Lights, Temples, Speeches, and Holidays

As the nights get longer and the days shorter, people of every country that I have visited in my life attempt to brighten their moods by lighting streets, trees, churches, cathedrals, houses, and such with beautiful colorful lights. As you may guess, the Japanese are no exception to this rule; they...

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Respect

 Honorific expression syndrome. The two characters read Keigo. Source: http://www.monstera-design-code.jp/miyauchi/?tag=%E6%95%AC%E8%AA%9E Before I came to Japan, I was aware that the Japanese have a heightened sense of respect for their elders and superiors, which they express by bowing to them....

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Taiwan

An army of scooters waiting for the light in Taipei. From Monday Nov 22 to Monday Nov 29 I took a break from everything that is Japanese and went to visit Glen, a Czech high school friend of mine who is currently studying in Taipei, Taiwan. We spent one day sightseeing in Taipei, then went up north...

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Pocky

For some unexplained reason, on Thursday, November 11, twenty-four of you visited my blog despite the fact that I wrote absolutely nothing. In fact, I usually don’t even get twenty-four visits on a day when I publish an entry. In other words, there must be some special spell which caused twenty-four...

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Kongo

Wednesday Nov 3 was a national holiday in Japan, called Bunka no Hi, or Culture Day. As to why it is a national holiday, I know only that on Nov 3, 1946, the new Japanese constitution, drafted by the then occupying Americans, was announced. So as not to waste this great opportunity to escape the city,...

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Festival Crazy

As it does every year, this year Kyoto also hosted two major festivals on Oct 22. Because this year's Oct 22 happened to be a Friday, me and a couple of my friends decided to visit them both. First was the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages), starting at noon, with an enormously long procession of people walking for about four hours through the city's streets dressed in clothing from all...

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Research

Liquor Mountain, my favorite liquor store. Because all of my usual co-hikers bailed on me, the only mountain I climbed this past weekend was Liquor Mountain. Instead talking about that, though,I will tell you about my classes here in Kyoto and about how class research can be a lot of fun...

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Hiroshima (広島), a Modern Reminder of the Cruel Past

The A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima This Thursday to Saturday, Oct 7 - 9, the AKP people organized a field trip along the southern coast of Honshu Island. We visited Bizen, a city known for its traditional pottery (what is NOT traditional in Japan these days?), Kurashiki,...

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Google

Even the commercial suggests that you be green! Be green and KAYAK across the Pacific! :D In case you guys want to come for a visit and don't have enough money to make the trip, or want to be green and thus don't want to fly, you can just ask Google to tell you how to get from Waterville...

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Mountains

The panorama of Kyoto from Daimonji, taken exactly from the center of the 大. The one thing that I find the most exciting about Japan is its physical landscape. You might wonder why I didn't say food, girls, manga, kimonos, shrines, temples, high-tech robots, or something like that; all these things...

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Japan in Bullet Points

Me, Okaasan, and Otousan at the Welcome Party My host family's name is Iwai (岩井）, but if I want to be polite. I must say Iwai san. There are three people in the family: my host mom Kimiko, my host dad Akira, and my host sister Tomoko. They also have a son, Atsushi, but he is happily married...

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