Category Archives: Tradition

On Being Cute in Japan

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

“Battle not with Hello Kitty lest ye become Hello Kitty; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you with huge eyes and a helpless disposition.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted in Fun, Tradition, Uncategorized, Weird | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

On Demonic Umbrellas and Japanese Banking

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

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.

Posted in Culture Shock, Shinto, Shrines, Thinking, Tradition, Weird | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

On Seasons, or: On Poets Taking Over the Japanese Meteorological Service

Posted on October 19, 2011 by

“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 →

Posted in Thinking, Tradition, Uncategorized, Zen | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

On Onsen, or Bathing With Friends and Coworkers

Posted on August 24, 2011 by

I was naked except for a green smock, flashing some leg and God-knows-what-else to two older women with shovels as I stepped into a small dirt hole in the center of a Japanese bath house. Lying on my back with … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Tradition | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

On Obon: Japan’s Homecoming Game, with Ghosts.

Posted on August 10, 2011 by

There’s an old Buddhist story about a monk named Mahamaudgalyayana – let’s call him Mokuren, for short – who was doing alright, as monks go, and had finally developed the skill of peering into the world of the dead.

Posted in Fun, Shrines, Thinking, Tradition, Uncategorized, Zen | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

On Using a Japanese Toilet

Posted on June 29, 2011 by

I still don’t know what “standby mode” means for a toilet.

Posted in Culture Shock, Tradition, Uncategorized, Weird | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments