Tag: family

It's fun to observe how the visual elements of anime character design change and evolve from season to season. Animators ...

The other day I took my family out for sushi because it was Kodomo no Hi or "Children's Day," one ...

One of the first impressions foreigners living in Japan may get is that everything is "about death." This is likely ...

One of the more refreshing aspects of life in Japan is the lack of lawyers and lawsuits as a major ...

Although many Japanese will deny having a religion, when all is said and done Japan is a very Buddhist nation. ...

It can be fun to study how Japanese surnames work. One of the mysteries of family names in Japan is ...

There are certain eternal questions that foreigners have about Japan. For example, the word ao (AH-oh) means "blue" yet is ...

This Sunday marks the first anniversary of the terrible 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis which caused so much pain and loss ...

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

I like to use Twitter (and Facebook, and Google+) to keep up with our customers and send random links about ...

Is it possible to understand the Japanese through the relationship they have to their feet? Let's give it a try. ...

While not nearly as lavish as the Hollywood-level TV commercials created for the Superbowl, Japanese "CMs" are a lot of ...

This Friday is Setsubun, a special Japanese day when fathers will put on paper masks and become an oni (devil ...

Japan is a small country, which has to fit slightly less than half the population of the U.S. into an ...

Last time I wrote about how the name a person calls another says a lot about their relationship, whether they ...

When I was at Narita last week I went into a bookshop to browse for Japan-related books we might want ...

One aspect of Japan I've always been impressed with is the way popular culture is closely tied to history in ...

One interesting Japanese TV show I watch sometimes is called "Miraculous Experience Unbelievable," a drama-variety show hosted by famed director ...

I've just returned from a four-day trip to Taiwan with my family, our first visit to the mountainous nation that's ...

There are many benefits to being an American expat in Japan. When I go to concerts I'm usually tall enough ...

Happy New Year, or as Japanese young people say these days, ake-ome! which is short for akemashite omedetou gozaimasu or ...

Well, 2011 is finally at an end. It was a very strange year, filled with events that no one could ...

While I certainly love sushi, sashimi, sukiyaki and other types of exotic Japanese cuisine, I often find my favorite foods ...

We hope you had a lovely Christmas with family and/or friends wherever you are in the world. We had a ...