| 11:16am | Noriko Sakai and "Hansei" | | | | Well, singer Noriko Sakai has turned herself in to the authorities, admitting to using stimulant drugs with her husband for the past year. If I know anything about Japanese people, it will be time for her to show hansei, a word which can be translated as reflection, introspection, and contemplation about... |
| 11:16am | The Japanese Language Proficiency Test | | | | The primary test for students of Japanese is the Japanese Language Ability Test, or JLPT, used by a mind-blowing 500,000 applicants each year to measure their language ability and serve as a goal for each year's study activities. Started in 1984 in response to the rising tide of interest in Japan around... |
| 11:15am | Meru Otonashi and Japan's Negative Internet Culture | | | | It's funny how the Internet can bring out the best and the worst in people, and all of us seem to change a little when interacting with others online. Depending on various factors -- the kind of virtual interaction, the degree of anonymity of the participants and so on -- even the most passive person... | | |
| 11:08am | Cool Products Monday, August 10, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... | | |
| 11:11am | Don't Write a Person's Name in Red in Japan | | | | The other day my wife was writing my name and address on a box she was going to send to our house in Japan. As she did so, she said, "P-chan," -- my nickname at home, which I inherited from an old cat we used to have, not the famous anime pig -- "I only have a red pen, so I'm going to write your name... | | |
| 11:10am | Would You Like to Climb Mt. Fuji? | | | | There comes a time in every Japan-loving gaijin's life when he or she must take the plunge and climb Mt. Fuji. An active volcano 12,388 ft (3,776 meters) high that rises gracefully from the prefectures of Shizuoka and Yamanashi, Mt. Fuji is an incredibly beautiful image of the country. In Japanese its... |
| 11:09am | Noriko Sakai is THE FUGUTIVE | | | | Japan's entertainment world has been turned upside-down by a perfect storm of scandals this week. First, actor Manabu Oshio was arrested for testing positive for the drug Ecstasy after a Roppongi hostess was found dead in an apartment he'd been using, apparently having died of a drug overdose. He's the... |
| 11:09am | Cool Products Friday, August 7, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... | | |
| 9:39am | Back in Japan, and Sleepy... | | | | Well, I'm back on the other side of the world, having made the hop from California to Japan, a journey of 24 hours from door to door. As usual, being back "home" is always a bit of a shock, from the terrible humidity to how clean everything looks from the window of the bus I took from the airport. I... |
| 9:39am | Lowering the Age of Adulthood in Japan | | | | The Japanese government is moving ahead with a plan to lower the official age at which a person is considered an adult from 20 to 18. Since its emergence as a modern nation, Japan has defined an adult to be age 20, and that's when a person can legally buy tobacco or alcohol and vote in elections. There's... |
| 9:38am | The Nebuta Festival in Aomori | | | | In the summer the Japanese love matsuri, or festivals, which are a fun time to wear traditional clothes and carry around an omikoshi, a kind of heavy portable shrine that's hoisted around the neighborhood by a dozen or so people. There are various major festivals held around the country, from the Gion... |
| 9:34am | Gaijin in Japan, Continued | | | | Last time I talked about the way Japanese perceive Westerners, who kind of hold a special place in society here because we're so obviously different from the Japanese faces all around us -- we basically have a big sign that says gaijin! hanging around our necks. One question I'm sometimes asked is, do... |
| 9:32am | Cool Products Wednesday, August 5, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... | | |
| 8:29am | The Bilingual Brain | | | | The other day I was writing one of my J-List updates, and a rather embarrassing thing happened to me: I found myself unable to recall an English word I needed, although I knew what it was in Japanese. The word in question was sekkyoku-teki (sek-kyo-koo teh-kee), which means assertive or proactive or... |
| 8:29am | Shochu | | | | Everyone knows sake (SAH-kay), the famous rice-brewed beverage that's one of the most famous images of Japan. But another popular drink is shochu, a distilled beverage made from various sources including barley, sweet potatoes and rice. In decades past, shochu was seen as a lower-class drink, but in... |
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