Andrew Sullivan Kabuki alert
As you may infer from the title, the latest pundit to engage in this appropriate and worn-out cliche is Andrew Sullivan, a writer whom I generally like but does punch out copy with such rapidity that...
View Article“Are we Japan?” What Japan are you talking about?
Via Andrew Sullivan, a terrible, terrible example of punditry asking if the US is on the verge of a Japan style “lost generation,” which includes the following particularly wretched paragraph, in...
View ArticleThe “Fly-jin” hype, or: 「フライジン」に該当するページが見つかりませんでした
In English-language news media, everyone is talking about this new word “Fly-jin”, a play on “Gaijin,” i.e. foreigners who have fled Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear holocaust...
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Best ways to cope with routine gaijin questions? A reaction to Debito
Debito’s latest creation is a column about “microaggression,” which is his new term for the routine, repetitive questions and lines of conversation that Japanese people commonly have with white...
View ArticleKabuki alert gets married
As soon as Obama made his big announcement about officially endorsing gay marriage, the comparison was inevitable. On some level everybody already knows that Obama doesn’t object to gay marriage, so...
View ArticleRe-importing kabuki
From a recent NYT article on how globalized Japanese people supposedly have trouble finding jobs in Japan: “Shukatsu” refers to the system in which Japanese companies typically hire the bulk of their...
View ArticleLDP presidential candidate Hayashi: “Let’s play kabuki”
This morning’s NHK Sunday political show contained a disturbing reimportation of the term political kabuki. The candidates for LDP president were debating their stances on US base relocation, and one,...
View Article“Unbuttoning the uniform”
Over the years, this blog has had so many posts on the wretched “kabuki play” cliche that we gave them their own category, but we never mentioned a related pet peeve cliche of mine: “opening the...
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Game review: Abe-pyon is a fun, free, no-nonsense smartphone game; political...
A couple weeks ago the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party released Abe-pyon (Abe Jump; iOS link / Android), its first official smartphone game. The release was timed ahead of the upcoming Upper...
View ArticleKabuki for lunch alert
You can always spot the undercover restaurant critics by their kabuki masks. “Ms. Lemos, I presume,” I said with a mock flourish. “Just call me Gael,” she said with a weary smile. This weary smile...
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Kimono watch
Today’s New York Times had a pretty egregious example in an otherwise pedestrian story about election day polling. “We’re flipping up the kimono and letting people see what campaigns do on Election...
View ArticleThe “Fly-jin” hype, or: 「フライジン」に該当するページが見つかりませんでした
In English-language news media, everyone is talking about this new word “Fly-jin”, a play on “Gaijin,” i.e. foreigners who have fled Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear holocaust...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Best ways to cope with routine gaijin questions? A reaction to Debito
Debito’s latest creation is a column about “microaggression,” which is his new term for the routine, repetitive questions and lines of conversation that Japanese people commonly have with white...
View ArticleKabuki alert gets married
As soon as Obama made his big announcement about officially endorsing gay marriage, the comparison was inevitable. On some level everybody already knows that Obama doesn’t object to gay marriage, so...
View ArticleRe-importing kabuki
From a recent NYT article on how globalized Japanese people supposedly have trouble finding jobs in Japan: “Shukatsu” refers to the system in which Japanese companies typically hire the bulk of their...
View ArticleLDP presidential candidate Hayashi: “Let’s play kabuki”
This morning’s NHK Sunday political show contained a disturbing reimportation of the term political kabuki. The candidates for LDP president were debating their stances on US base relocation, and one,...
View Article“Unbuttoning the uniform”
Over the years, this blog has had so many posts on the wretched “kabuki play” cliche that we gave them their own category, but we never mentioned a related pet peeve cliche of mine: “opening the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Game review: Abe-pyon is a fun, free, no-nonsense smartphone game; political...
A couple weeks ago the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party released Abe-pyon (Abe Jump; iOS link / Android), its first official smartphone game. The release was timed ahead of the upcoming Upper...
View ArticleKabuki for lunch alert
You can always spot the undercover restaurant critics by their kabuki masks. “Ms. Lemos, I presume,” I said with a mock flourish. “Just call me Gael,” she said with a weary smile. This weary smile will...
View ArticleKimono watch
Today’s New York Times had a pretty egregious example in an otherwise pedestrian story about election day polling. “We’re flipping up the kimono and letting people see what campaigns do on Election...
View Article
