Archive for January, 2007
At Tsukiji
This winter vacation, six friends of mine (six!) came out for a visit — first to Tokyo, and then down to the Kansai area, where I live. Since jet lag is a wonderful thing and WILL get you out of bed so delightfully early in the morning, my friends and I decided that a 5 […]
Filed under: culture, daily life, eating, Japan, nature, restaurant, society, travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: abundance, cod fishing, 築地市場, depletion of world fish stocks, fish, fish market, fisheries, fishing, labor, overfishing, sashimi, sushi, Tokyo, Tsukiji, tuna, tuna auction, working, 刺身, 寿司, 東京
A visit from Anne
I’m not sure what it is about hanging out with Anne, but good photographs and fantastic restaurant discoveries always seem to be the result. Anne came out recently to do some research and she stayed at my place when she wasn’t far, far away at the library in Kumano. When Anne wasn’t in Kumano, we […]
Filed under: culture, daily life, Japan, Kansai, music, Osaka, performance, photography, scraps and bones | Leave a Comment
Tags: 35mm Ultron, advertising, ちんどん通信社, チンドン屋, Bessa R2A, chindon, chindon-ya, 石橋, Ishibashi, Kyoto, LOHAS, Natura 1600, Osaka, Pekochan, street performance, street performers, Voigtländer, Wood Inn, 大阪, 京都
I get a lot of questions from friends about my job here in Japan, and lots of requests for “descriptions of everyday life,” so here it goes. I’m currently working at Osaka University in the position of Gaikokujin Kyoshi (which is translated as “Visiting Foreign Lecturer”) in the Graduate School of Language and Culture. The […]
Filed under: culture, daily life, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, personal, science, society, technology | 2 Comments
Tags: alligator fossil, annual medical check, Black Jack, Cool Biz, early treatment, English conversation, female android, ginkgo leaf, ginkgo tree, Japanese health system, Japanese university life, Japanese university system, Kwansei Gakuin, Machikanewani, my job, national health care, osaka university, Osamu Tezuka, preventative care, Professor Ishiguro, robotics, robots, speech contest, teaching English, the power of the suit, 大阪大学
Shirokuma Theatre
The other night before my winter break started, I went to see the Shirokuma Theatre at Rain Dogs with Marié and friends. What is Shirokuma Theatre, you ask? Shirokuma is ‘polar bear’ in Japanese, but I much prefer the literal translation: “white bear”. White Bear Theatre turned out to be a kind of musical revue […]
Filed under: culture, film, Japan, Kansai, music, Osaka, performance, theater, video | 2 Comments
Tags: "quack like a duck", "The Hollow Men", accordions, amateur pops big band, animation, animator, ハロメイン, リュクサンブル公園, Chanky, Horomiin, Ichi, Inunco, Mono, musical theatre, neo-benshi narration, one-man band, Osaka, percussion, polar bear, Rain Dogs, Ryukusanburu Koen, Shirokuma Theatre, steel drum, white bear, 大阪
It’s now been five years since the first prisoner was interred at Guantánamo Bay by U.S. forces and over 700 prisoners have been held at Camp X-Ray, the disgusting moniker given to what is essentially an illegal concentration camp that has become a legal black hole into which no one is allowed to look. In […]
Filed under: history, politics, society | 2 Comments
Tags: Al-Qaeda, Alien and Sedition Acts, Camp X-Ray, concentration camp, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Guantánamo Bay, habeas corpus, injustice, Project Hamad, racist internment, torture
Meet the Howells
What better way to start the new year than to recap one of the biggest social events of the last year — the marriage of Daedalus Howell and April Frederick. I suppose it’s taken me so long to get around to writing about this wedding (which took place in September) because I’m still recovering from the […]
Filed under: art, cinema, drinking, film, literature, music, personal, poetics, poetry, writing | Leave a Comment
Tags: Abe Levy, Annee Booker, April Frederick, Catullus, Charles Schultz Museum, Chris Sawyer, Daedalus Howell, Dan Hicks, Deluge 6, dome house, Eric Gustave Jensen, Gerald Haslam, Grizzly Studios, Hold Me With Your Robot Hand, Is It Time to Swap?, Jerry Rapp, Jon Legare, Last of the Great Bachelors, Longwave, Mojave Phone Booth, One of Our Own, Orion Letizi, Pam Neitenbach, Petaluma diaspora, Petra Duffoo, PHSLO, Roger Tschann, Scam Magazine, Shannon Ferguson, Sonoma, Sonoma County, The Arms and Legs, The Aviary, The Late Projectionist, The Lids, wedding, wine country, Wine X
