Category: Japan
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New Diary Entry
Added a new entry to my Japan diary.
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Death and Taxes in Japan
Now that I have a daughter and a flat, I decided it would be a good idea to look into wills and inheritance. Since, at the moment, we’re all in Japan, I had to look into the Japanese law. Fortunately, there are books available on the topic, so I bought one. The system is very…
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Fireflies
On Monday evening, I went with Yuriko and Mayuki to see the fireflies. Fireflies are fairly common in Japan, and children going to watch them over a river on a summer evening is a standard image of childhood. It’s probably something like the eating ice cream and drinking ginger beer image of British childhood, in…
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All Fine Here
There’s been another big earthquake in Japan, but it was a long way from here. We think it did have an effect here, though; it made our living room light swing a bit. So we’re fine, but there is likely to be quite a bit of damage in Tohoku, as the quake is estimated to…
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We’re Back
We’re back. You may not have noticed that we were away… One of Yuriko’s friends was getting married in a nice area of Japan (Yamanashi/Nagano, the mountains west of Tokyo), so we took the opportunity to stay a bit longer and have a short holiday. Overall, it was a big success, but I don’t have…
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“Otaku”
As people with a passing familiarity with contemporary Japan are probably aware, “otaku” is the Japanese equivalent of “geek” or “nerd”, or maybe “obsessive fan”. It tends to be applied to people who like geeky things, like science fiction, anime, computer games, or roleplaying. This morning the caretaker at our flats addressed me as “otaku”.…
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New Diary Entry
I’ve put a new diary entry online.
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Art Fair Tokyo
Until she quit work to have Mayuki, Yuriko worked at the executive committee of Art Fair Tokyo. This year’s fair, with which she had very little to do, was held last week, and yesterday was the last day. Obviously, we had to go to see it. One reason was that Yuriko wanted to; she is…
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Cherry Blossoms
This weekend the cherry blossoms in Tokyo have been in full bloom, so we’ve been to see them. If you don’t know how important the cherry blossoms are in Japanese culture, you could look at my Japan Diary for this time of year, or, indeed, just have a close look at the background for the…
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Law in Everyday Japan
This book is a serious legal/anthropological study of the effects of the legal system on various aspects of Japanese society. It was very interesting, in part because I learned a few more details of what the law in Japan actually is. It made me think that I need to find a basic “introduction to Japanese…