Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | japanese
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July 13, 2006

Sudoku on the WebOK, I can't stand it anymore. I'm not much of a puzzle person -- crosswords can't catch my attention, and jigsaws don't call out to me. I'm not much of a numbers person either -- hence, I work with words (journalism), not numbers (engineering). So, Sudoku hasn't exactly lit me on fire even though it's apparently the hottest thing in the puzzles and games world. I see Sudoku everywhere, from supermarket magazine racks to fancy bookstores, and electronic games to lots and lots of sites on the Web.
August 23, 2004

Samurai are big in Western pop culture these days, what with Tom Cruise's hit "The Last Samurai" and of course, Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies.
July 18, 2004

You'd think in the 21st century, that racial epithets would be so old-fashioned that anyone using them would be laughed out of the country.

But no, that's not the case. At issue today, as it has been for decades, is the use of the word "Jap" to describe a person or thing that's Japanese or Japanese American.

Amazingly, there have been a couple of instances of "Jap" in the media in recent weeks.