Held in Nanao, Ishikawa pref., every May, the Seihakusai Festival (青柏祭) features three enormous floats that are said to ward off evil monkeys. (There’s lots of good information in English on Experience Kanazawa.) The Noto region of Ishikawa is famous for its summer festivals, but they’re not just kiriko (huge lantern) festivals.
Behold the dekayama:
Posted in Festivals, Ishikawa, Photography, Rural Life | Tagged dekayama, festival, float, Ishikawa, japan, matsuri, May, Nanao, photography, Seihakusai, spring | 1 Comment »
Space ALC is one of my favorite online dictionaries, especially since it uses a lot of example sentences and words in context. The dictionary also has a huge database of English-language slang terms, both historical and modern, and as the dictionary is more directed at English-to-Japanese translation (read: Japanese speakers inputing English terms, including slang), sometimes the results I get are nothing short of hilarious. My other translator friends and I like to swap screenshots of some of the weirder terms we get, and so I wanted to share some of my favorites with you all.
Just a note: none of these entries is wrong; this is not Engrish. If I had to deal with the sheer amount of slang that English has as a non-native speaker, I would be glad to have a place that could explain what buck wild means. However, going from Japanese to English turns up a lot of results that have odd slang terms listed as the first entries, which is why I find it so funny.
Posted in Language, Translation | Tagged ALC, bilingual, dictionary, English slang, japanese, slang, Space ALC, strange translations, Translation | 11 Comments »
First of all, a bit of (old?) news from the entertainment world: Kanno Miho, who played Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in the film Ôoku: Eien, and Sakai Masato, who played Arikoto in the drama and Emonosuke in the film, registered their marriage on 2 April. おめでとうございます！May your work in excellent gender-based dramas lead to you happiness. (Sources: Oricon, Tokyo Hive)
Source: Oricon
Posted in Ôoku, Culture, Gender, Manga | Tagged alternate history, Arikoto, Aso Yumi, Ôoku: Tanjô, female sexuality, Gender, gender expression, genderswap, Gyokuei, Iemitsu, J-drama, Kasuga, Masakatsu, Matsudaira, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Oooku, Sakai Masato, samurai, shipping, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku | 1 Comment »
I’ve mentioned the precipitation of Ishikawa quite a few times on my photo posts. Even though it makes biking unpleasant and battling household mold a challenge in older homes, the constant rain in Ishikawa does make for a lush landscape.
Posted in Ishikawa, Photography | Tagged Buddhism, Buddhist temple, Ishikawa, japan, Natadera, photography, temple, Travel | Leave a Comment »
Mr Postman, do you have a letter for me?
A letter for me
From my own true love
Lost at sea
-The Decemberists – “From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)”
I wrote about Tôjinbô (東尋坊) once in 2009, when I went on a road trip to Fukui. (It seems like a million years ago.) I only posted one photo(!), so today I’ll share some from my return trip in March 2012.
The thing about living or traveling in Hokuriku is how moody the landscape seems, particularly in autumn and winter. Continue Reading »
Posted in Fukui, Photography | Tagged cliffs, Fukui, geography, japan, ocean, photography, pyroxene andesite, rock pillars, sea, Tojinbo, Travel | Leave a Comment »
Dove’s “Real Beauty” Campaign‘s latest attempt to engage consumers has gone viral, and you’ve likely seen some of the criticisms about it. The video “Real Beauty Sketches” depicts a group of women being asked to describe their physical appearance (faces) to an FBI profile artist who couldn’t see them; afterward, the women were described by strangers, including each other. The punchline is that the drawings on of the women based on their own descriptions are far less conventionally attractive than those based on others’ descriptions, and the tagline is “You’re More Beautiful Than You Think.”
Not buying it.
From Dove’s Youtube page:
Florence from Dove Beauty Real Sketches.
Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. [Ed: Where are your citations, Dove?] At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.
Several other writers have already taken the campaign to task. Continue Reading »
Posted in Advertisements, Gender, Visual Culture | Tagged advertisement, beauty product, collusion, culture, Dove, Dove Real Beauty Sketches, fail, feminism, intersectionality, patriarchy, sexism | 1 Comment »
While we did get a few spectacularly sunny days in Kanazawa for hanami, two cold fronts and storms rolled through during the two weeks of blooming. Kanazawa, moody as always.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography | Tagged cherry blossoms, cloudy, 花美, hanami, Jokichi Takamine, Kanazawa, sakura, spring, Takamine residence, 桜 | 3 Comments »
