*A Beginner’s Guide to Japan*

“My colleague spends two hours a day making herself up,” my wife says, on her way to the department store where she works.

“She wants everyone to look at her?”

“No.  She wants everyone not to.”

That is from the new Pico Iyer book, pleasing throughout.  Here is an FT interview with Ayer about the book, and more.  Don’t forget:

Anime is the natural expression of an animist world.