Driving In Winter With Haruki Murakami… and Why We Still Need Him
Murakami's story is part of a compilation titled Men Without Women, a fate which, in the Murakami scheme of things is akin to death by torture. Men cannot exist without…
My Brushes With the Yakuza – Reflections of Life in Akasaka, Tokyo
My first encounter with the ‘yakuza’ or the crooks and gangsters of Japan’s underworld, happened when I was 14 years old, on my way home from cram school. It was…
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tradition, kanamara, penis festival
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Japan’s Monster Mermaid Amabie is Here To Save You From COVID19! (Maybe)
Though the typical Japanese yokai is often grotesque and loves to play pranks on humans, the Amabie is a beach chick that emerges from the sea to foretell epidemics. If…
THE BADGER AND THE STARS (a poem)
This girl will be named Shoko, spirit in flight, and years later when I moved from place to place, hobby to hobby, man to man, she'd lament naming me so…
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end of war
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Spring Healing: An Art Exhibit–last day March 28th
The exhibition highlights artist experiences in Japan using varying aesthetics relating to their mediums, including oils, acrylic, watercolor, illustrations, silkscreen, and photography. The artists hail from Japan and around the…
“Nothing says love like menstrual blood.” In Japan, V-Day chocolates are really special
Well, some women in Japan, and probably a very small number of them, in order to spice up their home-made chocolates with a little extra something, or give their store…
Happy Uniquely Japanese Valentine’s Day! What we talk about when we talk about love & sex in Japan
*浮気 (Uwaki) –1) to describe someone who can romantically love many people 2) infidelity; an affair 3) being in love with in someone other than your partner 4) (old usage)…
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The (Homoerotic) World of Tom of Finland: Reality and Fantasy opens September 18th. First time Tom shows in Japan!
Tom of Finland (1920-1991) was a pioneer in LGBQT and homoerotic art, blazing a trial in Finland and his works have been shown all over the world. From today September…
Sadogashima in a time of COVID19
From Island to Island: Sadogashima in a time of Covid19 by Louise Claire Wagner Anything and other than expected. A journey to some parts of Sadogashima *This articles is reposted…
“The Only Woman in the Room”/ How The Amazing Beate Wrote Equal Rights For Women Into Japan’s Constitution
Is Japan's peacetime constitution going to be trashed by the ruling party and returned back to the Imperial Constitution, which did not give suffrage or equal rights to women? This…