Not that I’m planning a trip to Japan any time soon, but Planet Tokyo is a pretty interesting site with a bunch of info on visiting Japan. Maybe some day I’ll head out there.
Category: Japan
Tokyo Fiesta
This event sounds like it might be interesting. It’s running Oct 27 and 28 at Grand Central. Some traditional Japanese stuff (bamboo screens, spiral lanterns, etc) and some modern stuff. I wonder who came up with the name, though.
Images of Japanese Vending Machines
Some great photos of weird Japanese Vending Machines. I wish we had all these cool vending machines here in America. All we have at work is one boring Coke machine. Maybe I can convince the boss to put in a rhinoceros beetle machine!
Panda-Z
Cool Panda-Z stuff. I picked up a Panda-Z toy at San Diego last year. Giant panda robot! Yay!
Outpost Nine : I am a Japanese School Teacher
I stumbled across this blog today, written by an American working as a school teacher in Japan. Very funny, but kind of disturbing.
Guitar Wolf
Nice page on Guitar Wolf. There’s some really funny stuff in the interview they did with Seiji.
Grave of the Fireflies
In honor of Memorial Day, I decided to watch Grave of the Fireflies. This is an animated film about two kids who lose their mother and their home in a firebombing during World War II. I’ve had this DVD sitting on my shelf for about six months. I really hadn’t been in the mood to watch it until today. It’s a very sad, elegiac film. Aside from just giving you a different perspective on WW2 that you won’t usually see, it also makes you think about pride, responsibility, perseverance, and the difference between children and adults.
There are a lot of extras on a second disc that help put everything in perspective — an overview of the movie by Roger Ebert, an interview with the director, and a historical overview. There are a few interesting comments on the movie over at IMDB, although there are also a lot of bone-headed ones.
Ham Fighters
Did you know that there’s a baseball team in Japan called the Nippon Ham Fighters? That’s so cool.