Tokyo 2008 Michelin Guide

I got the Michelin guide for Tokyo yesterday.

I haven't read it yet, but I have read the big news on the net about it. Whether fine dining in Tokyo is really that good, or whether this is another "take" on the recent boom of Tokyo-ness and Japanese Pop culture, I don't know.

I am not saying that Tokyo does not deserve the credits. Maybe it does. After all, it's a huge and rich city. But is this evolution of Tokyo so recent? Otherwise, why is Michelin coming now, over 100 years after the 1st guide, and say "hey, sorry guys... Guess what, we, the masters of good dining, we have been ignoring one of the best dining cities of the world. Sorry about that! But don't worry, we have found it now, so please read our 1st guide ever for the city. Dozo!"

Maybe they had no choice. How else could they launch the guide with less embarrassment? And how else would they get accepted? After all, the Japanese side made sure in advance that they would not accept any negative comments.

But anyway, now I know where to go when I want to impress my dates.
(and justify the money for the dinner...)

Adam Curtis' Films

[UPDATE: the links below don't work anymore, sorry...]

At first I did not want to post about these films in this blog, because I thought of them as not relevant to Tokyo and Japan. But it didn't take me long to realize that the methods mentioned in Adam Curtis' documentaries have most probably found good usage here... Even just to keep the links to the videos, here are the documentaries I refer to:

"The Trap"
About the trap politicians fall, when they try using science to make people's life better.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3

"The Century of the Self"
About how politicians have used Freudian psychoanalysis to control the masses.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

"The Mayfair Set"
About how politicians have used psychoanalysis to control the masses.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

and the "Power of Nightmares", for which I will only link to episode 1. It's about how fear is used in politics.

I have left the "Pandora's box" series as last, even though it is the oldest.

Great documentaries!
Well, they will not replace books, but what I like the most about them is, they don't offer any solutions. Just give an overview of the methods, the theories they were based on, how and by whom they were applied, why they succeeded, and why they failed.

If I want to be pessimistic I would say:
these methods have worked in the past, they could work again.
If I want to be optimistic I would say:
these methods have failed in the past, they will not be used again.