Fasten your seat-belt!

'Watch out' sign on the highway service area. "I wish I had fasten the seat-belt!"

when you drink Sake in a Japanese restaurant

Sake cups called 'Choko' are popular form of drinking vessel of Sake, of a small hand-held size.

When you go into a Japanese restaurant for a drink, they'll bring you a basket full of various 'choko's and you'll select one you like to drink Sake from.

You'll be also asked which brewery in which region and what kind of sake -dry or mild- you'd like.

Sake are often tasted hot during winter. Hot sake and 'surume', the dried cuttlefish by the 'robata', fireplace is a popular relaxing elements for the coming season.

Enjoy!!

Lucie Rie and Hans Coper

Lucie Rie and Hans Coper will be shown at the Shizuoka Art Gallery near Tokyo 12/12/06-1/28/07. This is the third and the last venue of the above exhibition which started at the New Otani Art Museum in Tokyo. About 70 pieces will be exhibited. Since Issei Miyake, a worled renowned fashion designer, first introduced Lucie Rie holding her solo exhibition in 1989 at the Sogetsu Art Gallery in Tokyo, Lucie Rie gained an enormous audience in Japan.

"Human Form in Clay" at the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo

Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, Japan
"Human Form in Clay" has travelled from Shigaraki to the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, which is about 600 kilometers south-west of Tokyo. Tokyo venue was not realized, but it will come to Shizuoka, a half way to Tokyo.

The exhibition shows variety of works of 26 artists from 11 different countries including Robert Arneson, Peter VandenBerge, Tony Natsoulas, Viola Frey, Paul Day, Carmen Dionyse, Gertraud Mohwald, Shin Fujihira.

The museum building which opened last fall is somewhat like a Japanese castle, but the inside is very modern.