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Man sues Japanese broadcaster NHK for using too many foreign words… but can you stop language from evolving?
I was amused to see a recent news story about a 71-year-old Japanese man, Hoji Takahashi, who has sued Japan’s public television broadcaster, NHK. His reason for filing suit? He’s suffering “mental distress” because of what he considers NHK’s excessive use of foreign words. He’s no elderly gadfly with a silly gripe. He’s a member […]
Dale Li vividly brings to life Japanese American tragedy in ‘Dust Storm’
Colorado’s first Asian American theater company, Theatre Esprit Asia (TEA), has launched its debut season with a pair of one-person plays in repertory, and I was fortunate to see one of them, “Dust Storm,” last week starring Dale Li. If you haven’t seen this or the other play, “Spirit and Sworded Treks” starring Maria Cheng, […]
Denver’s direct flight to Tokyo is no longer a flight of fantasy
United flight 139 from Denver International Airport to Tokyo’s Narita Airport flies direct daily, and shaves off hours of travel time and stress from flying to the west coast for a connecting flight to Narita. Here’s what I wrote when the direct flight on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was first announced. Technical issues grounded the plane […]
Museums — even tiny ones — are where our collective culture is stored
I visited the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland, Oregon last week while on a business trip to the northwest, and I was struck at how important organizations like it, and the museum it operates are for our community. Institutions from the largest such as the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to one-room […]
Actors from Ken Tanaka’s “What Kind of Asian Are You?” video read comments from it
Here’s a P.S. to my post featuring the spot-on video of the “Where are you from” conversation that Asian Americans know too well.