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August 15, 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.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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