tagged w/ Japanese Culture
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Nettle
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added this
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13 days ago
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Remember how extreme the fins on the 1959 Cadillac are? Outrageous, right? Japanese minivan customizers have taken fins to a new level. In fact, they've taken just about everything to a new level.Remember how extreme the fins on the 1959 Cadillac are? Outrageous, right? Japanese... more
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cwhite
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added this
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30 days ago
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One day seeing Yakusan sitting in Zazen, Sekito asked him: "What are you doing?"
Yakusan answered: "I'm not doing anything at all."
Sekito said: "In that case, you are sitting idly."
Yakusan replied: "If I were sitting idly, the I would be doing something."
Sekito asked: "You say you are not doing anything. What is this 'not doing'?"
Yakusan replied: "Not even the ten thousand sages know."One day seeing Yakusan sitting in Zazen, Sekito asked him: "What are you doing?"... more
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In the small town of Nishimonai in the northern prefecture of Akita, the locals perform a Bon Odori - a special dance for Obon which is a time for honoring the ancestors.
The Nishimonai Bon Odori is unique in that some of the dancers were a black hood to represents the spirits of the deceased. Other dancers wear a patchwork kimono of silk fabric known as hanui and a woven straw hat called a amigasa.
You can't see the faces of the dancers which gives the whole dance a kind of surreal quality.
For those practicing Japanese, take the challenge in seeing if you can comprehend the Akita-ben (dialect) of the singers.In the small town of Nishimonai in the northern prefecture of Akita, the locals... more
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A Japanese documentary team spent the day with the Google Street View team to show us just what goes on in an average day at the office.
Well actually its just a super cute animation of the above, love the way that the Japanese can make something so mundane into something so interesting and quirky.A Japanese documentary team spent the day with the Google Street View team to show us... more
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Pardon
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added this
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2 months ago
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Obon is the time for honoring the dead and praying to the ancestral spirits in Japan. Traditionally it is believed that the souls of the departed return to the world of the living and later return at the end of Obon. Many Japanese head to their home towns in mid-August to pray at their ancestors’ graves.
Numerous communities put on dances known as Bon Odori. The most common feature of Obon is the lighted paper lantern floating on the water. People placed lanterns with the names of the departed written on them in waterways. These lanterns represent the souls returning to the underworld, the other world.
The city of Morioka in northern Japan sends the spirits off in style by burning makeshift boats stuffed with fireworks.Obon is the time for honoring the dead and praying to the ancestral spirits in Japan.... more
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Quite remarkable, and inviting further research, is the extraordinarily high endowment of Japan’s health system with CT and MRI scanners and its relatively high use of dialysis. These numbers are all the more remarkable because Japan’s health system is among the least expensive in the OECD.Quite remarkable, and inviting further research, is the extraordinarily high endowment... more
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Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, The Cove follows a high-tech dive team on a mission to discover the truth about the international dolphin capture trade as practiced in Taiji, Japan. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.
The Cove exposes not only the tragedy of dolphin slaughtering in Japan, but also the dangerously high levels of mercury in dolphin meat and seafood, the cruelty in capturing dolphins for entertainment, and the depletion of our oceans fisheries by worldwide seafood consumption. We also see how the mandate of the International Whaling Commission has been manipulated by the Japanese Fisheries Agency for its benefit and its subsequent effect on the rest of the world.Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival,... more
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lvp
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4 months ago
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The season is here and it’s time to grab your Japanese fans and break out your kimonos and tabis from under the mothballs to join the festivities of Bon Odori in Hawaii!The season is here and it’s time to grab your Japanese fans and break out your... more
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The guys over at gizmotron have compiled a list of the 10 most freaky gadgets they have seen from the wacky world of Japan.
My fourite has to be the eCigarettes:
"Cigarettes may be bad for you, but you wouldn’t want to look uncool without that cigarette in your hand. That’s where e-Cigarettes can help. Electronic cigarettes emits vapor instead of the toxins in regular cigarette smoke, giving you the same great nicotine additive. E-cigarettes include a lithium battery that needs to be recharged, and also comes in e-Cigar and e-Pipe forms for the more distinguished fake smokers out there"
GeniusThe guys over at gizmotron have compiled a list of the 10 most freaky gadgets they... more
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JClem
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added this
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4 months ago
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CANNABIS CULTURE - Cannabis Culture cartoonist Gary Wintle's weedy adventures smoking 'taima' in the Land of the Rising Fun.
