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The Russo-Japanese War
We have a photo book on this war inherited from my grandfather somewhere back home. I used to browse through it a lot when I was little without ever understanding…
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WHERE’S THE BEEF?
HERE. Just in time for my last-minute feeding on all things quintessentially nihon. Here’s to the next million, and the next, and the next… I’ve been waiting, patiently, for three…
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Passing the Torch
My time is almost up; the next wave of invaders is already here. I have seen them on the streets and I hear them on the trains. I leave the…
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A Prison Camp Memoir
Excerpts from another great memoir over on the JPRI site: “The radio went dead. All the servants had long disappeared–stealing everything they could carry. I locked all the doors and…
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Japanese “Lawsuit” Guitars
They are known as lawsuit guitars because they are of such good quality (often matching or even surpassing the original Fenders and Gibsons they replicate), that: Around 1981, though, Fender,…
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Hardcore
Did someone forgot to take their meds? In the essay titled “Killing Kittens” in the newspaper’s Aug. 18 evening edition, Bando, 48, wrote that she owns three pet cats and…
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Ryukyu Underground
I came across this fascinating article over at the website of the Japan Policy Research Institute: A Wild Start: Okinawa in the 1970s Excerpts: “Gate Two Street and BC Street…
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Sex Trafficking in Japan
An interesting article on the current state of affairs: The trafficking scourge “Yet to paint a picture of the victims of trafficking as poor, uneducated women duped into prostitution and…
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Biwako Hot Dog (??????????)
This is a foodblogging post I have put off for a year and a half. The photos were waiting patiently to be edited on my desktop for all that time,…
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Marriage in Japan, redux
Found this interesting (and, as far as I can tell, accurate) node over at everything: How to marry a Japanese person The author’s conclusion is that “international marriages do not…
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Mixi
Mixi is a great place to practice your Japanese, Mixi is fairly well thought out. Mixi is a great place to make you feel like you have many Japanese friends.…
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Speed Tribes
Holy shit! I just read a supercritical review of Speed Tribes! By a real Karl Taro hater! Karl Taro does drugs! Karl Taro ineffectively mixes fact and fiction! Karl Taro…
