Masi Oka of Heroes visiting Japan, contemplating Japanese culture through its food, and more dogs in Japan than babies
I knew it would happen: Heroes is starting to get popular in Japan. This morning I turned on the TV ...
Tag: sports
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 ...
About Japan’s most famous (only?) charity, all about the word “genki,” and my kids re-adjusting to life in Japan
This past weekend saw the broadcast of "24 Hour TV," an annual charity drive broadcast by the Nippon TV network ...
Japanese High school baseball update, things I’ve learned from teaching ESL, and the next “boom” to hit Japan — Vinegar Beer?
You never know where the next interesting "boom" will come from in Japan. Maybe it'll be a strange new fashion ...
Thoughts on flying to Japan, comparing sports and sexy waitresses, and more oddities of written Japanese
Well, I've completed my return journey, and am safely back in Japan. Whenever people hear I'm flying across the Pacific ...
What a difference an elongated vowel makes, Jamestown vs. Sekigahara, and other cultural observations from a cunning linguist
What a difference an elongated vowel can make. Japanese is quite different from English, having had a totally unique developmental ...
All about the Japanese attention to “kakko” (style), feelings about Japanese who make the country look good (and bad), and “Vegas, baby, Vegas.”
Hello again from J-List. This time I've hopped over to sunny Las Vegas for a few days of much-needed relaxation ...
All about the word “banzai,” a giant love hotel in my city, and more on differences between languages
The word banzai is one of the most well-known Japanese phrases in the West, up there with geisha, samurai, ninja ...
The Japanese fear of making mistakes, the end of the Japanese blood type myth, and panty shots in anime you didn’t expect to see
Although the Japanese generally study six years of English (or up to ten if they take it in college), they're ...
Japan’s latest shining baseball star, fun space-saving innovations, and Japan is wasted on the Japanese
Japan takes its baseball seriously, and right now the whole country is closely watching Daisuke Matsuzaka as he starts his ...
A magic Japanese phrase for you, home ownership Japan-style, and Japan as “producer heaven”
Last time I mentioned the magic words that may be responsible for much of the wa or harmony that Japan ...
All about trains and fuzzy blue rabbits from London, linguistic quirks of the Japanese language, and finding someone’s “secret talent”
One thing I like about living in Japan is the rail culture here, so very different from the freeway- and ...
Japan as the land of safety, small conveniences of living in Japan, and the reason for that wacky “Engrish”
I've written before about how Japan is a very safe place -- so safe it might just kill you with ...
Going to ge a haircut and learning about Japanese culture instead, when Japanese people must become bold, and using songs to master Japanese
People talk about convergence all the time, of things coming together in a more convenient form. Living in Japan, one ...
Peter’s Unified Theory of Japan meets Great Britain, going to the beach in January, and understanding Japan through its bicycles
Part of Peter's Unified Theory of Japan is that the Land of the Rising Sun has a lot in common ...
The start of Japan’s important Holiday Season, a local battle over a Ferris Wheel, and understanding Japanese humility through baseball players
Now that Christmas is past, Japan is getting ready for its own big season, Oshogatsu or New Year's Day, by ...
Good things and bad about living in Japan, more ways Japanese look to the West, and social benefits of love hotels
There are a lot of good things about living in Japan. Good food, from sushi to sashimi to Indian curry. ...
American-style shopping in Japan, the shadow of MC Hammer in TV commercials, and what does baseball have to do with ham?
Last weekend my son and I decided to stop by Aeon, a sprawling American-style shopping mall that recently opened near ...
Language learning and the “Han Solo Factor,” example of silly English in product names, and more
As a student of a foreign language, I know that there's no "magic" way to learn, and even if you ...
Peter tastes local politics, the Joba horse-riding machine, and more info on blood types
Today I took a couple of hours off work to participate in local politics, heading down to sit in on ...
Thuoghts on “car culture” in Japan, the basics of how kanji work, and autumn = school sports day
Although Japan is a lot smaller than the U.S. -- it's about the same land area as Nebraska, but spread ...
Understanding how perceptions of foreigners affects us, learning culture through anime, and time to study some Japanese!
All countries are affected to a certain extent by the views of foreigners. I've read that the Chinese never really ...
The subject of English lyrics in Japanese songs, the drama of “juken hell,” and useless trivia for you
First, the J-List site went down for a couple hours on Tuesday night, U.S. time, due to a server hiccup, ...
My wife’s new respect for Johnny Depp, 15 minutes of fame for Baby Gorilla and Pyupa, and High School Baseball in Japan
Something odd happened while I was in the States: my wife decided that Johnny Depp was the neatest thing since ...
