G M Thomas FRSA FRAS
23K posts
@japanauthor
Fellow Royal Society of Arts. Fellow Royal Asiatic Society. Royal Society for Asia Affairs.
I mean, just look at him. By steeping himself in British culture, and communicating a genuine love and appreciation, Hiroshi Suzuki has become not only a supreme ambassador for Japan, but every Brit's favourite diplomat. @AmbJapanUK is truly in a league of his own.
Indeed he is. By far the best ambassador to Britain.
It would appear that rather than expending goodwill on Trump, the Japanese gvt would do better to settle relations with China.
The Stones did one great (and very American) album Let It Bleed and that was it. Album cover design also brilliant - by Robert Brownjohn. (The cake was baked by Delia Smith.) #RollingStones
I like the Stones but, unlike The Beatles, they always shamelessly, desperately wanted to be an American band. youtube.com/watch?v=tSMFQH…
You can’t call yourself a fan of the Japanese until you’ve fallen in love with the Japanese Ambassador to the UK. This guy is a legend!
【香川を代表する魚「イイダコ」】 体長は5～20㎝程度で頭(胴)から丸かじりできるのが醍醐味です。香川県では丸ごと煮込んだものや里芋との煮物「いもたこ」。ネギやワケギとの「酢味噌和え」。讃岐うどんのトッピングまで。地元ならではの様々な料理が楽しめる食材です。
i've been watching the BBC series The Shadow of the Tower, which chronicles the rise to power of Henry VII after the War of the Roses and his struggle to establish the Tudor dynasty on the throne of England. Watching it is a stark reminder of how, not long ago, this was a very different country. Ask yourself, would the BBC today commission such a piece of historical re-enactment? Would it attempt to faithfully portray the mind and motives of Henry, the political intrigues of the Council, or the deeply alien world of late-medieval England - without smothering it in modern moral commentary? The answer is obviously no. The BBC of 1972 was actually interested in portraying British history, for a British public who had been taught this at school. There was an implicit sense that this is the history of the land and the people who inhabit it should naturally wish to see it faithfully represented. Today, we have lost confidence in our past. When we do deal with it, it is only insofar as we recognise our wrongdoings. It has become a cautionary tale about the present, rather than a world worth inhabiting in its own sense. And that's a great, great shame.
Absolute bombshell in the culinary world. South Korea just went to Paris and WON the global baking competition, beating the French at their own game. Korean bakers are taking European styles and adding local twists. The new kings of bread!
🇯🇵 Japan is trending on X today. Good. It’s long overdue. Let me tell you three things about this country that will quietly rearrange everything you thought you knew about human nature. And animal nature, for that matter. Someone left an iPhone on a bench in Tokyo. Not in a sleepy suburb. In Tokyo, a city of thirty-seven million people, most of them late for something. The phone sat there. The next day, it was still there. Which means that every single person who walked past it made a small, private decision: not my phone. Leave it. In most cities, that phone would have had the life expectancy of a mayfly in a thunderstorm. Then there are the football fans. Japan plays a match, the stadium shakes, and then they tidy up. Every wrapper, every cup, every last plastic bag. They leave the stands cleaner than they found them. As a matter of course. As if it simply never occurred to them to do anything else. And then there is Nara. In this ancient city, over a thousand wild deer roam freely among temples and schoolchildren and tourists. They have lived alongside humans for thirteen centuries, considered sacred messengers of the gods. They will walk up to you, look you in the eye, and bow. Deeply and deliberately. It is, I should mention, a learned trick to get rice crackers. But here is the thing: somewhere along the way, a deer decided that the correct way to ask a human for something was to bow politely first. In Japan, even the wildlife has manners. No law requires any of this. No fine threatens it. It emerges from something much harder to legislate: the quiet, unshakeable conviction that the space around you is shared, and therefore your responsibility. Three small stories. One very large idea. The rest of us might want to take notes. ありがとう、日本。 Thank you, Japan. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
