Shinto funerals vs. Buddhist ones, what to wear to a funeral, and the three ages of anime
I attended a Japanese funeral over the weekend, after when the father of a friend passed away at the age ...
Tag: food
Japan’s shock over Virginia Tech, how Japanese names work, and on the psychology of foreigners in Japan
Japan is numbly watching the aftermath of the sad events at Virginia Tech as they unfold. Much like Europe, it's ...
Funny English in Japan, teaching about America through Easter Eggs, and confusing Japanese company names explained
Japan can be such a funny place. You could be going along, minding your own business when suddenly, bam, the ...
Funny things you may see in Japan, strategies for taking tests, and an important difference between Japanese and American schools
Hello again from Japan where getting your hair colored is known as a "hair manicure."For some reason, one of the ...
Thoughts on television in Japan, April and “newly harvested rice,” and that cultural question, what color is the sun?
Television (which turns 80 today) in Japan can be quite entertaining, and sometimes its fun to sit back on the ...
Elections in Japan, a run-down of what politics are like here, and using Japanese “honorific” markers for fun and profit
It's my least favorite time of year in Japan right now: election season, when dozens of politicians drive around in ...
The man who created the Yamato theme song, all about the traditional game Karuta, and thoughts on corn soup
I've written before about how the meinichi (命日), the anniversary of a person's death, is very important in a Buddhist ...
How to sub-divide Japanese groups into “zoku” (tribes), all about Japanese rice, and what’s that blue spot on Taro’s butt?
Words always reflect the people that use them, and vice-versa. In American English our notions about individualism and not going ...
How Cup Ramen became a part of our food culture, a new trend in vending machines, and my thoughts on the enigma of the “Japanese Female”
You may have seen that Momofuku Ando, the Father of Instant Ramen, died recently. Momofuku, whose name meant "one hundred ...
All about Mt. Fuji, how taking responsibility can lead to cleaner bathrooms, and thoughts on bathing and how the brain works
You can't think of Japan without also thinking of the country's tallest and most famous mountain, Mt. Fuji. An active ...
The Japanese concept of “joshiki” (common sense), why there are rice fields everywhere in Japan, and would you pay $3500 to meet Michael Jackson?
One concept that's always interested me is joshiki (JOH-sh'kee) the Japanese "universal common sense" or knowledge that all reasonable people ...
All about trains and fuzzy blue rabbits from London, linguistic quirks of the Japanese language, and finding someone’s “secret talent”
One thing I like about living in Japan is the rail culture here, so very different from the freeway- and ...
Japan as the land of the middle class, thoghts on Japan and Krispy Kreme, and fun Japanese things you can put on your car
Japan is nothing if not the land of contradictions. On the one hand, society has been organized in a vertical ...
Understanding Japanese society through business cards, some fun Japanese words that are pregnant with meaning, and all about Shinjuku
I was making up some Japanese business cards for one of my employees yesterday, trying different layouts and fonts to ...
Japan as the land of safety, small conveniences of living in Japan, and the reason for that wacky “Engrish”
I've written before about how Japan is a very safe place -- so safe it might just kill you with ...
A new appreciation for American medicine, all about the word ‘baka’ and a really annoying girl in a yellow dress who I can’t stop listening to…
It was Thomas Paine -- a possible ancestor of mine, although I somehow doubt it -- who uttered the words, ...
Shrinking the Earth and watching Football, all about the word “sumimasen” and the four islands of Japan
That old planet Earth, she just keeps on getting smaller and smaller, and it's a lot of fun to sit ...
Understanding world culture through Japanese hip hop music, thinking about thinking in a foreign language, and out with devils!
It's funny how culture criss-crosses the globe, never stopping at such laughable things as national borders as it flows to ...
How the iTunes Japan store reflect Japan’s oddities, my mother-in-law and our old sofa, and understanding Japan through Big Macs
Slate.com ran an article yesterday on Apple's Japanese iTunes Music Store and how frustrating it was that fans of J-POP ...
All about Japan’s most enigmatic food natto, how reading your Hemingway can help you under modern otaku culture, and a happy day for a town in Japan
The fermented soybeans known as natto (NAT-toh) are one of the most famous foods in Japan, enjoyed throughout the country, ...
About police and “police boxes” in Japan, learning to mispronounce your own language, and various meanings of “genki”
The subject of Japan's police is an interesting one. Japan's boys in blue are organized under the umbrella of the ...
All about our bath in Japan, the concept of Japanese-style “trust,” and what’s up with Vermont Curry?
Bathing is very important in Japan, and almost all Japanese take time to enjoy a slow bath at the end ...
The art of faux pas in Japan, Internet-influenced advertising trends, and 100 “geniuses” the Japanese respect
I'll never forget the moment. In my first year of SDSU, my family got a Japanese homestay student who stayed ...
Learning your own language by teaching ESL, funny English used in Japan, and all about chopsticks
One of the cool things about teaching ESL in Japan was learning my own language and its grammar. Language is ...
