David Garrick between Comedy and Tragedy by Joshua Reynolds This is the fifth entry in our series on marketing Japan to affluent tourists. This week we again turn our attention to theater. In the previous entry we mentioned that Noh is not dead, as indeed it is not. However, it is necessary for us to … Continue reading Noh Theater, Part 2
An Incubus "dreams-nightmare" by The Public Domain Review is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. This is the fourth entry in our series on marketing Japan to affluent tourists. This week we turn our attention to theater. Kabuki—that song-and-dance act featuring crossdressers and makeup that lays it on thick—is for many foreigners the most emblematic of Japanese theatrical … Continue reading Noh Theater, Part 1
Yakushi-ji's East Pagoda is a Japan's National Treasure in Nara, Nara prefecture, Japan.* This is the second entry in our multi-part series on marketing Japan to affluent foreign tourists. Our story begins in Nara, a city that attracts more than a few tourists, to be sure, but punches way below its weight when one considers its historical and cultural … Continue reading Nara City, Nara Prefecture
This is the first entry of our multi-part series on marketing Japan to affluent foreign tourists. We will look at this topic from a number of perspectives and give considerable attention to a recently opened “Luxury Collection Hotel.” We will also, on occasion, make use of our characteristic and somewhat unconventional sense of humor, but … Continue reading Attracting Upmarket Tourists to Japan: High Time for High-End
It seems as if the days are long gone when the negative connotations of the word green took pride of place in the Anglophone world; i.e., green as in inexperienced, green as in jealous (“green with envy”), green as in “I don’t want to eat green eggs and ham.” The Midoris of this world must … Continue reading Goldilocks Revisited: Takes on Tottori Prefecture
This is the first installment of a multi-part series on tree-derived alcoholic beverages. We start off with an original poem that is evocative of Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” (1913). https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12744/trees. “Trees” Revisited I think that I shall never see A liquor store as generous as a tree A tree whose rugged “skin” when stripped Can yield … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 1
This is the second editorial published by drinkingjapan.org. Last year we uploaded a multi-part series on eel (unagi), which culminated with an editorial exhorting Hamamatsu to use its reputation for eel to attract high-end tourists. The piece begins as follows: “The Japanese tourism industry was thriving until the crisis of 2020. Even during those boom … Continue reading Confluence: Hirosaki, Music, Apples, and Gastronomic Tourism
Drinking Japan 