Gambling. Dopamine.Sex. Drugs. Art. X-mas plans in Japan?
My favorite object of art was “Flight, Flee, Freeze.” Those are the three primary reactions we have to fear. There are objects of fear such as a spider and the…
Facebook Is Stalking You, Baby. (Notes From The Uncanny Valley, Japan)
There's a phenomenon in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence known as the "uncanny valley" hypothesis, which asserts that when computers and objects look or act very much like…
Bamiyan, The Destroyed Buddha Images & Meditations on Art
You see, the Japanese are sometimes called the world's great antiquarians. And they can trace their own tradition of Buddhist sculpture back to Bamiyan. So they --like many people-- find…
“The name is Bond. Japan Bond.” Abe returns as Agent .007 in “Yenwrecker”
"The name is Bond. Japan Bond." Shinzo Abe returns as the economic death-dealing agent .007 in a new action thriller that has all the economists shaking. Will he be able…
The Ghosts of Sony
In contrast to the Nakayama store, which is almost a Sony graveyard, at the Sony Building, located in Ginza--once the most expensive and luxurious area in Tokyo-- the Sony Show…
The Town of Living Buddha Statues (仏像のまち) High School, Buddhist Iconography, Magic &Teen Love
It's the story of Sorato, a high school student who's deceased father was a sculptor of Buddhist images (仏師/busshi）and seems to have passed his unusual talent on to poor Sorato-kun.…
Everything I Ever Needed To Know In Life I Learned From the Yakuza or The Cops That Kick Their Ass in 7 Lessons
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You can tell more about a man by his enemies than you can by his friends. A man with no enemies is…
Little Mermaids & Little Fingers: An illustrated yakuza tale
The next time I ran into Shira she told me I shouldn't expect to see Shin again. He probably wasn't coming back. "Not coming back?" I asked puzzled. "You don't…
Yakuza Comix #2: The Buck Stops With The Boss
In 2008 revisions were made to the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law (暴力団対策法) which made it possible to hold organized crime bosses responsible for the actions of their underlings in civil…
Yasukuni Shrine: The Nation’s Pacifying Shrine That Angers Other Nations
Yasukuni Shrine. 靖国神社. 靖 (Yasu) means "peaceful" "国" (Kuni) means "Nation". "神社" (Jinja) means "Shrine." The Shrine of The Peaceful Nation. And it's true, Japan is now a peaceful nation,…