Fake Miniature Foods in Japan

Source: http://hurricanevanessa.com/whats-big-in-japan-miniature-fake-food/

Do they look real? But be careful not to eat them because they're only about the size of your fingers! When just looking at photos of these artworks, it is hard to distinguish a fake miniature food from real food because of the astonishing details of the tiny artworks. According to my basic knowledge about these kinds of artworks, it takes about the same or even more amount of time as making the corresponding real foods to make these miniature figures. As a person with bad eyesight and no skills related to art, I can't imagine how people add on the little details with tweezers to complete the figures.

The process of making a fake miniature cake

Source: http://www.feedgeeks.net/category/online-store/

Fake miniature of salmon

Source: http://cubeme.com/blog/category/art/page/3/

Japan, as it has been recognized as one of the many countries with cultures that consist of many handicrafts and skilled art, has many of its people making these miniature foods and even other things such as entire settings/locations and furniture. These miniatures when completed are usually used as decorations and are sometimes used as earrings, rings, cellphone strings, and others. Because of the realistic appearance of these artworks and relative familiarity of them, miniature art has become one of the most popular, famous types of art around the world, especially in the eastern hemisphere.

Source: http://randommization.com/page/71/

Miniature ring of pizza

Pray for Japan

Source: http://www.newageparadise.com/2011/03/pray-for-japan.html

As all of you readers probably know, a devastating earthquake hit Japan on March 11, 2011. It was followed by a destructive tsunami, that swept over entire towns and villages of Japan, and destroyed lives of many, many people. Although Japan, an island country, has been aware that natural disasters can happen anytime on its land, this earthquake with the magnitude of 8.8 seems to be just unbearable and shocking to the Japanese and even people of other countries. Currently, the grief over the casualties and the issues concerning radiation are preventing Japan from functioning freely.

Now, is Japan's sorrow one of the "simple joys of my life"? Of course not. Japan and its culture have been the topics that I've talked about the most in the posts of my blog, and I wanted to remind people and myself of how we all should try to encourage and help Japan. There are many activities and events that are intended to inspire and promote helps for Japan, and one of them that I would like to turn people's attention to is "Pray for Japan".

Source: http://jackschull.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/pray-for-japan/

According to the site of this group, http://prayforjapan.org, there are different kinds of prayers for each day.

Monday - Pray for the 1,700 towns and villages without a single christian church.

Tuesday - Pray for Japanese christians who represent only 1/3 of one percent of the population.

Wednesday - Pray for the missionaries and pastors in Japan.

Thursday - Pray for the Tokyo area with a population close to 20 million.

Friday - Pray for Osaka with a population of 8.6 million.

Saturday - Pray for the thousands of Japanese University students who are studying in the USA.

Sunday - Pray for Nagano. There are 43 unreached towns and villages with no churches.

Although I'm not a Christian, I thought it is very interesting and inspirational of the Christian community to try to encourage people to think of the Japanese and pray for them. Other than this group, there are many other figures who are active in helping Japan in forms of donation, encouraging messages, and many others. For example, Takehiko Inoue, the writer of "Slam Dunk", drew sketches named "Smile" to cheer up Japan and to give hope to the Japanese in despair.

Source: http://orendsrange.blogspot.com/2011/03/haruhis-noizi-ito-and-slam-dunks.html

Because Japan's grief is not entirely irrelevant to us, let's help and encourage Japan to move on from the damages of the earthquake!