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 ...
Tag: food
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 ...
Happy New Year from J-List, and some information about the Year of the Pig and something with the cool name of “Sexegenary Cycle”
Happy New Year from J-List! In Japanese, the phrase is akemashite omedeto gozaimasu (ah-kay-mah-shtay oh-meh-deh-TOH go-ZA-EE-mahs), literally "congratulations on opening ...
All about New Year’s Eve and Oshogasu in Japan, the big Kohaku TV event, and a New Year’s Card from us!
Hello again from J-List, where the country is preparing to say goodbye to the current year and ring in the ...
The start of Japan’s important Holiday Season, a local battle over a Ferris Wheel, and understanding Japanese humility through baseball players
Now that Christmas is past, Japan is getting ready for its own big season, Oshogatsu or New Year's Day, by ...
What the Japanese think of Americans, our trip to Guam, and ah, the smell of kerosene in the morning
As an expat American living away from my home country, it's sometimes interesting to ask the Japanese people around me ...
Looking up when you walk, the Japanese custom of name stamps, and the J-List Year-End Party
I recently talked about how many Japanese professionals from businessmen to musicians to athletes seem to consider succeeding in the ...
Good things and bad about living in Japan, more ways Japanese look to the West, and social benefits of love hotels
There are a lot of good things about living in Japan. Good food, from sushi to sashimi to Indian curry. ...
The role of trains in Japan, funny observations on society here, and Christmas comes early
Japan is a very rail-centric place compared to the U.S., and trains are a much larger part of society than ...
Education and high school dropouts in Japan, Japanese in touch with their history, and the biggest shock Japanese get when they go to the U.S.
I caught a post on Slashdot the other day about a surge in high school dropouts in the U.S., and ...
Being an American in Japan during Thanksgiving, subtleties of Japanese pronunciation, and a cultural lesson for PSP owners
By and large, an American expat living in Japan has two choices when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving: completely forget ...
Interesting careers open to gaijin in Japan, getting used to strange words, and do you know what year it is?
I get a lot of mail from people who'd like to live in Japan someday, and I do my best ...
The Three Great Views of Japan, howling winds and volcanoes in my prefecture, and my wife’s strange link to Monty Python
Quick, do you know how many Great Lakes there are on North America? The answer is five. The reason I ...
Things that can always freak a gaijin out, the Japanese penchant for talking over songs on the radio and what is a “real house”?
No matter how long a person lives in Japan, there are always things that can bring on what expats here ...
A delicious food that brings people together, naughty words in Japanese, and the tragedy of “ijime” in Japan
Last night we went to a friend's house to have one of my favorite dishes, nabe (NAH-beh), a word that ...
The triumphant return of an old Japanese favorite, a milestone for my son, and a source of sadness in Japanese society
Imagine if a food you ate every day were suddenly unavailable, say, hamburgers, just to pick an example. With no ...
Foreign accents and how they work in Japan, daylight savings time in Japan, and the joy of root beer
A recent commercial featured a voice saying, nihon-jin wa urusai! which means that Japanese are loud and obnoxious and fussy. ...
Checking one’s cultural preconceptions at the door, all about Tokyo and surrounding areas, and J-Drama update
When you come to a place like Japan, it's always best to check your cultural preconceptions at the door and ...
Conflicting themes in the medical industry in Japan, all about convenience stores, and how our brain names objects
Japan is a land of conflicting themes, of high tech phones and glittering gadgets alongside abandoned pachinko parlors and that ...
Staying healthy with “Ningen Dock,” being tormented by images of Kyoto, and the Japan-Helen Keller connection
Yesterday was time for my annual top-to-bottom physical, called Ningen Dock, a name that implies a human (ningen) "drydock" where ...
Lessons we could learn from Japan about “safety driving,” pointing with the middle finger, and trivia on Japanese toilets
I've often thought that there are some really good ideas in Japan that the rest of the world could learn ...
Returning to my Otaku roots, my adventures in a “capsule hotel,” and what the Japanese really eat
Time was, people would go to the Akihabara (ah-ki-HAH-bah-rah, meaning "field of autumn leaves") area of Tokyo to buy some ...
Language learning and the “Han Solo Factor,” example of silly English in product names, and more
As a student of a foreign language, I know that there's no "magic" way to learn, and even if you ...
Politicial life after Koizumi, being at peace with taking your shoes off, and why Taro can’t code
The post-Koizumi era will soon be on us, now that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe has officially been elected leader ...
