Tag Archives: culture

Japan Gaming Culture: Super Turrican

Posted on May 2, 2011 by J Sensei

Old Times, Good Times Super Turrican is one of the games for the Super Nintendo that, owing to the system, had “Super” tacked onto the front. Featuring a man in an armored suit, with some similarities to Metroid, this action … Continue reading →

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Origami: Hearts

Posted on April 24, 2011 by J Sensei

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 →

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Origami: A Rose By Any Other Name

Posted on April 16, 2011 by J Sensei

薔薇　（ばら、bara): Rose Well, an origami rose does not smell just as sweet… though with the scent-free environments dominating schools more and more, this might be a good thing? At any rate, this post is about pretty origami roses.

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Blog Love: Onsen Meijin

Posted on February 28, 2011 by J Sensei

I was looking around for some new blogs to look at, and I hadn’t yet discovered Onsen Meijin. A recent poster to my own blog pointed out that “meijin” (名人) means master, and has nothing directly to do with fame/ … Continue reading →

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Sushi, Diabetes and Frivolous Lawsuits

Posted on February 25, 2011 by J Sensei

Overreach Here in the LA Times we have a story about a man with Diabetes who refused to eat the rice in an “all the sushi you can eat” special offer at a sushi restaurant, wanting only the fish. I … Continue reading →

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Random Oriental Wisdom, 2-24-11

Posted on February 25, 2011 by J Sensei

Wisdom Comes In Various Forms The enemy of my enemy is my cannon fodder. – Random blog Seen in the context of a review of Star Driver episode 20, here. I found it quite amusing… and of real application in … Continue reading →

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Origami

Posted on February 22, 2011 by J Sensei

折り紙 The word “origami” is formed of the verb 折る (oru), in an infinitive form, and 紙 (kami), turned to “gami” as the second part of a compound word. I maintain that such pronunciation changes exist simply to make it … Continue reading →

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On Wars and Japanese Emperors

Posted on February 15, 2011 by J Sensei

Losing The Plot So, I was reading another article in the Japan Times, this time on a playwright who is doing a play that examines the origin myth of the Japanese imperial line (which would be the Yamato line, for … Continue reading →

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On Japanese Popular Culture

Posted on February 14, 2011 by J Sensei

Rejecting A Restrictive View In reading an article in the Japan Times about popular culture in Japan, the article takes a position that is overtly or covertly taken by many purported conveyors of wisdom about Japan: the position that popular … Continue reading →

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See, The Sushi Is The Rice…

Posted on February 3, 2011 by J Sensei

A lot of people think that “sushi” is raw fish. Sushi refers to the rice; the sliced raw fish is sashimi. Without that little fact, the content at this link (which is from the Associated Press) wouldn’t make much sense. … Continue reading →

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