All about Japanese roads, a Mongolian sumo wrestler does good, and goodbye Mr. Miyagi
You've been in Japan too long when you see a road with two lanes going in the same direction and ...
Tag: gaijin
The nuances of “Ogenki desu ka?” and a new movements in Japanese politics
Ogenki desu ka? This is one of the first phrases a student of Japanese encounters, and it corresponds to the ...
All about Japanese TV, the fun of variety shows, and respect I’ve gained for American medicine
One of the fun things about living in Japan is getting to watch Japanese television. There are 5 national television ...
Educational game shows, winter coming to Japan, and the eerie, sad story of Minako Honda
I've always been impressed with how serious Japan is about education, and a lot of energy is spent on coming ...
The Japanese and movies, learning Japanese through songs, and the famous food of Kyoto
The Japanese love movies, and watch a lot of them. Happily for gaijin like myself, they usually prefer watching U.S. ...
Community spirit, Japan style, and what to do with old schools you don’t need anymore
J-List is based in a small city in central Japan, about 100 km north of Tokyo, and it has a ...
December tests in Japan, my favorite place in my prefecture, and a cool Japanese artist
The month of December means many things: Christmas, spending time with loved ones, and what the Japanese call "shiwasu," that ...
What ordering a “tako” in Japan will get you, fun ways to learn Japanese, and our new kanji T-shirts
There are many interesting foods in Japan. One of our favorite treats is takoyaki, especially popular in the Osaka region. ...
What ordering a “tako” in Japan will get you, fun ways to learn Japanese, and our new kanji T-shirts
There are many interesting foods in Japan. One of our favorite treats is takoyaki, especially popular in the Osaka region. ...
Foreigners and Japanese living in Japan, all about name suffices, and more
Hello everyone! It's time for another slice of life from J-List.It's fun living in Japan and observing Japanese life and ...
All about weddings and wedding capitalism in Japan, and what it is to be “good head”
One interesting area of life in Japan is weddings, and Japanese really take the subject of getting married seriously. One ...
On the inability of people living in Japan to fix their own cars, and days of the week in Japanese
For some reason, living in Japan robs a person of the ability to open the hood of their car. When ...
Typhoon update, life in Gunma Prefecture, and ways that the Japanese walk to their own beat
Florida is getting pummeled by Hurricane Katrina, but Japan just got walloped by Typhoon No. 11, which dumped tons of ...
Otakon and comparisons to Woodstock, all about Japanese politics, and Buddhism
Hello again from J-List. Well, Otakon is over, the 20,000+ anime fans have gone home, and I'm headed back to ...
Ways to learn a foreign language, and on receiving complements about your use of chopsticks
Attempting to master a foreign language is a big undertaking, and if you want to become fluent someday you need ...
My return to Japan, and little things that bothered me along the way
Hello again from J-List! I've made the hop from California back to Japan, and have once again slipped into my ...
On different regions of Tokyo, sources of Japanese drama, and funny Japanese English usage
I've written before about how different regions of Japan go out of their way to establish meibutsu (famous local speciality), ...
How taxes are structured in Japan, all about Japanese kimonos, and the Sino-Japanese Counting System
Although Japan likes to take a lot of cultural cues from Europe, and even pretend that it's a part of ...
The origins of the Japanese flag, wacky theme parks found in Japan, and a whale who became an idol
The Japanese flag, with its red circle against a white background, has got to be one of the most recognizable ...
The lack of pregnant women in Japan, more about how kanji works, and my karaoke pictures
My Japanese mother-in-law remarked the other day that, "You don't see women with big stomachs very often these days." At ...
J-List drink party, funny phrases you can try at home, and thoughts on Japanese English
Japanese students study a total of six years of English, even more if they go on to college, and even ...
New and old in Japan, and listening to the armed forces radio from Yokosuka
Japan can really be a place of contrasting images. On the one hand, it's a modern, technologically advanced country that ...
The Season of the Sakura in Japan, and all about motorcycling across Japan
It's sakura time in Japan right now, as cherry blossoms around the country explode in beautiful fireworks of pink. This ...
Pouring your own beer in Japan, and what we could learn from the Japanese
You know you've lived in Japan too long when you're incapable of pouring your own beer. It's true -- in ...
