Another new chapter

Due to the continuing deterioration of the situation in Daiichi, news this morning of fuel rod exposure along with the US Ambassador prescribing an 80km evacuation radius for US citizens (which is greater than the Japanese recommendation for its citizens), we have made arrangements to fly to Europe tomorrow morning.

Obviously we're sad to leave our trip to Japan incomplete. This visit was definitely a lot more than just a vacation for us, so in many respects this also sets both of us back professionally as well as personally. We caught a glimpse of what we came to see in Sapporo and Asahikawa, with people there showing not only incredible hospitality, but equally amazing skill and work. Their capacity and product of work definitely blurs the line between art and craft. In the Western world (at least in Western kitchens) there always seems to exist a debate between art vs craft...In particular, those who debate often position "art" as above "craft" and there are those in the kitchen who would see any attempts to create art in the kitchen as a pretentious pursuit. And if not that, they see it as a disrespect to the nobility of kitchen craft. Whether this is some form of asceticism or simple false-modesty or something else, I suppose, depends on the person. But, after seeing what goes on in Sapporo and Hokkaido, it seems to render the debate moot.

The life of a personal work is in the inextricability of art and craft.