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Akita in The New York Times

Recently, The New York Times posted an extensive article about a local Kakunodate artist who is working on selling his products not only locally but also internationally. The article profiles the artist, his business, and his plans to expand to the international market. A Japanese Craft Founded on Wild Cherry Trees

The Top 25 Reverse Culture Shocks

The thoughts of a third-year ALT upon returning to the American South. //By Ashley Hinkleman// Reverse Culture Shock #1: Why is everyone speaking English? Reverse Culture Shock #2: Why does no one understand me when I speak Japanese? I tried to explain a game to my four-year-old niece, and when she didn’t understand, I started explaining … Continue reading →

Photos: ARRIVAL

Bus Stop Love

//By Jessie Fast// Sometimes, on the 4:15 bus back to Akita from Araya, the bus pulls over for a young man and an old woman at a particular bus stop in front of a white school. More accurately, I suppose, the bus pulls over for the old woman only, because the young man never gets on … Continue reading →

Too Tall for Japan

// By Christina Gunning // Thursday started out like all the other days this week. It’s my first official week of class at the junior high so every lesson centers on, well, me. I have my fancy powerpoint with all the pictures of my family and my hometown. By now, I’ve got my confidence up, … Continue reading →

Fighting to Understand Tohoku

// By Jessie Fast // I came to Japan in July 2011, about four months after the East Japan Earthquake. We had been warned that electricity use had been cut in an attempt to compensate for the shortages in the northeast, and the Tokyo nightscape was scattered with patches of darkness where signs hung unlit, the … Continue reading →

Scenic Day Tour in the Land of the Namahage

// By Jessie Fast // When people talk about visiting Akita, I am often torn about what it is I should be suggesting they do. See some rice fields? Senshu Park? If Akita is not in festival season, my first thoughts are often that there is little to do or see to impress a first-timer, … Continue reading →

Snow Country and the Wildness of Words

// By Jessie Fast // Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968, mostly as a result of his novel, Snow Country. Called Yukiguni in Japanese, it is the subtly portrayed account of a businessman who visits a hot spring town in winter and his relationships with a popular geisha there and a … Continue reading →

Photos: BEGINNING

Rescued by Monks: My First Experience with Zen Meditation

// by Gavin Fisher // “Hello,” said the burly Japanese man standing in front of me. “Are you interested in Zen meditation?” It was one of my first weeks teaching at an elementary school out in the countryside in Yashima, a small town on the outskirts of Yurihonjo. I was in a field near the … Continue reading →