Tag: Japan

I watch more than a little late-night Japanese TV, and I enjoy its light- hearted goofiness. The other night I ...

I've spent more than 20 years as an observer of the Japanese people and their traditions, and it's been a ...

One of the fun things about living in Japan is enjoying the TV commercials here, like a popular commercial for ...

I've heard that it's impossible to live in a country unless you truly enjoy the food there, and it's certainly ...

Tonight one of my favorite films is going to be shown on Japanese TV: Hayao Miyazaki's classic Castle in the ...

It's always fun to turn on late night TV in Japan and see what interesting shows I can find, like ...

We're having loads of fun at the San Diego Comic-Con here in always-sunny San Diego, selling tons of Tentacle Grape ...

One of the more challenging aspects of learning a foreign language is picking up idiomatic expressions, which can be terribly ...

I finally made time to finish the second season of Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, ...

Well, my trip to the middle of America and back is finally done. I managed to put 3200 miles (5150 ...

Last time I talked about how 謙遜 (ken-sohn, with a long vowel on the end), meaning humility, is considered an ...

One thing textbooks don't tell you about becoming bilingual in a language is the way you'll naturally come to internalize ...

I happened to see that popular actress Ayame Gouriki, famous for her energetic nature and boyish short-cut hair, was awarded ...

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

My wife and I recently made the decision to "reform" our house, which is what the Japanese call remodeling for ...

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

One of the more interesting paradoxes about Japan is the way around 70% of people here will insist they don't ...

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

Over the years I've read several novels by James Clavell, which were loosely based on history and set in Hong ...

The Japanese are big fans of television, and watch 2-6 hours of TV per day on average, depending on their ...

Two important concepts related to Japan are 建前 tatemae (tah-teh-mah-eh) and 本音 honne (hon-neh), which essentially mean "the facade or ...

A few days ago the father of a friend of ours passed away, so we had to go into "Japanese ...

One part of Peter's Unified Theory of Japan™ is that the country follows behind the West socially, taking its cues ...

One of my favorite aspects of Japan is definitely the train culture here, and it's always fun to take a ...