Category: Japan
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Writing macrons on macOS and iPadOS
This is a quick tutorial on how to easily type macrons on Apple devices with a hardware keyboard. The onscreen keyboard on the iPad makes this easy, but not when you are using an external hardware keyboard. This will be particularly relevant to academics needing to write Japanese terms in rōmaji. I searched the web…
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Summer Break
It is the last day of summer break. The kids’ school here on Iki had a 3 week summer holiday, shortened by the school missed in April due to coronavirus measures. Although our break was shorted by a couple of weeks, we are lucky. Some schools only got 9 days. We are also lucky to…
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The statues of Koganemaru Ikuhisa
In 1971 a surprising archeological discovery was made on Iki island: the remains of a stegadon (in fact, the remains of two). While mammoths and mastodons have shaggy hair, stegadons have hide like modern elephants and their tusks go outward, which also is apparently different than other prehistoric elephants. Here is a picture of me…
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75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki
The 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb was a couple of days ago. The second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki 75 years ago today, on 9 August 1945 at 11:02. I was in Nagasaki a couple of weeks ago and stopped at the hypocenter monument pictured above. The black monolith points up where at 500…
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Remote island logistics: getting on and off Iki
The term ritō means “remote island.” Japan has lots of remote islands. When living on islands like this there are some things you need to take account of such as transportation to and from the island. Iki Island has three main ways to get on and off the island: Jetfoil: this is the high speed…
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When the Japanese became “yellow”
Inspired by his recent interview in Japan on the Record I sought out some of Professor John G. Russell’s work on race in Japan. In his analysis on the Nissin whitewash scandal last year, this extraordinary paragraph: Even though the Japanese have been seen to whitewash themselves, it hasn’t been simply a matter of skin…
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Japan on the Record: Japan and Blackness
Last year I discovered the excellent UBC Meiji at 150 Podcast. I was late to the discovery, but enjoyed working through the 120 episode backlog. Since then the host of the show, Dr. Tristan Grunow of Yale University, has gone on to create Japan On the Record, a show where scholars of Japan can share…
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Kyushu’s economic contribution to Japan
Kyushu is one of the 5 major regions of Japan consisting of 7 prefectures making up about 10% of the Japanese population. It is known as being a much more relaxed place than Tokyo, with great weather and more space. This attracts people who are looking for more worklife balance. Natives of Kyushu that go…
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Sakyōbana, crumbling pillar of Heaven
In my last post I explained about the “Pillars of Heaven”, the eight objects sent down by the gods to prevent Iki island from floating around the Sea of Japan at its own free will. Other than Saruiwa the Monkey Rock, most have crumbled into the sea. Of the remaining pillars, my favourite is Sakyōbana,…
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Monkey Rock, a pillar of heaven
On the eastern side of Iki, jutting 45 meters out of the ocean is a giant rock formation, somewhat covered in moss-like greenery. From a certain angle the rocks look uncannily like a massive gorilla, solemnly looking out over a nearby cliff. This is the treasure of Ikijima: Saruiwa 猿岩 or “Monkey Rock.” The Kojiki,…