-
- Understanding Tohoku
- October 15th, 2013Category: Uncategorized
- I came to Japan in July 2011, about four months after the East Japan Earthquake. We had been warned that electricity use had been cut in an attempt to compensate for the shortages in the northeast, and the first obvious show of this was in the Tokyo nightscape, scat ... » Continue Reading
-
- 1,017
-
- 2,677
- Day Trip to Akita’s Land of the Namahage
- August 28th, 2013Category: Travel
- When people talk about visiting Akita, I am often torn about what it is I should be suggesting they do. See some rice fields? Senshu Park? If Akita is not in festival season, my first thoughts are often that there is little to do or see to impress a first-timer, esp ... » Continue Reading
-
- 2,420
- 1
- The Education of Japan’s Educators
- June 29th, 2013Category: Teaching in Japan
- Japan holds something of a world title in high test scores. Japanese pat themselves on the back about it, with snarling glances begrudge South Korea for beating them, and seem to generally ignore the fact that Scandinavia is performing better than all of Asia. Japan pri ... » Continue Reading
-
- 2,171
- 1
- Snow, County and the Wildness of Words
- May 17th, 2013Category: Teaching in Japan
- Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968, mostly as a result of his novel, Snow Country. Called Yukiguni in Japanese, it is the subtly portrayed account of a businessman who visits a hot spring town in winter and his relationships with a popular ge ... » Continue Reading
-
- 892
- President Obama
- January 28th, 2013Category: Culture, Events
- President Obama was recently re-elected for his second term as president of the United States. In his sweeping acceptance speech, he makes a remark about how citizens of America can make their own futures happen if they work hard, no matter if they are black or white, ... » Continue Reading
