"It's mine, or maybe it's for you" - this might be a good idea...

Japan Today's "Picture of the Day" (10/22/26) by Sabria Meghraoui.

Text: A Family Mart convenience store offers free sticky notes you can take for your snacks or bento when you have to store them in your office or if you want to offer them with a message to someone.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/it's-mine-or-maybe-for-you

Announcement:「Roots in a New Land: Visualizing the Lives and Cultural Continuities of Ethiopians in Japan Writer: Itsushi Kawase (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan)」

This talk reflects on the author’s years of participatory, reflexive ethnographic filmmaking in northern Ethiopia, before turning to recent film projects in Tokyo.

Japan is home to people from many cultures, yet African immigrants remain little known to the wider public. In Tokyo’s Katsushika and Sumida wards, Ethiopian immigrants have formed a close-knit community, connected through gatherings such as Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Faith, and engaging neighbours through music, dance and food.

Countering the dominant framing of immigrants as “foreign human resources” for labour shortages, the film portrays them as individuals and active community members, following the Adeyabeba Ethiopia Association. It invites reflection on Japan as a society that thrives through cultural diversity.

Itsushi Kawase is a professor at the National Museum of Ethnology and the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Japan. Combining ethnographic filmmaking, poetry, fiction, and performance, he researches music cultures in northern Ethiopia and the Ethiopian diaspora in Tokyo. His acclaimed films include Azmari: The Feast of Voices (2023), When Spirits Ride Their Horses (2012), and Room 11, Ethiopia Hotel (2007). He has served as a guest professor at universities across Europe, Ethiopia, and China, and as a juror and selection committee member for international ethnographic film festivals. In 2025, EHESS hosted a symposium in Marseille dedicated to his film and literary work.

This event is organized by Megha Wadhwa (Assistant Professor, DES, Sophia University) for the ICC Research Unit Visual Studies and Displacement in/to Japan and for SORW 2026.

「This Year's Halloween Door」・subtitled "Well I guess I don't need to put the noren up this year..."

As always, with thoughts of, and contribtions from, dear friends...

Why no noren this year (as opposed to 2023 and 2025)?

I will let my Hanshin Tigers and Umeno supporting compatriot break the news to you (if you haven't already heard...)

Visual Anthropology, Multimodality, Creative Works, Decolonialism, Collective Graduate Students, Manifestos and Professor Dada Docot...

Recently posted by Professor Dada Docot, a great filmmaker, researcher, writer, visual anthropologist and teacher who is always willing to share. I am grateful (and so are my students!).

The ALab: https://www.the-alab.com/

Docot, Dada. 2026. “Teaching a Decolonial Visual Anthropology: An Introduction to a Collective Student Manifesto for Producing Creative Work.” American Anthropologist website, October 6. https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/teaching-a-decolonial-visual-anthropology

Borgelt, Taylor, Rebecca-Eli Long, Rebecca Martinez, Hanna Newell, Olivia Palepoi, Jayvaughn Peter, David Tortolini, and Juan Manuel Arévalo Viveros. 2026. “Dimensions: An Ephemeral Manifesto on Creativity.” American Anthropologist website, October 6. https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/dimensions-an-ephemeral-manifesto-on-creativity

Bobus! Dada Doco's website: https://dadadocot.wordpress.com/

Hanshin Tigers Clinch the 2026 NPB Central League Championship! ・ 阪神タイガースが2026年NPBセントラル・リーグ優勝を決定!

Image: https://hanshintigers.jp/

The NPB Climax Series Schedule: