Tag: gaijin

All eyes are watching the upcoming election for president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which will determine the ...

It's often said the Japanese are the most polite people on Earth, and this is generally a Good Thing. When ...

There are certain positive aspects of living in Japan, including the fact that it's such a peaceful country -- you'll ...

I happened to see that the "manifesto" of Norwegian gunman and all-around asshat Anders Behring Breivik included words of praise ...

When you're a white guy studying Japanese in university, a funny thing happens: as you progress in your studies there ...

One thing you get used to about Japanese people is, they don't think too deeply about their own language, and ...

Well, my long sojourn in the U.S. is finally at an end, and I'm returning to Japan with my son ...

Being away from Japan for a long time can make a gaijin and his son yearn for real Japanese food. ...

Japanese is a very subtle language, and I thought it'd be interesting to examine the many ways you can express ...

Well, that was quite a trip. Over five days my son and I managed to hit some of the more ...

Although the Japanese generally are very polite and considerate, there are times when foreigners like me might consider what they ...

The Japanese do some strange things, at least from the viewpoint of this particular foreigner. In the U.S. you'd never ...

Peter's favorite thing about Japan, #345: izakaya (ee-ZAH-kah-ya), a kind of cozy Japanese pub-restaurant that's filled with exotic food and ...

Japan is a special place, and when foreigners visit the country for the first time it's a truly magical thing ...

There are many good things about living in Japan. It's a safe country, and you'll never experience fear here, except ...

The Japanese have some unique ways of looking at the world, and as an "outsider" (which is what the word ...

Yesterday I went to a computer store to shop for some PC hardware. Unfortunately I forgot that it was Tuesday, ...

Everyone knows there are no guns in Japan...which is why I was rather surprised when I discovered that a Japanese ...

In Japanese there are some amusing phonetic conventions that get used in advertising, which are interesting for a gaijin to ...

Although you probably don't think of the Japanese as overweight, the problem is expanding waistlines is affecting people here, too. ...

I hope all mothers in the world had a very special Mother's Day yesterday, wherever you are in the world. ...

One TV show I like a lot is Eigo de Shabera Night, an educational variety show put on by NHK ...

If there's a Golden Rule in Japan, it's that you should never cause meiwaku, translatable as inconvenience or trouble, to ...

Japan is currently engaged in a debate about how best to rebuild the country after the massive destruction of the ...