Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
My general observations from living in Japan.
A five-minute drive from our house into the mountains and we’re at the Gifu Kakamigahara Incinerator. Yes, if you read Oh My Gomi – Part 2, you’ll realize this was the place I finally disposed of a bug infested, five-year-old bag of rubbish. Living near an enormous, heavy duty incinerator The convenience of living so near to a giant incinerator outweighs the fear of toxic clouds or other environmental concerns. Okay, I realize there […]
On September 6th, 2006, Prince and Princess Akishino gave birth to their third child. It was an important event because at 39 years old, it was looking unlikely that the couple would have another child, and had it not been a boy, Japan would have had no heir to the Emperor’s throne. The birth of Prince Hisahito finally ended the debate over whether the country should allow female succession. The Japanese […]
Here’s the latest installment in my English T-shirts in Japan series. This one is modelled by a ten-year-old boy in one of my English classes. I really don’t know what the message is here. Do you? Does anybody? What were the designers thinking? In fact, what was the mother thinking when she bought this T-shirt? Perhaps this is how it happened… Designer: Okay, I’ll draw a scary dragon and add some random English phrases from […]
If there’s one sport I really don’t understand, it’s baseball. It’s not that I don’t understand the rules, I just don’t see the appeal of it as a spectator. There are far too many stops and starts, and the ball is too small to see anyway! Celebrating with sales – 20% off! Some people love baseball, but for me, the best thing about the sport is that if your local team wins the […]
Would a Japanese samurai defeat a Medieval European knight? That’s a question John Clements attempts to answer in his essay titled “The Medieval European Knight vs. The Feudal Japanese Samurai?” In this “amusing historical diversion”, Clements uses over 7,000 words to explain the key elements of an encounter between the two warriors. While I recommend you read the essay, here’s my 300-word summary for those of you that grew up with MTV. The Scenario We’ll imagine that […]
My wife and I have been debating whether or not to buy our son, Rikuto, a traditional Japanese school bag. He won’t need one for another six years, but there’s no harm in planning ahead, right? These bags are called randoseru, taken from the Dutch word for backpack (ransel), and are usually leather bags costing around $300. Mami’s reasons for buying Rikuto a Japanese school bag It’s tradition; All the other […]
Quite often, you start searching the web for one thing, but end up with something far more interesting. That happened to me today when I randomly came across a number of Japan related stories based on the number 13,000. Here’s a summary with links to their sources. World’s tallest building: The 13,000 ft, X-Seed 4000 This huge structure was proposed for Tokyo, Japan, and all construction plans were completed. At just over 13,000 feet (4,000m) tall, […]
I remember looking through a Japanese ballroom dancing magazine during one of my lessons and seeing an interesting comparison of foreign and Japanese feet. Whether the article discussed how the different foot shapes affected shoe size or posture I can’t remember, but I found the examples used for this foot comparison quite fascinating. Here’s my attempt to recreate that long-lost comparison. First you’ve got the characters. Representing “Team Europe” is Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker. Though […]