BURA TORA

Japanese Karaoke Songs

March 18, 2019, Posted by : James

Of the few Japanese words that have made it into the English vernacular, "Karaoke", in close competition with "sushi" and "Nintendo", is likely the most widely known. While you may know exactly what English songs you prefer to sing, it's often a surprise to many first time visitors to Japan that Japan has a vast sea of songs that every Japanese person knows. ...

Bomb-ass Niigata Rice

August 08, 2018, Posted by : James

One luxury afforded the Japan resident is the opportunity to become a rice snob. An argument could certainly be made for the benefits of focusing one's snobbery on sake, or another rice-based alcohol, but I fancy myself a contrarian. For the last few years, i've been ordering nothing but 5 kg sacks of rice from a place called  辰巳屋米店 (Tatsumi-ya Kome-ten)  in Niigata. If you're ...

Making moves

June 12, 2018, Posted by : James

I was eating a family-sized tub of ice cream the other day, and it occurred to me that Japanese families eat less than I do as an individual. A brief sense of shame swept over me, but I continued, brazenly, with the delicious task at hand. How do people manage to keep eating stir-fry and miso soup when it's 99% humidity out and literally 95 degrees out? I pondered this whilst ...

Japan and IT

April 24, 2018, Posted by : James

Many people think that Japan is a high tech and hyper-modern society.

Those people are wrong.

Those people have probably never lived here, because those people are misguided.

If you see pictures of rock-a-billy dancers in Yoyogi park, crazy lolita outfits on girls in harajuku, and fish still moving ...

Finding a job in Japan

March 29, 2018, Posted by : James

It's sakura season in Tokyo this week. Colorful bunches of sakura flowers blossom on the trees, giving normally level-headed Tokyo-ites a reason to gather their friends for picnics and drinking at any park that isn't already overrun with people.

I had a proud tradition for the last 7 or 8 springs of going to several "hanami" parties, which literally means flower ...