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Meta
Category Archives: World
English Undergrad Programmes in Japan
Toudai’s Akamon, circa 2008 Once in a while, people tell me that they want to study in Japan. Most of the time, they speak no Japanese. Fortunately for these people, the Japanese government has been actively pushing a programme that … Continue reading
Posted in World
Tagged college, education, japan, mext, nagoya university, university of tokyo, waseda university
14 Comments
Tohoku Pacific Earthquake
Sendai, Miyagi prefecture (Kyodo News/Associated Press) I don’t normally like to write about breaking news because generally I find that I have neither the first-hand expertise nor the retrospective hindsight to comment on most real-time events non-trivial. The story would … Continue reading
WikiLeaks
(Sauce) “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes” WikiLeaks may turn out to be the real-life Laughing Man. Whether as a hero or villain, it has already secured a spot in history with … Continue reading
Posted in Rant, World
Tagged anarchism, democracy, free speech, laughing man, politics, wikileaks
16 Comments
Tokyo Vice
The author holding his book in front of a fuuzoku annaijo Like any modern metropolis, Tokyo’s glittering skylines carefully conceal a more sinister side from the casual observations of an outsider. And like most other things Japan, organized crime in … Continue reading
Dreams are not for Asia
There’s a pretty good essay on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong‘s call for young Singaporeans to “dare to dream” over at The Online Citizen. The gist of it is that this statement is highly ironic when interpreted against the realities … Continue reading
Posted in Rant, World
Tagged consumerism, dreams, education, meritocracy, singapore, society
59 Comments
Jury Trial in Japan
Those of you who played the 4th Ace Attorney (逆転è£åˆ¤) game would be aware of the new jury system being implemented in Japan, first proposed in cabinet review committee in 2001 and subsequently passed into law in 2004. After five … Continue reading
Israeli Conscription
Image shameless stolen from Rachel Papo’s gallery Sometimes diving around in the polluted ocean of Digg nets you a rare surviving coral or two. The frequency of this rare occurrence is inversely proportional to Digg’s user base. And so the … Continue reading
Oversensitive Religion
Blasphemlicious JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, an anime series based on a manga by the same name, is currently under fire from the Middle East for having a villain in the show read the Holy Koran while plotting the death of the … Continue reading
Japan Fingerprinting Commences
Japan’s new amended immigration laws (改æ£å…¥ç®¡æ³•) kicked in today, making it the second country in the world after USA to implement a compulsory fingerprinting system for foreign visitors. Image shamelessly stolen from Stippy.com This is a particularly unpleasant development in … Continue reading
Why save dolphins?
I love dolphins as much as the next guy, but I really don’t see why they deserve the special attention that the feel-good self-proclaimed activists like to give them. Red Alert 2 nostalgia I am sure you have all heard … Continue reading
Independence Day
US Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. It’s time for another rant that is completely unrelated to the theme of this blog because I just felt like it. Fourth of July just ended a few hours ago for the … Continue reading