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Skepticism and cultural comparison
Like zillions of people, I'm a big fan of Pharyngula. It's a blog by scientist and outspoken atheist P.Z. Myers, straddling both science and (ir)rationality as its topics.
What do witty, learned discussions of science and religion have to do with Home Japan, a lowly blog about cultural matters? The big item in common: critical thinking. Skepticism and rationality, if you will – the best tools we have for clearing away preconceptions and errors and what not, and getting at the reality. I'm simply trying to take those same approaches and tools into cultural comparison, a field I feel they've had little contact with. Read more
About Homejapan.com
Call me Traveler. Welcome to my new site.
What's it about?
I'm a US citizen with 20+ years behind me living in Japan and speaking Japanese. It's about time I laid out some info for fellow (and future) learners of the language and transplants to the country.
At the same time, I have lots to say on the messy and ugly topic of "cultural differences". No, there's nothing wrong with that topic in theory, but the actual conversations that one hears are towering monuments of nonsense. Time to set some things straight. Read more


Kaizen as a translation for "repent(ance)"? Hmm, sounds odd to me; looking at possible words for repent(ance), there...
Hello! I loved reading your explanation. I have been fixated on this word for sometime after my...
I'm familiar with the argument you make, and was always curious: if Japanese and Korean aren't necessarily related,...
Yes, it's hard to learn proper use of those particles... but I'd have to ask, what's unusual about that? There's no...
The relation between Japanese and Korean has never been proven and is heavily disputed (as well as being politically...
Nice article, I'd dispute your points about the particles. The particles are hard enough even for native...
Well, I'm thankful for the input and would like to say "good point!", but I think we've got different zens...
If I may, kaizen is made up of two parts.One is kai which has several meanings - "effect or worth" - "cut, trim...
Hello! You still remember the kana after 20 years? Good work. The teaching method must have been good, as...
I learned Japanese for three years in high school, and we had wonderful flash cards to help us learn the Japanese...