will...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 13, 2008
Anjinsai: Briton is Japanese tradition
On Aug. 10, on the eastern shore of Izu Peninsula, the usually laid-back city of Ito was showing signs of hustle and bustle. Near the beach, street stalls served traditional snacks and drinks while other vendors delighted children with goldfish, candy and brightly colored masks. Further into town, locals...
CULTURE / Books
May 6, 2007
In Japan, dogs 'wan,' cats 'nya' and cows 'mo'
HIRA HIRA KIRARI: Michey's Word Play, Onomatopoeia 1, 2, 3, by Mitsuko Hasse, illustrated by Haruko Nakaune, translated by Darrel Frentz. Fuzambo International, 2006, 155 pp., 2,000 yen (paper) Those familiar with The Japan Times' bilingual page will know Michey, the star of Word Play, a cartoon column...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 25, 2007
Traveling light at heart, heavy in mind
JAPANESE FOR TRAVELLERS: A Journey Through Modern Japan, by Katie Kitamura. Penguin, 258 pp., 2006, £7.99 (paper) When Katie Kitamura's parents left Japan for the United States they left behind three different generations: Katie's cousins, her aunts and uncles, and her grandparents. In "Japanese...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2006
Adding some passion to our plastic world
PLASTIC CULTURE: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World, by Woodrow Phoenix. Kodansha International, 2006, 112 pp., fully illustrated, 3,150 yen (cloth). Plastic toys were once considered cheap, disposable and replaceable -- bright and cheerful mass-manufactured dolls, model cars and trinkets that needed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005
Book bite
SEEING JAPAN (three-volume boxed set), by Charles Whipple, Juliet W. Carpenter, Kaori Shoji. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, approx. 90 pp. per volume, 11,400 yen (cloth). "Seeing Japan," the boxed set, presents three different visual journeys: Japan as a whole, plus the country's two famous cities...

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