Tag: gaijin

One day I took my son out for a bowl of gyudon, steamed beef over rice, the most popular form ...

Yesterday was my birthday, so I went on something called a "drinkabout" with some local friends, essentially a pub crawl ...

Language has many uses, including communicating great ideas, recording the events of history and ordering pizza. It also helps define ...

During the two months I'll be here in the U.S., I've got a long list of things I need to ...

Running a business in Japan naturally means I have to interview Japanese job applicants who want to work for J-List, ...

Ever since that dancing CG baby and "All Your Base Are Belong to Us," the Internet has run on memes, ...

I saw on online discussion board that asked ex-pats living in Japan whether life there has changed for the better ...

When a foreigner goes to Japan, especially for an extended period of time rather than a brief visit as a ...

There are certain paradoxes you encounter when dealing with Japan. For example, we often think of the country as a ...

Although I've been in Japan for more than 20 years, there are some things I've never really mastered, like eating ...

Yesterday I took a trip to Takasaki to visit the local branch of the Tokyo Immigration Office. I was there ...

One subject I write about a lot is the great interest the Japanese seem to take in what foreigners visiting ...

If you ever visit the Tokyo area, you'll find many things to do: go shopping for fresh fish at the ...

One of the most powerful symbols of Japan is, of course, Mt. Fuji, the beautiful volcano that sits astride Shizuoka ...

One interesting social concept you see at work a lot in Japan is the concept of 我慢 gaman, which means ...

One question I'm asked sometimes is, how do Japanese feel about otaku? Originally a semi-formal way to say "you" or ...

When foreigners come to Japan, it's natural they'll encounter objects that are common and familiar to Japanese people yet strange ...

One thing you learn when living as an expat in Japan is how global the world can be. Recently my ...

It's fun to analyze the way anime, game and manga companies go about creating characters that will win the hearts ...

There are many reasons to like a given anime series, including a truly fresh story approach, characters with endearing moe ...

Last time I talked about the way a country like Japan can appear quite different to "outsiders" who come here ...

I've learned a few things during my time in Japan, including dozens of ways to use mayonnaise as well as ...

Names in Japan, of course, are pronounced family name first, so if you meet someone named Yamada Hanako you'll know ...

One of the more exotic aspects of Japan are its "love hotels," private hotels that couples can go to in ...