Tag: gaijin

Like most other expats living in Japan, I've got a special relationship with...McDonald's. Back when I was getting used to ...

I'll tell you about the scariest thing to happen to be since coming to Japan. I'm a big fan of ...

There are many good things about living in Japan. For one thing, it's a world of potentially endless mystery, where ...

One of the joys of being a long-term gaijin in Japan is eventually building a house here. Houses in Japan ...

One of the first words a foreigner learns upon coming to Japan is daijobu (dai-JOH-boo), a very useful term which ...

Akihabara is the area of Tokyo famous for its Electric Town shopping district and for being the international "Mecca" of ...

You never forget your first impressions of something. Although it was seventeen years ago, I still vividly remember my arrival ...

One of my favorite words of Japanese is actually wasei eigo or "made-in-Japan English." It's the phrase "going my way," ...

Leave it to Japan to turn concepts as simple as "yes" and "no" into something more complex than it needs ...

Although Japan is famous for its extensive rail network, allowing people living in large cities like Tokyo to get by ...

All registered foreigners living in Japan carry one of these, a Gaikokijin Toroku Shomeisho, aka the Alien Registration Card, which ...

Japan has really changed for the better over the past decade and a half in terms of how easy it ...

Strange things can happen to foreigners who live in Japan for too long. They might watch TV while drinking beer ...

There was a minor dust-up on the Internets in Japan this week after the government suggested that it might add ...

Spend a little time in front of a TV in Japan and you'll see more than a few interesting "talents" ...

Without a doubt, one of the big barriers to learning Japanese are the kanji, the Chinese characters that communicate meaning ...

Yesterday my wife and I went to our favorite restaurant and noticed that the girl who had been working there ...

When a person goes to live in a foreign country, it's natural that he encounter some words and concepts that ...

Akemashite omedetou to all J-List readers! We had a nice, quiet New Year's Day, relaxing in the morning and watching ...

I've caught the "Lost" bug, and am enjoying watching the series on DVD here in San Diego. One interesting aspect ...

Maybe my post on Wednesday about the Japanese not seeming to care about government waste was read by someone important. ...

One thing you don't hear very often when speaking English is someone saying, "Wait, what's the subject of your sentence? ...

Being an American in rural Japan can be a challenge, and while I do my best to fit in with ...

If you were to plan a picnic, you might pack a basket containing things like sandwiches, potato salad or maybe ...