1985. What a year. The Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in the U.S. to near immediate success. What American video game makers had abandoned as a dead market, Japanese video game companies picked up and revitalized. … [Read more...]
This article first appeared in a truncated version at on the Komaba Times Website, the blog for the Journalistic Writing class at the University of Tokyo -- Anyone living in Japan can tell you that the words … [Read more...]
Kekkon Katsudou (結婚活動), most commonly referred to as “konkatsu” (婚活) for short, is perhaps the most dangerous hunts of them all... that hunt of course being “marriage hunting.” The Japanese construct of actively and … [Read more...]
Japan is famous for being basically the “Kingdom of Cute.” Of course there's cuteness all over the world, but in Japan it permeates the culture in a way you don't see anywhere else. In the US, a cute mascot for the police … [Read more...]
In 1992, Kyouryuu Sentai ZyuRanger (Dinosaur Squad Beast Ranger) aired on TV Asahi in Japan. One year later, an Israeli TV producer named Haim Saban took the footage from ZyuRanger, cut out the Japanese cast and stories, … [Read more...]
A while back I wrote a post about Keanu Reeves and the new 47 Ronin movie he was in. Over Christmas break I saw this movie, filled with high hopes but very low expectations. It had some of my favorite actors, and the … [Read more...]