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Category Archives: Culture
A Few Tips For Learning Japanese
How To Learn Great Japanese, and Keep It
Noren: Japanese Fabric Dividers
暖簾 (のれん) The kanji for “noren” are 暖, which is used for “atatakai” (warm), and 簾, which is used for screen/ blind in the furnishing sense. Perhaps we should therefore understand the original intent as warmth blinds, blinds intended to … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Culture, Japan
Tagged art, blind, culture, divider, fabric, furnishing, hot spring, Japan, noren, screen
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Kaze: The Wind
風 (かぜ) The wind (kaze) is all around us. It can be gentle (yasashii) or violent (hageshii).
Culture Gap: Students Cleaning Toilets
Different Strokes I was reading this story about an American teacher placed on administrative leave for having an unwritten rule requiring students to clean the classroom toilet with paper towels and bleach. Well, there’s definitely a serious culture gap here.
Posted in Culture, Japan
Tagged cleaning, controversy, culture, culture gap, Japan, schools, students, toilets
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Japanese Gaming: Half-Breaking the World
A Recurring Cultural Theme One issue continually revisited by Japanese video games, and the writing and storytelling culture that infuses it, is the idea that the world is corrupt in many ways, and it must be changed – but breaking … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Japan, video games
Tagged change, culture, fantasy, final fantasy, heroes, Japan, RPG, storytelling, Tales of Vesperia, video games, villains, writing
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The Language of Shinto: “Kami”
Kami Large and Small In reading up on Shinto at Wikipedia (link here), I read it stated that Shinto scholars think translating “kami” as “god” or “deity” can cause a misunderstanding of the term. I mulled this over. If there … Continue reading
Hatsune Miku Promoting Toyota Corolla
Hatsune Miku + Corolla = ? Hatsune Miku is a “vocaloid,” which means, rather than synthetic music, she is a synthetic singer with an unnaturally high pitched voice through the use of a computer program. Being a product from the … Continue reading
Crazy Japan: Mind-Controlled Nekomimi (Cat Ears)
…Wow. Straight from “Oh my GOD!” territory comes this story from Popular Science magazine, detailing nekomimi (lit. “cat ears”) that rise and flatten out on command from human brainwaves. A video is posted after the break.
Posted in Culture, Japan, Weird Stuff
Tagged cat, crazy, ears, high tech, Infinite Stratos, Japan, nekomimi, sci fi, Tabane
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Origami: Hearts
Have A Heart The heart is yet another type of origami design. As I explained in my original origami post, origami is the word we use for paper folding regardless of the culture the design is from. The heart is … Continue reading
Super Robot Wars Z the 2nd Promo Video
For The Mecha Crowd Oh and, definitely count me among the mecha crowd. I’ve played the predecessor of this PSP game exhaustively. Rather than babble about my experiences, those inclined to see a sampling of the various series and mecha … Continue reading