I have to admit. It’s always seemed a bit funny and surprising to me when I heard friends assert that it wouldn’t rain, even when I could smell it in the air and see the clouds a-coming. I’ve been told on a Sunday that it would snow on Wednesday, and right up until Thursday my…
I came across this video while looking for some historical Japanese news footage for personal study. This is apparently a series. I’d be happy to embed some more of them if people are interested in seeing them. This video starts out with very subtle comedy. It’s a lot of fun, but I don’t know if…
The title says it all. Lately I’ve been spending most of my time working on my other blog which is a blog about raising children, education, and being a father – important things. BigDaddyJapan.com If you read Japanese and are interested in family related topics, please drop by.
I’ve mentioned this before in other articles about what I call pop-Japanology in the media. People saying something about Japan which is completely unsubstantiated, never fact checked, but people who don’t know better believe it. The example this time may be found this article found on CNN. Man Wanted For Murder Goes on Stabbing Spree…
JTB did a poll of Japanese people in their 20s published online by Yomiuri here: If you had 300,000 yen would you save it or take a trip? Travel Abroad 20.4% Save it 17.3% Travel within Japan 12.5% The numbers are interesting, but the poll is probably skewed. The poll was given on the internet,…
Sorry, don’t have a current English language link for this one. Here’s one from about a year ago which discusses the case…. Publisher, “Uplink” and it’s president Takashi Asai waged the battle and took it to the highest court in Japan. In 1999, Asai brought his company’s reproduction of Mapplethorpe’s collection with him to the…
This year’s festival had the biggest turn out because of the poster controversy. The guy who got the bag, having a beard and especially hairy body, seems to have grossed out some people with his body and facial expression. One train station refused to put up the poster (depicting the moment a winner secured one…
First off, what I refer to as pop-Japanology is the phenomenon of people all over the world, including scholars and otherwise reputable journalists to feel comfortable making generalizations about Japan without any fact checking. CNN has featured an article about the Sumo Bullying/Murder case that happened back in June. Arrests were made around February 8th…
CNN Reports this story in its U.S. edition. Boy, 16, enjoys champagne, hostesses This is why only people that understand Japanese and that made a sincere effort to learn about the real Japan know anything about Japan. Even in the English language newspapers in Japan you have news about the 14 year old girl with…
22 Year-Old Japanese Student Believed World’s Youngest to Clone a Mouse(article in Mainichi Daily News) Hey! I don’t want any more young people cloning any more things! It’s bad enough when they have kids and then bleach their hair! What’s next, the guys going to create a bunch of pocket monsters and we’ll have a…
I don’t even know what to say about this article… I’m not about to start peeking over bathroom stall doors to satisfy your curiosity! A recent article in Mainichi reports that 40% of Japanese men sit down to pee. Has this kind of survey ever been done in the US? Isn’t it an insult to…
Here’s the story that caught my eye today… “Students use mobile phones over an hour a day for e-mail, Net surfing” (Japan Times) Point one: This headline is misleading because it includes elementary school kids. If you looked at the average times mentioned at the bottom, the average for junior and senior high kids is…