Tag: Japan

My daughter has started junior high school, which is a big step in Japan, a kind of medium point between ...

Although Japanese kitchens are well stocked with spoons, forks and knives, most meals in Japan are eaten with chopsticks. Children ...

Is it possible for a person to lose the use of their native language? Studies in linguistics (which I did ...

Yesterday was my daughter's graduation ceremony from elementary school, and my wife and I watched proudly as our little girl ...

I've written before about the "joy of enlightenment," the mysterious thrill your brain gets when it solves a puzzle or ...

Although Japanese foods like sushi, sashimi and sukiyaki are famous all over the world, the Japanese have an incredibly varied ...

Spring is here, and that means something special to the Japanese: sakura, the cherry blossoms that make the country blaze ...

Every language has dialects, and Japanese is no different. I've heard that since Japanese people are more likely to stay ...

When you live in a place like Japan for long enough, it inevitably starts to change you. First it's the ...

The other day I was listening to the audio book of Children of Men and I heard a word I'd ...

In 2007 a sad event occurred in the town of Aizu-Wakamatsu, which is incidentally famous for being the site of ...

There's a big to-do going on right now over the proposed sale of a chain of luxury hotels operated by ...

As of last November, Japan is officially in a recession. It's an especially bad situation for the country since they're ...

Japan is an extremely cash-based society. Although credit cards have gotten more popular with consumers over the past couple of ...

Although Japan might be famous for sake, wine distilled from rice, the beverage most people order when it's time to ...

I love Japan, really I do, but there are times when I have to shake my head at the lack ...

The word for "foreigner" in Japanese is gaijin, written with kanji meaning outside + person, making it essentially equal to ...

I caught an article on the New York Times website the other day about Japan's little secret, the class of ...

Japanese films (houga) are a unique genre of cinema that I'm fascinated with, and whenever I watch one I'm captivated ...

My favorite Japanese musician is 久石ジョー Hisaishi Joe, the talented composer who created the music for Hayao Miyazaki's most memorable ...

A major category within the world of Japanese comedy is mono-mane (moh-noh MAH-neh), or comedians doing impersonations of famous people, ...

Japan's entertainment world, which encompasses all actors, singers, anime voice actors, bikini idols and everyone else in the public eye, ...

It seems there's no aspect of Japan that can't be made more kawaii. Whether it's a big, faceless bank adopting ...

The shows on Japanese TV around New Year's are especially interesting to watch. I was fascinated with a Japanese variety ...