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Author Archives: owwls
9 More Foods to Try (Or Try to Avoid) in Japan
A few weeks ago, the fellows at Nihongoup, the online Japanese-language community, invited me to do a guest post. I went to my default Japanese conversation tactic: I started spewing out the names of foods I like. So I’ve got … Continue reading
Singing Karaoke with Foucault
“In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates.” – Michel Foucault, Of Other Spaces If there was a ship to escape Japanese culture in, the paint on … Continue reading
On Awkwardly Consoling Japanese Schoolgirls
There are only so many things I know how to say in Japanese. I’ve learned that none of them can stop a 15-year-old Japanese girl from crying.
Posted in Culture Shock, language, Teaching, Uncategorized
Tagged japan, sadness, teaching
9 Comments
On Being a Teenage Punk in Japan
I never really had a normal idea of what punk was. Neither does Japan.
On Demonic Umbrellas and Japanese Banking
In Japan, many ATMs work from 9 to 5 and get weekends and holidays off. That’s better than most humans get. And the reason, I suspect, has more to do with ghosts than any bank is willing to admit.
On Seasons, or: On Poets Taking Over the Japanese Meteorological Service
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – The Great Gatsby There’s a central body in Japan that declares the coming and going of rain. That means that there is a weather bureaucracy, and someone stamps … Continue reading
