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- The Biographical Dictionary of Notable Figures with Hilarious Names
- July 28th, 2010Category: Culture
- Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure once said language is a structured system of arbitrary signs. In other words, your name, when read out loud, could coincidentally mean something outrageous in one of the thousands of human languages. Who knows, your last name could ... » Continue Reading
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- Summertime and the livin’ is easy in Akita
- July 22nd, 2010Category: Culture
- Hi everyone! Summer has finally arrived up here in Akita and that is just fine with me. We had a bit of delayed spring as I mentioned in one of my previous blogs. The lingering winter just wouldn’t let go! But now the rainy season is just about over, the Agisai (hydrang ... » Continue Reading
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- Politics on the Streets of Japan
- July 22nd, 2010Category: Culture
- An election cannot pass you by quietly in Japan. Even those not particularly interested in politics are constantly reminded of the impending poll with intermittent announcements blasted from vehicles equipped with roof-mounted megaphones. Larger cars, vans and eve ... » Continue Reading
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- The Merits of Working with Difficult Students
- July 20th, 2010Category: Culture
- A few weeks ago, while teaching an action class on simple breakfalls, I had a particularly challenging experience working with a student. At the time, we were working on reverse rolling breakfalls (which admittedly, is not the easiest technique to understand), and he ... » Continue Reading
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- Japan’s In-Shop Lettuce Factory
- July 13th, 2010Category: Culture
- Subway Japan has opened a new shop “Subway Yasai Lab Maru Building Store,” the first of its kind, in the arunouchi Building in central Tokyo. Tech blog AsianJin points out that what makes the shop so unique is that there is a vegetable factory set inside the shop and i ... » Continue Reading
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- Spotlight: Ghost in the Shell / Innocence
- July 9th, 2010Category: Arts & Entertainment, Culture
- To get in you in the mood for our recently announced animation competition Andrez bergen has put together this look at the Ghost in the Shell series. What other nation in the world annihilates its own capital as much as Japan tends to? Think of all the times Tokyo's be ... » Continue Reading
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- Derelict Store, Ōokayama
- May 27th, 2010Category: Culture
- I found this shop the other week right near my daughter Cocoa's kindergarten in Ōokayama, one stop from our place on the Oimachi Line. Ōokayama is full of some interesting old architecture, some of it condemned and falling apart - like this particular gem, apparently a ... » Continue Reading
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- Rice bra supports Japanese girls
- May 13th, 2010Category: Culture
- Gyaru farmers is one trend Japan has seen over the last couple of years and now here is a somewhat random tangent of that. Girls keen to keep their agricultural hobby close to their heart can now grow their own rice in a special bra designed by lingerie maker Triumph a ... » Continue Reading
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- Top 12 Manga Romps Ever (with a catch)
- May 12th, 2010Category: Culture
- Today I chatted with my student Aiko K, an apprentice mangaka who works on both shojo and shonen styles of manga but personally prefers doing horror stuff herself. Somehow we got to talking about a few different tomes I'd read myself over the years, and ended up with ... » Continue Reading
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- Hot Pink Sake for Valentines Day in Japan!
- February 10th, 2010Category: Culture
- Feeling a romantic inclination for this week's Valentine's Day? Ditch the hand-made chockies or Cadbury Roses, and real flowers? ...pfft. Wine and dine your loved one with a pink-coloured nigorizake. While regular sake is clear or vaguely amber in hue, nigorizake ... » Continue Reading
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- Unique Japanese fashion styles
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- Cats, Numbers and Other Japanese Superstitions
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- Hakone: A Day Trip to Remember
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