Several guys I work with have married their wives in their home countries but have come to Nippon to live indefinitely. They all give the same reason for leaving their jobs and starting a new adventure here in Nippon: their wives have aging parents and they want to help out with the family business or [...]
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The last time I checked, I was very green. By green, I mean earth-friendly; mostly because of the rules and stuff I have to follow because I live in Japan.
My carbon footprint, according to this calculator, is small. My trips home and occasional travels are the only factors that show a significant increase in my [...]
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Posted in People, tagged japan q&a on July 6, 2008 | 8 Comments »
What I’d planned originally as a short leave of absence from blogging turned into a blogging sabbatical. It feels like I haven’t blogged in years, but in reality it has only been nine weeks.
I’ve had to contend with new job responsibilities, mostly involving a new job site, a change of address and a relatively [...]
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A few months ago, I blogged about still being a Gaijin in Japan, in this post: Take the Gaijin Test. Recently, I have come to realize I’ve been doing a lot of things I swore I’d never do, and which I poked fun at in the first few months/years I’d been in Japan. Embarrassing [...]
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Posted in People on April 7, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Shinjuku Gyoen is another popular Tokyo Hanami destination. It is a large park with three garden types: a traditional Japanese garden, an English landscape garden and a symmetrical arranged French garden. It would take an estimated hour and a half to fully cover the gardens.
When I got there, there were already people enjoying the blossoms. [...]
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I have a dozen of stories about UFO Catchers… mostly involving people I know who are addicted to them. I’m not that into them myself, but I’m sure if I played it often enough, I could quickly get drawn into the dark side of UFO Catching.
UFO Catchers aren’t a new thing in Japan. In fact, [...]
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One of my junior high students wrote about a graduation ceremony at her school. She said that her sempai gave one of her friends a button but this friend didn’t particularly like this sempai. And also that one other friend took home 15 buttons but couldn’t remember from whom she had taken the buttons. Puzzled, [...]
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I met up with two Japanese friends today. Usually when I meet up with friends, at least one of us is late. It is very common for us to send and/or receive a message saying something like “Gonna be 20 minutes late… I missed my train… sorry!” But I guess this ruins everyone’s perception that [...]
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Just like horoscopes are sometimes used to determine the (somewhat generalized) characteristics of people in Western countries, blood types (血液型, ketsueki gata) are used in Japan. Anyone who’s been in Japan long enough, would have been asked what their blood type was (何型? なにがた? Nani gata?), then suddenly receive a seemingly knowing nod. [...]
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The average Japanese salaryman does work and almost nothing else. And the average Japanese government worker does almost nothing. This is a very common notion that most Japanese people have. The average working man in Japan begins working straight after graduation, and serves the same company for about 40 years, slowly working his way [...]
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