Monthly Archives: September 2011

I Need A New Name

Well, the blog has been around for 2.5 years, and lately I’ve been thinking about a name-change. It started back on that excellent camping trip I had a month ago, which provided a much-needed perspective on things. Spending time in … Continue reading

Posted in General | 8 Comments

Nakae Chomin: The “Modern” Confucian

Switching gears, I was recently reading a great collection of essays in the book Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture, and the final essay in the book covered the life and thought of a Meiji-era Confucian scholar and journalist named Nakae Chomin … Continue reading

Posted in Confucius, Japan, Politics | 2 Comments

Little Girls are Funny

This is a photo I took in my daughter‘s room: On the right are some of her favorite books, featuring Disney, princesses, etc. The poster is of Matsumoto Jun from Arashi, her favorite celebrity. My wife got this from a … Continue reading

Posted in Family, Japan, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Understanding Women’s Fashion In Korea/Japan

I grew up in the Seattle area almost my entire life. Until recently, people here dressed like we’re all going camping, or at least doing something outdoors, but this was basically all I knew. It is the Pacific Northwest after … Continue reading

Posted in Fashion, Japan, Korea, Music, Travel | Leave a comment

Opportunity Mars Rover: still going…

Most people are familiar with the two Mars rovers that were launched a few years ago: Spirit and Opportunity. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Opportunity rover is still going after all these years. The rovers both … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, Buddhism, Religion, Science | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Honen says: Pay attention

(Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan) One last post for Ohigan.1 Lately I’ve been re-reading the book Honen The Buddhist Saint, and there’s one story in the that always gets my attention. Here I quote in full: Honen once said, “There … Continue reading

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Tendai Buddhism: a one-page summary

For Ohigan, I wanted to pass along this interesting article I read which summarizes Tendai Buddhism quite nicely in a single page, and touches about aspects of Japanese Buddhism in general. For most people not living in Japan, Zen and … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Religion | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Happy Belated 1300th Birthday, Nara

I am a bit embarrassed to write this so late, but in 2010, the city of Nara, Japan celebrated its 1300th anniversary. Nara was once known by the name of Heijōkyō (平城京). The humble city was modeled after the magnificent … Continue reading

Posted in Japan, Travel | 2 Comments

Fall Ohigan 2011

Hi all, As is the tradition every 6 months, I like to make a Buddhist post or two around Ohigan. Ohigan (お彼岸) is a holiday that falls on both Spring and Fall equinoxes, and is a time of gathering, paying … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Jodo Shu, Religion | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Typing Korean (and Japanese) in Linux

A while back, I wrote a post on typing Japanese in FreeBSD, but since I started learning the Korean language too, alongside Japanese, I decided to revisit the subject. The default method these days for inputting Japanese or Korean is … Continue reading

Posted in Bsd, Japanese, Korean, Language, Linux, Technology | Leave a comment