Japonaise Bakery in Porter still closed

Update 7/10/15: I have confirmed that the Porter Square location is permanently closed. Their Brookline location is still open.

I was in the Porter Exchange last night so stopped by to see what was going on at the Japonaise Bakery. There was a sign in the window saying they are temporarily closed but things don't look promising for reopening any time soon. They've removed all their non-baked goods products, refrigerators, and display cases.

In other news, Japonaise will be one of the food vendors at the Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival!

See also: Japonaise Bakery in Porter Closed

BEND: Kimi Maeda @ Brandeis University

Japanese American theatre artist, Kimi Maeda, will be performing at Brandeis University next week.

BEND
If memory forms our personal, cultural, and even racial identity, what does it mean when memories are lost? BEND examines the lives of two men interned in a Japanese American Relocation Camp during WWII: the artist's father, Robert Maeda who taught Asian art history at Brandeis for three decades and is currently suffering from dementia, and the subject of his research, Isamu Noguchi, the half-Japanese-half-American sculptor.

Q&A and reception to follow.

Presented by the Department of Fine Arts and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as part of their Art and Gender: Global Perspectives series. Co-sponsored by the Comparative Literature and Culture Program and funded by the Brandeis Arts Council.

Date & Time

Tuesday, April 28, 2015
7:00 - 8:30pm

Location

Brandeis University
Merrick Theater, Spingold Theater Center, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453
Directions/Parking

Admission
Free (seating is limited to 50 people so you should plan to arrive early)

Japan Festival Boston & Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival Details

I just realized that both spring matsuris have rebranded this year.

The festival formerly known as Haru Matsuri and Japan Festival in Boston is now the Japan Festival Boston (or Nihon Matsuri as they're calling it in the Japanese community). JREX is crowdfunding with GoFundMe. This year's matsuri will be much larger than last year's scaled down collaboration with the Cambridge River Festival. See here for the list of vendors and times of performances. There will be lots of food, though I fear the lines. The Japan Festival Boston will be held on Sunday, April 26, 2015 from 10am - 5pm on the Boston Common at the Beacon & Charles Street corner (near Frog Pond).

The Genki Spark and Brookline High School Japanese Program have translated their matsuri name into English this year. See below for performance details. The 4th annual Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival will be held at Brookline High School on Saturday, May 9, 2015 from 12 - 4pm. This is a small family-friendly matsuri with lots of taiko!

See photos from last year's Japan Festival in Boston. 
See photos from last year's Brookline Sakura Matsuri.

Origami @ MIT

Collier's Cranes

There's a lot of origami on display at MIT right now that you should check out if you have a chance. The most stunning is Collier's Cranes, which started out as a hack last year to honor Officer Sean Collier on the one year anniversary of his death. I asked around and found out that MIT liked it so much they decided to leave it up indefinitely. The cranes are installed in the Stata Center (Building 32) in the lobby at the corner of Vassar and Main Streets near the site of his permanent memorial which will be dedicated later this month. (More photos.)

The 2013 addition to the 1994 police car hack is still on display in the Stata Center's hack gallery. 

OrigaMIT (MIT's origami club) has a temporary installation of a Menger Sponge on the other side of the building. It is one face of a level 3 Menger Sponge and was made using 25,000 business cards! I contributed a very small piece of the model. The MIT Menger Sponge was made as part of the MegaMenger project. This video shows how it's made. It is located in the Dreyfoos Tower elevator lobby next to a bank of pay phones. I'm told it will be there until some time in May.

The 14th Annual Student OrigaMIT Competition is on display on the other side of campus in the Wiesner Student Art Gallery on the second floor of the Stratton Student Center (Building W20). The club is open to the public and meets most Sundays during the school year from 3-5pm. Check the calendar on their website to find out when the next meeting is. The exhibit will be up until some time next month. (More photos.)

Hanging Cranes by Lily Zhou '17 inspired by the Collier's Cranes installation won first place in the Composition category.

Star Festival, designed by Nobuko Okabe, folded by OrigaMIT co-president, Yongquan Lu. YQ taught this model at OrigaMIT's 2014 Convention in November.