こんにちは！ Hello! A special welcome to the Japanese readers of this blog. I’m aware that some of my most recent website visitors have been in Japan. It is so easy to fall in love with Japan. 日本がだいすきです。I love Japan. I returned to Australia earlier this week and I already miss Japan very much. I have not been very good at blogging about my residency but...
Read MoreOn the verge
Tom Cho 曹勵善 on X (formerly Twitter): “>50,000 words were written. Felt demoralised much of the time. But draft 23 has been a breakthrough. A complete draft very close now! #blog / X” 50,000 words were written. Felt demoralised much of the time. But draft 23 has been a breakthrough. A complete draft very close now!...
Read MoreOn the way to Osaka
Tom Cho 曹勵善 on X (formerly Twitter): “On the bullet train to Osaka. Tomorrow, I’m interviewing the roboticist Ishiguro Hiroshi. I’m excited about it! http://bit.ly/mtcn55 #blog / X” On the bullet train to Osaka. Tomorrow, I’m interviewing the roboticist Ishiguro Hiroshi. I’m excited about it! http://bit.ly/mtcn55...
Read MoreAfter spending my whole residency struggling with this fiction piece…
Tom Cho 曹勵善 on X (formerly Twitter): “After spending my whole residency struggling with this fiction piece, it’s coming together with a week to go. The drama! The relief! #blog / X” After spending my whole residency struggling with this fiction piece, it’s coming together with a week to go. The drama! The relief!...
Read MoreMonumental.
I’ll do another blog post from Japan soon but, in the interim, here: have some photos of a giant robot Buddha. This is from the Ushiku Daibutsu in the Ibaraki prefecture. It’s the biggest statue of Buddha in the world (120 metres from top to bottom, including the base) and it’s three times the size of the Statue of Liberty. Monumentalism...
Read MoreTetsujin 28-Go in Kobe
In 2009, some Kobe locals raised money for, like, the best project ever: to create a full-scale statue of Tetsujin 28-Go (known to westerners as Gigantor). The statue was erected in a park in the Nagata Ward (not far from Shin-Nagata train station), apparently to encourage people affected by the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the...
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