The existing systems of romanizing Japanese are unsatisfactory: Hepburn doesn't map directly to kana, Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki's pronunciation is not obvious to non-natives (the primary users of rōmaji), waapuro is an anything-goes mess, and JSL is just odd. So, I've come up with my own solution, that I believe incorporates the best aspects of ( Read more... )

Should've done this back on the 14th, but oh well...

So, yeah, I saw Howl's Moving Castle. And I really enjoyed it. It's not as good as Spirited Away, I thought, but still definitely worth watching. The great animation and beautiful visuals you'd expect from a Miyazaki production. Unfortunately, the story isn't all that cohesive ( Read more... )

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ぬるぽ！

Found this through Neil Gaiman's blog (well, the officialgaiman LJ RSS feed specifically): photos of an abandoned amusement park. (Page is in Japanese but it hardly matters)

The rusted rollercoaster tracks sticking up out of the fog have a creepy, skeletal quality.

Today I went to the Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco, and had a grand old time. It's a big street fair, on three streets. They had a band playing at a stage on one end, and let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've seen a bunch of old Japanese ladies in traditional kimono and geisha makeup dancing to "She's a Brick House". ( Read more... )

I've just discovered (in the Christopher Columbus sense, as in other people were already aware of it) a really excellent manga called Death Note. Here's the premise:
There exists a world other than this one, in which creatures called Shinigami (lit. "gods of death") live. Each shinigami has a notebook that he carries around with him, called a Death ( Read more... )

Ômoto-kyo, the Shinto sect (with Taoist influences) that Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba was a member of, considers Esperanto inventor L. L. Zamenhof to be a deity.

Case in point: Cthulhu-tanYes, a cute little anime girl version of Cthulhu. Along with several other Lovecraftian chibi girls ( Read more... )

( Azumanga Ringu! )