TIGER MASK 🐯 – The heat of the day wafts the city streets as the caped hero rushes into the setting sunlight of a sweltering summer evening. He flies to the rescue of a desperate woman, who shrieks in help of a petty hoodlum. He lurked her in a narrow alley way to harass her now. Arriving on the scene, the masked hero not begged twice, blows the bad guy cracking …
‘I’m the Great Wart, ahahaa!’, the frog king proclaims before the final battle in Super Mario All-Star (スーパーマリオコレクション) unfolds. In this pop-cultural article, I’m going to talk about Nintendo’s forgotten prince of darkness, speculate about his origin as well as some froggy customs from Japan. Will this mischievous warden remain only in our dreams or will Wart eventually make a return out of the state of decade-long slumber?
The power of passion and curiosity, a subject I always wanted to write about. Incidentally, the desire to do so, first emerged during my stint in Japan, quite some time ago. But having months of transition behind me and needing to lay out my future anew now, it resurfaced and I suddenly felt the urge to finally write it down. Long enough it has been sitting in the back of my head …
A work-related story from Japan I came across that I like to write about out of personal affinity. It’s about regular full-time employment known as Seishain (正社員・せいしゃいん) or Seishokuin (正職員・せいしょくいん) and part-time employment, referred to with the English loanword Paatotaimu (パートタイム) or its abbreviated version, Paato (パート).
Having some working experience under my own belt in the country, I’m always interested in topics related to work and developments, even though there are obviously more fun activities to do in Japan 😉.
I didn’t Aim For Gods, but sometimes I caught myself playing with the thought of becoming a ‘Japanese’ salaryman (サラリーマン) 💼. It’s not an easy thing to accomplish though, not for a native Japanese, not less so for a foreigner as the story will show. So I had to stick to ‘full-time’ part-time jobs during my stay. What this means and what’s it all about with the part-timers (パートタイマー; パートさん; 短時間で働く人; 短時間労働者) in Japan anyway? Well, here is my latest article:
Are you a budding student of Japanese, looking into ways to get your Japanese learning routine off the ground?
A few months ago, back in October 2016, I posted the first version of this article, however, a change corrupted some of the settings😤 and it’s no longer appearing properly on Google (sigh, technology 😩!), which lead me to post this again. Might have been a WordPress glitch, but I hope the new article stays unaffected. The former article I left as is though, as some visitors might still strand there (see Edition History on the bottom⬇). The main content remains mostly the same except for some minor editing. Well, here we go again🏃💨!
After my first stint into Japanese history with the article about the Shimabara Rebellion, this article I like to devote to Hasegawa Nobutame (長谷川宣以・はせがわのぶため; 1745-1795), a historic figure of the same era, the Edo Period (江戸・えど; 1603-1868). The name Hasegawa Nobutame might not ring many bells because in Japan he is more commonly known by the name of Hasegawa Heizou (長谷川平蔵・はせがわへいぞう), or his alias Onihei (鬼平・おにへい).
If I had posted this about a week ago, it would have been the turkey, but now it’s just a rest of gravy. Nonetheless, I like to write an article about it, as it represents a part of Japanese history that is very fascinating to me. The talk is – as the above trailer gives away – Martin Scorsese‘s (マーティン・スコセッシ; The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, Gangs of New York) latest work and pet project with the adaption of ‘Silence’. A movie based on the best-seller novel of Endou Shuusaku (Shūsaku Endō; 遠藤 周作・えんどう しゅうさく; Japanese author from March 27, 1923 – September 29, 1996) by the same name, published in 1966, revolving around Christianity in Japan.
This post is featuring the making of ‘sushi’ sweets with the ‘Fun Sushi Shop’ (楽しいお寿司屋さん・たのしいおすしやさん) DIY kit in the Popin’ Cookin’ Chef Series, produced by the Japanese food and pharmaceutical multi concern Kracie (クラシエ) and available, for instance on amazon.co.jp in lots of 5 or 10.
As we go towards the end of the year 🎅🎄, you might wanna try something new with your youngsters or for yourself, besides the traditional cookie making. There is a variety of 10+ such cute DIY kits 🍬🍭 you may choose from, differing in style and flavor (a list on the bottom of this article). In Japan they are categorized as Education Sweets (知育菓子・ちいくかし) for kids (3 – 12 years) to sensitize them from an early age on for the respectful handling of foods and to nurture their imagination by hands on experience. However, they are not only kids’ stuff, as nowadays they enjoy huge popularity at home and abroad with people of all ages. For a start, I tried myself on the ‘Fun Sushi Shop’ kit 🍣, which totally lived up to its name, making for a joyous pastime at this time of season. Let’s see how I did and get down to cookin’!
MyLittle Dejima 