Category: Japan

Link to Episode 1

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.

Kelly’s apartment

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.