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November 22, 2024
 

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Amy Chavez

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Amy Chavez
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 4, 2009
A look into the secrets of the Kanji family
Japanese is comprised of three syllable alphabets: kanji, hiragana and katakana. Yeah, you've heard this before. But do you know the history behind the three?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 27, 2009
Japanese hardware stores — hard, 'anyware'
Australia has Bunnings and the U.S. has Lowe's, do-it-yourself super stores that sell anything you could ever need for remodeling your house. They are hardware stores, timber yards and home decor shops all in one.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 20, 2009
Teeth cleaning techniques and dental mamas
Have you been to the dentist lately? Of course you've been to the dentist late before, I mean rather, have you been to the dentist recently? Getting your teeth cleaned is no simple matter anymore.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 13, 2009
Morning exercises going to the birds
Have you ever wondered why Japanese people live so long? What is it that makes them keep on keepin' on? Some people think it's the healthy Japanese diet, but I know differently. I've lived among the old people on this island long enough to know their secret. The secret to longevity is rajio taiso.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 6, 2009
Japan's own Onion
"America's finest news source" is the slogan of The Onion, a satirical newspaper in the U.S that pokes fun at current events. I think a newspaper like this would go over well in Japan too. Here are some top stories I could imagine:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 30, 2009
Islands of and for the old
"Rikimatsu-san, I'm cleaning the fishing boat today," I tell the old man as he passes in front of my house on the port. I am referring to the small fishing boat with a heap of green seaweed and shellfish sticking to the bottom of it — stuff you'd usually find on a Japanese dinner plate. But at least...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 23, 2009
The sea whisperer
At 8:58 in the morning, I jump into my truck and head toward the beach, hoping I won't be late. On the way, a fisherman hails me. He jumps into the bed of my truck.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 16, 2009
Bridge to nowhere
I admit I like taking a boat to work. I used to sail to the mainland when I was working at the university but nowadays I'm too busy for the two-hour sail to the mainland. These days when I go off the island, I take the 40-minute ferry.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 9, 2009
It's the season of karaoke sailing
Spring on Shiraishi Island means yachts. All kinds of yachts stop by our island — from 6.5-meter day sailers to 15-meter cruisers that can sleep eight people.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 2, 2009
A nation of outstanding debts
Japan is a nation of favors. Thus the custom that when you see someone, you thank them for the last nice thing they did for you. "Thanks for taking me to the bank yesterday," or "Thanks for dinner the other night."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 25, 2009
Expand your options to enjoy budding boost of flower power
Now that the cherry blossom season is over, many of us sit under the bare cherry trees and ponder: What next? For two weeks of O-hanami we had a place to go, a place to meet and a party to indulge in. Life seems dull now without cherry blossom-viewing parties.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 18, 2009
Imagine no possessions
Everyone has heard how the Japanese have no furniture in their houses and how they sit on the floor and sleep on futons.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 11, 2009
Good students eat their English lessons
With many Japanese parents pulling their children out of private English language schools to save money these days, I recommend that they try home schooling. There is no reason why parents can't give their kids English lessons at home by leaving the teaching to food.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 4, 2009
Cherry blossoms are for lovers
Japan is on the highest level of alert now — Code Pink. I'm referring to the cherry blossom alert, of course as the blushing blossoms carpet Japan with pink all the way up the archipelago from Kyushu to Hokkaido. Full Pink Alert is when the cherry blossoms are mankai — in full bloom.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 28, 2009
Practicing for the Olympics
My grandmother used to reminisce about spending the first five minutes of Spanish class practicing rolling her r's. My grandmother would be proud — the ESL classroom doesn't just spend five minutes on English pronunciation, we spend an entire class on it.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 21, 2009
Fear not and embrace the music of Japanese
Welcome to Japan! And welcome to hiragana, katakana and kanji. I hope you packed some aspirin.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 14, 2009
Diet tours to Japan
Paul Christie runs "Walk Japan," and Ken Mitchell and Greg Cope from Australia run "Trainaway Tours": touring Japan by train. What's next in small, niche-market tours?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 7, 2009
Yes, we can, can't we?
I came home the other night and turned on the genkan light, which recently has taken to long pauses of darkness before deciding to come on. So much for the speed of light.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 28, 2009
Textbook perfect it's not
It often surprises me that I run into the same misconceptions about foreigners as the first time I came to Japan 17 years ago.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 21, 2009
Driving in Japan is not for the gullible
It was Sunday. We were driving. But this was no Sunday drive.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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