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Background: In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1933 Japan occupied Manchuria and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia and globally. In 2005, Japan began a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.




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By Kobax
October 18th 2009
Fighting Festivals Asia » Japan » Hyogo
Oct 14 and 15, Held in Tenmangu Shrine abt.50km westward of Kobe (Also westward of Osaka) Japan. Although I checked it with Wikipedia, blogs and the related websites, I came to a question which date 14th or 15th is the most attractive one to me. It seemed it might take more than three hours to reach at the "Far West" from my house at Nara city "Far East". I took a train to Osaka station, transited for Himeji known as Himeji castle (World Heritage), arrived at Akashi Station where I changed to another line to Shirahama-no-Miya Station where the festival is [View Full Entry]

Kobax - Hideyuki Kobayashi | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
494 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 18th 2009 | 47 Views | [diary=446034]

Spectators
Turned over
Major battlefield

By Fang in JapanLand
September 23rd 2009
Silver Week Bliss Asia » Japan » Hyogo
The five-days holidays came just at the right timing when my two close friends Jane and Cindy visited from Vancouver. It was a funny feeling seeing them in Japan at first. I've done and seen so much since arrival in this country to the point that my brain often fail to connect the amount of events happened with this short span of time. And my two friends constantly remind me that I've only been away from home for one month and a half. The holidays were grand. Went to the maddest Danjiri Matsuri in Japan, Kobe for the best beef on [View Full Entry]

Fang in JapanLand - Sandra Fang | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
655 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 63 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 26th 2009 | 139 Views | [diary=439652]

Kobe beef
Kishiwada -- Danjiri Festival
Kinosaki onsen

By Papa and Nana
September 19th 2009
LUNCH WITH THE DANCING LADIES Asia » Japan » Hyogo » Kobe
After being folded up on airplanes for 23 hours, we enjoyed a nice walk with Ted and Nobu in the neighborhood where we visited a local noodle shop for dinner. It was wonderful. We were even able to walk after sitting on little pillows at a table not more than 12 inches from the floor! Today we went to Kobe to visit Ted's Kappore Dancing group - what a beautiful and graceful artform. They will be performing October 8 at Bunraku Stage in Nipponbashi. Ted is the first westerner to perform Kappore with this group! After the dancing lesson, we had [View Full Entry]

Papa and Nana - Bob & Joyce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
135 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 19th 2009 | 50 Views | [diary=437815]

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By Fang in JapanLand
September 5th 2009
A mute day by the Suma sea Asia » Japan » Hyogo » Kobe
He poked a tube down my nose and throat. The screen in front of me displayed some moving respiratory system images. Realizing those were from my own body, and with the itchy feeling caused by the tube, I refrained myself from sneezing or puking in front of the doctor, nurses, and my JTE. I felt sick on Wednesday, and had completely lost my voice on the second day. So here I was in a clinic in Japan doing endoscopy. "See? Your nasal cavity is intact, but your vocal cord is very red. Try to say 'yeah'", the doctor said. So I [View Full Entry]

Fang in JapanLand - Sandra Fang | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
416 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 6th 2009 | 121 Views | [diary=434130]

Suma
Kobe
Kobe shrine -- Sanomiya

So, I find myself at the unemployed end of three years (and one week) of teaching English in Japan. It seems fitting to cast an eye on the whole experience. What's it like? What does it look like? Who do you work with? How are the students? Prepare to be enlightened, (perchance) entertained and generally disuninformed. Who did you work for? I worked for ECC, one of the biggest companies, and from what I can gather, it's the best of the big ones to work for. The money is decent enough for the work you do, the hours are pretty short [View Full Entry]

Ratface - Richard Budd | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
2336 Words | 9 Comment(s) | 51 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 7th 2009 | 437 Views | [diary=425800]

Wednesday
Rikumi
Kotoen Station

Mostly quiet here on the Eastern front. We're winding up to leave Japan, and had a formal family occasion as an early send-off. Needless to say, as with most family events here, it all got entertainingly boozey. Our grandparents, mother's side, live in Takedao, a place which is startlingly remote when compared to where we live. It's only 20 minutes by train, but sits up in the mountains with less space for urbanity. It's (relatively) famous for its onsens (hot springs). One of the local places has undergone a substantial upgrade, and we were booked in for bathing and a fancy [View Full Entry]

Ratface - Richard Budd | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
304 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 47 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 24th 2009 | 209 Views | [diary=421586]

Outdoor bath
Along the valley
Mitsuyo and Masako-san

Kobe/Himeji, Japan [View Full Entry]

Genevieve n Stefanie - Recession Celebration Tour | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
3 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 12 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 19th 2009 | 13 Views | [diary=401868]

Avoiding Swine Flu
S&G are Sake Mashers
Sake Barrel

Who would've thought that getting on a boat to go explore Phang Nga, Thailand a year ago would help me score tickets to a sellout baseball game in Japan? Well, it did. On that trip I befriended a Japanese family, one of whom went to fair lengths to get hold of a couple of tickets to a Hanshin Tigers v Yomiuri Giants game at Koshien Stadium (the Tigers home ground) during the Golden Week holidays. (A side note: the origin of many of the larger department stores in Japan lies with the railway companies. Department stores were built alongside major stations, [View Full Entry]

Jo Trouble - Jo McCarthy | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
519 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 71 Photo(s) | 3 Video(s)
Published: October 1st 2009 | 128 Views | [diary=400769]

Tigers fans
Tigers fans
Tigers fans

By BethL410
April 7th 2009
Not quite Kyoto... Asia » Japan » Hyogo » Kobe
Emily and I woke up early the next morning with a mission. As it turned out, I spent the better part of Tuesday in a pissy mood because of my own inability to effectively navigate the Japanese railway system. Emily and I planned on going to Kyoto for the day to see the cherry blossoms and other main attractions, but not having a rail pass (which cost over $300 USD) made the process decidedly more difficult and eventually resulted in us giving up and heading back to the ship to use the internet a bit in the terminal before just hanging [View Full Entry]

BethL410 - Tbilisi, Georgia for the summer | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
957 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 8th 2009 | 77 Views | [diary=388646]


By BethL410
April 6th 2009
Kobe, Japan Asia » Japan » Hyogo » Kobe
So with the possibility of a military conflict much less likely than a few days ago, I got off the ship in Kobe planning to spend a laid-back few hours walking around the city before going to a Welcome Reception with Japanese students. First of all, I just have to say that I did not expect the immigration process to be quite that extreme: they had us walk past an infrared camera that took our temperatures (I think checking for SARS), then collect our passports and line up to get our photos and fingerprints taken. All I could think while that [View Full Entry]

BethL410 - Tbilisi, Georgia for the summer | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1826 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 8th 2009 | 132 Views | [diary=388644]



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