SHIYOU GA NAI (SHOGANAI) IT AIN’T WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE

BY Mark Lavers December 30th, 2011 • 0 COMMENTS
TAGGED: •

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Robert McCloskey My first encounter with the word “shoganai” came in a conversation involving a Welshman, 3 Japanese ladies and me. When t ...

To Drive, Or Not To Drive

BY Mark H. Campbell December 30th, 2011 • 0 COMMENTS
TAGGED: • • •

Only after a few months of arriving in Japan, I started to make enquiries about how to get my Japanese driving licence. I didn’t know Hirokoji Dori from Nishiki Dori, but I thought it would be a good thing to have. To my delight, I discovered that for Brits and a few other natio ...

Revisiting Nadeshiko

BY Mark Lavers October 5th, 2011 • 0 COMMENTS
TAGGED: • •

The victory by the Japanese National Woman’s Soccer team at the woman’s World Cup captured the world’s attention for a number of different reasons. First, of course, was the obvious fact that the team was the overwhelming underdog throughout; first in their quarter-final victo ...

Gaman – Japanese patience and the people of Tohoku

BY Mark Lavers August 1st, 2011 • 0 COMMENTS
TAGGED: •

The strong manly ones in life are those who understand the meaning of the word patience. Patience means restraining one’s inclinations. There are seven emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate, and if a man does not give way to these he can be called patie ...