Kyoto is famous in Japan for many things, in the past for classic temples like Kinkakuji and Kiyomizu-dera and for being the capital of Japan from 794 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. It is well-known more recently for things such as the Kyoto Protocol and Kyoto University. This week, Kyoto University became the first University in Japan to introduce a so-called “University Environment Tax”, sort of an emissions tax to attempt to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases within the University. Continue reading Kyoto University Emissions Tax
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Three: Handy Internet Bookmarks
This is the third installment in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my wife being pregnant). Although I hope that some of the observations have value for gaijin of both sexes, I’m intentionally writing this series from my own perspective – a Gaijin Father / Japanese Mother. There is no topic better than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail and I’ve been amazed by the seemingly endless views about pregnancy that differ between Japan and the West (where I’m from). While it is hard to argue that either view is right or wrong, I personally would have loved to have had a resource that taught me about both sides of the fence- hopes, expectations, taboo, you name it. That is the purpose of this series.
In the second installment I talked about my favorite reference books. I had hoped for a more balanced view of the world by buying a bunch of books on Amazon. I realized after about my 6th book that ironically I was getting a biased view of the world in a way that I had completely unexpected. Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Three: Handy Internet Bookmarks
WaiWai: Gals refresh body and soul by ‘recycling sex’ with old beaus
This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.
Posh women are increasingly returning to the arms of their old beaus, even if they’re as fat, bald and stinky as their husbands, in a phenomenon Shukan Gendai (8/18-25) labels “recycling sex.”
“Mie,” as we’ll call the 38-year-old housewife, comes from a more expensive part of Tokyo and is a case in point.
Continue reading WaiWai: Gals refresh body and soul by ‘recycling sex’ with old beaus
Double Byte “Internationalized Domain Names”: A Superficial Alternative (Part 2)
This is part two of our writeup and perspective on IDNs, especially double byte Japanese domain names. See Part One (where we went into some detail of explaining the history of the technology surrounding IDNs) before reading on. Without going into too much more history or spurting out much more technical jargon, lets explore some day to day aspects of double byte domains, how they are (or rather aren’t) used, and why they just aren’t the glowing future of Japanese internet real estate that initially they may seem to be. Continue reading Double Byte “Internationalized Domain Names”: A Superficial Alternative (Part 2)
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Two: Which baby books to buy, and in which language?
This is the second installment (find the first here) in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my wife being pregnant). Although I hope that some of the observations have value for gaijin of both sexes, I’m intentionally writing this series from my own perspective – a Gaijin Father / Japanese Mother. There is no topic better than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail, and I’ve been amazed by the seemingly endless views about pregnancy that differ between Japan and the West (where I’m from). While it is hard to argue that Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Two: Which baby books to buy, and in which language?
Double Byte “Internationalized Domain Names”: A Superficial Alternative (Part 1)
Double Byte IDNs: “Interesting, but Useless Eye-Candy”
Internationalized Domain Names, heard of them? Double byte web addresses. You know the ones – the 日本.jps and the 価格.coms – you must have seen them lurking somewhere? Yes, these are called IDNs, or Internationalized Domain Names.
Just how valuable are these “snatch up while you can” bargains that the registrars have been trying to flog to us for the last 4 or 5 years? How will these prestigious pieces of “Internet Real Estate” rear up in the next decade? Are they a potential Continue reading Double Byte “Internationalized Domain Names”: A Superficial Alternative (Part 1)