4x World Champion, Fujii Shozo never got the chance to compete in the Olympics. His first opportunity was in 1972 but he was unable to compete due to a knee injury. In ’76 he dislocated[…]
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Category: Japan Studies Blog
Japan Studies blog is a collection of random thoughts and encounters I have with all things related to Japan in my life.
Japanese Physical Culture: Se oi nage with Fujii Shozo
4x World Champion, Fujii Shozo never got the chance to compete in the Olympics. His first opportunity was in 1972 but he was unable to compete due to a knee injury. In ’76 he dislocated[…]
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Life after Sumo: The second career of Sumo Wrestlers
In any professional sport, there is a finite time the athlete can be competitive and athletes usually need to find a second career after retirement. This can be extremely difficult for some as they dedicate[…]
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Observing Japanese manners with O-Hanami
The tradition of Hanami in Japan takes place during the blooming of the cherry blossoms. It is customary to find a place under a row of cherry blossom trees to have a Japanese style picnic[…]
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Japanese Q&A: Where does しまった come from?
A student asked if しまった (the English equivalent for “oh shit”) is the past tense Ta-form of the word しまう. In lesson 18 of the Japanese textbook Genki, the grammar point Te-form + しまう in[…]
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Japanese Q&A: あと or 後 to use Kanji or not
I had a student ask about the use of the kanji 後. He noticed that it is not usually used when people would write something like 「あと５秒」In the moment I wasn’t able to give a[…]
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Gender and Japan: #metoo in Japanese
I was thinking about the #metoo movement and how it would translate linguistically in Japan. My initial response was to look it up on instagram in Japanese and then I thought, how is this going[…]
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Thinking about mindfulness with Samurai Gourmet 野武士のグルメ
I love this NHK series with Naoto Takenaka. “Samurai Gourmet” is set around protagonist (Takeshi Kasumi), who has just retired from his job of 30 plus years. He goes on an adventure of self discovery and rediscovery now that[…]
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Tokyo Trial mini series of post World War 2
I recently came across a Netflix series called “Tokyo Trial” in Japanese, 東京裁判. The Netflix original series is about the Tokyo Trial that took place in Japan after World War Two. Another movie that outlines the controversy[…]
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Having good manners in Japan
A friend of mine is touring Japan, and he sent me a message asking about eating on the train. He didn’t see anyone around him doing it, and was wondering if it was bad manners[…]
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