Assistant Language Teacher, often abbreviated to ALT, is a term that was created by the Japanese Ministry of Education at the time of the creation of the JET Programme as a translation of the term (外国語指導助手）”gaikokugo shido joshu” or literally “foreign language instruction assistant.” It is used primarily by the Japanese Ministry of Education, local Boards of Education (BOEs) and schools to refer to native language speakers who assist teaching languages in elementary, junior high and high schools in Japan.
The [Roppongi] area features numerous bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment including hostess clubs and cabarets. Among the Western expatriate community, it tends to be favoured by business people and financial workers as well as off-duty military.
Kyoto (京都市, Kyōto-shi) listen is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.
Traditionally, [geisha] began their training at a very young age. Although some girls were sold to geisha houses (“okiya”) as children, this was not common practice in reputable districts. Daughters of geisha were often brought up as geisha themselves, usually as the successor (“atotori” meaning heir) or daughter-role (“musume-bun”) to the okiya.
The practice of hanami is many centuries old. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–784) when the Chinese Tang Dynasty influenced Japan in many ways; one of which was the custom of enjoying flowers. Though it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning, by the Heian Period, sakura came to attract more attention. From then on, in tanka and haiku, “flowers” meant “sakura.”
Avoiding exposure to pollen is the best way to decrease allergic symptoms. Remain indoors in the morning and evening when outdoor pollen levels are highest. Wear face masks designed to filter out pollen if you must be outdoors.
Sentō (銭湯, Sentō) is a type of Japanese communal bath house where customers pay for entrance. Traditionally these bath houses have been quite utilitarian, with one large room separating the sexes by a tall barrier, and on both sides, usually a minimum of lined up faucets and a single large bath for the already washed bathers to sit in among others. Since the second half of the 20th century, these communal bath houses have been decreasing in numbers as more and more Japanese residences now have bathrooms.
At the wall on the far end of the [bathing] room is usually a large picture for decoration. Most often this is Mt. Fuji … but it may be a general Japanese landscape, a (faux) European landscape, a river or ocean scene.
Geisha (芸者, Geisha) are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as music, singing, and dancing. They also engage their clients with light conversation.
Gion (祇園 or 祇をん) is a district of Kyoto, Japan, originally developed in the middle ages, in front of Yasaka Shrine. Geisha in the Gion district do not refer to themselves as geisha; instead, Gion geisha use the local term “geiko.” While the term geisha means “artist,” the more direct term geiko means specifically “a woman of art.”
The end of December and the beginning of January are the busiest times for the Japan Post, the Japanese post office. The Japanese have a custom of sending New Year‘s Day postcards (年賀状, nengajō) to their friends and relatives. It is similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards.
The Sheep (未) (also known as Ram or Goat) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
Kimono (着物, Kimono literally “something worn”, i.e., “clothes”) are the traditional garments of Japan. Originally kimono was used for all types of clothing, but it came to refer specifically to the full-length garment that is still worn by women, men, and children.
Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupure), a contraction of the English words “costume” and “play”, is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, fantasy movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, “cosplay” has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume.
The oxygen bar is a trend among night clubs that started in the late 1990s. Patrons inhale 50-99% oxygen from filtered or bottled air through a tube for 1-20 minutes, typically paying dollars per minute (the composition of the atmosphere we normally breathe is 78% nitrogen (N2), 21% oxygen (O2), and less than 1% of other gases and particulate matter).
“She Blinded Me With Science” is a New Wave song by British musician Thomas Dolby, released in 1983. It first appeared on the album The Golden Age of Wireless. It is a quirky, playful synth-pop number built around bouncy synthesizer hooks, but occasionally ventures into darker interludes meant to evoke early Hollywood mad scientist films such as Frankenstein.
A host club is similar to a hostess bar, except that female customers pay for male company. Host clubs are typically found in more populated areas of Japan, and are famed for being numerous in Tokyo districts such as Kabukichō, and Osaka’s Umeda and Namba.
A Bhikkhuni is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Male monastics are called Bhikkhus. Both Bhikkunis and Bhikkhus live by the vinaya. Bhikkhunis hold 311 vows. Bhikkhuni orders enjoy a broad basis in Mahayana countries like Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Traditional dolls in Japan are known by the name of ‘ningyō’, which means ‘human figure’ in Japanese. Some experts see a continuity in the making of human images by the ancient Jomon culture in Japan (8000-200 B.C.E.) and in the Haniwa funerary figures of the subsequent Kofun culture. Expert Alan Pate notes that temple records refer to the making of a grass doll to be blessed and thrown into the river at Ise Shrine in 3 B.C.; the custom was probably even more ancient, but it is at the root of the modern Doll Festival or Hina Matsuri.
