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August 15, 2024
 

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JAPAN LITE

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 26, 2010
Big birds have big fun
With the evening breeze, the water laps against the heron's legs
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 19, 2010
An unconventional BBQ — grill them all
The cool spring has definitely cut into the barbecue season here on the island. I'm not resentful, just peeved. Mother Nature obviously doesn't eat meat.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 12, 2010
Returning favors is indeed a thorny issue
I look out my door in both directions before I leave the house. Once I am out of the house, I go straight to where I am headed and come straight back. No stopping to talk to neighbors. I don't even answer the door anymore. I'm hiding — from gifts.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 5, 2010
Haishima — abandoned islands
It's springtime on the island and the fishermen have their boats up on stays above the water. During high tide, they can drive their boats onto the stay and tie it down. As the tide goes out, the boat is left on the stay, exposing the bottom of the boat for cleaning. As they scrape off the fuzzy green...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 29, 2010
Exploring the Inland Sea for the tree of knowledge
During the nice spring weather, I like to explore the Seto Inland Sea by boat. I have been wanting to visit a certain island in the Shiwaku Island chain in Kagawa Prefecture for some time now.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 22, 2010
The Island of Heavenly Fields
I live next to a heavenly field. So do lots of other people on my island.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 15, 2010
Are we Kobo Daishi freaks?
"You're wearing a Kobo Daishi T-shirt," the Buddhist priest observed.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 8, 2010
The era of the 'small woman' is gone forever
Japanese people are definitely getting taller, along with the people of other countries around the world.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 1, 2010
Cat's guide to attaining enlightenment
After so many years in Japan, I have come to realize that it is not so hard to achieve enlightenment. As long as you're a cat.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 24, 2010
How you reclaim land here: Just say, it's mine!
If you think Japan is small, imagine how small it used to be. You may not be aware of this, but Japan is a lot bigger than it used to be, thanks to a phenomenon called landmass growth.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 17, 2010
You know you live in the countryside when . . .
Okayama Prefecture is considered Japan's inaka (countryside). When I first came to teach at a university here, my students, who were all from the local small towns, would introduce themselves as being from inaka, and then laugh as if this was the funniest thing in the world. To me, the word "countryside"...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 10, 2010
Navigating the Seto Inland Sea ferry services
Someone wrote to me and, rather emphatically, told me to give them the ferry schedule for Matsuyama (population 420,000), Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku to Shiraishi Island (population 659) where I am. I was sorry to have to tell him that swimming would be faster.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 3, 2010
Bringing up negative children positively
Japan's national birthrate in 2008 was 1.37 children per woman, (sorry, no figures available for men). If this is true, then our island's birthrate must be minus 1.37 per woman. At most.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 27, 2010
Spring arrives with big black belching fires
As it gets warmer on Shiraishi Island, the old ladies sit out on their porches to warm themselves in the sun. There is renewed activity on the port as 83-year-old Man-chan scurries around his party tent, taking down Christmas lights and decorations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 20, 2010
American gomi yashiki
I was recently asked by a Japanese person if we have gomi yashiki (trash houses) in the United States. In Japan, such houses refer to those whose inhabitants hoard things to the point that their stuff is overflowing onto the streets, sometimes impeding traffic.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 13, 2010
The secrets behind Japanese beauty
I now realize why the Japanese often don't smile for photos: They're hiding their wrinkles. And it works. I've even figured out that if I went around never smiling, I'd look 10 years younger. Unfortunately I can't, so I'll have to continue to look like the happy old hag that I am.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 6, 2010
The art of peripheral heating
In my Japanese house in the countryside, I don't have central heating. Just peripheral heating. In an era where just a simple word like "change" can get a president elected, I suggest that the next person running for prime minister in Japan use the slogan "central heat!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 27, 2010
The mysteries of counting islands
Today I'd like to uncover some of the mysteries of the Seto Inland Sea. The Inland Sea, or Seto Naikai, is a 450 km-long sea with 700 to 3,000 islands, or sometimes 2,000 islands, depending on who you talk to. Why such a discrepancy? Island counting is a special skill and the way you count them depends...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 20, 2010
Yes, we ski in Japan, and, yes, we ski well
When I go back to the U.S. and talk about skiing in Japan, people ask, "They ski in Japan?" I'm like, "Remember the 1998 Olympics in Nagano?" "Oh yeah," they say, wrinkling their foreheads as if recalling some 8 mm black-and-white ski movie while exhibiting enough doubt that I know they're going to look...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 13, 2010
Shopping — a bitty of the kitty in all of us
One of the most popular hobbies in Japan is shopping. Shopping as a hobby? Although shopping includes "window shopping" (you don't apparently have to buy anything to be "shopping"), there is a large contingent of those who purchase such "material" things for themselves.
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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