Tag: kids

Autumn is here, and that means the return of nikuman (niku-mahn), those delicious Chinese steamed buns that they sell in ...

Over the weekend I had the sad job of paying a final visit to my wife's uncle Kumakichi, who's in ...

It's interesting having kids who are half Japanese and half American, and my wife and I put quite a lot ...

The other day I happened to see my newphew's bare foot, and I noticed that his middle toe was longer ...

If you were to plan a picnic, you might pack a basket containing things like sandwiches, potato salad or maybe ...

When I started my third year of Japanese at SDSU, there was a new book we were required to buy: ...

Last time I talked about the concept of filial piety, or oya koko, which is the respect you pay to ...

One odd thing about learning a foreign language is that you observe things native speakers might not notice. For example, ...

Japan has entered its rainy season, a month-long period when it will rain most every day as the country does ...

The rise of manga and anime has brought the West into contact with some interesting Japanese visual conventions. I remember ...

The Japanese are good at coming up with innovative ways of committing information to memory. Like the man who memorized ...

You never know when Japanese customs will catch you off guard. When our kids were born, I insisted on being ...

Ogenki desu ka? This is one of the first phrases a student of Japanese encounters, and it corresponds to the ...

Japan can be such a funny place. You could be going along, minding your own business when suddenly, bam, the ...

Before I started J-List, I had a career as a teacher of eikaiwa or English conversation. In Japan there's a ...

I often write about what it's like to raise kids in Japan, since this subject may offer some insight into ...

One interesting aspect of Japan is that around 80% of the people here consider themselves to be "middle class," which ...

I know winter is finally over when the boso-zoku biker gangs start making their annoying evening rides past my house, ...

Once while my family was watching My Neighbor Totoro, the awesome animated film about a magical forest spirit that only ...

Recently I got the urge to re-watch the classic 70s show Land of the Lost, about a family that gets ...

The other day Yasu, the J-List employee who keeps our site stocked with awesome anime artbooks, Japanese study supplies and ...

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

Japan is definitely a land of opposites, often presenting conflicting images to visitors from the outside world who are trying ...

Spring vacation has come to Japan, and as a parent this means I've got two teenagers under foot for the ...