Mon, 1 Sep '08 - Kurosawa

Kurosawa is a small restaurant in Roppongi owned by the Hisao Kurosawa, son of the famous film director Akira Kurosawa. The restaurant is small. Interior decoration includes quality film memorabilia is restrained and of high quality. We go for it with the menu, which feature's the great man's favorite foods, made by the apprentice of the director's personal chef.

Turtle tastes like fishy turkey.

True tofu is remarkably creamy.

Ginger urchins should be avoided. 

Kurosawa's taste in fresh soba noodles in impeccable.

The staff are charmingly formal and wear a uniform that is inspired by the film Red Beard. Apart from all that this is the first time I start to be able to read Japanese: I can just about work out how much each item is (such a mundane epiphany).

JMT has Seven Samurai and Kagemusha on his iphone, this prompts a discussion re the great man's films and how the history of Japanese film is interwoven with Hollywood and European cinema. We comment on the formal photography, love of action, dead space in dialogue...

Thought
Similar but different. Japan is closer now than ever. Popular culture and the arts are a great barometer of this gradual convergence. Today Japan represents an unthreatening exoticsm is this true?