Stories about Japanese from July, 2010
Japan: Abandoned Building Clock
@MaripoGoda crowd sourced Flickr photos to build Haikyo Tokei, which shows a different photo of broken clocks in abandoned buildings to tell the time every minute. @mazzo shared [ja] his communication with the developer, who acknowledged that the images for 11:02 and 08:15 represent the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and...
Japan: How to Enjoy Fireworks Displays
After a video on Cherry Blossom Viewing [en], the team of Legon produced an instructional animated video on How to Enjoy Fireworks Displays (Hanabi) [en] in Japan. Both in English and Japanese, it illustrates the basics of the firework festivals that often light up the summer night sky in Japan.
Japan: Mob collusion soils the sumo ring
After the National Police decided to crack down on the connections between crime syndicates and sumo wrestlers, sumo fans question the image of sumo as a sacred sport.
Japan: A short documentary-post on Tuvalu
Photographer Ken Umemoto dedicates a post [ja] to Tuvalu [en] and the disastrous effects of human intervention and climate change on the island. The post also includes fascinating “auteur photos”,
Japan: Manga blogging on Mexico
Mexico based Ohtoh Ryoko manga-blogs [ja] on her Mexican daily life and the unfamiliar customs of the country. The main character is a little girl with pigtails, who wears a yellow luchador (wrestler) mask.
Japan: A tryst in the starry sky
Look at the sky on the night of July 7 for this is the only night in the year when the two stars Vega and Altair are destined to be reunited, or so the legend foretells.
Japan: Decline of Students Studying in the U.S. and Overseas
Despite the increasing number of people studying abroad via study abroad programs, the overall rate of Japanese college students studying abroad seems to be decreasing across the board — even accounting for Japan's declining birthrate. What is the cause of this remarkable decline?
Japan: Tech-savvy freelancers break down the monopoly in information
While in many countries around the world ordinary citizens learn to take advantage of the new technologies to make their voices heard, in Japan it's the free-lance journalists who take up the battle against establishment media from which they are determined to remain apart.