Month: May 2014

Names in Japanese are interesting, so I thought I'd write about how they work. Japanese names are generally written with ...

The history of animation is the history of how art and technology are combined to create visual experiences for viewers. ...

Over the weekend we went to our favorite Indian restaurant for curry, tandoori chicken and that heavenly naan bread that ...

One of the joys of being a long-term gaijin in Japan is eventually building a house here. Houses in Japan ...

Both of the major console game makers from Japan have fallen on hard times, with Nintendo and Sony both losing ...

Things I love about Japan: buying a hot can of coffee and drinking it on the cold train platform in ...

Humans like to mark special events by commemorating them on their calendars, and Japan is no different. February 9 is ...

One thing I like about anime as a artistic genre is the way anything that can be conceived of can ...

One of the themes I cover a lot is how there always seems to be a "right" way of doing ...

Language is always changing, evolving to fit the needs of the people who use it on a daily basis. One ...

Japan's "anime" industry, of course, is part of a complex network of companies in related but separate industries, all working ...

Everyone loves touching stories involving beloved pets. When my family moved to New Zealand back in the 70s, we had ...

There are many routes to discover Japan, for example through the country's history or martial arts, through its pop culture, ...

I'm a fan of otaku culture, both inside Japan and around the world, because it gives anyone who's a fan ...

Japan is an exotic place, a land of endless wonders for those of us from the West. While some may ...

Google has radically changed the way we get information, and if you have a question about something -- say, about ...

If you follow J-List's Facebook page or Twitter or Tumblr feeds, you'll know that I'm a card-carrying fan of 百合 ...

One of the "secrets" to successfully learning a foreign language like Japanese is to develop a meaningful emotional connection to ...

Although Japan likes to pretend it's a modern Western-style nation with institutions built in close imitation of those of Europe, ...

There are certain eternal questions about Japan. Like, why do the Japanese insist the color green (for example a traffic ...

According to the Internet, May is National Onahole Month, a time to treat yourself to some stress relief, so we ...

I'm often asked how Japanese view the foreigners that live in their midst, disrupting the precious harmony the country is ...

The Japanese economy has been on a roll over the past year, growing significantly and enjoying the most rapid rise ...

I've started watching another new anime, called One Week Friends. It's the ridiculously cute story of a boy named Yuki ...