Sometimes tweets from the government here in Japan send up red flags for me. Below is one of those tweets. A very suspicious way of looking at the statement below is that government officials are already rubbing their hands together thinking of things that they can do to make a “more stable” Japan… more stable…
There was a poll recently done by the Japanese search engine Goo about things that guys in Japan did that made them think they were “the man”. As always these polls provide us with a completely unscientific, most probably skewed, but generally entertaining view of Japanese society through the eyes of, well… people who give…
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose last name literally translates as “Pigeon Mountain” showed a bit of his comedy stylings at a recent event in Tokyo. Hatoyama has always been a character with a penchant for dancing, eccentricity, and having fun however he’s been uncharacteristically low key so thus far in his tenure. A bit…
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that this poll was completed on the internet by a company called COBS. COBS is a data collection agency with members who answer polls and post reviews in return for points. This also explains the number one answer… Here are the result of the poll…
Her name is Fuka Ryo, and she’s a professional Shodo artist. There are plenty of well-known calligraphers in Japan who appear on variety shows to check the writing skills of TV personalities. Fuka Ryo however is famous all over Japanese internet bulletin boards for her looks as well as her skills with a fude (brush)….
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 a very sad story out of Osaka that illustrates the tragedy that can result from a breakdown in communication. Makoto Hamada, a 42 year old cook, killed his 42 year old wife, 15 year old son, and 12 year old daughter while distraught over 5,000,000 yen in debt. He strangled the three in…
The Japanese website “Kon Katsu News“, or Married Life News has posted an article about an easy and free way to tell if your boyfriend is marriage material. The method? Search all of the drives on his computer for the following types of files: .jpg, .bmp, .wmv, .mpg, .avi, and .rm… I’m not sure if…
In March 2006, a teacher in Yamanashi Prefecture was murdered by a student who had graduated from the school 24 years prior. Fifty-nine year old Yuji Iwama was found dead of multiple stab wounds. The perpetrator’s name was not released because he was determined to be mentally ill. The man who suffered from persecution complex…
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…
Things to keep in mind about the list are: Since they are things that Japanese girls want their boyfriends to STOP doing, it means that they are things a lot of Japanese guys with girlfriends do… I’m just sayin’. If you live in Japan, you probably see this kind of thing all the time. It…
This is another one of those interesting Google top ten lists. This one asks Japanese people what their friends brag about that annoys them the most. I don’t think the list is very unique to Japan, although it does give a little insight into what people in Japan tend to take pride in. If you…