Article: “School for Takarazuka Revue trainees abolishes harassment-like rules.” Japan Times. Excerpt: “KOBE – The school training teenage girls to become actresses in the Takarazuka Revue, Japan’s famed all-female musical theater troupe, has abolished absurd and silly rules observed for decades by students, including bowing to trains that might be carrying Read more…
Iroha is an older Japanese poem with deep connections to Japanese culture and religion. There are a number of different versions – the original cannot be read by the vast majority of modern Japanese readers. It has been translated in a number of languages but the translations lose much of Read more…
Article : “Masked artist makes sticky issue out of radiation in Japan” “Known as 281 Antinuke, Japan’s answer to Banksy has covered Tokyo streets in images depicting politicians as vampires and children being shielded from radioactive rain to highlight the consequences of a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant after Read more…
Text: Extract from “Young Japan priests try to breathe life into fading Buddhism.” Religious News Service. “TOKYO (AP) — Buddhism suffers from a gloomy image in Japan. It is so closely linked to death — funerals, graves and memorial rituals in which priests chant sutras based on Chinese rendering of Sanskrit Read more…
Text: “Don’t criticize government or TEPCO, guides in Fukushima told.” Shoko Rikimaru and Shinichi Sekine / The Asahi Shimbun. “Tour guides are bristling at instructions not to criticize the central government or Tokyo Electric Power Co. when speaking to visitors at a recently opened memorial museum to the 2011 triple meltdown at the Read more…
Text: “Don’t criticize government or TEPCO, guides in Fukushima told.” Shoko Rikimaru and Shinichi Sekine / The Asahi Shimbun. “Tour guides are bristling at instructions not to criticize the central government or Tokyo Electric Power Co. when speaking to visitors at a recently opened memorial museum to the 2011 triple meltdown at the Read more…
Ishigaki Rin’s poem “Gake (Cliff)” in translation: May 2021 prescribed title #6 works well with RLEs in the arts since the creation of works of art and their interpretation is easily affected by bias. The poet’s choice in topics (e.g. WWII, Japan, gender) are to some extent a result of Read more…
Ishigaki Rin’s poem “Gake (Cliff)” in translation: The focus of May 2021 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #3 RLE is labels and this poem is a good match. Consider all of the ways that labels are applied to types of art, types of artistic technique, to events in history, and see Read more…
Iroha is an older Japanese poem with deep connections to Japanese culture and religion. There are a number of different versions – the original cannot be read by the vast majority of modern Japanese readers. It has been translated in a number of languages but the translations lose much of Read more…
Marketing research shows that soft drinks with “diet” in the name are not that popular with male consumers because they associate the word with food / drinks for women. The “Wild Health” Coca Cola ad (starring Japanese singer Namie Amuro) seems to be aimed more at Japanese men. This ad, Read more…