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Tag Archives: culture
The Japanese Art of Storytelling
I’ve written my thoughts about this before, to a point, but one of my enduring reasons for liking Japanese culture is the deep tradition of high quality storytelling that I have discovered within it.
Gaijin At Japanese Baths: One Woman’s Story
This isn’t a story of mine; rather, now that the Hiragana Times is following me on Twitter, I looked at the site (I vaguely recalled the publication) and saw this story about a Western woman’s outbreak of shyness and reluctance … Continue reading
Identity: The Group and the Self
A Difference In Perspective Culturally and linguistically, Japan and the West come from different starting points, even though the people on both sides often talk about the exact same things. In the West, when you are selfish, you prioritize yourself … Continue reading
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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Sensei’s Corner, May 22 2011
Just My Opinion The biggest dilemma for a blog like this is trying to say something useful without trying to come off as an absolute authority, which seems to be the cause of most flame wars. I know a few … Continue reading
Posted in Blog News, Sensei's Corner
Tagged blog, blogging, corner, culture, Japan, Jeremiah Bourque, opinion, particles, sensei
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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