Although this is just being reported now, the suicide happened in June of 2007! Although the family of the Indian student who committed suicide asked the Otemon Gakuin University to investigate, the school let this case sit on a shelf for 3 years. The university made no report until the bereaved family hired a lawyer…
This is breaking news out of Fukuoka. A 69 year old American English conversation teacher has been arrested on charges of child molestation. There are reportedly as many as 40 possible victims in the case. The abuse happened over a period of over a decade. He is also accused of having taken photographs and videos…
This is a translation of a poll done in which women in their 20s were asked about the moments they felt glad to have been born Japanese. Here’s the list: Being moved by the deliciousness of rice and miso soup. / Eating Japanese food. Regularly bathing in hot water. / Taking hot baths and entering…
This is one of a series of videos by the comedy group “Ramens”. It endeavors to poke fun at a lot of the “how to eat sushi”, “sushi etiquette”, and Japanese culture videos that abound. Some of it’s a bit too true, and some of it is just crazy. I like the part about the…
Susan Boyle appeared on the annual Red and White Song Battle providing SMAP’s Takuya Kimura a chance to whip out some of the English language skills he and his wife, Shizuka Kudo have been working on. I provide the link below for as long as it lasts on YouTube so you can see it go…
This year there are only two non-Japanese performances scheduled. One is by the Korean five-man group called TVXQ, known in Japan as Tohoshinki, and American enka performer Jerome White, known in Japan as Jero. I wrote about foreigners on the Red and White Song Battle in the past. People are always vocal about the “selected”…
When I wrote my open letter to Amazon Japan about the Kindle in Japan , we didn’t have a lot of options in Japan. If you live in Japan for any significant amount of time, you may end up accumulating books. Books are heavy and it means either abandoning them upon your return, or paying…
There are groups being formed on the social networking site Mixi.jp and other places in support of Tatsuya Ichihashi, accused murderer of Lindsay Hawker. The one description for the one on Mixi says that they believe he is innocent, and love him because he’s so good looking. Some fans have even put their pictures on…
Tatsuya Ichihashi was finally arrested at a ferry port in Osaka. An alert traveler at the port contacted authorities to tell them a person matching Ichihashi’s description was preparing to take a ferry bound for Okinawa. When police arrived on the scene, he admitted who he was without a struggle. Ichihashi had been on the…
Recently photos of Tatsuya Ichihashi have surfaced showing what he looked like after having plastic surgery in Tokyo. There are rumors on the net that he has been working as a male prostitute, or somewhere in the gay red light districts of Tokyo. Because of this, and the size of the community, many people think…
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…
I didn’t know this news would be so popular when I first wrote about Billy Blanks getting married and deciding to settle in Osaka, but it seems to be a story people are really interested in. I also put up pictures of the happy baby of Billy and Tomoko Blanks (the photos were on the…