National Identity – Reflecting on the Census

Yesterday, 21 March 2021, the Census was held in England and Wales. My main feeling after completing it was ‘Is that it?’. It really doesn’t seem to ask that many questions (less than you get at the end of many marketing surveys and such like) and didn’t really dig down into much detail in some…

Cardiff Japanese Lecture: Male Speech? Female Speech? Rethinking Gendered Expressions in Japanese

Recently we had another lecture in the Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series webinar series. The topic was ‘Male Speech? Female Speech? Rethinking Gendered Expressions in Japanese’ and the speaker was Prof. Jotaro Arimori. Japanese is often considered a gendered language due to the presence of what are generally believed to be ‘distinct’ speech styles employed based on…

References in Japan: The Basics (2nd Edition)

This post is primarily to help those using a printed copy of Japan: The Basics (2nd Edition) access the hyperlinks to references listed in the Bibliography at the end of each chapter to save having to type in the who address themselves. This page can be accessed via http://tiny.cc/JTB2Ref Preface – Establishing the Basics Chapter…

Webinar: Japanese Video Games and the Mediation of Trauma

As with the Webinar: Dream Super-Express – A Cultural History of the World’s First Bullet Train, this webinar, hosted by Japan Foundation Toronto on 27 November 2023, was one that I was able to access thanks to it being recorded as it would have been difficult to attend live due to time zone issues. The…

“Japan Sinks” at 50

When it comes to Japanese disaster narratives there is one that stands out from the crowd, Nihon Chinbotsu (日本沈没), “Japan Sinks“, by Sakyo Komatsu. That’s not to say that it’s the best story or the movies are the best, but it stands out as being particularly iconic. And there have been many different versions in…

Japan: The Basics (2nd Edition)

Japan: The Basics is an engaging introduction to the culture, society, and global positioning of Japan. Starting by looking at the common stereotypes, clichés, and tropes associated with Japan, this accessible introduction to the country is designed to arm readers with key skills and knowledge for their study of Japan. This new edition covers topics…

Cardiff Japanese Lecture: Consenting and Transgressing: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Love Songs through a Gender Criticism Approach

This week we had the final Cardiff-Japanese Lecture Series webinar for this academic year. The topic was ‘Consenting and Transgressing: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Love Songs through a Gender Criticism Approach’ and the speaker was Dr Chiharu Chujo. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem so that the webinar recording stopped just as Dr Chujo finished speaking…

Chatting with Google Bard about FGTH

This is the fourth and (for now) final experiment of chatting with Google Bard (see also First Interactions with Google’s Bard, Discussing JL123 with Google Bard, and Discussing Jaws with Google Bard). Again, as with the previous three, I am asking essentially the same questions that I did ChatGPT and Bing. This time, the theme…

Frankie Say Chat with Bing

This is the fourth and (for now) final experiment of chatting with Bing (see also First Interactions with Bing’s AI, Discussing JL123 with Bing’s AI, and Discussing Jaws with Bing). Again, as with the previous three, I am asking essentially the same questions that I did ChatGPT. This time, the theme is Frankie Goes To…

Book Review: “Hidden in Snow” by Viveca Sten (translated by Marlaine Delargy)

I got a copy of this book as one of my ‘Amazon first’ books. As things worked out, it was the first eBook that I read after “The Fires” by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, another translation. While “The Fires” was set in Iceland and originally written in Icelandic, “Hidden in Snow” is set in Sweden and…

Frankie Say WHAT? A final chat (for now) with ChatGPT/OpenAI

For the time being, at least, this will be my final post about ChatGPT/Open AI. After some initial interaction to try and get a feel for what it could do (see First Interactions with ChatGPT/OpenAI), a chat more closely related to my research (see Discussing JL123 with ChatGPT/OpenAI), and a chat about my favourite movie,…

A New Meadow – Visiting Shrewsbury Town

At the weekend, for my birthday, I went to Shropshire with my family. As I have noted in other posts (see, for example, Favourite Poems – “A Shropshire Lad” by A.E.Housman, A Visit to Attingham Park, and Book Review: “The Lucky Ones” by Mark Edwards), I was born in Shrewsbury and grew up in Shropshire….