-
Most Popular
Category Archives: Thinking
On Driving a Train Off the Rails in Japan
It was just after the morning rush on an April day in Amagasaki, a city of about half a million people close to Osaka. A JR commuter train was taking a bend on the track when it derailed, crashing into … Continue reading
On Finding God in a Gourd in Naoshima (In Japan)
“Architecture appears for the first time when the sunlight hits a wall. The sunlight did not know what it was before it hit a wall.” ― Louis Kahn Freud claimed God was only the lingering memory of our parents, looming over us … Continue reading
On Caring About Your Lonely Friends in Japan
Not everyone who moves to Japan is lonely when they arrive, but most are by the time they leave. One can’t reasonably complain about it, of course: We do it to ourselves. But we can try to understand how loneliness … Continue reading
On Festivals in Japan
If you really want to express your feelings, it helps to carry a one-ton shrine around the city at 5 in the morning while having cold water poured on your back.
Posted in Shinto, Uncategorized
2 Comments
On Praying to a Fox in Japan
Nobody in Japan seems to know anything about Shinto.
On Having No Comment in Japan
In July of 1945 the United States prepared to test the first atomic bomb in a dusty corner of New Mexico.
Posted in language, Thinking
26 Comments
This Japanese Life. 