Japan

amazing earthset/earthrise videos

May 13, 2008

The Japanese spacecraft Kaguya, on a mission to the moon in what is described as the most significant moon exploration since Apollo, has delivered incredible HDTV-quality videos of the Earth rising and setting over the lunar horizon. These are unbelievable, like special effects in some movie, but they are real. Earthrise from the moon Earthset [...]

Read the full article →

Sayonara, Ling Ling

May 1, 2008

Japan’s giant panda, Ling Ling, has died of natural causes: TOKYO – Japan’s prime minister said Thursday he has asked to borrow some giant pandas from China after Ling Ling, one of the best-loved animals at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, died of old age this week. Ling Ling, the only giant panda owned by Japan, died [...]

Read the full article →

Lost in translation

March 15, 2008

I saw Lost in Translation yesterday via Netflix. This movie was really a surprise, I think I was just expecting a light comedic drama without any real heft to it. The premise of the movie seems like a setup for comedy: an old actor and a young newlywed both arrive in Tokyo, stay at the [...]

Read the full article →

alt.history

January 24, 2008

After a lot of reading about the Pacific Theater in World War II, I’d come to roughly this conclusion, succinctly stated by Steven (whose expertise exceeds anyone else’s I’ve yet met): The point is that WWII was a war of attrition, not really a war of maneuver. Even the Pacific campaign was more of a [...]

Read the full article →

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms

January 1, 2008

I had a chance to visit Hiroshima when I visited Japan a few years back, but ultimately chickened out and went to Tokyo. I’ve regretted it since. This may be why I find myself drawn to this title by Fumiyo Kouno, which is really a story in three parts. Town of Evening Calm follows Minami, [...]

Read the full article →

Tokyo

December 28, 2007

I spent all of one day in Tokyo on my trip to Japan a few years ago. In that day, I barely scratched the surface of Akihabara and Shinjuku, where I spent most of my time. It’s a city that is impossible to summarize or to understand. Prior to visiting Tokyo, the largest mega-metropol area [...]

Read the full article →

Gaijin in Japan

March 31, 2007

Interesting blog platform aimed at foreigners who are blogging from Japan. Shouldn’t it be named Gaikokujin in Japan though? Incidentally, I’ve added an Internet subcategory. It’s aimed at new blog and other CMS technologies.

Read the full article →

Next Entries →