Jump to content

Menu

Christmas present for Japan-loving DD


Recommended Posts

I have known more than one non-adult to be riveted by The Seven Samurai. The Criterion edition has a terrific commentary by a film critic who lives in Japan. He points out all the sayings, etc. that Kurosawa has put in it, e.g. when the villagers are all squatting in the middle of town trying to decide what to do about the bandits, the villager whose wife was kidnapped by the bandits suddenly stands up. There is a Japanese saying "the nail that sticks up is the one that is hammered down", and Kurosawa uses this to foreshadow this man's death in the upcoming battle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amazon has all sorts of adorable merchandise for your favorite Japanese cartoon. Lots of Totoro stuff, for example--my mom is getting two handtowels, but there are stuffies, bento boxes, slippers...and if she's never seen Totoro, then clearly she needs the movie for Christmas (but get either subtitled or the OLD English version, not the current one marketed by Disney with Dakota Fanning--it's not so good). Oh, and get her the Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle if she likes the Miyazaki movie, or get her both!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.jbox.com/home

 

This site has tons of Japanese stuff- we've bought from them a dozen times and have always been pleased with the products and service. I bet she'd love a cute bento box or some accessories from Japan.

 

Warning: they do have a part of the website that has some adult items, but you have to sign in to that part- you don't stumble across it. But it is there, so you might not want to let kids on the site unsupervised. I've never seen any of it, but I saw a warning a few times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A Japanese tea set with a variety of green teas, a calligraphy set with the ink you prepare from the block and brushes, paper, a set of dishes for sushi and/or soup bowls, a set of family chopsticks, a "coupon" good for an Asian market to get ingredients for recipes from a Japanese cookbook, a gift certificate to a Japanese restaurant - these are some things that come to mind. If you're near a large city, you might offer a day or two there including a visit to a Japanese art museum and a meal or two at a Japanese restaurant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...