Category Archives: fun links

Fun Link Friday: Town Bells

Posted on May 17, 2013 by

Last week, I had a “you know you’ve lived in Japan when” moment: to my shock, I recognized the song “Love is Blue” (「恋はみずいろ」), which played during the credits of the Mad Men episode ”The Flood,” because I had heard it as a … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Katsuyo Aoki’s Porcelain Skulls

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

Ceramic artist Katsuyo Aoki’s Predictive Dream, a series of porcelain skulls, was featured on Tofugu recently. I was pleased to see the article since I got to see and translate about some of Predictive Dream as well as her installation piece … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Japanese Latte Art

Posted on May 3, 2013 by

Love latte art? NPR‘s Maria Godoy explores latte art in Japan through baristas Kazuki Yamamoto (Osaka) and Kohei Matsuno (Tokyo). See more of their creations at “Masterpiece In A Mug: Japanese Latte Art Will Perk You Up” on NPR’s The Salt, or check out Yamamoto’s … Continue reading →

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Fun Links Friday: JapanCulture NYC

Posted on April 26, 2013 by

New York City is an incredible place for engaging in Japanese culture, and Japan-related activities. From restaurants to toy shops to art exhibits, festivals, lectures & talks, and lessons in traditional arts, at any given time, there is a lot … Continue reading →

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Kinokuniya Haiku Contest 2013

Posted on April 24, 2013 by

Deadline: postmarked by May 31, 2013 Cost to enter: free Text details after the image. Compose an English-form haiku (5-7-5 syllable format) on one of the following topics: nature, work, or baseball. Submit to Kikokuniya Haiku Contest 1073 Avenue of … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Tokyo’s “Shrinking” Building

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

The 40-story Akasaka Grand Prince Hotel is being demolished, but how does one demolish a building in downtown Tokyo without making a mess? Taisei Corporation has a unique solution: “shrinking” the building by removing one layer at a time from … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: JAPAN THIS!

Posted on April 5, 2013 by

Ever wondered how Japanese places got their names? In his blog “JAPAN THIS!“, Marky Star shares some wonderfully brief, witty, well-researched, and picture-filled posts on why Tokyo neighborhoods like Ochanomizu, Shibuya, and Nogizaka are called what they are. This is … Continue reading →

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Fun Link: Google Japanese Pata-Pata Version

Posted on April 2, 2013 by

Even Google Japan got in on the April Fool’s shenanigans this year, releasing this video about incredible new technology that will help all of us Japanese speakers input Japanese even faster than before. Subtitles are available in English and Japanese. Google 日本語入力パタパタバージョン … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Cafe ChocoTea’s LINE Latte Art

Posted on March 29, 2013 by

Cafe ChocoTea gets creative with its latte art with character designs from LINE: LINE is an international cross-network smartphone app for messaging and calling popular in Japan and also comes with free and paid sets of emoji stamps. On the Cafe ChocoTea … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Toyo Ito Wins Pritzker Prize 2013

Posted on March 22, 2013 by

Japanese architect Toyo Ito has been named as the 2013 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Read the announcement and see a visual overview of his life’s work, including the Sendai Mediatheque library (which survived the 2011 earthquake), on Dezeen. … Continue reading →

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