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Learning About Japan

Learning Navigation

As we develop our learning pages, we invite the members to contribute to our cultural exchange with Japan by writing and submitting articles.

Recently submitted were reports from our Student Ambassadors to Kurashiki.

Japan (日本, Nippon/Nihon, literally "the origin of the sun") is a country east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. It is comprised of a chain of islands. The largest of the islands (known as the Home Islands) are, from north to south, Hokkaido (北海道), Honshu (本州, the largest island), Shikoku (四国), and Kyushu (九州). A number of smaller islands immediately surround these four, as well as one outlying group of small islands well to the south including Okinawa.

As we develop these pages, look for and feel free to contribute to this part of the site in the following categories.

Japan History
Tokugawa Era
Samurai
Geisha
Religion and Spirituality
Tea Ceremony
Japanese Gardens
Pearl Harbor
Japanese Internment Camps in the United States
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Present Day Japan

Yakuza, the Mob in Japan

The Washington post has an article about organized crime in Japan. Read This Mob is Big in Japan Also here's a book about the subject.

Japan's richest people

In case you care about massive amounts of wealth, maybe you'd like this story at Forbes

Old Photos of Japan

A weblog we just discovered posts a historical photo of Japan every day. This is good stuff.
Old Photos Japan Weblog

Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, 1942-1945

The Online Archive of California has created a database of photos from the War Relocation Authority of the Japanese relocation and internment camps. See the Photos Here. Regarding the photo captions, from the Scope and Content page: "It is important to note that the photograph collection, as the official documentation of the WRA, reflects the point of view that the WRA wanted to present to the citizens of the United States during World War II. A number of photographs exist in 5 x 7 format and as enlargements that one assumes were made for public exhibition. The photographs, presumably created for public exhibition, and the captions accompanying them written by WRA staff, present an idealistic view of the relocation centers which clashes greatly with the harsh realities detailed by many survivors and historians in the decades following the internment."

Also watch a government produced war film about the camps on Google Video.

Japan Creates New Official Government Position: "Anime Ambassador"

The newly appointed ambassador, a life-size doll of a cartoon character has been given the mission "..to deepen people's understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan." Read More

How do you make an alarm that can warn elderly and people with hearing loss?

If you are Assistant professor Makoto Imai from the Shiga University of Medical Science, you create a system you know will get anyone's attention, the Wasabi Fire Alarm.

Japanese honesty thrives in its 'Lost and Found' culture

New York Times has a piece on how likely you are to recover something you lost on a train or elsewhere in the country, even Tokyo. The answer, very likely.

Kansas City's Best pizza

You have to have a blurb about something American once in while, and what could be more pleasant than the best local pizza in KC? About.com has the article

Japanese Roots

An older article by Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel about the anthropological roots of the Japanese resurfaced lately on the web. Interesting, thorough and worth a read.

Jared Diamond on the Japanese

Engineers at Nagayo University create wearable robotic device designed for carpentry work.

Applied scientists and engineers at Nagayo University in Japan introduced a prototype wearable half-robotic device designed for carpentry workers. The study of carpentry workers utilizing the device in the task of fitting ceiling boards in place concludes marked reduction in muscle output force, thereby reducing arm fatigue. Read Article

Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex

Wired Magazine has a story about Manga. Here's a snippet: Manga's fortunes are sagging in Japan despite the rise in popularity in the rest of the world. Circulation of the country's weekly comic magazines, the essential entry point for any manga series, has fallen by about half over the last decade. Young people are turning their attention away from the printed page and toward the tiny screens on their mobile phones.

Fans and critics complain that manga — which emerged in the years after World War II as an edgy, uniquely Japanese art form — has become as homogenized and risk-averse as the limpest Hollywood blockbuster. Pervading the nation's $4.2 billion-a-year industry is a sense that its best days have passed. Read Article

The Allure of Japanese Knives

Salon.com has a story on the craftmanship and effectiveness of Japanese knives for cooking. Worth a read.

Sushi on 60 Minutes / AMAZING!

The King Of Sushi, Growing Demand For Sushi Is Having A Big Impact On The Bluefin Population. This 12 minute online video is a really good overview on Sushi prices and the place known as the hub for the best Sushi a fish market called Tsukiji. This is really an amazing and interesting video. We guarantee you will see things you never imagined.

Japan's monks take Buddhism to bars

The BBC has a piece on buddhist monks in Japan who have found a new place to reach out and show how their religious faith is just as relevant in as ever.

Kansas City Gift Ideas

Many of us have close friends and relatives in other cities, including in Japan. About.com has an article with 10 ideas for Kansas City Style gift baskets. Maybe this can help you with your shopping.

