Of course there is no Independence Day in Japan. July 4th is just another Sunday.
If you're looking for me, I rarely write anymore, but when I do I still post here. And I back it up at my very first blog. 

furransuさん！ どこへ行きましたか。

So now where do I go to get my fix?

For the past year and a half, there has been a steady stream of J-doramas focusing on special police forces and terrorism: Special Police, Koushounin, Kiina, Bloody Monday, BOSS, Mr. Brain. They were interesting at first, but they started to get into a rut. By the time they got to Mr. Brain with KimuTaku of SMAP fame, I was getting tired of all ( Read more... )

God love the Japanese. They come up with the craziest inventions, such as the Head Stabilizer for those who fall asleep on the train, or the Cuddle Pillow for the lonely among us. But I read that the toy company, Takara Tomy, is reintroducing its dog interpreter, the Bowlingual. This contraption claims to analyze a dogs bark and interpret its ( Read more... )

Wow, I haven't been here in about three months. This is not a good thing as this is THE place where I keep up my writing skills, meager as they are...

Anyway, I've come to realize that I must have an eating disorder with regard to timing. Last night at dinner, I was eating some stir-fried that Musubichan cooked up. It was good and I was hungry, so I ( Read more... )

I am still adjusting to tweeting on Twitter. Most seem to write about their everyday life--I going to lunch, I worked out today, I'm meeting a friend for drinks tonight. I started to do something similar, but I am unsure if other people want to know or even care about the minutiae of my everyday life. So instead I've been tweeting things that don't ( Read more... )

It is customary for a president to be seated for a year before he gives a State of the Union Address, so Obama's speech last night was not really a State of the Union. Even though the talking heads on TV treated it as such--my poison is MSNBC--it wasn't. It was more like the Hopeful State of the Union, the way Obama envisions how his stimulus ( Read more... )

When speaking Japanese, non-native speakers need to remember to be polite.

Most languages have at last two levels of speech. In general, they are formal and informal. In the US, this is especially true in business. You call people Mister, unless told otherwise. You speak and act politely, unless you become very familiar with your superior. Do you ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the only day I go to school this week and next, and guess what? I get a package. There's no one on campus, no one in the department, except me.

"It's either work or an important Christmas card," I tell Mr. Fedex.

"It's from a CB," the delivery dude said and looked at me in anticipation.

Aaah, CB. A former student who graduated a year ago ( Read more... )