Japanese Culture

Japanese Singer Hitomi Calls Out Lazy Husbands

Japanese singer, Hitomi, has called her own husband her greatest enemy in raising their children. She recently released a new baby clothing line in collaboration with Seven&i Holdings (the growing powerhouse behind Japan’s 7-11 convenience stores, Itoyokado malls, and much more). Hitomi’s clothing line will be called Pomipomi, and when announcing it commented that there […]

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Famous Tokyo Cherry Blossom Sakura Night Viewing Spots

In comments on my previous post, people seemed interested in “Yozakura” or night hanami. Viewing cherry blossoms at night can be a nice evening outing and also a good contrast to cherry blossom viewing in the daytime. There are tons of places, and if you stay in a hotel, I’m sure the staff can guide

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Hiromi Nagasaku Wins Best Actress at California Independent Film Festival

A very familiar face has taken home the best actress honors at the California Independent Film Festival in Moraga, California this year. Hiromi Nagasaku will be familiar to fans of Japanese movies and dramas. She won the award for her role in the film “Cast Me If You Can” in which she stars with Toru

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Kobe Love Hotel Employees Arrested for Lending Wii

Employees of the Kobe love hotel “Swing” were arrested in a recent police sting for lending Wii and PlayStation 3 to customers. Yes, they let guests of the hotel use their Wiis for entertainment without permission of copyright holders of games such as Mario Cart and BioHazard 5. With all that may or may not

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8 Expressions That Are Overused in Japanese Company Interviews

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has released a list of eight cliches they say people interviewing for jobs with Japanese companies should avoid saying. These are the kind of things that teachers in Japan, many of whom have never had jobs other than teaching, advise their students to say. I hope the

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Sakura Cherry Blossom Forecast for 2011

UPDATE (FEB 4, 2011): tenki.jp has reduced it’s annual Japan cherry blossom forecast for 2011, a screenshot of which is below. It looks like Tokyo is on the line for blooming in March, and we are looking at the turn of the month for most of Japan. Fukuoka, Kochi, and warmer climates seem to have

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Confessions – The Only Japanese Movie on Oscar Short List

UPDATE: Sadly Confessions was not nominated, but I still hope it finds a U.S. distributor. It looks like a really interesting film. The only Japanese movie that made the short list for an Academy Award (Oscar) this year is the film “Confessions”. I haven’t seen it yet so if anyone has, please feel free to

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100s of JR Workers Clear Snow for Japanese University Entrance Exam Takers

In my previous post on the Japan University Entrance Exams, I mentioned that we would be seeing some feel-good news about people making efforts to make sure the high school seniors can make it to their tests on time. Here’s the first one I spotted… probably more to come. Akita JR workers spent hours shoveling

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