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Godzilla’s New Life 5: American Buildings Too Tall
For a while now, I’ve been doing my Godzilla (or Gojira, if you want to be cool) series over on my other site, Koichiben. It is all about Godzilla’s new life in Portland, OR, USA, and how he deals with all the things we take for granted. He is a monster, you know. I was planning [...]
Continue reading...Obake Series: Tanuki
Before we get started with this long overdue article, let’s take a small quiz. No cheating! Tanuki are: A) Badgers, B) Raccoons, C) Wolverines, D) Raccoon dogs Here’s a tanuki macro to help you out: The word tanuki is often mistranslated as “raccoon” or “badger”. By looking at them, though, you can tell that’s clearly not what they [...]
Continue reading...Tofugu’s Japan Week in Review 1: Fukuda, Elevators, & Mochi Death
5. January 2008
December 27, 2007 - January 4, 2008 Every week (i.e. whenever time allows), I’ll be doing a “Japan week in review.” These segments will cover smaller news articles from throughout the week that we don’t want to cover individually. Although these articles of news won’t necessarily be very important, they’ll surely be interesting instead. Included after [...]
Continue reading...Top Japanese Impulse Buys of 2007: Part 2
24. December 2007
In the first installment of this series, I covered the top trendy items in Japan from 1-5. This time, I’ll be talking about items 6-10. Let’s get started, shall we? 6) Leggings/Tights: It wasn’t too long ago that I gave in to the trend and bought my first pair of tights. While showing a little leg [...]
Continue reading...Top Japanese Impulse Buys of 2007: Part 1
23. November 2007
We’re halfway through Black Friday (the American tribute to consumerism) by now, so I thought I’d share with you the top trendy, must-have items that debuted in Japan this year. 1) The Mega Mac: A recurring menu item, the Mega Mac showed up again on Japanese McDonald’s in January this year. It’s advertised (see left) [...]
Continue reading...Nice Japan p I: Violence and Anime
23. October 2007
There are way too many people out there with utopian views of the Japanese nation, and we aren’t here to perpetuate anyone’s fantasy. Although Japan is pretty freakin’ sweet (I think we all pretty much agree), it’s still a country full of problems, just like anywhere else. And now, without further adieu… This is my [...]
Continue reading...Japanese Youtubers Part I: Moonkey4U
19. August 2007
When you’ve ridden the youtube village tricycle a few times, you’ll realize that there are a bunch of undeserving popular folks, and just as many talented unpopular ones. Moonkey4U falls into the latter category.Though Moonkey provides a variety of different videos, all of them are of high quality. Sometimes he just talks into the camera [...]
Continue reading...Tofugu News: A New Series, Guest Writers, and Chat Stuff
10. August 2007
The Obake Series: An Introduction Later this month, we will be posting the first of a series of articles on Japanese monsters and ghosts, or obake (お化け). Obake, also known as bakemono (化け物) are a motley bunch, with unique backgrounds and personalities. They are portrayed widely in Japanese folklore and art; some have even been popularized [...]
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4. April 2008