The Difference Between Donkeys and Oxen

In yesterday’s blog, Why is Hanzomon called Hanzomon?, I posted this picture: In the picture comments, I said something about “donkey people” as a joke. Someone pointed out that these are actually oxen. I know. It actually cracked me up that I got e-mails about this. Not so much that I wanted people to think I didn’t know the difference between a donkey and an ox as much as I was happy that people ere actually reading Japan This! Rest assured, it was just a joke. I know the difference between donkeys and oxen. lol Oh, and thanks for reading! Continue reading The Difference Between Donkeys and Oxen

I Added a Share/Like Button

Now if you want to share an article I wrote with others, you can just click the Share/Like button at the bottom of each blog post.  You can Digg it, share with Facebook, e-mail it, save to your favorites tab on your browser, Twitter…  Pretty much anything. Hope this makes things more useful!  And thanks to everyone who pops in from time to time to read and comment!  I’ll try to keep the quality up♪ awwwwwwww yeah! mαrκy( -_-)凸 Continue reading I Added a Share/Like Button

Adding Words & Phrases to Your iPhone 3G’s Dictionary (Japanese Only… I Think…)

UPDATE: Due to constant updates in iOS, the information in this blog post is no longer relevant.  (3/25/2013) (As usual, all Japanese words and phrases will be defined in the vocab list at the end of the article) 2/3/10 update: please see my new article here! After using Japanese keitai (cellphones) for a few years and thoroughly enjoying how sophisticated they were to compared American cellphones – and how integral they were to modern Japanese culture – I got an iPhone 3G the first day they were introduced into the Japanese market. The first couple of days were a honeymoon, … Continue reading Adding Words & Phrases to Your iPhone 3G’s Dictionary (Japanese Only… I Think…)

One Match Can Start a Fire

I’ve been living in Tokyo 5 years and I never noticed these guys until this year. But apparently they do this every year. And according to my friend, they’ve been doing it since the Edo Period (1603-1868). (Go figure). On cold winter nights, groups of volunteers walk through the streets of Tokyo chanting and hitting wood blocks. Who are these people and what are they doing? Well, tonight when they came through my neighborhood I recorded them JAPAN THIS! and I will explain what they’re doing. In the Edo Period all the buildings were built out of wood. The city … Continue reading One Match Can Start a Fire

安全な国=最高じゃん!!

I wasn’t going to write anything today. But something happened that got me thinking. Last week (it was Christmas Eve, actually), my girlfriend and I went to Shinagawa to meet a friend for rāmen and show him some of the local shrines in the area. When we got off the train, my girlfriend realized that she had dropped her 定期 (teiki; monthly commuter pass). We reported to the JR Station Master and they took her name and address. A day later we got a postcard saying “We found your commuter pass, come to Shinjuku Station and pick it up.” Pretty … Continue reading 安全な国=最高じゃん!!

JAPAN THIS! will now be featured on JAPUNDIT

I’ve been officially accepted by the powers that be at Japundit.com.  Hopefully, this will increase the visibility of this blog and get the word out there.  Japundit is great since it’s always picked up by Google Reader if you subscribe to their “Japan” feed group. In case you don’t know what Japundit is, here is an explanation taken directly from their site: JAPUNDIT is a social bookmarking site that gives you an instant overview of the most popular English language articles about Japan and the other countries of East Asia. Basically, social bookmarking allows members to post links to articles … Continue reading JAPAN THIS! will now be featured on JAPUNDIT