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
Breve y reciente historia del haiku en Perú
June 26, 2023 • Javier García Wong-Kit
El Perú parece tener sus propias corrientes literarias entre las que el haiku sopla como una ventisca refrescante en el aliento de autores de distinta índole. Esta forma poética japonesa ha sido cultivada por varios escritores peruanos, desde José Watanabe y Javier Sologuren, pasando por Alberto Guillén y Arturo Corcuera, hasta otras plumas contemporáneas, como Alonso Belaunde y Gonzalo Marquina, impulsores de este estilo poético que han cultivado en sendas obras. “Desde la lectura del diario de viaje de Bashō, …
“Nikkei postcards”: generational correspondence
June 2, 2023 • Javier García Wong-Kit
It began as a play and then became an intergenerational manifesto through the “Nikkei Letters of the Bicentennial” contest, whose objective was to document the feelings of the members of the Peruvian-Japanese community about the 200 years of the Independence of Peru. One of its youngest members, the Nikkei playwright Daniel Goya, had had a predecessor idea that he turned into the staging “ Letters from the Bicentennial ,” presented at the National Library of Peru. Subtitled “Theatrical scenes and …
The Uechi: brothers of Comadre and Compadre
March 27, 2023 • Javier García Wong-Kit
The Uechi brothers have a very fraternal relationship with entrepreneurship and gastronomy. Carolina's story begins in 2012, when she opened her restaurant “La Cocina de Caro”, 1 where her father and uncles were her first partners, and a couple of years later in Kilo, a different steakhouse that has given her prestige within of Peruvian cuisine. Pepe Uechi's story is different, it began on a soccer field and continued on another green field: the Peruvian jungle. “I studied at La …
The Higas, A Family with a Legacy in the Nikkei Community
March 8, 2023 • Javier García Wong-Kit
Originally from the island of Okinawa, the Japanese surname Higa is one of the most common in that prefecture as well as in Peru’s Nikkei community. In fact, the Higas have played an important role in the community’s history. This is especially true of Haroldo Higa Taira, who shares the history of his ancestors and descendants who continue the traditions and collective spirit in their various gathering spaces. Eicho Higa, Haroldo’s grandfather, appears in a photograph in the archives of …
Tomoya Fusion Nikkei: the first izakaya in Peru
Dec. 28, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
Every cuisine is a mixture of techniques, inputs and cultures in which the hand of its creators can be seen. The Japanese Peruvian, or nikkei, has undergone many changes since it emerged from restaurants such as Matsuei, by Nobu Matsuhisa, Toshiro's, by Toshiro Konishi, Hanzo, by Hajime Kasuga, Edo, by the Matsufuji family, Ichiban, by Hiro Nakagawa, or Maido by Mitsuharu Tsumura. Miguel Oshiro, creator of Tomoya Fusión Nikkei, worked on these last three, who has started a new culinary …
Passport Studio: The challenge of imagination
Oct. 25, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
Many entrepreneurship stories begin like this: a group of friends gets together to start a project taking advantage of the trust and chemistry that exists between them. Many of these garage dreams prosper and end up becoming big brands that allow their founders to dream bigger. Some, like the advertising agency Pasaporte Studio, are making their dream a challenge against all reality. The story of the agency began five years ago, but that of Kiyoshi Salazar Nakama and Takeshi Asato …
Fernando Iwasaki: a historian anchored in literature
Aug. 10, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
Anchored more than 25 years ago in a town in Seville, the Peruvian writer Fernando Iwasaki (Lima, 1961) could have disappeared from the radar of bookstore news if it were not for his active role as a historian, the subject of his professional training and the shore from which he usually writes essays and books that float between the historical and literary, such as the recent Brevetes de historia universal del Perú (Alfaguara, 2021). “I must admit that I do …
Leonardo Oyakawa: cooking his way
July 13, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
When he lived in Lima, no arrow or sign indicated to him that the path to his professional future would be in the kitchen. Although he liked to make desserts, as soon as he finished school he moved to Florida, United States, and started working as a cashier at a gas station. “My first experience in the kitchen was as a waiter, when the Peruvian Nikkei chef Oscar Noborikawa invited me to see how he prepared sushi.” His skill with …
Three Nikkei in digital trades
May 23, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
In recent years, various jobs have emerged that meet the needs of a market full of websites, social networks and online products that will require a series of professionals (communicators, designers and content generators) who are could be grouped into a flexible category: the new digital trades (although in reality they involve much more). These three Peruvian Nikkei show part of the great diversity of functions and qualities required to make a place for themselves in this labor market. * …
Nicole Higa Kobashigawa: Volunteer by Vocation
April 27, 2022 • Javier García Wong-Kit
If professional volunteerism were a career, Nicole Higa Kobashigawa might have chosen it. As a student at La Unión school in Lima, she excelled in all subjects, from math to physical education (she even learned to walk on stilts and juggle in a circus workshop). But she wasn’t focused on any subject in particular. That is, until sixth grade, when she volunteered for a leadership program to learn about teamwork and soft skills. She attended the program every Saturday morning …
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