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Tag Archives: japan
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. About these ads
On Obon: Japan’s Homecoming Game, with Ghosts.
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 ancestor worship, buddha, buddhism, holidays, hungry ghosts, japan, japanese holidays, obon, world holidays
8 Comments
On Bowling in Japan
If you don’t play a sport, you’ve run out of possible conversations with about 90 percent of Japanese men. So I started lying: “I’m a bowler.” At first it was a genius move. I would never be asked to talk … Continue reading
On Climbing Mount Fuji (With a Fear of Heights)
About 300,000 people a year climb Mt. Fuji. A handful of them die. Very few of them get panic attacks from standing on porches. I’m acrophobic: Seven feet high and I’m nervous. Higher up I get dizzy; at 30 feet … Continue reading
On Being the Fattest
Not every kid in Japan cares about learning English, and so they use class time to work toward other life goals: Homework from other classes, arm wrestling contests or listening to their talking dictionaries pronounce various euphemisms for sex. Recently, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Food, Uncategorized, Weird
Tagged fat, health, japan, obesity, pig, weight loss
9 Comments
On the Death of Japan
Everywhere you look, people say Japan is dying. The Economist says Japan is dying. Curators say Japan is dying. The numbers say Japan is dying. There is no dispute that the Japanese get older as the children get scarcer: Ten … Continue reading
Posted in Fukuoka, Thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged asexual, birth rate, dating, death, death rate, elderly, future, japan, nagasaki, population
15 Comments
