Tag Archives: fun link friday

Fun Link Friday: How To Count Anything In Japanese

Counters are one of the harder parts of Japanese to truly master. At a cafe, you order “二杯のコーヒーと一個のスコーン”; maybe you have 猫三匹 and 二人の姉妹 in your family. I actually just had a lengthy conversation about whether a rolled-up sweater was still 一枚 … Continue reading

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Fun Link Friday: Town Bells

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

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

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

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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Fun Link Friday: Tokyo’s “Shrinking” Building

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!

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

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: Toyo Ito Wins Pritzker Prize 2013

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

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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