Back in April/May, my mother came to visit me in Japan. During our trip down to Osaka, we took a ‘little’ detour into the nearby Wakayama-ken. Our destination: Koyasan (高野山). Founded in 819 by the monk Kukai (AKA Kobo Daishi), Koyasan is the world headquarters of the Koyasan Shingon sect of Buddhism. Home to approximately [...]
Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category
Kechien Kanjo at Koyasan, Wakayama-ken, May 2010
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Travel, tagged constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japan, Japanese, Japanese culture, Japanese history, Travel on August 22, 2010 | 8 Comments »
われわれ日本人: We Japanese, You Gaijin
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, JET Program, tagged ALT, constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japan, Japanese, Japanese culture, JET Program, life in Japan, teaching in Japan on June 23, 2010 | 21 Comments »
I was recently asked to answer a few questions for the new website iShare-Japan about my experiences since I have moved to Japan. As some of you know, I have lived in Japan for almost a year; my so-called ‘Japaniversary’ will be on August 3rd. That’s no where near long enough to have developed a [...]
Racism in Japan
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Ramblings, tagged constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japan, life in Japan, racism on May 10, 2010 | 23 Comments »
As a part of the ‘Japan YouTube community’ (though somewhat reluctantly) I’ve encountered a lot of the videos that people have posted about racism in Japan. I don’t really agree or approve of a lot of these videos, because they are almost always very negative and extremely one-sided. Personally, I haven’t experienced much racism while [...]
C’est la vie Golden Week
Posted in Japan, JET Program, Ramblings on May 7, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Golden Week is over and so is Constantine’s Crazy Japan Traveling Extravaganza: Part Two. I now have more raw video footage to add to my already enormous backlog of videos that I need to edit together and post on YouTube. The editing will be slapdash and half-thought-out, as usual. =P So this upcoming month will [...]
Nakizumo Crying Sumo Festival, April 2010
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Travel, tagged Asakusa, constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japan, Japanese, life in Japan, nakizumo, Senso-ji, sumo on April 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Yesterday, I braved the crowds at Asakusa’s Senso-ji temple to witness a time honored Japanese tradition – shaking babies. No, I don’t mean the sort of behavior that results in Shaken Baby Syndrome, but the infinitely more entertaining one type that involves young sumo wrestlers. Every year on the 4th Sunday of April, Senso-ji Temple [...]
A New School Year…
Posted in Japan, JET Program on April 22, 2010 | 10 Comments »
I’m not going to lie to you, readers, and say that I didn’t have certain reservations about the new school year. I was utterly blindsided when I saw the amount of changes that occurred at my schools over haru yasumi (spring vacation). We’re talking new vice principals at BOTH schools, two new English teachers at [...]
Assistant Japanese Teacher?
Posted in Japan, JET Program, tagged constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japanese, JET Program on April 21, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Every person why applies to the JET Program knows that they are going to be assisting in teaching English in some way during their time in Japan. The title ALT can mean anything from BigDaikon‘s infamous ‘glorified tape recorder’ to being given the responsibility of designing and teaching all of your classes (which is my [...]
HBO’s THE PACIFIC: Introduction
Posted in Book Reviews, Film Reviews, HBO's The Pacific, Japan, Japanese History on April 9, 2010 | 7 Comments »
The Second World War is a massive subject, so I will endeavor to stick closely to the subject of The Pacific – the land war fought by the marines in the South Pacific and on the islands surrounding Japan. This will be very difficult for me…those who have had the misfortune of experiencing one of [...]
川崎の金まら祭り AKA The Kawasaki Iron Penis Festival
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Travel, tagged constantine in tokyo, fertility shrine, Japan, Japanese, kanamara matsuri, kawasaki, kawasaki penis festival, shinto on April 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
About a 30 minute train ride outside of Tokyo is the city of Kawasaki, a typical Japanese suburb that sports a large train station/depaato and many neon-clad pachinko parlors. Every year on the first Sunday of April, Kawasaki is invaded by a flood of gaijin, Tokyo’s LGBT community, and curious onlookers to participate in (or [...]
5 Things I Want to See in ‘The Pacific’
Posted in Book Reviews, Film Reviews, HBO's The Pacific, Japan, tagged Guadalcanal, HBO, HBO's The Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow, Okinawa, Peleliu, Steven Spielberg, The Pacific, toms hanks, war, With the Old Breed, World War II, WWII on March 25, 2010 | 2 Comments »
5. An accurate depiction of battle, of course. Unfortunately, film can only go so far when it comes to recreating battle. One of the most important features of the battlefield that is absent in film is the smell. Movies cannot show us what the smell of rotting flesh, discarded food, gunpowder, spent artillery, and burnt [...]
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