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My Very Brief Fight with a Yakuza
This is the story I don’t want to tell, about my fight with a Japanese gangster, because it’s so horrible. But I’ve held onto it too long already, so I’ll just lay it out. The night started out pretty...
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Does Fluency Matter?
I had a dream . . . that one day I would rise up from my nori-thin futon and speak fluent Japanese. I had a dream . . . that I would one day live in a nation where little children would judge me not...
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A Japanese Suicide
They say that no one goes through life unscathed. But you know Ken Seeroi ain’t trying to hear that. I figured hey, move to a nice safe country with pretty girls and amazing food and just avoid that...
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What Do You Think of Japan?
It’s interview season in Japan. The weather is getting warmer, the ume buds are starting to appear, and maybe you could even see a bird. Yeah, like maybe in a zoo. But anyway, about this time every...
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How to Bow Like a Japanese
What could be more typically Japanese than bowing? Every other book about Japan has something to say on the subject, so it must be important, right? Certainly a lot of foreigners come to Japan and...
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Two Japanese Life Skills You Must Master
If you want to be a success in Japan, there are only two things you really need to nail. The unfortunate small problem is, they’re opposites. But perhaps a colorful story will help to illustrate. So I...
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Who’s Really Japanese?
When I first came to Japan, things were so much simpler. Men were men, Japanese were Japanese, and foreigners were gaijin. Now everything’s gone to pieces, nuanced to the point that when somebody...
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Why Do Classes Suck?
If you are: a) learning a language, and b) not being raised by wolves in a cave somewhere, then you’ve heard it time and again: classes suck. Everyone knows it. You can learn a language faster and...
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What to Bring to Japan: An 8-Item Checklist
If you’re planning to visit Japan, there’s definitely some stuff you should and should not bring. And moving to Japan? Whoa, then you really need to consider what to stuff into your gym bag. But not...
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Renewing a Japanese Visa, More Fun Every Year
Ah, May. What a wonderful month. The seasonal rains wash away winter, it’s finally warm enough to sleep without a hat, and I get to enjoy renewing my Japanese visa. That’s how I know spring has come....
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Japanese Fireworks: Better in every way but one
A couple of weekends ago I went to a Japanese fireworks festival and suffice to say that watching fireworks in Japan is just like watching fireworks in the U.S., except better in, uh, every single...
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