First hand accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima

The Voice of Hibakusha are eyewitness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima are from the program HIROSHIMA WITNESS produced by the Hiroshima Peace Cultural Center and NHK, the public broadcasting company of Japan. The individual accounts were input and translated into english by college students Yumi Kodama, Junko Kato, Junko Kawamoto, Masako Kubota, Chiharu Kimura, and Kumi Komatsu, who were advised by Laurence Wiig.

Visit the Site

Japanese Language Learning podcasts

I ran across some links for learning Japanese from the Open Culture website. Learning a new language from books is one thing, but having video and audio files to learn from is a lot more helpful, as you get a real voice, not just the one in your mind, as you read.

A Virtual Reality tour of tokyo

Using photo imagery, you can explore various parts of tokyo right from your web browser. This is thanks to to the Tokyo VR project.

The Kamikaze Diaries

Read an exerpt of a new book about young Japanese pilots who went on these missions. What were they thinking at that time? Remember that Kamikaze missions weren't just during Pearl Harbor, they happened throughout WWII in the pacific theater. Exerpt from The Kamize Diaries by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

The Wacky world of Japanese Ice Cream

The hot midwest summer has arrived. Check out these articles on Japanese ice cream that have hit the news recently. Anyone from Japan knows that there is an ever changing flavor fest of snacks, treats and drinks in Japan.

Japanese Ice Cream at Yahoo News
Mainichi News shows you wacky Japanese ice cream

Japan on the web

The best origami you've ever seen

You'll probably find this story interesting. The most "high resolution" origami around. Created by a guy at NASA. Even better? He used his skills to advance several technologies in scientific areas completely unrelated.

Cool links for May 2009

Make fun Sushi-style Rice Crispy Treats
Japan Culture and Film discussion at Fora.tv
Sakura Matsuri Cherry Blossom Festival in Brooklyn
Controversial Old Japan Maps
Japanese Couples turn to U.S. for Wedding Savings

Japan's Cherry Blossoms on the Travel Film Archive

We found this little piece of nostalgia from 1932. You know Youtube by now, well they have a collection of historic travel videos called the Travel Film Archive. We liked this little gem, though the narrator seems subtly amateurish.

Museum Digital Collections

For those who love art and history, here are some links to well known museums in Japan and their digital collections. From carvings, calligraphy and everything else. Photos of things dated over 5000 years ago. Amazing!

Vending Machines in Japan

I've been wanting to show some of the superior aspects of vending machines in Japan for some time. It's disappointing about the lack of variety and technology in vending in the United States. Certainly not all vending machines in Japan are bursting with innovation and flavor, but thankfully they are different and should give us ideas of what is possible. Vending Craze in Japan via DarkRoastedBlend.com

Internment Camp Yearbook scanned

When you think internment camp, perhaps despite realizing the time people had to spend in there, you might not consider just how deep the community settled within itself, either by desire, constraints or influence. Regardless, yearbooks were made and printed. Link

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

A design site called "The Design Observer" talks about a very intriguing and historically significant dumpster find. Take a look.

Tama the Station Master Cat

There's a cute story about a stray cat that was given a job as Station Master at the Kishi train station. Pure silliness you say? Well maybe, but the tourism dollars this little idea has generated are nothing to laugh at. Read about Tama. | Another Tama Article And if that's not cutesy enough for you, how about a monkey serving drinks at a tavern?

Free Pimsleur Japanese Learning Audiobooks

The Kansas City library is a partner with Netlibrary.com. You can sign up for a login at Netlibrary.com associated with the KC library. From there, you'll find some great Pimsleur Japanese Audiobooks to download / checkout for a limited period of time. Learn more about Netlibrary.

Swimsuit Girls of Old Japan

Check out this classy photo gallery on flickr of some of the swimsuit fashions of days gone by. Don't worry, it's all modestly safe for viewing, and quite interesting. Swimsuit photos of Old Japan.

Japanese-American relocation photo archive.

The University of California has a portal called the Calisphere and an archive of the relocation of Japanese-Americans during WWII. See the archive here.

Geisha profession on the rise thanks to increased popularity from media exposure

We probably never could guess this would happen, but due to recent movies and programs about Geisha, there has been growth in the geisha profession in Japan. More young women are signing up to Geisha houses for their training as Maiko. Read Article. Also watch this short video from the BBC.

Programs made about Geisha aren't new. Perhaps some of you remember this John Wayne movie, "The Barbarian and the Geisha"

Japan officially recognizes Ainu as indigenous people for first time

Japan's parliament voted Friday to recognize the Ainu ethnic group as the country's indigenous people for the first time and urged steps to reverse a century of discrimination and poverty.

The votes in both houses of the Diet, Japan's parliament, overcame a long-standing refusal to acknowledge that any other race predated the appearance of the Japanese in the archipelago. The resolution is not binding, but is expected to lead to more concrete measures. Read Article