Category Archives: Japan

Since I live in Japan, almost everything gets posted to this section. Photos, commentary on living here, rants, discoveries, stuff I love or hate about the place, and more.

Dotcom Fortress

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A pachinko parlour in rural Japan evokes memories of the late-90s stock market boom. And bust.

I’ve been meaning to write about pachinko parlours for awhile, but haven’t had time or energy to do the research necessary to do the subject justice. Plus I still haven’t organized my photo library enough to be able to easily extract sets of photos by keyword. Instead of an exhaustive report, today I’ll simply post one photo I came across while I was looking at pictures I took almost exactly a year ago.

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Bicycle Poetry

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Apologies in advance for the briefness of this post, but I’m being forced by the organized member of the family into living up to the duties of someone who will be moving to another continent in less than a month.

Today I have, for your entertainment, edification, and reading pleasure, three found poems, discovered on bicycles in the bike shelter next to our building.

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Demonstration Class at Jarrod’s School

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Every few months they have an open period where parents are invited to come watch a class. Monday was one of those days. We don’t always go, but we decided to go to this one because it’s the last one before we leave Japan.

We didn’t understand much of what was going on beyond the methodology—it was a Japanese class where they were reading a story—which involved reading, interpretation, and explanation. There was also an activity where some of the students acted out part of the story, but I couldn’t really follow it.

In any case, my lack of understanding didn’t stop me from taking pictures.

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Fire Drill

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Today we had a fire drill. I’d known about it for a few weeks, since it was on the month’s events schedule, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect since it was my first one in Japan. Lia had told me what they were like at her school so I was somewhat prepared for how different they are from what I was used to in Canada.

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Shrine Guardians 4: Epilogue

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This is the final installment of my series about Japanese shrine-guarding lion dogs, where obscure references are explained, and mysterious poetic wisdom is shared.

I’ll be starting with some clarification of stuff in the Shrine Guardians Legend, so please make sure you’ve read the story before proceeding. Otherwise most of this post will make little sense. The notes herein should clarify a few mysteries without creating more. Part 1 and Part 2 of this series are also recommended, though not necessary. If you haven’t read the story and don’t intend to, feel free to skip to the photos at the bottom of the page.

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Shrine Guardians 3: Legend of the Lion Dogs

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Back in the mists of time, before the islands of Japan had formed, there lived two divine brothers. Neko-kun and Inu-kun were twins and, as it usually goes in stories like this, were in most things equal and second-to-none. Yes, they were both second-to-none. At the same time! I kid you not, but let me get back to the story before I ruin the mood. Their skill with the bow was unsurpassed.

News Bulletin: We interrupt this story to warn readers that a three-hundred-foot-tall quadruped has materialized over Antarctica and has proceeded to mark its territory this is the third of a four-part series. It’ll make more sense—though not a lot more sense—if you read part 1 and part 2 first.

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Shrine Guardians 2: Further Fieldwork

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Continuing from yesterday’s post, today I have many more pictures of lion dogs from shrines further afield than Kitakyushu. First we’ll visit Dazaifu in central Fukuoka, then we’ll go to Miyazaki on Kyushu’s southwest coast, and we’ll finish our expedition on an island in Hiroshima. Because there are so many pictures, you won’t have to do much reading.

As this is the second in a four-part series, you’ll probably want to read Part 1 if you haven’t already done so.

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Shrine Guardians 1: Research & Reality

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Are they lions or dogs? Why is one open-mouthed and the other closed-mouthed? What are they doing at shrines all over Japan? Well, I’ve found some of the answers. Secrets of the Japanese shishi—also known as koma-inu —will be revealed at last! The creatures are, in fact, lions. Or dogs. Or lion-dogs. One explanation of the mouths is that the open mouth is to scare away evil spirits, and the closed mouth is to keep in good spirits.

For those of you with short attention spans, the rest of this post is mostly just further details about the quadrupeds in question, a little bit of background about why I chose today’s topic. Plus many many pictures.

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Culinary Herbs: Too Rare or Too Dear

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Back at the beginning of April, Teresa Nielsen Hayden—co-host with her husband of an excellent blog called Making Light—posted about food, specifically a sole in a panicky green sauce that she’d made. Being the foodie that I am, I read through—and added to—the discussion her post generated, which was full of people talking about the herbal dishes they were concocting.

There were many descriptions of sauces that, for lack of the appropriate plant matter, I’ll be unable to attempt until I get back to Canada. My contribution to the discussion consisted mostly of moaning about the difficulty of finding fresh, affordable herbs in Japan. Let’s just say that as my envy grew, so did the pressure in my salivary glands, and it’s a good thing I knew where my towel was.

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