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October 2024

Urban Japan: A Local Food Cafe in Every Neighborhood?
This week we step inside a tiny pasta shop in Nagoya, Japan, where half a century of history, and a humble chef reveal how small, local restaurants can…
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Patrick M. Lydon
5
Urban Japan: Cities of Smallness and Awareness
In the heart of Japan's mega cities, it’s not the big chaotic rush, but the subtle flow of smallness and awareness that keeps everything moving. Join me…
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Patrick M. Lydon
2
Urban Japan: The Benefits of Neighborhood Factories. Really.
From handmade goods to industrial production, Japan’s neighborhood factories offer more than just jobs—they play a crucial role in creating sustainable…
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Patrick M. Lydon
3
Urban Japan: The True Cost of Cars and Parking
Free street parking is not exactly free, and most Americans are paying a lot for it without knowing. This week we look at the real cost of street…
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Patrick M. Lydon
10

September 2024

Urban Japan: Why Is It So Good?
This week starts a series revolving around the neighborhood below, a typical urban neighborhood in Japan.
7
Summoning Sacred Nature to the City
If you see an odd person with a basket on their head and a bamboo flute in their hands, you might have happened upon a flute-playing assassin-monk…
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Patrick M. Lydon
5
Hokusai, Oi, and the Ecological Mega-City
For development to be useful and sane, it must be tethered to the reality of our place in nature and the cosmos.
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Patrick M. Lydon
1
Five Views of Three Japanese Cities
This week I offer a handful of sketches, from scenes that linger in my memory — not because of their grandeur, but because of their simplicity. Step…
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Patrick M. Lydon
2

August 2024

Mojiko: Where the Wind Stops, the Sun Returns
This shop is a business and businesses deal in transactions. Yet nothing about our visits ever feels transactional. This draws us closer.
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Patrick M. Lydon
1
Mojiko: A Family Liquor Shop and the Re-Imagining of Old Things
Welcome!
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Patrick M. Lydon
8
A New Space, Part VI: Celebrating Small Wins in Up-Cycling
As we work to transform an old mountainside space into a studio and shop, we’ve faced some challenges—but the small wins keep us going.
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Patrick M. Lydon
2
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