share

  • Italy Milan
  • REPORTERYuriko Mikami

A cellist based in Milan. Performs solo and ensemble concerts, as well as produces multi-style stage performances that combine theatrical shows, images, dances and live music.

  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.04.04
  • Reality vs. illusion
  • Do you ever find yourself thinking back on the times when you were younger, lost in the world of make-believe? For boys, it’s often dreams of being a racecar driver or pilot as they played with toy cars or planes—or fighting evil for the sake of justice in a Gundam robot suit. Little girls might play house with dolls, try on a Cinderella dress, or dream of living in a beautiful house cooking delicious food…
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.03.22
  • Names
  • When I first moved to Italy, I made it a point to memorize the names of everyone I met. Twenty years later, if I run into one of them I’ll remember it and remind them that we’ve met before. They’re shocked. Apparently, the things I saw and the people I met when I first got here left a deep impression on me.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.03.07
  • Tradition
  • Most Westerners tend to be friendly, but the Italians are particularly so. When I first got here, everyone did their best to immerse me—a Japanese who spoke almost no Italian—in their local culture. They invited me out for drinks, to the movies, to evening gatherings with friends, and made several other truly friendly gestures that I appreciated.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.02.21
  • Canals
  • There’s a city without a single subway or bus traveling within it. There aren’t even any cars there—and in the 21st century, no less! Yet, this uncommon place is far from being an anachronism or behind the times. What city is it?
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.02.07
  • Sharing
  • Milan has canals, but it is also a flat city with no mountains or hills. Kind of disappointing for someone like me, who prefers a rugged landscape. One thing a flat city does promote, however, is the use of bicycles. City bikes have been absolutely indispensable to Milanese life for generations.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.01.24
  • Unique in all the world
  • There are said to be 116 individuals certified as Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties in Japan—also known as National Living Treasures who have mastered an exceptional skill. I think Japan is extremely good at developing people who excel in one particular area.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2018.01.11
  • Mysterious after-five friends
  • Where do you go once you leave the office after a hard day’s work? A lot of you probably say you go out drinking with co-workers. Partially to blend in with the Milanese culture and partially to avoid the rush-hour traffic of so many people hurrying home at once, I also frequently go out to enjoy an aperitif before heading home.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.11.30
  • Enjoying farms
  • The other day, my coworker gave me some persimmons. Apparently, they went to take care of a garden for a relative who is in recovery from illness and there were tons of ripe fruit on the persimmon trees. It would have been a waste to leave them there, so she picked them.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.11.16
  • What comes out as the mist fills the air?
  • Autumn in Milan is warmer this year than usual and the days are actually quite comfortable. That said, as winter approaches, there will be more days when Milan is covered in mist. Because of the heat island effect, the misty area has been mostly limited to the suburbs in recent years, but on days when it is very thick, even the city center becomes covered in it.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.11.01
  • A Charming Race
  • In Tuscany, Italy there is a town called Siena. It goes without saying that Siena is a beautiful place, but what it’s really famous for is the magnificent midsummer festival it holds when the Palio horse race takes place. What overwhelmed me about the Palio di Siena wasn’t the race itself, however. It was the midnight parades meant to build up excitement in the days before the event.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.10.25
  • The 3 “Ts”
  • Cremona is a town an hour’s drive from Milan. For me, a musician, it’s a town with an extremely strong connection. Although it’s a small town of 60,000 people, it is also a place that garners the interest of performers and violin makers throughout the world. I think that even among people who aren’t musicians, many know the name of Stradivari.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.10.04
  • Bento boxes in Italy
  • In Japanese families, it’s customary for every person at the dinner table to have their personal set of chopsticks, personal rice bowl, and so on. Maybe because of those traditions, similar practices spread to workplaces—where for some time now, everyone has had a habit of bringing their own cups or bottles with them.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.09.20
  • Milan’s Evolving Train Stations
  • When I first came to Milan, I set out on a sightseeing trip to another town—though I didn’t speak any Italian. I couldn’t tell from my guidebook whether it was a town worth seeing, but I figured I’d just go and check it out.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.09.07
  • Work vs. personal interests
  • Those of you who work—how did you end up choosing your job?I was born into a music-loving family, so grew up around musical instruments from a young age. It wasn’t that I had any special talent for music, but I always had the sense that musicians were artists and somehow wonderful—so I just kind of ended up on that path. Maybe that’s why I’ve lived a life where there’s not much distinction between my personal interests and my work.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.08.18
  • If You Follow the Road Signs…
  • I am convinced that Milan really is a small town. If you go by car from the center, say from Duomo, toward the outskirts, within 30 minutes you are surrounded by cornfields.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.07.12
  • Various Schemes
  • When visiting a foreign country on a tourist trip, it is normal for people to visit the tourist spots and enjoy their history and beauty, right?
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.06.28
  • Hurry! It’s soccer!
  • The other day, the Union of European Football Associations Champions League held its final tournament.It was the match between Juventus from Italy and Real Madrid from Spain.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.06.07
  • Chilling Places
  • For Japanese, the popular tourist spots in Italy are probably the cities of Rome, Venice, Florence, Sicily and Milan.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.05.26
  • Horror
  • When you were a child, after impatiently pestering adults for a ghost story, did you end up screeching or exclaiming something like, “How scary!” or “I’ve got goose bumps?”
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.04.21
  • Tiramisu
  • Have you ever been told that you should be careful of men when you go to Italy?!Italian men are infamous for being smooth talkers.I wonder if that’s really true?
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.03.30
  • Putting Your Life on the Line
  • When I was a child, I lived in America and getting in the car was nerve wracking. The reason, though unbelievable now, was because at the time American drivers were really vicious. The car
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2017.03.17
  • Are these ceremonies for real?!
  • When I came to Italy 20 years ago, I was often approached by Italians with talk of business (if anything, it was more like favors). They came to me about developing a business
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • 2016.10.11
  • Milan’s Changing Dinner Table
  • We can now readily eat king crab from Hokkaido while in Tokyo, and enjoy our fill of local specialties from various communities while at home because of the development of the distribution system, and the variations and improvements in food preservation methods.
  • Continue reading
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami
  • Italy Milan
  • Yuriko Mikami

What's New

REPORTER

What's New

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CREATIVE Award 2017

InduSTORY EXPAND

ARS ELECTRONICA in the KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL vol.07

Event Archives

PAGE TOP