A few weeks ago I attended the premiere of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated film, Howl’s Moving Castle, at the MOMA here in NYC. I was ecstatic that the first premiere I’d ever attend was a Studio Ghibli creation. Maybe it was my brimming anticipation, or the expectations I’d come to hold from the reassurance that the creators of my favorite animated films could never, EVER do wrong… I was sure that night that I would come out of the theater happy and wide-eyed under yet another Miyazaki spell. I had no idea I was in for quite a different experience…
Category: Essays
How many eating utensils do people go through in a lifetime?
It’s not a question many people can answer, much less think to ask. The Japanese tradition of family members each owning designated pairs of ohashi (chopsticks), links different years of my life with various pairs I’ve used. It was only when I took its ubiquitous presence out of this quotidian context, that I came to appreciate the true ingenuity of ohashi.
