joekyo

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[joekyo]

Don't mention the war

Don't mention the war! Japan and Russia still at loggerheads

The Second World War is still raging.

Well bubbling along in another island dispute concerning the Kuril island chain; a grouping of volcanic islands that sit in-between Japan’s northern Hokkaido and Russian Kamchatka.

The Kuril Islands form the top part of the pacific RING OF FIRE!  The southern most mere kilometres from Hokkaido the northern most a gnats cock off of Kamchatka. The islands are…

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[joekyo]

Today's 日本語

Even the best marksmen miss. #japanese

猿も木から落ちる (さる も き から おちる）

You can have done something a thousand times. Easily mastering it with your eyes closed, hands behind back, spinning plates.

Go to impress someone with it and mess it up so royally you have to move town, change your name, burn your finger prints off with battery acid.

Don’t Worry, as the old saying goes “even monkeys fall from trees”

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[joekyo]

The Japanese Red Army

There are a few things that come to mind when one thinks of Japan; sushi, geisha, tea ceremony, busy street crossings, hard-line communist terrorists.

‘What?!’ You might say, ‘clearly Joekyo you are mistaken’

Well The Japanese Red Army is here to mess your stereotypes up.

Founded in 1971 by Fusako Shigenobu, the JRA was dedicated to overthrowing the Japanese government and the monarchy…

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[joekyo]

Today's 日本語

Relieving stress with untranslatable Japanese #languages

めんどくさい – mendokusai

It’s Tuesday morning. The sound of your alarm pierces through the dull patter of rain at the window. The grey sky as dark and ominous as your mood. dragging yourself from the warmth of your bed you fumble for phone. AHHHH mendokusai.

It’s Friday afternoon with every passing second you can feel the weekend ahead of you, just when it seems you have a handle on the week, the…

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[joekyo]

The Lady Murasaki and the First Modern Novel

The mother of the modern novel #japan #herstory #badasswomen

“Pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly, too fond of her tales, haughty, prone to versifying, disdainful, cantankerous, scornful” and the mother of the modern novel.

Lady Murasaki, was a courtier at the Heian court at the end of the first millennium. She wrote the massively influential The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogartari); a novel that is still considered one of the most important…

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[joekyo]

Today's 日本語

The transient beauty of nature #Japan #Language

わびさび wabi sabi

Wabi sabi represents the transient nature of beauty; a beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.

The aesthetic comes from the Buhddist Three Marks of Existence (三法印 sanbōin), impermanence, suffering and emptiness.

Many Japanese arts are in the wabi-sabi style. Pottery that is not quite symmetrical, The stark lines of ikebana flower arrangement and the rough rustic edges…

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[joekyo]

Today's 日本語

上げ劣り- ageotori

We’ve all been there. Hair is lacklustre, limply hanging from your head, a constant reminder of the rut you’ve been stuck in. The style once perfect has now grown ratty, no amount of styling or primping could restore it to its once former glory of a month ago.

Confidence in tatters and your very self questioned, you make your way to the salon. Hopes of follicular glory dance…

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[joekyo]

A Small Step In The Right Direction

A Small Step In The Right Direction - Shibuya to offer 'same-sex marriage7 certificates.

The LGBT community lives in a bizarre hinterland in Japan. The public face of the community being its outspoken, popular ‘new-half’ presenters such as  Haruna Ai and Matsuko Deluxe and the private side of mass denial and FINGERS IN EARS LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!

Matsuko Deluxe

There is a general consensus that although homosexuality is legal, lets not talk about such things around the dinner table please…

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[joekyo]

Takarazuka Revue - The Female Kabuki

The Takarazuka Revue, Lesbianism, feminism and the patriarchy in Japan's all-girl theatre.

When one thinks of Japanese theatre, Noh and Kabuki instantly spring to mind. The long drawn-out process of a Noh dance characterised by their static masks reminiscent of a Greek tragedy and the music like speech of Kubuki with its stylised makeup and garish costumes.

Kabuki is still a cultural sausage fest, no women allowed and Noh only (begrudgingly) allowed female performers in after most of…

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[joekyo]

Today's 日本語

the beauty of light through trees

木漏れ日　komorebi

The most beautiful image  of Japan is majestic bamboo forests, moss covered stone lanterns, primordial glistening paths. the shoots swaying gently in a spring breeze the floor below dappled in beams of visible sunlight. A bird twitters, the bamboo creaks, a babbling stream you feel at one with the natural world, all at once timeless and infinite.

Japan, land of the incomprehensibly…

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[instagram]

Explore Japan’s Abandoned “Battleship Island” on Instagram

For more photos and videos from Hashima Island, explore the 端島 (軍艦島) Hashima (Gunkanzima) location page.

During Japan’s industrialization period in 1890, the company Mitsubishi purchased Hashima (端島), a small island off the southwestern coast of Japan, as a mining site for undersea coal repositories. As the industry expanded, the island’s population of workers and their families grew, leading Mitsubishi to create large concrete apartment blocks to house them. When viewed from afar, the silhouettes of the apartments on the island resemble a 1920s imperial battleship, earning Hashima its nickname, “Battleship Island” (軍艦島).

In the 1960s petroleum came to replace coal as a dominant fuel source in Japan, and in 1974 the mine was closed. With no industry to support it, the island was quickly abandoned and has remained that way ever since. The eerie atmosphere and well-preserved concrete structures continue to spark the imagination of photographers and filmmakers alike, most recently serving as the inspiration for the villain Silva’s island lair in the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall.

Though travel to the island is largely restricted for safety reasons, a few intrepid Instagrammers have made the voyage to explore and document the forgotten city.

[joekyo]

Today Sakurajima, Kagoshima prefecture erupted for the 500th time this year. It was the volatile volcano's highest recorded eruption, the smoke column reached 5000m.

[instagram]

Visiting Japan’s Rabbit Island

Want to see more photos and videos? Check out the 大久野島 and Okunoshima location pages.

The small island of Ōkunoshima (大久野島) in the Inland Sea of Japan is famous for two things: poison gas and bunnies. In 1925, the Imperial Japanese Army started a secret program to develop chemical weapons in defiance of the Geneva Protocol. They built a gas plant on the island four years later that made mustard gas. Ōkunoshima was chosen for its isolation and to keep the plant secret the island was even removed from some maps.

After the war, the poison was disposed of and the laboratory animals—rabbits—were set loose. Without any predators on the island, the bunny population exploded, and now the island is full of tame rabbits that visiting Instagrammers have captured with videos and photos.

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[joekyo]

Did Tumblr messed up or you actually took that long to reply to months old PM? No it's not even if she moved to Fukuoka. She maintained her regular variety spot on Waratte so she was still working in Tokyo. She was still on a bunch of variety shows, if anything her varieties double because she got exposure in Tokyo and Fukuoka. Over dozen of flower bouquets were send to her first day at HKT theater, even one from big company like Softbank. How is that a "demotion"? People need to stop with that

Chill out dude.