Tag: family

Soon after arriving in Japan, I walked to a Seven Eleven to buy some onigiri, those triangle-shaped rice balls that ...

In a lot of ways, Japan is a "men's paradise" where males are able to enjoy certain benefits that would ...

Japanese is a complex language, with a lot of information that's not openly stated since Japanese people are usually good ...

It seems that the skill of translation can be quite separate from the ability to communicate freely in a language. ...

One of the most famous singers in Japan over the past two decades has been Akiko Wada, who appears on ...

Japan's entertainment world, which encompasses all actors, singers, anime voice actors, bikini idols and everyone else in the public eye, ...

Akemashite omedeto from J-List! We had a nice New Year's Day in Japan, writing our family's nengajo (New Year's Cards) ...

Today is New Year's Eve, known in Japan by the odd-sounding name of o-miso-ka, which sounds like it means "Big ...

As December draws to a close, Japan is getting ready for Oshogatsu (New Year's Day), by far the most important ...

Although I sometimes wish otherwise, my personality can be a little on the sarcastic side. For example, if I saw ...

Japan's capital city of Tokyo is a sprawling mass of concrete, asphalt and steel that holds 35 million people in ...

Christmas is nearly here, and throughout Japan children are looking forward to getting a present from "Santa-san" while guys plan ...

Of all the aspects of Japan I had to get used to when I came here, the educational system was ...

My "iPhone diet" is going surprisingly well, and I've managed to lose 12 kg (25 lbs) so far. On this ...

Every time I turn on the TV, it seems, one of Japan's big four beer companies is releasing some groundbreaking ...

Last time I talked about the new Japanese "lay jury" system, which aims to have citizen jurors take part in ...

The biggest news in Japan these days has been the murder of a former Vice Minister of Health and Welfare ...

What if you met a Japanese person who went around telling "knock knock" jokes in English all the time? It ...

The Chinese writing system, kanji, is an inseperable part of the Japanese language, the same way Latin or Greek is ...

Japan is currently engaged in some soul-searching about whether or not to lower the legal age of adulthood. Historically the ...

One of the most famous stars of the J-POP world is in hot water. Music producer Tetsuya Komuro, creator of ...

I've written before about my wife's uncle, the World War II veteran who loves me since I'm the only one ...

Like many families in Japan, we live with my wife's parents in a niseitai jutaku, or "two household-home," meaning that ...

Stereotypes are not good since they cause us to make assumptions about people from other countries before we've gotten to ...