Welcome to Black Tokyo!  

The simple truth has become a global cliche: It is hard to get a bad meal in Tokyo. Whether you’re eating humble noodles or a rarefiedkaiseki banquet, it’s likely to be more than just satisfactory — there’s a good chance it will be prepared with flavor and flair.

Proof’s in the pot: At Maru in Aoyama, the rice course, cooked in dark-brown heavy clay pots, is hardly an afterthought — it’s the star of the meal. ROBBIE SWINNERTON PHOTOS

That said, it still remains frustratingly difficult to access high-level Japanese …

The election of non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council by the UN General Assembly will take place on Oct. 17. Japan is a candidate for the Asia seat, but it is pitted against Iran, a country that has been hit with a sanction resolution by the UNSC for its nuclear issue. Japan, which wants to become a permanent Council member in the future, is bent winning this seat, with a diplomatic source confiding, “Victory is assured. It will be decided in the first round.” Although Japan is favored …

The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine Ohio made yesterday a port call at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, mainly to allow its 155 crewmembers to rest. This is the first time for a submarine that can carry 150 cruise missiles and can dispatch special-operations troops to enter a Japanese port.
The 18,750-ton Ohio was commissioned in 1981. It was re-commissioned in 2006 after undergoing remodeling due to the post-Cold War nuclear reduction and the U.S. military’s strategic shift for the war on terror.
It is difficult to distinguish the Ohio, …

View this Post in:

View the podcast below:

View this Post in:

According to statistics released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, one out of every seven Japanese children under 17 lives in poverty.
Poverty has long been known to adversely effect children’s health and education, but there also are concerns now that growing up in poverty tends to lock children into a cycle of poverty that leaves them economically disadvantaged all their lives.
A 20-year-old woman, who works for a private organization in the Kanto region, recalled that until she entered a foster home in her later years of primary school, …

 

I previously blogged about the Japanese Self Defense Force… 

It’s 2008 and Japan has the second strongest military force in Asia, continues to spend 1 percent of its GDP on defense, has acquired some pretty neat military toys (and sells a few using a broad interpretation of “aid”), has redeployed newer fighter aircraft to its base in Okinawa, wants to acquire the F-22 Raptor, and will have a few helicopter “carriers” that will allow the Self-Defense Forces to project their “defense” closer to China.” Click here for more.

…and on Article 9 …

I learned two new terms today, “Japinos and Japayuki.” Thank goodness that I will never use them! Here is a follow-up to a few stories that I previously blogged on abandoned families in Japan…
Some 70,000 Filipinos live in Japan, most working as entertainers. An estimated 50,000 (some groups put the number as high as 100,000) Japanese-Filipino children — known as “Japinos” — live in the Philippines, often abandoned or orphaned by their fathers after liaisons with Filipino women, who in most cases worked as entertainers in Japan, said Akira Oka, head …

View this Post in:

View this Post in:

 

View this Post in:

You can now purchase Black Tokyo promotional items on Cafe Press. Please click the BT Shop link under the banner or here to browse and order. Thank you for your continued support!
View this Post in:

Part 16: Safe?! No I am not!
5-minutes before the beginning of the class and I am still unable to find one of the teachers. I had assumed that she was in homeroom, the bathroom or late but i could be mistaken. I decide to wait in the class. I double check my printed schedule and find the class (making sure to walk by all the other classes in case she’s in one of them), but she is not there. The science teacher is there…and he doesn’t speak English.
After enlisting the …

Part 15: One of the more annoying situations that the foreign English teacher can find himself in is being stuck between a disorganized company and an even less organized school.
I rotate between schools, with the end effect being that I have the schedule for the next school sent to me before I’m scheduled to go there. This (for obvious reasons) is to provide me with enough time to plan my lessons before I get to the school..
Sounds great doesn’t it? Flawless in it’s simplicity…
In actuality this seldom happens.
In the past …

OSAKA — With job signs stuck to their vans’ windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan’s largest day labor market here recently.

Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, had good jobs during Japan’s economic boom but now works sporadically.

By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood’s flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men.
A sign on one blue van, barely legible in the twilight, …

 

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A Japanese businessman hanged himself in a Los Angeles jailcell where he was awaiting trial for plotting his wife’s murder here in 1981, prosecutors said Saturday.
Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, killed himself Friday night just hours after arriving in Los Angeles in the custody of authorities that had him extradited to face criminal charges here.
Chief of Los Angeles police detectives Charles Beck said Miura used a piece of shirt to hang himself after a jailer checked on him at 9:45 pm Friday (0445 GMT Saturday). Miura was alone in his cell.
An …

Part 14: The new semester is in full swing and naturally it almost seems like taking a vacation was a bad idea; now I have to slowly work myself back up to the level of intensity and tolerance that I was at prior to my vacation. 

