[This article was published in Atgimimas in February 2009 (in Lithuanian). It was translated by professional translators for public procurement purposes. The copyright of the original article belongs to the publisher of Atgimimas, Pilietinės minties institutas, and the copyright of this English translation belongs to Gravitas Partners. The archives of Atgimimas are no longer available online.] Statistical data about the situation of …
Tartu: small but dynamic
It’s a bit more than an hour since I returned from a lovely trip to Estonia, and I want to start from the freshest impressions. Those come from Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia. Tartu is known as a student city with a laid-back character. Everything is more or less within a walking distance, so Tartu people consider everything …
Post-conflict, multicultural and other landscapes in Novi Sad and Belgrade
I’m back from Serbia, where I went for my summer school (it was a part of the programme). We went there to study how various aid from international donors impacts (or not) media development. What we saw was, however, different than expected. Most of donor support went to Belgrade. Many people we interviewed in the public radio never had any …
Public and private mixture in Roppongi
Yesterday I spent a few hours in a park near Tokyo Midtown – a shopping and office complex in Roppongi. Me and my friend noticed that there are guards who sometimes walk around. Otherwise it was like every other park. I had been there before, during the Roppongi Art Night events, when the park was filled with balloons with light. …
Social capital for moving in space
Today I’ve been contemplating two types of social capital I “own”, which I normally don’t reflect upon: white body and EU passport. What is in common between them? They facilitate certain movement in space and produce certain expectations in others. And, of course, I’ve been contemplating this in relation to my research about migration.
It takes ten minutes to become a bar hostess in Tokyo
Yesterday I did a rather exciting journalistic experiment. Without many plans on my mind, I went to Kinshicho, an area known for its bars and clubs with foreign hostesses and a lot of foreigners in general. I visited this area once with B., as recommended by Y.
Tent village in Yoyogi – another side of Japan
There are 43 people in the village, but some years ago there were as many as 400. Some have been living here for a few months only, but some are true veterans – one has been around for good 20 years, and over there lives ‘ojiisan’ (‘grandpa’), who has been staying in the park for as many as 50 years. …
Restaurant review for tofu fans + more on eating out
My friend Y. discovered a really cool restaurant in Shibuya. It’s called “Sora no niwa” (here’s one review with a map) and is about 10 min walk from Shibuya station. It specialises in tofu, and thus is a paradise for vegetarians and vegans, or those who aren’t yet convinced that the seemingly tasteless Japanese invention can turn into a broad …
Rock, punk and vegan cultures in Tokyo
I’m really fortunate that a friend of my friend B. introduced us to K., who is an activist in feminism, homeless issues and anti-consumerism. She suggested that we go to see a vegan cafe near Koenji station (after exiting the station, turn left immediately and take the first street from the left. The bar which hosts the vegan cafe is …
Outdoor activities in Tokyo
Yesterday we had a chance to experience some outdoor life, because it was a sunny Sunday. We started our trip from Meiji shrine in Harajuku. The area surrounding the shrine had probably the highest concentration of foreigners that I’ve seen in Tokyo this time (I’ve in Japan before, in 2004). Many people, alone, in couples or with their children, went …
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