One of the first sightseeing missions I embarked on while in Japan in 2005 was to Kamakura, a small, sleepy town to the south of Tokyo. Kamakura has a lot to offer for a day trip: a ton of temples within walking distance … [Read more...]
I am, as my name may suggest, Japanese. I was born to ordinary Japanese parents, and I grew up like any other Japanese girl would in the outskirts of Tokyo. I grew up drinking bottles of Yakult, eating things like natto, … [Read more...]
馬鹿 (Baka) means stupid in Japanese and came from the Sanskrit word "baka" which means for "ignorance" and "illusion." In Japan, the usage of "baka" started at the end of the Kamakura period (1185–1333). Nowadays we use … [Read more...]
Editor's Note: Since Austin wrote about what it's like being East Asian while living in Japan, I thought it was appropriate to follow it up with Lenna's experience joining a club at her university and what she had to go … [Read more...]
Being an ethnic Chinese person living in Japan, I don’t exactly stand out from the typical Japanese person. Sometimes, I get comments from some of my other gaijin friends that it should be easier for me – after all, in a … [Read more...]
Great. Another gasbag movie-nerd is gonna talk about the American version of The Ring and how it pales in comparison next to its seminal Japanese horror inspiration Ringu (or vice-versa). Maybe he’ll talk about how one … [Read more...]