With that said, I’d like to discuss another aspect of teaching English in Japan - namely, some of the companies that hire the teachers. As most of you probably know, the wage case against NOVA and it’s obviously corrupt president, Nozomu Sahashi, was dropped. 

Kamen Hanya wrote: Sahashi deserves punishment to the …

Many BT’er know that I love comedy and have a pretty thick skin but I just received an email/rant asking me why I took umbrage to the Tunnels and DJ Ozuma’s Yajima Beauty Salon CM campaign and follow-up PR stunt. You can read my previous posts on the subject but the bottom line is that I am tired of having certain performers or corporations in Japan continue with their BS ways of trying to dis’ on the DL. Maybe they think that no one will complain about it.
Japan Sugoi reports on Japanese …

Tunnels and DJ Ozuma are back for more shadiness but I guess one way to revive a career is to do something out of the box or attempt to push the buttons of others. Click here for the original story on Yajima Beauty Salon. It may help to familiarize yourself with this CM before reading the post below. 
Many thanks to James at Japan Probe for posting this:
“Fuji TV has shown me that Yajima Beauty Salon, the comedy group that impersonates black women from Nevada, can do more than just sing. A clip from …

The Obama Song (World of Friends): Japan-based American musical artists created and performed this song to celebrate Senator Obama’s historic candidacy and to inspire us all to change the world.
Bridges for Obama: American supporters of US Senator Barack Obama have been staging rallies abroad at world-famous bridges to show support for the Democratic presidential candidate and his pledge to span old political divisions.
Bridges for Obama created and ignited by Meredith Wheeler, Democrats Abroad France.
The Obama Song (World of Friends) written by: Garrison Davis
Performed by Change to Change (much love to y’all):

Brenda Vaughn
Kaleb James
Melodie …

Part 13: Guava Jelly writes: “Great stories everyone. I am truly enjoying this thread. I taught in a public jhs in rural japan several years ago (on Sado ga shima). 4 of the 5 schools I rotated through were amazing. The students were very sweet and respectful but one was horrific. 
The first day I got there the students weren’t impressed one bit that I was the shiny, happy, new foreign teacher. One girl chased a boy around the classroom with scissors. One little boy passed me in the hallway during …

Japan Sugoi writes:
“If you live in Japan or are learning Japanese, one thing you’ll pick up very quickly is theJapanese fondness and common usage of onomatopoeia. This is especially true if you are a manga comics reader. In English, as in Japanese, onomatopoetic words are those that imitate natural sounds. In Japanese, however, there are literally hundreds of such words, and they are used much more frequently than in English. Words that represent actual sounds (e.g., animal noises) are called giseigo e.g.
Frog Croaking: English, ribbet ribbet, Japanese, kero kero 
Dog Barking: English, woof woof, Japanese, wan wan 
Cat Meowing: English, meow, Japanese, nya nya
In addition, Japanese recognizes two additional types of onomatopoeia: one that basically suggests states of …

 
 
 
 
 
Do they care about English?
Blokhar writes: Well I must say it is very interesting and a sigh of relief to hear stories that I myself experience.
I also work in a JHS. I have been doing this for 4 years. Its sucks but it gets the bills paid and enough to have fun with my family. 
Seriously, this country does not give a damn about English but they put up the biggest front. Make it an elective and see the results sky rocket. 
I don’t have so much time to write now, but …

My early feelings of disdain for the school were cemented when one of the Japanese teachers rushed out to meet me and then had me wait outside while the staff meeting was in progress. I took this to mean that the staff strictly adhered to the rules and that I would probably be stuck here until the time stated on my contract.
The interesting thing about being the foreign English teacher in a Japanese public school: they fully expect you to arrive quite early and stay late. Your contract clearly states …

Prospective adopting parents who are current or former residents of Japan and are adopting children from countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) need to be aware that Japan does not have a child abuse registry.
The Hague Adoption Convention went into effect in the U.S. in April 2008.  Japan is not a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention; however, U.S. citizens who are adopting children from Hague countries (including China and the Philippines) need a …