Tag Archives: japan

Denver’s direct flight to Tokyo is no longer a flight of fantasy

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United flight 139 from Denver International Airport to Tokyo’s Narita Airport flies direct daily, and shaves off hours of travel time and stress from flying to the west coast for a connecting flight to Narita.

Here’s what I wrote when the direct flight on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was first announced. Technical issues grounded the plane for several months from the original March launch, but it left on a fine late spring June day from DIA.

Here are other reports of yesterday’s celebration and inaugural; flight:

CNBC: “Sake Toast” for First United Denver-Tokyo Boeing 787 Flight

Huffington Post Denver (with KDVR Fox-31 report about Montbello Drumline traveling to Japan on second 787 flight): DIA Launches First Direct Denver To Tokyo Flight With Montbello High School Students Aboard

Follow Fox31 reporter Eli Stokols and photojournalist Anne Herbst on their blog as they travel to Japan and chronicle the direct flight and the adventures of the Montbello Drumline students. (The station will air a 30-minute soecial documentary later this summmer.)

Here’s my Nikkei View post about the Montbello Drumline’s orientation, an introduction to Japanese cuktyure including their first sashimi, even octopus.

Denver Post: Denver flight successfully takes off for Japan in inaugural journey

Montbello High School Drumline prepares for their trip to Japan

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The Montbello High School Drumline — an awesome precision drumming group — is traveling to Japan for a once-in-a-lifetime cultural exchange, on the new United 787 Dreamliner’s direct flight between Denver and Tokyo. After performing at the home of U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, the students will travel on to Takayama, Denver’s Sister City, to perform for schools and in a concert hall with a famous taiko drum group.

The Montbello group was invited by Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock, who had traveled to Takayama himself when he was a high school student, and who was a principle player in bringing the direct Tokyo flight to Denver International Airport.
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Video: Two giant Japan scholars, Donald Keene & Joyce Lebra, interviewed abt their careers, Japanese culture

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David Wagner, a consultant, trainer and journalist who is originally from Colorado but has lived for years in Japan, had the opportunity to sit down and speak with two giants of Japan scholarship. Dr. Donald Keene and Dr. Joyce Lebra (a professor at the University of Colorado).

It’s a fascinating and far-ranging conversation, starting with both Keene and Lebra’s arrival in post-war Japan and how they came to be such esteemed scholars (and in Lebra’s case, how she became an India expert too). They also cover the 1970 suicide of Japanese author Yukio Mishima (whether it was a political or artistic act), and the explosion in Japanese studies over the decades.

Anyone interested in Japan or Japanese studies should take some time and view this video.

Late Boulder photographer William Corey’s incredible photos of Japan’s gardens put on display at DIA

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Denver International Airport is preparing for the long-awaited launch of the direct flight between Denver and Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and as part of the hubbub, a Boulder photographer who died in 2008 of cancer will be paid special tribute with his enormous images on display at the airport. The photos will establish a isual — and visceral — connection with Japan for travelers before they even step aboard United flight 139’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet for the 12-hour trek.

The Boulder Daily Camera wrote up a nice piece on Corey. His widow, Reimi Adachi, is a dedicated keeper and promoter of the artists’ work, and pushed for this exhibit.

You can enjoy Corey’s spectacular talent for capturing the beauty and spiritual essence of Japanese gardens on williamcorey.com.

When I dream of sushi, I don’t dream of “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”

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Jiro Ono (left) and his son, Yoshikazu.

Jiro Ono (left) and his son, Yoshikazu.

For the past year, people have been telling us to watch “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” the 2011 documentary by David Gelb about Jiro Ono, the 85-year-old artisan sushi chef who operates a Michelin 3-star restaurant, Sukibayashi Jiro, tucked into a Tokyo underground station.

We finally saw it, and it’s a charming look at the very high end of sushi, not just as food, but as an artform. The sushi is served one piece at a time, meant to be swallowed whole, and whatever soy sauce or extra flavoring is required is brushed on by the chef before it’s placed on the customer’s plate. There are no small plates for soy sauce and wasabi to mix together at your discretion. The chef controls the experience from start to finish.

The film is also arty and deliberate in its pacing, with the telling modernist repetition of composer Philip Glass making up much of the soundtrack music. The documentary reveals the daily workings of the small restaurant and its autocratic owner Jiro and his aging son Yoshikazu who is waiting to take over when his father retires (and the younger son Takashi, who escaped to operate his own restaurant in the hip Roppongi district of the city).
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