About
Welcome to the grand opening of the Of Rice and Zen: The Magazine Magazine. The reknowned Of Rice and Zen: The Memoirs of a Gaijin blog had a good three year run, but the author decided it was time to move on. While certain he wanted to continue to write about Japan, he decided to put a full stop on the blog to something more structured, more professional and with broader appeal.
A has lost none of his obsession for Japan. For anyone who would like to continue following A’s activities online, Of Rice and Zen: The Memoirs of a Gaijin will henceforth morph into Of Rice and Zen Studios. This can be considered A’s online production empire consisting of an online magazine and a stock photography and vector design library.
The Of Rice and Zen Magazine is a Kansai focused magazine, which consists of features and reviews, written for publication in English language magazines such as Japanzine, Kansai Scene and Kansai Time-Out. Some will introduce Japanese culture to the uninitiated. Some will explore salient issues in modern Japan. Some will reflect on Japan’s past. Some are simply enthusiastic tributes to products, restaurants, films and games that our writers dearly love. All of them are written to enthuse and entertain. We sincerely hope you enjoy them.
The design wing will consist of a library of Japan-themed photography and design for sale. It is our sincerest hope that we can create the ultimate library of Japanese stock photography. If you’ve ever wanted to use Japanese imagery for a website, brochure, magazine or commercial, the stock photography library is for you. After payment has been processed your desired shot in your requested size will automatically begin downloading in all its zipped, un-watermarked glory.
We also plan to offer a series of Japan photobooks for those who love Japanese culture and design, perhaps miss living in Japan or simply have a space on their coffee table that needs filling. We look forward to unveiling the first of these very soon.
The Graphic Design
A is a keen illustrator and has also been working on Japan-themed vector illustrations. Unlike photography, vector illustrations are constructed from a series of equations that are redrawn live by your graphics software. This means they can be zoomed to any size with no loss of quality. All of the lines and edges will be reproduced, crisp and flawless, at whatever size you choose to publish or print.
If you have fallen in love with a photo and simply want a hard copy to keep we will also be implementing a feature to allow customers to order a print block. These are boxes of various sizes to which a high quality print is attached. We hope they’ll make great gifts for Japan lovers or residents. They are a stylish and beautiful way to display your favourite photography and we hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
The Lifestream
For those masochists who want to hear more about the minutiae of our editor A’s day-to-day antics, there will also be a mobile blog, or moblog, in the shape of a lifestream. Content will largely be produced on an Apple iPhone and the webpage will be powered by Jon Yongfook’s excellent Sweetcron software. It will alert you when A posts a photo of something Japanese and interesting to Flickr, updates his Twitter status, favourites a Youtube video or bookmarks an interesting link. It will not consist of the same kind of storytelling that characterised Of Rice and Zen: The Memoirs of a Gaijin,but for friends and family who want to keep up-to-date with A’s activities it may be of interest. This would not be necessary if A was any good at keeping in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you at Of Rice and Zen Studios. If there’s some stock photography you’d like to us to go in search of, please let us know. If you’d like us to feature your business or event, or you think we should interview you, please drop us a line. Finally, we’re always on the look-out for writing talent in Japan. If you’ve written a feature you’d like to see on our pages or you have an idea you think will suit our remit, please email the editor.
