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As COVID-19 decimated the Los Angeles restaurant industry, downtown’s Little Tokyo found itself particularly hard hit, as did similar enclaves of mom-and-pop eateries. Language, cultural and technological barriers made it difficult for some to adjust to the pandemic realities of delivery and takeout. Bottom lines shrank severely.
Now, Little Tokyo’s 1st Street is filled with people eating on tables extending past the curb into the street. The street’s eastern block has become a hub for alfresco dining, thanks to an L.A. city program that let restaurants offer outdoor seating during the pandemic, and which officials are considering making a permanent fixture in the city at large.
Japanese printmaker Kenji Suzuki (1906-1987), who themed his works on antiwar and labor issues, created a woodblock print titled Shomei (Signature).
It shows a woman carrying an infant on her back as she signs her name on a signature form with a determined frown. Done in bold strokes in black and white, it is a powerful work.
I lingered before it when I saw it the other day at the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts in western Tokyo. It conveyed the gravity of the act of signing one s name to a cause that really matters.
Completed in 1960, Suzuki apparently drew inspiration from a movement to protect workers rights.
Hirobon claims only TCR Japan win at Autopolis as Race 2 is canned
11 hours ago
Birth Project Racing’s Hirobon extended his Saturday Series and overall points lead with victory in what proved to be the only TCR Japan race of the weekend at a rain-affected Autopolis.
The Cupra driver, who claimed a Saturday Series win on the opening weekend of the season at Fuji mastered the conditions just well enough to edge the impressive Ai Miura by just over half a second as rain battered the circuit.
Takuya Shirasaka started the opening Saturday Series race from pole position amid a torrential downpour and initially led off the line from Hirobon.
Suehiro Among Recipients of Grant Program for Historic Small Restaurants rafu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rafu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
May 10, 2021
Six years ago, Atsushi Nakanishi launched Triple W with nothing but the seed of an idea and an overwhelming passion to realize it. Today, the startup is the creator and seller of DFree the world’s first wearable device for urinary incontinence.
The tiny, noninvasive device uses ultrasound to monitor the volume of urine in the user’s bladder in real time. When the bladder reaches its threshold, DFree sends an alert to the user’s smartphone to tell them it is time to go to the bathroom.
Nakanishi credits the ground-breaking product to a eureka moment in 2013. Due to uncontrollable diarrhea, he soiled himself in the street and, not long after, he learned that sales in Japan of adult diapers had surpassed that of baby diapers. Seeing both the need and demand for a product that lets people know when to use the bathroom, he “felt inspired” despite having zero medical background.