May 2010
32 posts
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some nagoya photos
Here are a handful of photos the team sent us from life in Nagoya. We’re looking forward to experiencing all of it (esp. the massive amount of shoelessness) and making new friends!
walkabout in roanoke
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please don't just do it
This is a great mini-documentary on the issue of homelessness in Japan and the injustice that surrounds the situation (see our previous post on homelessness in Japan to get a better idea). Recently, Nike created a ‘secret’ deal with the local officials of Tokyo to build a Nike Park on an expensive, and coveted piece of land in the heart of the city. The homeless groups that...
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roanoke library
Disgruntled elderly man: "Hey, you, get over here."
Librarian: "What? Are you talking to me?"
Disgruntled elderly man: "Yeah, I need your help. I wanna e-mail this document to myself. Hurry up. Come help me now."
Frustrated Librarian (walks slowly to help): "Ok, what? What do you want?!"
Disgruntled elderly man: "It's open. I opened it."
Frustrated Librarian: "What? What are you talking about?"
Disgruntled elderly man: "I wanna send this e-mail. Stand here by me and watch. Stand here until I'm done. How do I do this? Help me now."
Frustrated Librarian: "No. Wait. What?! Just open your e-mail.
Disgruntled elderly man: "WHAT?!"
Frustrated Librarian: "OPEN YOUR E-MAIL."
Disgruntled elderly man: "I opened it."
Frustrated Librarian: "No, you didn't. OPEN YOUR EMAIL!"
Disgruntled elderly man: "Look, it's open! I opened it!"
Extremely Frustrated Librarian: "NO, SIR, YOU DIDN'T THAT'S FOOD.COM. THAT'S NOT YOUR E-MAIL."
Happy elderly man: "Oh...you should stand here and help me all the time."
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the secrets of mariko
So, I finished that book Confucius Lives Next Door (which I’ll still be posting brief excerpts out of in the future). It was great. Although, it did lack the personal touch that usually makes stories so riveting and helps you remember all of those overwhelming facts in a manageable context. So I found this other book that I’m currently reading called The Secrets of Mariko. It’s...
The giant of Illinois died from a blister on his...
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invasion of the bodies
There is a contorted, zen ‘body part’ garden exhibit headed to Nagoya this Fall. It’s called the ‘Klunk Garden’. This art piece is quite interesting and involves some realistic looking body parts…because they are real. These people sit below a platform and stick their body parts up through the platform onto the zen garden above. A lot of zen garden purists are...
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Tokyo Toilet Ted Talk
Morinosuke Kawaguchi gives a brief lecture on the amazing wonders of the Japanese toilet…and I mean amazing.
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Protests turn deadly in Thailand - The Big Picture... →
Bangkok is falling apart. Pray for our MTW bros in Thailand.
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burn, diaper, burn!
I’ve already referenced the rapidly aging society of Japan before in a previous post about Nurse Riba. I guess one good thing coming out of a culture filled with elderly individuals is…yes, you guessed it, free fuel. The Japanese have once again turned out to be ingenious, efficient and inventive with a new plan to BURN USED ADULT DIAPERS.
Here’s a quote from CNET:
Can older...
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confucius lives next door, part 2
An excerpt from Confucius Lives Next Door:
“…I noticed a distinguished figure - a short, kindly-faced, white-haired gentleman in a handsome blue suit, with a dark tie knotted perfectly against the starched collar of his white shirt and a crisp white handkerchief folded into three perfect peaks in his breast pocket - standing in front of our house. Actually, he was standing in front...
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i hear pizza in japan comes w/ squid & corn
busy bee
ha. ac looks a little cross-eyed here…
yum.
we got on our roof and only had the shutter open for about a minute and you can still see some movement from the stars…gonna make a long night out of it in the near future to get a better shot. someone called the police cause ac was shining her flashlight like a burglar in the vacant apartment windows above us. and then...
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confucius lives next door, part 1
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living In The East Teaches Us About Living In The West
I’ve been reading this book lately (recommended by a friend) and I’m almost done with it. It’s fascinating and really helps explain the complexity and the beauty of Eastern thinking and living. T.R. Reid, an NPR journalist and author, was offered a job to live in Tokyo, Japan to...
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domo arigato mr./mrs. nurse riba teddy bear roboto
Because Japan’s birth rate is way down and the population is aging so rapidly…freaky inventions like Nurse Riba have come into existence. I hope we don’t have to hug one of these things while we’re in Nagoya. I’m kind of scared as to how Americans would use this in their own home (i.e. never get up for anything). But, then again, we would probably break...
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"Haha no hi!"
That’s “Happy Mother’s Day!”, as the Japanese say it. Since it is a day for me to celebrate my okaasan, I thought I’d give a shout out to my mom and tell you a little about her.
This is my mom, Yumi. Her full name is Yumiko Noriko Gee. But her maiden name used to be Miyagi…so that must make me the real Karate Kid. She is from Okinawa, Japan and grew up...
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WatchI’m sure many of you heard about this story last year when “Sal 9000” in Tokyo married Nene Anegasaki - his video game bride. It’s a pretty sad story and telling, not just of Japanese culture, but of how relationships on a global scale have utterly changed in this digital age we live in.
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"don't touch that giant ticking balloon!"
Here’s a bizarre story about how, on this day in history, the Japanese had released these balloon bombs during WWII and an unsuspecting family in Oregon found it and…well, you can guess what happened after that.
In a little-known 1944 Fu-Go campaign, Japan released between 9,000 and 10,000 bomb-laden balloons that floated across the Pacific and were intended to explode in America,...
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Tokyo Homeless: Everywhere & Nowhere →
James Delano’s beautiful slideshow depicting the enigmatic problem of homelessness in Japan.
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you are what you eat
I’m kind of blown away by this article from Nature.com.
Some crazy scientists just discovered that Westerners who eat sushi and think they’re getting tons of protein from the seaweed are misinformed. Apparently, because Japanese people have been eating so much seaweed for so long (an average of 14 grams per person each day) they as a race have developed a bacterium in their guts...
