Javier García Wong-Kit
@JaviernestoJavier García Wong-Kit is a journalist, professor, and director of Otros Tiempos magazine. Author of Tentaciones narrativas (Redactum, 2014) and De mis cuarenta (ebook, 2021), he writes for Kaikan, the magazine of the Japanese Peruvian Association.
Updated April 2022
Stories from This Author
Nadia Yoza: with her mind in space
June 14, 2013 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Her thesis research has led her to visit Türkiye and receive a valuable award. Nadia Yoza Mitsuishi is a young woman who has dedicated her career to the study of telecommunications in an atmospheric region little exploited for commercial communications and in which she has found great scientific motivation.Telecommunications not only occur here, on Earth, between telephones, computers and cell phones. When it comes to wireless communications, it is also possible to use the highest layers of the Earth's atmosphere …
The great Nishisaka novel. Origin, past and reunion of a Japanese and Nikkei family
Feb. 6, 2013 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
There is no person who does not have stories, anecdotes and family memories that they treasure in their memory and that could be used to write hundreds of pages of a book. Lucero Nisizaka Figueroa is not writing a book or a historical novel, but for a few years he has been collecting information about his Japanese ancestors surnamed Nisizaka (or Nishisaka, as it is originally written). This home-based research has led her to meet uncles in distant lands, find …
Time to share: Nikkei remember some of their Christmas and New Year celebrations
Jan. 1, 2013 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Christmas was not always a festive occasion for people of Japanese descent in Peru. Over the years, this Christian celebration has changed, incorporating itself into the traditions of new generations. Meri Kurisumasu! Merry christmas! Perhaps for some Nisei in Peru this was not a phrase often heard at home when they were little. As is known, the arrival of the baby Jesus into the world has not been part of Japanese festive traditions, although customs have now changed. That is …
From Japan to the markets. In search of the ingredients of Japanese cuisine
Oct. 1, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Not only in Japanese restaurants or sushi bars can you enjoy Japanese cuisine. For several years now, some Lima markets have known how to serve their Nikkei landlords by offering them a variety of ingredients typical of Japanese cuisine so that they themselves can recreate the flavor of the culture of their ancestors. Vegetables, dressings, noodles, pickled products and others for soups, stir-fries, stews and other Japanese dishes can be found in districts such as Pueblo Libre, La Victoria and …
Mio Matsuda, a traveling voice
Aug. 29, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
They say that art has no borders. Mio Matusda seems determined to prove it. This Japanese woman, born in the prefecture of Akita, in a community of artists, has traveled to four continents to experience the native music, original one would say, from different regions, delighting in the rhythms, cultures and friendships that she has found in a dozen countries where his voice has been disguised with the accompaniment of the instruments of each place.“I was born in a theater …
From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to world peace
June 27, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
There are trips that do not begin when they are planned or when you embark on them, but when the mobile phone arises to do it. The “Oceanic” is a boat more than two blocks long and almost nine meters wide, chartered by the NGO Peace Boat. They started sailing almost 30 years ago, but the reason goes back to World War II. On August 6 and 9, 1945, when the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those nuclear …
Watanabe Destination: The philologist Marco Katz arrived in Peru following in the footsteps of the poet from Laredo
June 20, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Composer musician, scholar of Latin American literature, trombonist and dekasegi researcher, Marco Katz could be defined by any of these titles but there is one that suits him best: admirer of the poet José Watanabe, the main reason for his recent visit to Peru.Marco and Betsy, his wife, arrived from Canada with the poetic and academic pretext of getting to know the land of the Nikkei poet born in Laredo, Trujillo, where this North American couple moved, visiting bookstores in …
Discovering the fifth flavor
March 22, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
It is said that there are no secrets in the kitchen. However, for a few years there has been a word that chefs, gourmets, critics and connoisseurs of good eating have been repeating. A Japanese term that is jumping from palate to palate and has arrived in Peru. Its name is umami and means “tasty flavor” or “savory.” It is found in various foods and meals in the country, but it is only recently on the lips of Peruvian diners. …
Diego Oka, a chef of informal discipline
March 1, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Diego Oka has been the head of five restaurants without having to tie a tie around his neck. How does a 20-something chef who still allows himself to be smug in his grandmother's kitchen get this far?He carries under his arm a cover that resembles an old book but, instead of storing yellowed pages, it hides a Mac where he has archived clippings from newspapers and magazines that have interviewed him, recipes for dishes that he has prepared in several …
Okinawa Chanpuru: fusion and tradition
Feb. 3, 2012 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
They have dissimilar musical tastes but together, on stage, they have an integrated sound that is the sum of John, Jaime, Eduardo, Willy, Saori, Yukio, Diego and Miyuki, the eight members of the group Okinawa Chanpuru, and the mix of the various instruments they use in each of their presentations.For a couple of years, the musician and producer Rubén Sugano brought together these guys who came from different Japanese rock groups, music schools and workshops, to form a band that …
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