Category: Japan
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Multicultural Social Workers
Yesterday I went to the meeting of the Kawasaki City Representative Assembly for Foreign Residents (the home page is mostly in Japanese, but there are links to some English resources as well). This body was established by city ordinance about 15 years ago, and it sits for two years at a time, reporting to the…
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Flowers Against Crime
Suginami City in Tokyo had a reputation as a burglary hotspot, with over 1700 burglaries in 2002. In 2003, the city introduced cameras and patrols by retired policemen, and the number of burglaries dropped to about 1,000. However, in 2006 the number went back up to 1,200, so the city officials decided to look into…
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Shinto Controversies Course — 3rd Lecture
Yesterday, I went to the third lecture in this year’s open Shinto course at Kokugakuin University. The topic was the Sacred Marriage hypothesis. In this context, this is the claim that certain Shinto rituals originally included an act of ritual sex, as a central part of the rite. The lecturer, Professor Okada, does not believe…
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Global Phenomenon
I listened to yesterday’s Yomiuri Podcast this morning as I was having a walk. Susan Boyle failing to win Britain’s Got Talent was one of the news items. A genuine global phenomenon.
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Britain on Sale
I was in Shibuya today, on the way to a kimono show that Yuriko was involved in, and I saw a big poster of the Union Jack, with “Britain on Sale” written on it. On the way back, they had similar adverts on the large television screens overlooking the junction. The pound is very weak…
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New Diary Entry
After an excessively long silence, I’ve put a new diary entry online.
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New Diary Entry
Added a new entry to my Japan Diary. Yes, another one.
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New Diary Entry
I’ve added a new entry to my Japan Diary.
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Too Busy
As people have noticed, it’s a very long time since I wrote anything here. I’ve been too busy; as well as teaching and editing, I’ve been keeping Tamao going and writing a Japanese blog entry every day. So this has got squeezed out, sorry. We’re all fine. Mayuki is still happy and lively, and her…
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Fukagawa
Today we went on a family day trip to Fukagawa, a region of eastern Tokyo in the old working-class areas, the so-called Shitamachi. (Literally, “down town”, but that’s an appallingly bad translation.) The weather was relatively kind to us, and I took quite a few photographs. I even got Yuriko to take some so that…