The Japanese movie industry is about to lay a big egg, but the egg my hatch into an American live action version of the Star Blazers anime series from tv. I think an egg will be laid because they’ve decided that the role of “Wildstar” in the Star Blazers action movie should be played by…
The creator of the extremely popular anime, “Crayon Shin-chan” was found dead in a mountain range near the border of Gunma Prefecture and Nagano prefecture. He had been missing since September 11th. The body was positively identified as that of Yoshito Usui, who is famous for creating the irreverent and controversial anime based around the…
Yet again I had to buy airline tickets to travel internationally starting and ending in Japan. Faced with two main options, JTB and H.I.S., again, I gave both of them a chance for my business. I’ll tell my story here, then end with some advice I’d like to give people about buying airline tickets in…
This comes to us from the same NHK Kids show “Mitsuketa” or “I Found It”. This is the same show that gives us the NHK Kids Show Cactus Character, and also the awesome rock sounds of Tortoise Matsumoto of Ulfuls singing the NHK kids rock song Tamago. Yes, this is a weird old guy in…
I use google alerts as a great way to get news about certain specific topics that I have an interest in. I have a google alert for “kindle japan” because I’ve written about my what I want from the Kindle in the past, my wish that it would be able to handle manga, and that…
This story is an interesting one because it is a modern view of what’s going on in Japan. If you are already confused about fashion in Japan, school rules about hair coloring, and what people think of all the bleached blonde boys and girls running around the streets here, this story is not going to…
A 77 year old man in Kobe died today due to complications from H1N1, marking the second total death in Japan. Both deaths occurred in the last week, with both patients suffering other ailments in addition to the H1N1 flu. The Kobe man who died also reportedly had liver trouble, diabetes, high blood pressure, and…
UPDATE: Video replaced with more recent video of Misaki Omukai (including an interview) Iwate Prefecture, Kuji City Japanese online bulletin boards are alive after a Japanese Ama Diver (the women and very rarely men who dive for abalone (called “awabi” in Japanese) with virtually no equipment. It is one of the old traditional occupations in…
Many years ago in Japan (old-timer ex-pats will remember it well) when Mr. Bean was very popular in Japan, and wanna-be tough guys in Japan would mutter “Mr. Bean” under their breath when they passed a non-Japanese person and felt a wave of insecurity. Students would call ALT’s (AET’s? I don’t remember what they call…
This is an update to a previous post about using credit cards and atm cards in Japan. I have recently gone around Japan with some friends, and although most places I go take credit cards (Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted), I have recently been to a few family restaurant chains, and less…
I’m not going to explain the obvious ones like and but I’ll go down a little list of some that I think people might find interesting or useful… refers to the Japanese version of the expression “see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” good for “sorry” or “pretty please” (although it looks like…
People all over the world know about McDonalds, and I wrote about Mos Burger in Japan here. Another fast food option I’d like to introduce to everyone is called Lotteria. This one is a straight up burger shop that has a menu similar to McDonalds, unlike Mos Burger which goes out of its way to…