Click on photo or link to read the feature • Seasonal Secret: Feast your eyes on these Japanese New Year’s decorations From December 28 to January 7, Japanese new year decorations hang on every door, beckoning in good luck and prosperity for the coming year…read more • The Thing I Learned Today: Why do JapaneseContinue reading “JAN-FEB 2023”
Category Archives: January
Did you win the Nov-Dec Japan Swag Giveaway?
If you recognize your email, congratulations! You just won a realer-than-real sushi fridge magnet! If you think this is you, shoot a message to JapanagramJonelle@gmail.com and tell me where you’d like me to send it! (I’ll need a mailing address for this one,) If I didn’t pull your name from the hat this time, you might getContinue reading “Did you win the Nov-Dec Japan Swag Giveaway?”
The Buddha in the Attic
By Julie Otsuka Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Translation quality: N/AEntertainment value: ⭐⭐⭐My recommendation: This book is less like a novel than an epic poem, its layer upon layer of luscious details shining light on every facet of the immigrant experience, mostly through the eyes of the Japanese women who cameContinue reading “The Buddha in the Attic”
Why are used cars, beautiful old houses and vintage kimonos so cheap in Japan?
The longer you’re in Japan—a place known for the meticulous preservation of its ancient sites and the intricacy of its recycling rules—the weirder it seems that Japanese people insist on buying only new houses, new cars, new clothing, new everything. Saddest of all, they often even refuse to adopt pets that had previous owners. It’sContinue reading “Why are used cars, beautiful old houses and vintage kimonos so cheap in Japan?”
Feast your eyes on these Japanese New Year decorations
From December 28 to January 7, Japanese new year decorations hang on every door, beckoning in good luck and prosperity for the coming year, but they’re just plain beautiful too! Shimenawas are stuffed with symbolism (red and white, to scare away evil spirits and attract good luck, rice straw for a good harvest/that raise youContinue reading “Feast your eyes on these Japanese New Year decorations”
Let’s go to the odd theme park that’s amazing in the most unexpected way
Tobu World Square in Nikko What if I told you that I’d visited a place in Japan that surprised me in a way that I never expected to be surprised? When I finally made it to this place in October, I expected the space-time continuum to be so warped that in a single day youContinue reading “Let’s go to the odd theme park that’s amazing in the most unexpected way”
Spicy Japanese Eggplant
One day in Tokyo, I was at a lunch made by the women in this crazy Japanese women’s club I belong to, where each member had made one dish to contribute (and they all looked like they had been made by professional chefs and styled by photo stylists aieeee!) When I tasted the eggplant dish,Continue reading “Spicy Japanese Eggplant”
The Tattoo Murder Case
By Akimitsu Takagi Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Translation quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Entertainment value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐My recommendation: A real page-turner of a police procedural that also gives a glimpse into the postwar demimonde of the tattooed Why would someone kill a beautiful tattooed woman, and steal her inked torso? That puzzle is just theContinue reading “The Tattoo Murder Case”
Let’s visit the perfect garden for how we’re feeling right now
Kairaku-en Plum Garden in Mito prefecture Like cherry blossoms, which are beloved because their brief but glorious life is the perfect metaphor for our own lives, plum blossoms have a special meaning too. They bravely bloom when there’s still a chance of snow, when nothing else in the world is blooming or green, and nothingContinue reading “Let’s visit the perfect garden for how we’re feeling right now”
If you thought quilts were a Western art, think again!
The Tokyo International Quilt Festival You know how Japan embraces stuff from all over the world, and then turns it uniquely Japanese? Every year at the end of January, Tokyo hosts one of the most magnificent displays of quilting in the world—the Tokyo International Quilt Festival.* Japanese artists come from a long tradition of meticulousContinue reading “If you thought quilts were a Western art, think again!”
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