American Gaijin
-
America’s Darkness
A part of me feels like I’ve been a bit hard on Japan. I take back nothing, honestly. There is a darkness that runs through their society, and it is a little jarring when contrasted with the beauty of their culture. I am not comfortable with that, honestly. But then I thought about how my…
-
The Shallowness of Exported Japanese Culture
A recurring theme of this site is my continued wonder at why I’m bothering to learn Japanese at all. I mean, it is an interesting language, it’s difficult, it’s a challenge. All these things are true. But at the end of the day, as a gaikokujin, I find that my reasons for learning the language are…
-
Find the Good
Today I’m going to write about something that’s on my mind that is not about Japanese at all. I suppose it could be tangentially, but let’s just say it’s not. Like many in my country, I’ve been inundated lately with bad news. I don’t mean bad news in the sense that it’s bad from a…
-
Japan’s Checkered Past
Many years ago, I was taking piano lessons as a late teen. My teacher was an older Filipino woman who was a child (or a teenager, perhaps) during the Japanese occupation of the Phillipines. She hated the Japanese. Or at least she struggled to not hate the Japanese. She told me horrible stories, and honestly…
-
Visitors
Every now and then I check my site stats to see who’s visiting what and where they come from. In something that is perhaps not a surprise and is totally expected given the crap quality of what I create here, there are not many visitors, though there seem to be a little more lately. Perhaps…
-
Gaijin
I don’t have any tattoos. In fact, I think tattoos are ugly and I would never intentionally get one. Why one would intentionally blemish their skin like that is beyond me. (and if you disagree, then go ahead, but this is my opinion and I’m sticking to it). I haven’t put a lot of thought…
-
Japan: Warts and All
I imagine that when most people think of Japan they think of the media that Japan produces, and it’s really incredible. There’s anime, manga, variety shows… and there is so much more for Japan to offer. It’s completely understandable that people from other countries might latch on to the otherness of Japanese culture and kind of…
-
5 Reasons J-Pop sucks
I’ve posted previously about what I like about J-Pop, but I don’t like everything about it! As with everything, it has its good sides and bad sides. Here, in my opinion, are the bad sides. The Music Can Be Uninteresting I’ve posted previously about how I think that J-Pop is far more interesting than western…