Category: Japan
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A trip to faraway Yokohama for Gyoza
日本語で Last Sunday I headed out to Yokohama with my friend after a relaxing weekend. About a year ago, a researcher I met while at Columbia University who grew up in Yokohama took me to a Gyoza shop in Sakuragicho, Yokohama that he said has some of the best Gyoza in Japan. For reference, that […]
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Tokyo Giants vs. ORIX Buffaloes
some pictures on Flickr On Sunday night, I got a call out of the blue from my friend Tomoki, who invited me to the Tokyo Giants baseball game on Monday night. They were playing the ORIX Buffaloes. Approximately a year ago, I took Tomoki to a Giants game when my friend Tai gave me a […]
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Asakusa Sanjya Matsuri (三社祭)
Entire photoset of Flickr.com Short videos up on YouTube.com Portable Shrine Women carrying the shrine Enthusiastic drummers On Sunday, I headed out to Asakusa with a friend to see the tail end of the Asakusa Sanjya Festival. Sanjya (alternatively, Sanja) means “Three Shrines”, and if you’ve been reading along you know that Matsuri (祭り) are […]
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My feeling about Japanese comedy
I saw a great post over at the (sadly) now defunct Japanmanship blog about Japanese comedy teams. It explains how I feel about Japanese comedy almost completely, along with some nice diagrams. A funny read and worth checking out.
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A School Uniform and a Machine Gun
A while ago I downloaded the Japanese drama セーラー服と機関銃 (A School Uniform and a Machine Gun) and I’ve finally gotten around to watching the first episode. Sometimes Japanese dramas can be really hit and miss, but this one looks kind of interesting. I’ve decided to write a brief summary of the episodes as I watch […]
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Fumie Hiratai’s closing party / Viola performance
A friend of mine, Fumie Hiratai (平体文枝), is an artist and recently had a show at a very interesting book shop, the Morioka Bookstore. It is a cute little book store in an art building (the Inoue Building in Kayabacho) that has a bunch of old photo books and other random art focused books. There […]
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Namja Town
Namja Town Cat Namco beer! Ice Cream City All my Namjatown pictures All Flickr Namjatown pictures On Wednesday, I had a day off from work on Wednesday, so I met up with Risa and we went to Namja Town. Namja Town is a strange place in Ikebukuro, Tokyo that is essentially a food-based theme park […]
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Cherry Blossoms in Shinjuku Gyoen
Shinjuku Gyoen Sakura Photoset On Sunday, April 1st, the weather suddenly became beautiful, despite earlier predictions of rain. My friend Risa and I decided on the spur-of-the-moment to head over to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Park (新宿御苑) for some Cherry Blossom Viewing. It is hard to think of anything more traditionally Japanese than a good […]
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Sakura on the walk home
The other day, while walking home from Jiyugaoka, I was struck by how pretty the Sakura were on the main shopping street. I snapped a few pictures, and of course since the weather was nice there were lots of people lined up for Crepes at the cute little crepe stand. There were also some nice […]
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Ishiyama-dera
Dragon’s Hole Pond Entire Ishiyama-dera photo set on Flickr.com After the Japanese Natural Language Processing Conference, I had a few hours before returning to Tokyo, so I went to the nearby Ishiyama temple, which is said to be where the Japanese author Murasaki began writing the Tale of Genji. It is a really beautiful temple, […]