Japan probably has more temples, shrines and gardens per capita than garbage cans or benches. Continue reading
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On Like Totally Living in the Now in Japan, You Know?
Posted in Homesickness, Shrines, Thinking, Uncategorized, Zen
Tagged expatriates, japan, mindfulness, zen
7 Comments
J-Cin Sundays: “The Great Happiness Space” – Illusion and Reality in the Japanese Sex Industry
Title: The Great Happiness Space
Director: Jake Clennell
Year: 2006
Notes: This isn’t a “Japanese Film” per se, it’s a British Documentary on a Japanese cultural phenomenon. For some reason there’s no trailers online, but you can find the entire movie streaming if you know what Google is. It’s also on Netflix, if you’re American.
TLDR: A documentary crew spends time in a male host club in Osaka. Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Uncategorized
Tagged documentaries, host clubs, japan, movies, sexuality
5 Comments
Ongakuyōbi: Number Girl
Number Girl are from my neck of the woods – Fukuoka, Japan. Continue reading
On Onsen, or Bathing With Friends and Coworkers
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 my head on some bamboo, the women began laying hot dirt over my body in what was already a two-shirt kind of day.
I paid 1000 yen for the privilege. Continue reading
Ongakuyōbi: The Pizzicato Five
A recent conversation with a friend has unearthed a common problem when it comes to music fans in Japan: J-Pop has drowned out everything remotely cool about this country’s music scene, and it’s hard to find stuff that isn’t AKB48.
To help with that problem, I’m going to semi-regularly post videos from Japanese musicians who made, or are making stuff, as an alternative to standard J-Pop fare.
The first act on the dub plate: The Pizzicato Five, leaders of Japan’s Shibuya-Kei music scene of the early-to-late 1990s. Continue reading
On Roller Skating in Japan: Notes on One Year of Culture Shock
This month marked my first year in Japan: My Japanniversary.
My first year as an expatriate felt a lot like a bad prom date. I was incompetent, needy, never quite sure where to put my hands.
