“One day Roland Barthes strolled up the Champs Elysees toward L’Etoile and met an outside-insider. There are many outside-outsiders and a few inside-insiders, he would say, and there are even a very few inside-outsiders [. . .] but the authentic outside-insider is rare.†(Robert Rawdon Wilson, In Palamedes’ Shadow 48)…
One day in early October, I was helping out with an English lesson since, you know, that’s my job. I’ve kind of gotten used to the fact that there is information all around me that I cannot really read. When I see English, though, I tend to gravitate towards it because I’m actually much more used to being surrounded by information I CAN read but do not actually care about (advertisements, etc.)…
Traditional Japanese “springtime” recipes range from steamed sakura and rape blossoms to mackerel preserved in miso, to various attempts at making bamboo shoots edible. Personally, I’d rather leave the bamboo shoots for the pandas. So in this month’s issue, we’ll take advantage of a year-round ingredient you may not regularly use: fresh squid! If, like me, you don’t know how to clean your own squid, just buy some pre-cleaned. I strongly recommend fresh over frozen, though…
Opening my mail box to discover that I’d been accepted to be an ALT by the BOE of Kuwana in Mie, I was very happy. Yay, I have a job! But, where is Mie? I did as many recently accepted JETs probably did, and googled the location of my future home.
There wasn’t much about Mie on the internet, but I did find a map, information about the former asthma capital, Yokkaichi, and the mythical birthplace of Amaterasu, Ise…
Ise may be a small town, but it is home to Japan’s most sacred Shinto shrine, Ise jingu.
Ise jingu (shrine) dates from the third century. The shrines are rebuilt every 20 years on adjacent sites using ancient techniques where the wood interlocks rather being nailed together. The Sengu No Gi festival is when the God is transferred from the old shrine to the new one…
They came from far and wide to witness the grand display of the freshest, biggest and most delicious crab in all of Hyogo at the 19th Toyooka Tuiyama Port Crab Festival. Held by the Toyooka piers along the scenic Maruyama river, this popular winter festival attracted all types of people, including families, young students,senior citizens and yours truly—despite the early Sunday morning start (8:30 AM), the out-of-the-way location and the cold winter weather (5ã‚œC). “It was way too early for a matsuri,†said Kenny Wu, Toyooka City JHS ALT…
One night a few weeks ago, my fellow Ichikawa ALT Katrina and I drove a few blocks from our apartment building and met with a secretary from one of our elementary schools, Namba-sensei, who had invited us to her home for a special treat. It was dark that evening, and chilly, as we walked up to the front door of the big, traditional Japanese house and slid the door open. We were greeted by warmth, soft light, and a wonderful picture: a beautiful hinamatsuri display vivid with reds and golds, taller than my (160 cm) head. The display was set up on miniature bleachers draped in red cloth, and took up most of the entryway…
Hello. My name is Caitlin Orr and I’ll be your new reviewer of books from now on. It sounds so official to “review†books: I’d prefer to think of it as “playing†with books or “discovering†stories. So, yes, I can be your explorer. I have roughly 3 ‘rules’ governing how I read…
I live in a town of about 45, 000, mostly young families and obaa-chans, where you escape to big cities like Osaka and Kobe if you are young and able enough to get out of inaka life. Sometimes, seeing my students graduate, I feel a twinge of jealousy as they move on to an exciting care-free Japanese university life, in the metropolis of Japan, leaving their little ALT behind in the rice fields and mountains of this small town. I’m a big city girl but I really adore life in inaka Japan…