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5 Reasons Why I Moved to Japan
April 30, 2011. When I first came to Japan as a visiting relative. I stayed for a month with my sister and in that short period of time, I fell in love with Japan. I came back as a scholar on September 24, 2012, and studied for a year and a half. During my stay, I’m so enchanted with Japan that I wanted to stay in…
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3 Things to Look Forward on Rainy Days
Rainy days are here again. In most parts of Japan, rainy days start around the beginning of June and last up to about six weeks. The amount of rainfall varies from day to day. Some days will have few showers and some days will have a really heavy downpour. One rainy day, when I was…
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How to say “I love you” in Japanese
What is love? iloverelationships.com “Love is a many splendored thing” as the popular old song goes. There are so many definitions of love. I bet you know more than three. I consider it as the universal language of the soul; the core of humanity; the essence of existence. Whoever you are, wherever you are from,…
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Why do so many Japanese commit suicide?
We have seen and heard it in the news. Not once, not twice, but many times. They do it in the privacy of their rooms. Or in a far-away mountain where no one can see. But, worse, within the public’s eyes like in trains, and the latest, in the zero-accident but now tarnished record shinkansen,…
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Sports Festival, the Japanese way
happystorm.x.fc2.com Many schools are having their annual Sports Festival or what they call “undokai” (運動会). The entire school and the community, especially the teacher-advisers and students are pushing themselves very hard to come up with a very organized and fun undokai. Strenuous rehearsals are done many times a week. Everyone is looking forward to the…
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How to distinguish Japanese from Korean and Chinese
Can you tell if a person comes from a specific country? Before coming to Japan, I had no idea how to distinguish Japanese, Korean and Chinese from one another. I had quite a few experience (when I was in the university as an international student) of trying to speak Japanese to a fellow student who I thought is Japanese, but after all, turned out…
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Mask, a Must?
When I first came to Japan as a visiting relative, I was surprised to see a lot of people wearing masks. “What’s going on? Is there an epidemic?”, I curiously asked my sister who is married to a Japanese and has been living in Japan for many years. She explained that in Japan, it is…
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A Love Story Made in Japan
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you will never know what you’ll get”. “Love comes from the most unexpected places.” These two sayings remind me of the love story of my friend who thought will never find someone to love and to love her, but when she came to Japan, her black and white…
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Celebrating Birthdays in Japan and the Philippines
Being a Filipino living in Japan for a while, I have experienced how birthdays are being celebrated in a different manner in my homeland Philippines and in my current country, Japan. There are a number of differences worth noting, for the love of knowledge about cultural differences. (Photo from en.wikipedia.org) Celebrating birthdays, I bet, is…