Japan is a place with a rich history of our pal marijuana; also known as taima, kusa or happa.
Unfortunately, western influence put thousands of years of a ganja-happy society to an end.
Things are a lot different now than they were in the past but that’s not to say Japan’s not a hell of a trip!CANNABIS CULTURE - Cannabis Culture cartoonist Gary Wintle's weedy adventures smoking... more
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Cute, sexy, or disturbing?
The model Nozomi Fujikawa is actually 27 though she looks about 12 in this photo - the big bow doesn't help. Click the link to see some funny comments regarding the photo.Cute, sexy, or disturbing?
The model Nozomi Fujikawa is actually 27 though she... more
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This is a short follow-up to my earlier Gundam vid. Here I talk about a 14 meter tall Gundam float made of Japanese paper - washi - that I saw at a festival in Aomori, the "Gundam Gap" in my Japanese Anime experience, my video game experience with Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon, and a little bit more about this Gundam's "secret" potential.This is a short follow-up to my earlier Gundam vid. Here I talk about a 14 meter tall... more
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Follow this link to about 20 photos of Tokyo's Giant Gundam model currently on display in Odaiba for the duration of the summer. I took the shots myself from several different angles and in different lighting. Also check out my story how I got my butt whupped playing the Gundam arcade game.Follow this link to about 20 photos of Tokyo's Giant Gundam model currently on display... more
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Japan panics about the rise of "grass-eating men," who shun sex, don't spend money, and like taking walks.
Newspapers, magazines, and television shows are newly fixated on the herbivores. "Have men gotten weaker?" was one theme of a recent TV talk show. "Herbivores Aren't So Bad" is the title of a regular column on the Japanese Web site NB Online.
In this age of bromance and metrosexuals, why all the fuss? The short answer is that grass-eating men are alarming because they are the nexus between two of the biggest challenges facing Japanese society: the declining birth rate and anemic consumption. Herbivores represent an unspoken rebellion against many of the masculine, materialist values associated with Japan's 1980s bubble economy. Media Shakers, a consulting company that is a subsidiary of Dentsu, the country's largest advertising agency, estimates that 60 percent of men in their early 20s and at least 42 percent of men aged 23 to 34 consider themselves grass-eating men. Partner Agent, a Japanese dating agency, found in a survey that 61 percent of unmarried men in their 30s identified themselves as herbivores. Of the 1,000 single men in their 20s and 30s polled by Lifenet, a Japanese life-insurance company, 75 percent described themselves as grass-eating men.Japan panics about the rise of "grass-eating men," who shun sex, don't spend money,... more
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Embrace your inner geek - in Tokyo a life-size Gundam almost 60 feet tall has been revealed in all its glory. Gundam for those not up on their anime nostalgia was an animated show which started in 1979 about a future where robots or mecha piloted by humans battle for supremacy or something like that (I never saw the show). The scale model was put in place to mark the 30th Anniversary of the anime's beginning.
Tokyo's Gundam is currently in Odaiba. The big ceremony will be July 10th and it will remain throughout the summer. The Gundam model has 50 points of light, emits steams, and its head revolves left to right and up.Embrace your inner geek - in Tokyo a life-size Gundam almost 60 feet tall has been... more
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Golden Week is a spring holiday in Japan when many Japanese travel. May 3-5 and to some degree April 29th are national holidays and the whole country seems to move to the other side of the country.
Here I talk about the tradition of Golden Week and the hassles of traveling during this time. Still it's nice to get up to a week off, something we never get in the States.Golden Week is a spring holiday in Japan when many Japanese travel. May 3-5 and to... more
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You all must come!
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erodut
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added this
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6 months ago
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If you come to Japan, you might come across this bizarre festival game that mixes gambling and pet shopping.
Kingyo Sukui is the Japanese game of goldfish scooping where you can win a pet goldfish should you so desire.
The game goes back to the late Edo Period around the early 19th Century. You can always find kingyo sukui stalls at Japanese festivals and other events like hanami (cherry blossom viewing).
You have a bowl and small net scope which has very thin paper. The object is to scoop the goldfish into the bowl without breaking the paper. You can continue scooping up goldfish as long as the paper doesn’t break - even if there is only a thin corner left.If you come to Japan, you might come across this bizarre festival game that mixes... more
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