Last week I showed a film as part of a series of films in my school at university. As you can tell from the title of the post, the film that I selected was Ososhiki (The Funeral). Before the film started, I said a few words to the audience about why I had selected this…
Kappa and the J.League
Recently I have done a few posts inspired by listening to the the Uncanny Japan podcast – see The ‘Uncanny Japan’ Podcast and Culture Shock, Omamori – ‘Lucky’ Japanese Amulets, and Ofuda and Tanzaku – this is another such post. The starting point to this post was listening to Episode 48 of Uncanny Japan, ‘Kappa’s…
Book Reviews – “Jaws: Memories from Martha’s Vineyard”, “Joe Alves: Designing Jaws”, and “Adventures in Amity: Tales from the Jaws Ride”
As I have some unexpected (and unwanted… and unpaid) free time today (see the post Enough is Enough), I am doing a second post. And, after the book review of “Life & Laughing” by Michael McIntyre, it’s another book review (and I have at least one other book review to do a post on, as…
Book Review: “Life & Laughing” by Michael McIntyre
I have previously reviewed “A Funny Life” by Michael McIntyre. One of things that I noted in that review was that that book, unknown to me when I asked for it as a present, is the second of Michael’s autobiographies. “Life & Laughing” is the first and takes us from Michael’s birth (literally) through to…
Enough is Enough
Today the UCU (University and College Union) is on strike. It shouldn’t have come to this. It was avoidable. But it has happened. Again. Lecturers, professional services staff, and students are being let down. What is the strike about? In brief, for many years salaries have not increased while living costs have continued to rise…
Research, Autobiography, and Autoethnography
As I noted in my post ‘Inspirational People‘, by chance, one day last week I saw posts on social media about two new articles which I decided to read that day. The post ‘Inspirational People’ was related to one of the articles, ‘Into the Shimmering Void‘ by Maud Rowell. This post is about the other…
Filming Points of View and Angles – The “Jaws” Way
For the last few months I have been working on a chapter which is an update to the presentation that I gave in Cologne in May – see the posts Splitting Atomic Symbolism: Words, Images, and Sounds of a Nuclear World, “Hiroshima – Nagasaki – Fukushima – Articulations of the Nuclear. The Case of Japan”…
Cardiff Japanese Lecture: Being A Professional Translator
Earlier this month month I attended a Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series webinar where the speaker was Dr Nozomi Abe. Even though the topic was on something that is not a central aspect of my research or my career, it does tie in with some of the teaching that I do, so I found if very interesting….
Inspirational People
By chance, yesterday, I saw posts on social media about two new articles and a book. In my line of work, I see a lot of such posts of course (and sometimes do similar ones myself!). For whatever reason (and yes, I admit that I don’t always do this), I did actually follow the links….
Engaging with Japan: Beyond the Stereotypes
Last month I attended a Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series webinar where the speaker was Dr Jennifer Coates. This was an engaging webinar and had things that will be useful for my update to Japan: The Basics. Jennifer Coates is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. She is…
Music Review: “Pop Up Dynamo!” by PG Roxette – Great Music, Fabulous Band, Questionable Branding
Every now and again I do some music reviews (e.g. “The Heart is Strange” by xPropaganda – Heaven from ABBA in Hell, “Europa” by Holly Johnson – Frankie’s Third Album?, and Transcendance by Berlin – Contemporary New Wave at its Best). In this one I am reviewing the new album “Pop Up Dynamo!” by PG…
Book Review: “The Family Bones” by Elle Marr
Elle Marr is one of my favourite authors, so, as soon as I spotted that Advanced Reader Copies of her latest book, “The Family Bones” were available, I was keen to get hold of a copy. And, once I did, I wasn’t disappointed. Like the previous book, “Strangers We Know”, it is largely set in…
Christopher P. Hood 