GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF JAPAN SHAPES STAR WARS SAGA

It is 150 years since Commodore Perry pointed the Death Star of technology at the head of this once feudal nation and ushered it int...

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HERE COMES THE TENGU

Maybe it's because of the big nose and the red face — like some grotesque characterization of Europeans — or it might just be the au...

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JAPANESE WESTERN FESTIVALS

Certain Western festivals catch on in Japan and others don’t. What is the secret factor that determines this? I would say it is a str...

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VIDEO REVIEW OF THIS YEAR'S TOKYO GAME SHOW

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FICTION: SPEEDBUMP

Once upon a time, there was a king who wanted to check up on the public spiritedness of his people so he placed a large rock in the mid...

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PHOTO: THROUGH A JAPANESE TRAIN WINDOW

Click to enlarge. A photo of passengers taken through a train window at Shinjuku station. Notice the pervasivenesss of smart phone u...

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