Category Archives: culture

Aikido Report: The Black Belt

In this post I talk about how I achieved an Aikido black belt in only a few years, including some details on how I trained, what is required to get a black belt, and some thoughts about how the test went.

Anime Movie Review: Belle

Even though I no longer watch Anime as frequently as I did ten years ago, I still try to check out new series here and there. In particular, anime movies seem to have a much higher average satisfaction level, especially those from big production houses or directors (Studio Ghibli, Makoto Shinkai, etc.) Recently I decided… Read More »

Japanese Literature: Using Western letters as placeholders for names

Compared to English, Japanese has countless differences in how things are expressed, including major things like word order, particles, and levels of politeness. However, if you ponder things long enough, and do enough research, you can often find something similar in English, or at least a roughly equivalent way to express things, whether that is… Read More »