About the Author
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the Internets a better place. Thanks for reading!
Monthly Archives: October 2009
Earless Hoichi: a Japanese scary story
Our final scary story by famous Irish author Yakumo Koizumi is also one of my favorites: Mimi nashi hōichi (耳なし芳一) or “Earless Hoichi”. Actually, to be precise, this is Hearn’s retelling of the story, which appears in several versions in … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japanese, Literature
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The Phantom Waterfall: a Japanese scary story
Continuing the theme this week, another famous story by <a href="Yakumo Koizumi, also known as Lafcadio Hearn, is the story of yūrei daki (幽霊滝), the “Phantom Waterfall”. I couldn’t find an English version I could post on the blog, so … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Literature
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Mujina: a Japanese scary story
In the spirit of Halloween, let me share a famous scary story by Yakumo Koizumi, known outside of Japan as the Irish author, Lafcadio Hearn.1 I originally read this story in White Rabbit Press’s Graded Reader Series. The story, called … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Literature
6 Comments
News from the Front, Oct. 23rd 2009
Hello, This is off-schedule, but a nice chance to take a break and talk about sundry things: The family and I are settling down in the US after being here for more than a month. I never imagined I would … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Literature, Zen
8 Comments
Example Shingon Buddhist Service
Shingon Buddhism is a topic of some interest among Buddhists in the West, but Shingon temples are quite rare here. There is a nice, small temple here in Seattle, but most westerners haven’t any idea what goes on in a … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Shingon
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Illness-curing stone in Japan
Something kind of interesting I wanted to pass along. One time I was watching the online Japanese TV channel Seebit TV, which is localized in Hyogo Prefecture,1 and they had a small segment about a famous stone that could cure … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Travel
7 Comments
Aomori dialect
Recently, before I left Ireland to move back to the US, I was finishing up the Culture Class series on Japanesepod101.com. Among the later lessons in that series was a coverage of the infamous Aomori Dialect, which is a well-known … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Japanese, JLPT
11 Comments
A look at Lady Murasaki’s Diary, part 2: religion
In our last episode, part 1, we took a brief look at Lady Murasaki’s Diary and some of her thought processes at the time. This time around, I wanted to explore the subject of religion in Heian-era Japan, which was … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japanese, Literature, Shingon, Shinto, Tendai
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Rabbit on the Moon!
This subject was inspired by a few unrelated events that converged around the same time. First, I brought up the subject recently at the end of another post. Second, here in Seattle the Chinese community recently celebrated the Mid-Autumn Harvest … Continue reading
Posted in Japan
6 Comments
The Story of Umezu Chube
The story of Umezu Chube, or umezu chūbē no hanashi (梅津忠兵衛の話), is a popular story by the famous Irish author in Japan, Yakumo Koizumi (Lafcadio Hearn is his real name). I read this story recently through the White Rabbit Press … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Literature, Religion, Shinto
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