Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

OKAMOTO ROADSHOW

Regarding “Taro Okamoto” (Art, September 9): I believe I have a painted tile scene of the Arc de Triomphe by Okamoto but cannot find it listed anywhere. Do you know if this exists and how much it is worth? Thank you.—Rev. Robin Cushner
(Anyone?—Eds)

ASHES TO ASHES

Regarding “Public Enemy #1” (Feature, Oct 7): Japan Society for Tobacco Control executive secretary Kyoichi Miyazaki describes the decision to ban public-area smoking as the route of least resistance. His comment says a lot about the cosmetic approach to any difficulty in Japan. Appearance is paramount in Japan.  So banning smoking in public makes it look better to the eye and camera, even while in private there’s little change. It’s a very Japanese solution, combining public group responsibility with shallow cosmetics; appearing to do something while in fact doing very little; confusing effort with accomplishment.—Grant Piper 

UNSOLICITED EMAIL OF THE WEEK

Dear Friend, I like to share a picture of the famous Edward James Olmos at a Japanese cemetery performing his mother burial services. Interested?—Noe Iniguez

GROUP OF THE WEEK

Learn Japanese
This is a free and fine group to help people learning Japanese. We’ll give audio books and ebooks and software to aid with you with successful Japanese studies so you can express yourself confidently in Japanese without any problem. Feel free to join!—http://meturl.com/learnjapanese

Join the Metropolis Community at http://metropolis.co.jp/community