Tag: japanese culture

I've been fortunate to live in Japan for 27 years, and during my time here, I've traveled around extensively, visiting ...

One aspect of the Japanese I'm a fan of is their humility, the general tendency to be self-effacing and avoid ...

J-List has a popular Twitter feed and Facebook page, and I like to post random slice-of-life thoughts from Japan. When ...

One of the more important aspects of the Japanese is their humility, which is considered an important trait for both ...

I often write about how Japanese people are the most polite in the world, which can be understood pretty well ...

If you've read a few novels by James Clavell, you might come away with the impression that Japanese are highly ...

The Japanese can be somewhat superstitious compared to Americans. It's common in department stores to see people getting their palms ...

There are a few things I've learned about Japan over the years. The Japanese love to pay homage to other ...

The Japanese news media operates in much the same way as in other countries, reporting news events to consumers on ...

It's funny to observe how easily paradigm shifts can occur in the fast-paced world we live in. Looking at the ...

One of my Twitter followers asked me, "How long did it take for bowing to become automatic when you learned ...

One theme I write a lot about is how there's exactly one "correct" way to do things in Japan -- ...

The word "salaryman" is a wasei-eigo (lit. "made-in-Japan English") term referring to a salaried male employee of a company. The ...

There are certain areas of the Japanese language that are actively fun to study, like puzzling out the counters, special ...

It's said in Japan that the U.S. is a "horizontal" society (in Japanese, yoko no shakai) while Japan is "vertical" ...

Now that January is here, Japanese who turned 20 years of age since last April are preparing for their Coming ...

One of my favorite images of Japan are the Daruma, the unique red dolls that are seen everywhere around this ...

Although Christmas is a relatively recent import into Japan, the giving and receiving of gifts has always been a big ...

In accordance with the Treaty of San Francisco, I'm required to blog about certain core Japan-related concepts every year or ...

Among other things, the Japanese are famous for being an indirect people, and for having a language that uses subtlety ...

If you ever read a news article about an accident fatality that occurred in Japan, you'll read words like "the ...

One aspect of Japan that appears odd to us free-thinking foreigners is how strict the educational system can be, especially ...

Unfortunately the announcement of the new J-List retail shop in Akihabara turned to be an April Fool's joke (heh, even ...

Last time I talked about safety in Japan, including the way elementary school children walk to school in an organized ...