Tag Archives: Japan

More Devastation: Typhoons in Japan

Torrential Rain About the only good thing we can say is, at least it wasn’t on the level of the tsunami. This link at the Mainichi Shimbun details tolls of dead and missing; just scroll down a little for a … Continue reading

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The Resilience of the Japanese People

A Nation United by Disaster The March 11 (“3/11”) earthquake and tsunami disaster striking Japan has brought into sharp relief the basic resilience and sense of unity of the Japanese people. Whatever the faults of Japan, this is one of … Continue reading

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Everyday English for Japanese People, Aug 17 2001

This post is in Japanese. 日本人のため、通常英語 こんいちは、みんあ様。私はJeremiahです。日本人の友達は「ジェレミ」と呼んでいます。英語の友達は「JB」とあだ名を付けました。どっちもいいでしょう。元翻訳者ですから、ある程度の日本語を扱います。英語は優秀と認識していますのため、ノン(非)ネーティブスピーカーが英語を手伝いたいと思います。このポストはその一段階です。日本語の不具合な部分を許して下さい。

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Phantasy Star Online 2: Adventures in Fansubbing

So, I’ve Been A Busy Boy. This is not for the faint of heart, but I did the lion’s share/ heavy lifting for a fansub (“fan subtitled video”) of a “media briefing” (in the vernacular: press conference) for the still-in-development, … Continue reading

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Some Things Just Snowball

A Comparison In Pictures A Daruma (doll). A group of yukidaruma . Yuki means “snow,” and “daruma” means, well, what you saw just above. Yukidaruma is Japanese for “snowman.” Japanese snowmen traditionally have one big snowball for the body,  rather … Continue reading

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Japan Cooking: Creamed broad beans and chicken

So sue me – I’m actually using Twitter for once. Thanks to that, I saw this at Asahi.com (the Asahi Shimbun being Japan’s leading paper IIRC) presenting a Japanese recipe for the above dish… in English. Check it out here. … Continue reading

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Drama: Cutting Off One’s Hair In Japan

An Old Tradition One theme that arises in Japanese drama, be it film or anime, is a character dramatically cutting off her hair. This is signals some kind of dramatic, life-altering change.

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Making Viewers Suffer Before Good Endings

大した苦労だった One enduring feature of Japanese storytelling is that, if there is ever to be a good ending, protagonists must appropriately suffer before it, and so must the viewers. Some shows can get very hard to watch. And not all … Continue reading

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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.

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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

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