ATTENTION! Venue: NKDT Small Stages Yard (Kęstučio St. 62). In case of unfavorable weather (strong wind, rain), the event will move to the Great Hall of the "Romuva" cinema (Laisvės al. 54).
We invite you to a cozy and meditative evening dedicated to Japanese culture. It will begin with a story about the specifics of Sencha green tea, its growing regions, its effects on the body, and the subtleties of recognizing quality tea. The story will be complemented by the opportunity to taste this special tea, which will be prepared for the event by our friends from the salon "Jaukūs namai". This everyday Japanese drink, usually prepared cold in the summer, and warm in the cooler seasons, will accompany the evening's culmination - the film "Perfect Days", revealing the beauty of simple everyday moments and the human connection with the environment.
The event program:
21:00 p.m. – tasting and story about Japanese tea;
21:30 p.m. – movie screening.
About the movie. The quiet Hirayama gets up at dawn, puts on his work clothes, buys a can of drink from the vending machine, gets into his minivan and goes to town. He cleans public toilets in Tokyo as if they were a sacred place, and his work resembles a ritual. Sometimes Hirayama sits in the park and eats a sandwich, sometimes he patiently helps a frivolous colleague. After work, on the way home, the man stops at the sauna, listens to Patti Smith and Van Morrison in the car, reads William Faulkner and Patricia Highsmith before bed. The next morning he wakes up at dawn and does the same thing again, but Hirayama's face never leaves his blissful smile as he simply enjoys life.
This film by Wim Wenders will disarm even the most hardened cynics, and the director once again proves that he has a unique ability to turn life's prose into poetry. But this is not a poet's film, but a documentarian's film, where something new is discovered in every texture or form. In Cannes, Wenders was awarded the prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and the actor Kôji Yakusho was recognized as the best.
About "Cozy Homes". The salon operating in Kaunas is a space where the aesthetics of Japanese minimalism, tea drinking traditions and modern comfort are intertwined. For the past 11 years, a bridge between Lithuania and Japan has been purposefully being built here: in Lithuania, Japanese culture is presented, and in Japan, Lithuania, Kaunas and Čijūnė Sugihara are presented.
More information about the salon can be found here. here.