When John Lafarge visited Japan in 1886, he and Henry Adams didn’t make it to Kyoto until the end of their trip. In An Artist’s Letters From Japan, his account of the trip, Lafarge wrote that he and Henry Adams were now ‘mere sightseers’ – no longer studying and learning, just looking. I’m not sureContinue reading "Kyoto"
On the road
In the last teaching weeks before Easter I revisited some travel books on post-war Japan - in particular Alan Booth's Roads To Sata, Lost Japan by Alex Kerr, & The Inland Sea by Donald Richie. It was quite enjoyable to reread some of the books which I read before I got really stuck into Japan as anContinue reading "On the road"
On Robots
It's robots everywhere at the minute. There have been a couple of programmes on the singularity, and the chances that an artificial intelligence might end up disassembling humanity in its quest, not for autonomy, but rather because we stand in the way of the production of whatever it has been set to maximise (always paperContinue reading "On Robots"
Three outputs, one double weighted
Or, towards a scholarship for the 21st century. A colleague in the UK Japanese studies community has declared 2015 to be the year of social media for his research efforts. For a few reasons – the new year, the release of the REF results and looking towards the next iteration, planning my own personal goals,Continue reading "Three outputs, one double weighted"
Holidays
We have just come back from a week in Devon, in Ottery St. Mary. From the name, I was expecting a tiny hamlet, but it turns out to be a decent sized town. As it happens, I knew of Ottery St Mary before we went, not only from the signs on the A30, but asContinue reading "Holidays"
Over the weekend
Over the weekend they demolished three of the cooling towers at Didcot Power Station. The towers were the focal point of the view out of the spare bedroom window in our old house - a view that was a mainstay of my doctoral research. As I wrote, I used to watch the patterns of smokeContinue reading "Over the weekend"
Towards a Ranking of Rankings
Sumo wrestlers are ranked before every tournament on a chart known as a Banzuke. There are two sides, the east and the west, and each runs down from the top rank (Yokozuna) through a series of other gradings (Ozeki, Sekiwaki, Komusubi, and so on) depending on recent performance. In the twenty-first century, of course, itContinue reading "Towards a Ranking of Rankings"
Fireflies 