Japan has seen a recent increase in male suicides in the wake of the pandemic. In September 2020, 705 working-age men between 20-50 years old killed themselves. This is up by 8.6% from last year. Likewise in August, the number was 6.6% higher than in 2019 (Suicide, 2020). The pandemic is driving non-regular workers and…
Tag: culture
Are You a Person of “Culture”?
We know culture when we see it. But have you considered what culture really is? At the most basic, it is how people approach life. It includes language, approaches, ideas, and items. Most of the time, we consider the external factors like buildings, doodads, and language as culture. Language grants access to the culture your…
Musings IV: Japanese Idioms, and why it is a good idea to know some.
Perhaps you’ve been so lucky never to have prayed into a horse’s ear (uma no mimi ni nenbutsu), but I bet someone has once looked at you with white eyes (shiroi me de miru) until you felt like your stomach was boiling (hara ga nie-kurikaeru yō). Yes, those are Japanese Idioms. I’ve had a class…
Geisha: Kimono
Kimono is one of the defining characteristics of a geisha. Geisha wear kimono with a neckline that dips low on the back to show off the nap of the neck. That part of the neck is as sensual for Japanese men as the breast is to Western men. Geisha have a formal kimono (called de)…
Anime and Manga Blogging Primer
Anime and Manga blogging is a common hobby for those of us who are interested in sharing our thoughts with the rest of the online community. However, the Net is littered with the debris of good intentions and burned out writers. This article seeks to provide a little advice on how to create a successful…
Drifters
On a whim, I started reading the manga Drifters from Kouta Hirano (author/artist of Hellsing). I rather enjoyed reading Hellsing, and I liked the anime version of it as well. So, I figured I would enjoy Drifters as well. As of now, there are 35 chapters released, and after all these chapters I am still…