I came to Japan in July 1997, arriving at Narita airport late in the afternoon, with the intention of getting to Nagoya by nightfall. The first challenge was to get to Tokyo so I could somehow board a Shinkansen bullet train and head west.
The NEX welcomes you to Tokyo
With signs in English, it wasn’t too [...]
Please excuse the crassness of this post, but I feel it is my duty to pass on my experience of taking a stool sample to other unfortunate foreigners in Japan who find themselves in the same position.
“Behind” the scenes
The other day I went for a health check. This was something I wanted to do since [...]
When a typical Japanese house reaches 30 years of age, it’s considered dangerous and likely to fall down. I think this is more of a myth than reality, but it’s a common belief that has led to a huge industry of “reform”.
This holds particular interest for me because I live in one of those houses [...]
If you’ve never really explored Google Video, you might be very surprised by the nature of the Top 10 Most Viewed videos. I’ve looked at the rankings for the U.S, the U.K, and Japan, and although you might expect videos of Britney Spears or some other form of fast-food entertainment, the most viewed videos are [...]
Earlier this year, Mike McKinlay and I went to to the Gifu Prefecture Regional Disaster Management Center to try out the earthquake simulator. Being the only visitors all day (and introducing ourselves as big-time Canadian bloggers), the staff treated us like royalty! We were given a personal tour of the facility and they even filmed [...]
Last year a I wrote a series about Japanese manners, each with a video of an AC commercial that broadcast nationwide, teaching Japan’s public to be a little more considerate to each other. I thought those commercials were brilliant, kind of like drink driving commercials back home, but these were about topics as frightening as [...]
Last autumn there was a good drama on TV called Abarenbo Mama. One of the key storylines was how the young stepmother, Ayu, would get along with the other mothers at her son’s kindergarten. Although it was a comedy, “mama groups” really do exist in Japan, and mothers go out of the way to fit [...]
To help you understand the point of this post, I’ve recorded a little video of the view from my bedroom window. You’ll need to watch the video before I delve into the topic of “disaster prevention information” in Japan.
My peaceful neighborhood in Japan
If you can’t view the video, you can watch it here on YouTube.
What [...]
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There are lots of little things to talk about this week, so here’s another dose of Ramsay Ramblings!
May 5th was Children’s Day
Mami and I have a little boy, and this year was his first Children’s Day. Thomas wrote all about Koinobori, Japanese Carp Streamers, so I’ll skip the detail and get to the photos:
Our Koinobori [...]
With food prices soaring, and butter disappearing altogether, there is no doubt that Japan is suffering an unprecedented food crisis.
Learning from the British
At university, balancing the budget to accommodate both food and beer is a skill most Brits have mastered, but it wouldn’t be possible without that staple of the British food industry, baked beans.
Supermarket [...]
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I opened up our fridge and found a carton of Chorus Water! Yippee! The new Japanese soft drink from Morinaga Milk is the best!
I’d like to personally thank Chairman of Morinaga Milk, Mr. Ohno, and company president, Mr. Furukawa, for delivering such a tasty beverage. I just can’t stop singing its praises!
If you can’t [...]
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No matter how long you are in Japan, you will always be asked the same questions:
Where are you from?
Do you like Japanese food?
Can you use chopsticks?
The more adventurous Japanese will ask you questions about your home country:
Is summer as hot as in Japan?
Do you have cherry blossoms?
Do you speak English in England?
All these questions were [...]
My little neighborhood here in Japan has pretty much been in existence for twenty years. I came across an old aerial photo of the housing estate on which I live during its construction in 1989.
You can clearly see the baseball ground there, and there’s a small hospital, too, which still stands today. Beyond that, in [...]
This is probably a really geeky topic, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we all have a favorite font. Maybe it’s the font you use when you write email, or the font you usually pick for a Word document. At some point, we have all chosen a typeface that looks good and feels good. Indeed, [...]
Mami and I braved the wind to show Ricky some cherry blossoms. Not many of the trees had fully bloomed, and Rikuto wasn’t too impressed, but any excuse for another family video!
I do apologize for the music. It originally had a different soundtrack with one of my favorite tunes. I was even going [...]
You’ve all seen photos of spaghetti junctions and double-decker expressways cutting through urban Japan, but on a recent trip out into the mountains, I came across what can only be described as a “whirly-whirly” road.
The purpose of this extravagant helter skelter of a street is to get you high enough to drive over the mountain [...]
Yesterday, I made the trip to the dentist for the first time in over 8 years, and right now, I’m recovering from having a wisdom tooth pulled out. Incidentally the last time I went to the dentist I also had a wisdom tooth out. Fortunately on both occasions, I had a top tooth removed, [...]
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The year 2010 marks the 1,300th anniversary of Heijo-kyo, the capital city of Japan for much of the Nara period (710-794), and home to the remains of the Imperial Palace, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The city of Nara has big plans to celebrate this anniversary, with 12-13 million people expected to attend the events, [...]
Continue reading about Controversial Mascot Chosen for Nara Heijo-Kyo Anniversary
The paint is still wet on JapanSoc, but I’ve managed to get another new website online. This time, I’ve picked the little covered topic of oshibori origami, or what I like to call oshiborigami. I’m talking about making animals, food and other exotic items from those wet hand towels you’re given in Japanese restaurants.
OshiboriArt.com [...]
What would happen if you combined Google Maps, Wikipedia, and personal experiences of English speakers in Japan?This is a question that Kiyotaka Maruyama decided to answer by creating Japan-Hopper.com, an interactive website that lets you use English to search for a place in Japan, and then either read a related Wikipedia entry or a review [...]
