The General Japanese Traditional of Nostalgia
I wrote before about how, in the complex world of obsessive otaku culture in Japan, there are (for example) fans ...
Tag: otaku
The New Tokyo Tower: Tokyo Sky Tree
There's a new tree set to start growing in Tokyo, all the way up to the sky. It's called Tokyo ...
Make Japan an Immigrants Country!
Many industrialized countries are battling falling birthrates, as human societies change and shift. The numbers of babies born per female ...
Tragedy in Akihabara
Usually there's nothing like a Sunday afternoon in Akihabara. It's fun to roam through the many electronics stores to see ...
The Suicide Boom
You never know what's going to get popular in Japan next: maybe horn-rimmed glasses will suddenly come back into vogue, ...
Jump Magazine 40th Anniversary Canned Coffee?
Manga is the name given to Japanese comic books, although most people over the age of 35 or so will ...
Genshiken
One of my favorite anime/manga series is Genshiken, an exploration of the deeper aspects of anime, manga and related culture ...
Akihabara Update
Akihabara is the area of Tokyo famous for its electronics shops, and you can find whatever you're looking for there, ...
The Progenitors of the Otaku
The word otaku is a formal term meaning "you" or "your family" which acquired its alternate meaning of "obsessed fanboy" ...
My Recent Maid Cafe Experience
The next time you're in Japan, I suggest you check out the maid cafes that can be found mostly around ...
All About Tokyo and What To Do Here
Tokyo is the sprawling capital of Japan, home to 12 million people, a number which rises by several million during ...
Our “Second Childhood” Through Anime
One thing I like about being involved with Japan and anime is the "second childhood" it allows us all to ...
The History of Akihabara
Akihabara is the area of Tokyo famous for its Electric Town shopping district and for being the international "Mecca" of ...
Karaoke Update: The Age of the Singing Otaku
The J-List staff had fun at our New Year's Party on Friday, and afterwards we engaged in that famous Japanese ...
The joy of “onigiri” rice balls, observations on cooperative elements of Japanese language, and man, that’s a really Nice Boat!
If you were to plan a picnic, you might pack a basket containing things like sandwiches, potato salad or maybe ...
A useful Japanese slang word, changing in the Japanese savings rate, and one “key” to understanding Japan and America (?)…
Recently we took our daughter to a resort hotel in Kusatsu, a hot springs town in the mountains with more ...
NOVA goes “nova,” the latest trends in women dressed up as men, and little “incompatibilities” between Japan and the U.S.
Well, what everyone feared has come to pass: the chain of English schools called NOVA has gone, well, nova, officially ...
Thoughts on innovation and cameras in cell phones, the “next” Brad Pitt as an Otaku, and update on all those lovely fires…
Is teen heart-throb Zac Efron, the so-called "next Brad Pitt," an otaku? That's the question asked in a Japanese magazine ...
Linguistic foibles in Japanese, “made-in-Japan” English words for people who like mayonnaise, and questions about inflation
The other day my wife asked me what a "window-breaker" was. I assumed she was asking about a type of ...
The possibility of Japan’s first “otaku” Prime Minister, various thoughts on bilingualism, and all about Japanese health drinks (and other potions)
The rush is on to choose a successor to Prime Minister Abe after his sudden resignation on Wednesday. I saw ...
Learning about Japan through traditional calligraphy, interesting trends on Japanese television, and all about the word “Domo”
One way to learn about Japan is through its traditional calligraphy, which uses a writing brush called a fude (FOO-day) ...
My weekend trip to Akiba, times when Japanese do or don’t apologize, and the history of the stapler in Japan
I took the train into Tokyo on Sunday to meet a friend in Akihabara, the area of Tokyo famous as ...
On psychology and jealousy of gaijin living in Japan, thinking about Japanese grammar while in the bath, and using the Far Side in English class
I've written before about the psychology of ex-pats living in Japan, such as the the Three Stages of Eye Aversion ...
Japan as a “Matrix of Strange English,” on the strong-willed (and unattractive?) women of our prefecture, and language error “best hits”
Japan is, of course, the home of funny English. It's everywhere, like a bizarre Matrix of Strangeness that pervades the ...