By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, [James L.] Watson’s study [published in Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998)] suggests, McDonald’s led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan. McDonald’s also flattens the social strata during dining — there is no problem of losing face for certain customers (who might be embarrassed when someone else ordered a more expensive item in a restaurant); the food at McDonald’s is all similarly priced.
A drive-through or drive-thru is a business, most commonly a restaurant, that serves customers who pull up in their vehicles. Orders are taken and goods or services are provided using a window or microphone, while the customers remain in their vehicles. The format was first pioneered in the United States in the 1940s but has since spread worldwide.
Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne, (born October 27, 1984 in London) is an English television personality, sometime singer, actress and fashion designer. Osbourne first rose to fame in The Osbournes, a reality TV series about her famous father and his family.
The current state of the art for Western-style toilets is the bidet toilet, which, as of 2004, are installed in more than half of Japanese households. In Japan, these bidets are commonly called Washlets (ウォシュレット, Woshuretto), a brand name of TOTO Ltd., and include many advanced features rarely seen outside of Asia. Depending on the exact model, these bidets are designed to open the lid when they sense a user nearby, wash the anus or vulva of the user (including a number of pulsating and massaging functions), dry afterwards with warm air, flush automatically and close the lid after use. These toilets may be the most advanced toilets in the world.
The Tokyo Metro Ginza Line (東京地下鉄銀座線, Tōkyō Chikatetsu Ginza-sen) is a metro line in Tokyo, Japan, administered by the Tokyo Metro. It is 14.3 km long, and serves the wards of Shibuya, Minato, Chūō, Chiyoda and Taito.
On maps, its color is orange and its stations are denoted by the letter G followed by a number. Its planning line number is Line 3.
Cosplay restaurants (コスプレ系飲食店), are theme restaurants and pubs that originated in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan around the year 2000. They include maid cafés (メイドカフェ) and butler cafés, where the service staff dresses in cosplay, as elegant maids, or as butlers. Such restaurants and cafés have quickly become a staple of Japanese otaku culture. Compared to the service at normal café, the service at maid cafés invoke a slightly different atmosphere. The maids treat the customers as their master his or her home, rather than merely a customer at a café. The popularity of the cosplay restaurants and maid cafes has spread to other regions in Japan such as Osaka’s Den Den Town as well as other Asian countries, such as South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and recently, Singapore.
A love hotel (ラブホテル, rabu hoteru) is an originally Japanese type of hotel offering privacy for a couple to have sex. Alternative names include romance hotel, fashion hotel, leisure hotel and boutique hotel. Love hotels are often used by young couples, since many young Japanese people live with their parents. They are also commonly used for prostitution. The areas around love hotels are often littered with posters advertising “delivery health” (a euphemism for call girls).
The Yamanote Line (山手線, Yamanote-sen) is one of Tokyo’s busiest and most important commuter lines. Running as a circle, it connects most of Tokyo’s major stations and urban centres including the Ginza area, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro with all but six of its 29 stations connecting with other railway or underground (subway) lines. It is operated by JR East.
Samurai (侍, Samurai) was a term for the military nobility in pre-industrial Japan. The word “samurai” is derived from the archaic Japanese verb “samorau”, changed to “saburau”, meaning “to serve”; a samurai is the servant of a lord.
Katana (刀:かたな, Katana) is a type of Japanese backsword or longsword (大刀:だいとう, daitō); the term is also frequently mis-used as general name for Japanese swords. In use after the 1400s, the Katana is a curved, single-edged sword traditionally used by the samurai. Pronounced [kah-tah-nah] in the kun’yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji 刀, the word has been adopted as a loan word by the English language; as Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both “katanas” and “katana” are considered acceptable plural forms in English.
Loose socks (Japanese: ルーズソックス, rūzu sokkusu) are a type of sock that is popular among Japanese and Korean girls. They originated from boot socks for mountain climbing, manufactured in and exported from the United States.
In Japan, they were adopted as a fashion that deviated from school uniforms and firmly took root after a long period of popularity.
Foot odor often results from wearing shoes and/or socks, especially shoes or socks with inadequate air ventilation, for many hours. Since human feet are densely covered with sweat glands, excessive perspiration of the feet is the result. This perspiration and warmth provide ideal conditions for bacteria and/or fungi to thrive. The presence of the bacteria and/or fungi does not in and of itself cause odor; instead, as the bacteria consume dead skin cells and moisture, they in turn produce waste material. This waste material is the cause of foot odor. As physical activity increases, foot perspiration, bacterial growth, and bacterial waste production all increase, causing odor to intensify.
Sushi as an English word has come to refer to the complete dish (rice together with toppings); this is the sense used in this article. The original term Japanese: 寿司 sushi (-zushi in some compounds such as makizushi), written with kanji (Chinese characters) refers to the rice, not the fish or other toppings.
In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. As literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, “parody…is imitation with a critical difference, not always at the expense of the parodied text.” Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as “any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice.”
