Archive | People RSS feed for this section

Before Daft Punk, There Was Tomita

I and practically everybody I know has been excited for Daft Punk’s upcoming album, Random Access Memories, and for good reason—Daft Punk has been one of the biggest names in dance music for almost 20 years. Daft Punk is obviously extremely popular around the world, but I think that it owes a thing or two [...]

Tomohiro Nishikado: Invader Creator

Quick, who’s the man who started the golden age of arcade video games? Who created gaming’s first killer app? Who created a new genre of games, and inspired the Mario-making Miyamoto and Konami’s Kojima? Do you give up, or did your eyes just skim ahead to the next sentence, inadvertently ruining the surprise? Tomohiro Nishikado [...]

A History Of Japanese Baseball Future

Note: Tofugu and its staff are not responsible for any changes to the fabric of time that may directly or indirectly negatively affect you or someone you know. All time travel was done without malice and for research purposes only. Some names have been left out to prevent time-travel-related problems in the future. Please refer [...]

Fortune Cookies: More Japanese Than You Think

There’s no arguing that a lot of what we consider stereotypically Japanese actually came from elsewhere. Japan has China to thank for the Japanese language, which is also where ramen is from. Tempura, konpeito, and castella cake came by way of the Portuguese; likewise, curry was introduced by the British. The gakuran and the sailor [...]

What Makes Japanese Architecture Different?

I’ve never understood architecture. Like fine art, architecture seems like one of those subjects that requires years of training and study to be able to really, fully appreciate. But to plebes like myself, it remains a mysterious topic, out of reach and beyond my comprehension. Despite my ignorance, there’s something about Japanese architecture that stops [...]