Living in London for 8 years gave me fresh eyes to see Japan. I share 5 things I love: Japanese seasonal culture, traditional arts, bath rituals, quietness, and the culture of respect.
📘 A Curated Art Travel Guide – South of France Edition
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🌿 About This Channel
Hello, I’m Satomi Takayama, a Japanese artist based between London and Japan.
In an age of overwhelming information, I’m searching for what feels truly essential and real—craftsmanship shaped by human hands, places with cultural depth, and the quiet philosophies that stand the test of time.
On this channel, I share the sources of inspiration for my future creations: the stories and “whys” behind art, craftsmanship, and design that are slowly shaping my own work and the spaces I hope to create. With a background in business and art-business studies, I offer a slightly different, unframed perspective as a Japanese artist.
My videos flow through three strands:
1. Japanese Aesthetics & Philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykgOAPpY4JkdGI7S5ddchngm
2. Travel Through an Artist’s Eye: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykjAK3EyxE7OSYcmQub0EI0N
3. Creative Insights & Personal Reflections: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykiSGoi5H4uJ-QQH5e133v4W
If you sometimes feel overwhelmed by fast, surface-level content, I hope these slower stories can offer you a small pause—and perhaps a quiet spark of inspiration for your own way of living.
🌐 Website & Artworks
Explore original paintings and prints:
🔗 https://www.satomitakayama.com
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00:55 Seasonal Sensibility & Finding Beauty in Inefficiency
04:56 Unique Traditional Arts (Tea Ceremony, Ikebana, Gardens etc)
06:30 Bath Culture & Japanese Cleanliness
10:29 Quietness & Ma (Negative Space)
12:57 Culture of Respect & Safe Society
17:23 Summary
19:00 Behind the Episode
20 Comments
If you find my voice hard to hear, please turn on the subtitles! Also, if you've ever visited Japan, I'd love to know: what was your favourite part? Please share in the comments below!🗾
Reply
Ultimamente estou atraída pela cultura japonesa, seus vídeos estão sendo uma ótima fonte de informações variadas mas também com um viés artístico que também me interessa. São diferenças tão contrastantes com meu país é muito interessante comparar as culturas
What a great video to wake up to! I agree with all your takes especially the availability of 4 seasons. Although I don't like coming to Japan during summer!
I wonder you think meiwaku has influenced Japanese art in a way.
Happy valentines!
Having first lived in the South of France after marrying a Japanese woman in Nogi Ginga, I found Tokyo ugly outside the centre and I did not like living in Tokyo. I now appreciate Japan and Tokyo for: politeness of the people; harmony; safety for adults and young children; cleanliness; depth of culture; clean streets and water; great food.
Not to mention the high quality of healthcare and the fact everything actually "works" properly and is clean.
So lovely. Thank you. 🙏
Tranquility and quiet places. Perfect. Beautiful aesthetics. Gracious interaction with others and respect. I also have my dinner at 6pm, allowing time to totally relax for several hours before bedtime.
I am actually in love with Japanese culture. I visited way back in 1972 when I was in my early twenties. How I would love to stay there for an extended period to absorb the simplicity and beauty.
🙏🌿🕊️🙏
This is the second one of your videos that I have watched. I really enjoy them. I think Japan is a beautiful place and I would love to go there and work in their medical research field b/c they seem to be so much more advanced in their research and they have this ability to look at things from a different perspective than the rest of the world. I believe it is their adherence to the old ways of doing things that gives them this unique ability. ….In the other video of yours that I watch, you went to visit an artist who dyed silk. The colors of the silk in the box were absolutely beautiful. I still cannot get those colors out of my head. Thank you for sharing.
I love that Japanese people are polite, I can appreciate this because in British culture we are supposed to be polite too. I admire that Japan is safe. You are very intelligent and interesting. I am an Englishman who lived 9 years in southern California, when you go to a foreign country, you see everything with new eyes. When I went home, back to England, I saw my home country through new eyes which is interesting, the differences between American and British culture. You are doing the same thing!
🙏🌞🙏
Thank you for the very interesting and enjoyable video. Please enjoy Japan to your heart's content😊
Satomi-san, thank you for your much welcomed insight into Japan.
As an old person ( I'm 76 years old), I visited Japan this past August. I did this as an individual traveler (not part of a tour or group travel). It was an amazing trip, but because I travelled to see my favorite Japanese rock band (a Japanese all-female rock group called Band-Maid) three times, I did not get as much of a chance to REALLY see and experience Japan. While I did some tourist activities (visited some temples, crossed the Shibuya Scramble, visited the Tower Record Store in Shibuya, the Kyoto Museum of Geisha Art in Gion, rode the expansive rail system, and the Shinkansen), there is so much that I missed about this wonderful, beautiful country and it's wonderful beautiful population. I am trying to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, but at my age, it's a steep path. Why? Because I have decided that I wish to return to Japan, even at my advanced age. The worse thing about that trip was not being in Japan itself, but the weariness caused by the long flights from the U.S. to Japan. I hope the next time I travel there, I will travel business class which I hope will allow me to rest more during the flight.
I look forward to more of your world travel insights but I especially look forward to any future information about Japan you wish to share.
Wow, you bring the simple things in life alive. I never appreciated these simple things until you pointed them out. We never notice what we think is invisable until you show them to us. Thank you for showing me the simple reality of life in nature and love of life.
Can you say the same but slower without using AI. You are talking to humans, so stop talking like a robot.
I used to think that Japan must be the most OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) country based on the attention to detail in all things. But rather than a disorder, it seems like it is the result of respect being a core tenant of the culture. On the whole it is very much a net positive, and I hope tourists to Japan will not only observe and practice that respect but take some of it home. It is the best souvenir and it travels well.
Once again you have created an absolute gem of a video. Quiet spaces, clean spaces, polite people. The world can learn much from your insights and the Japanese people.
SOON!!
仰る様に言語は文化理解の根幹で、英語話者が日本語を学び、話しだすと途端に日本的な振る舞いなりますね。
暗黙のルールや上下関係でユニークな才能が現れにくいと言うのは少しステレオタイプな認識かなと思います。
確かにユニコーン企業は少ないですがそれは仕組みの問題で、個人で言えば西洋よりも寛容な点が多いと感じています
変な格好に眉をひそめる人はほとんどいませんし、イグノーベル賞でも日本は上位です
小さい頃から、日本の教育を受けて居たから、日本が染み付いて居ますね♩
有る程度、歳を重ねた海外の人には、多分理解が出来ない事が多いでしょうね。
なかなか難しい問題かも？
So glad to have stumbled across your channel. Really enjoyed the video and love the posh English lilt you have in your accent 💖✨️ You can tell that you lived in London for a long time 😊✨️
Mam your narration is eloquently explicated and cogently articulated.
My fascination about Japan's culture, history and beauty has been enhanced and deepened by watching this highly informative and inspiring video by you.
I have always believed that Japan is a remarkably unique and rich country in terms of culture, history, beauty and civilized society.