Category Archives: fun links

Fun Link Friday: Tokyo’s “Shrinking” Building

Posted on April 19, 2013 by LM

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 Travis

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 LM

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 LM

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 LM

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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Fun Link Friday: Photos of the Sakurajima Eruption

Posted on March 15, 2013 by LM

NASA’s “Astronomy Picture of the Day” for March 11 was one of Martin Rietze’s photos of the Feb. 21-26 eruption of Sakurajima, an active volcano in Kagoshima. For the original photo set, which includes photos of pyroclastic eruptions as well, … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: A Unique White Day Gift

Posted on March 8, 2013 by LM

White Day is March 14, and if you owe a special someone a return-gift for Valentine’s Day, you may want to check out Spoon & Tamago‘s post on FabCafe’s personalized gummy candies: After hosting their highly successful Valentine’s Day event in which ladies … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: “How the heck is nori made?”

Posted on March 1, 2013 by LM

My FLFs are always about food, aren’t they? At the risk of being a bit one-note: Alice Gordenker of The Japan Times‘ “So What the Heck Is That” column has a new article in JT as well as a great … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: The Famous Foods Of Every Japanese Prefecture

Posted on February 22, 2013 by LM

Every region in Japan is famous for local food. One might even say that Japan is famous for being famous for food! Koichi on Tofugu has collected three famous foods from each prefecture from Hokkaido to Okinawa in this two-part … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Amezaiku Candy Sculpting

Posted on February 15, 2013 by LM

Today’s fun link is a video featuring the craft of amezaiku, or candy-sculpting, featured on Iromegane as part of the blog’s feature on shokunin, craftspeople. Juji Kurihara writes, Today’s Shokunin (職人/ maestro) is a candy craftsman. 飴細工 (Amezaiku / candy sculpting) came to Japan in Heian period (平安時代/794-1192), precisely in … Continue reading →

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