Tag: culture

Because I'm fortunate enough to flit back and forth between the U.S. and Japan several times a year, I get ...

I'm big fan of Japanese girls and the kawaii things they do, and when I was a teacher, I loved ...

Bowing is an important form of social communication in Japan. Whether it's a short sumimasen accompanied by a brief lowering ...

Sometimes there are some interesting differences between East and West that can surprise you. I wrote recently that you're actually ...

There are many good things about living in Japan, like friendly people, a language that you can study by reading ...

There are certain things you can find in a Japanese house that would be missing in most homes in the ...

For a country that eats as much rice as Japan, they have some pretty interesting kinds of bread here, too. ...

In Japan, there are two kinds of cars, normal-sized ones and the super-small kei cars, defined as vehicles with engines ...

My son is in the second year of junior high, so it's time for us to start thinking about what ...

Besides promoting world peace through shared popular culture and Hello Kitty bento boxes, I consider it my mission to try ...

Japan's archeology world is buzzing after evidence that an ancient burial mound near Nara may have contained Queen Himiko, the ...

The other day I noticed a bag of rice sitting on the table. Something about the way the grains were ...

There are many things that American houses have which their Japanese counterparts lack, and vice-versa. A Japanese home will generally ...

Although Japanese kitchens are well stocked with spoons, forks and knives, most meals in Japan are eaten with chopsticks. Children ...

One interesting aspect of Japan is its closer cultural relationship to its nearby neighbor, China, the ultimate origin of practically ...

Today is an auspicious day for anime fans everywhere: the 30th anniversary of the start of Mobile Suit Gundam, which ...

We're back from our long weekend in Okinawa. It was a fun trip, and we got a lot of relaxing ...

In just about every recent anime series, it seems there's a beach-centric episode in which the characters visit some "south ...

The other day my wife gave me a treat for dessert: a delicious slice of honeydew melon. It wasn't just ...

Yesterday was my daughter's graduation ceremony from elementary school, and my wife and I watched proudly as our little girl ...

Over the weekend I went with my son to get him a new keitai, or cell phone. Portable phones are ...

I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga back in college, wondering why they always write the blood type of ...

Spring is here, and that means something special to the Japanese: sakura, the cherry blossoms that make the country blaze ...

I write a lot about how Japan's society is considered "vertical," with concepts like senpai, a senior in a school, ...