As bad as sooo many things feel, nothing is quite like getting ready for bed and realizing you have a Zoom Meeting in 15 minutes 🫠

How exciting! 👀⛩️

Now is the time to contact your employers and rally to protect vulnerable colleagues. The administration is demanding that any valid H1-B visa holders outside the U.S. (or their employers) pay $100,000 for them to reenter the country, as of Sunday. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

This has got absolutely ridiculous. I have just deleted my account

There may or may not be talk of 🪿🪿🪿

"Britain must burn more fossil fuels and bills must rise in order to power the robot that'll fire everyone. How else will I afford my next private island?"

I am SO cooked this month 😭

Someone recently asked me what’s the weirdest #torii I’ve seen outside of Japan. I’m always hesitant to answer bc they often cannot compete (respectfully) with the weirdness of torii found INSIDE Japan! Case in point: Kitakata Ramen Museum and Ramen Shrine in Fukushima prefecture. ⛩️🍜

Someone recently asked me what’s the weirdest #torii I’ve seen outside of Japan. I’m always hesitant to answer bc they often cannot compete (respectfully) with the weirdness of torii found INSIDE Japan! Case in point: Kitakata Ramen Museum and Ramen Shrine in Fukushima prefecture. ⛩️🍜

Today was a banner day for #torii hunting! I found ~50 today 😆 Up to 1,325 pins now

Today's dilemma: Does this qualify as a torii gate? 🤔 Several restaurants in the Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse chain have #torii gates, but this one is a little... creative. But it has two columns and two horizontal beams so...?

I was recently asked, "Don't you think AI like ChatGPT can do your job better than u?" No, no I don't. "Well that's because I don't pay for premium." Lol. Just a happy lil reminder that AI doesn't know shit. And you can't trust auto summaries.💁‍♀️ Four #torii gates found in Idaho & counting!⛩️🔍🗺️

Here are the _public_ email addresses for the reporters and the standards editor listed on the WSJ site. Standards editor: [email protected] Journalists who wrote the article: [email protected] [email protected] Politely and peacefully demand a retraction and an apology.

A souvenir from the Habib Institute for Asian Studies’s @uidaho.bsky.social #Ghibli themed AsiaPOP! symposium. They insisted I take it, I swear! 😅 So I said ofc but first I want the signature of everyone who helped make it happen!

Y’all know what it is! 😆⛩️ A quick trip in between flights to the #torii gate (and Kasuga stone lantern) in Seward Park, Seattle, WA #shinto

The theater was packed tonight for Studio Ghibli’s Pom Poko dir. Takahata Isao, 1994)! Lots of good laughs and poignant moments. Thanks to the Habib Center for Asian Studies & the University of Idaho for hosting the month-long #AsiaPOP event! This week is the main event w speakers (& me!)

Such a pleasure to speak with Prof. Jinyi Li's @becedo.bsky.social bright students at Occidental College today about some of the fun and rewarding things you can do with expertise in Japanese language and cultural studies!

Soooo VMD Corp, for the TSA, searched my bag & tore up my contributor copy of the Rush of Ikorr Stunning Presence deck by @upperdeckent.bsky.social. Why??? I packed it carefully bc this was rly special to me. I was looking forward to showing students tomorrow & filming my unboxing & now I’m crushed.

Soooo VMD Corp, for the TSA, searched my bag & tore up my contributor copy of the Rush of Ikorr Stunning Presence deck by @upperdeckent.bsky.social. Why??? I packed it carefully bc this was rly special to me. I was looking forward to showing students tomorrow & filming my unboxing & now I’m crushed.

Sabrina Carpenter says TRANS RIGHTS at the VMAs

certified bangers aren't enough. i need them notarized too

All about vending machines in Japan!

Spark Space provides a vital service to students and workers alike in Gaza, allowing them to get online to finish studies and do remote working to support their families. chuffed.org/project/spar...

There's nothing quite like submitting the exact same copyedits for your own edited volume chapter (and others') three times because the publisher doesn't implement the changes (they requested!) in consecutive rounds of proofing. Just three rounds of no changes. What are we doing? 🫠

🚨Priest uses his body to attempt to stop ICE vehicles in Broadview, Illinois outside of a detention facility that has refused entry to members of Congress.

Just got triggered by an old episode of Space: 1999 #scifi that suddenly cut to loud #gagaku music as two dudes practiced kendo. It follows me everywhere I go, even my parents' house in upstate NY. 🤣 youtu.be/G5p5o9yqW2E?...

It's official! I'm launching Gaming & Religion, my new Substack newsletter, building bridges between video games and religion from a unique European legal perspective. The first manifesto post arrives on Sep 1st. Subscribe for free: gamingandreligion.substack.com/p/welcome-to... #gaming #GameDev

A new book on #Shinto and famous #Kokugaku scholar Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤 (1776-1843) has just been published open access and free for download by the preeminent historian Dr. Ann Walthall! You can check it out here: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

Banned Books Week is coming up! I always offer free virtual banned author talks to any school or library, but the message is vital so this year I'll extend it to any book store, book club, little free library, livestream, festival, pumpkin patch, birthday party, anywhere folks want to listen.

"the trivialization of reading by AI hype merchants is a fable of obsolescence in support of a practice of enclosure." YES Always worth reading(!): theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/the-techno... As well as following: theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/cruelfutur...

My heart breaks into 10,000 pieces once again.

Japan Post just announced they will no longer deliver mail to the United States, joining Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, France, and Sweden.

Screaming into the void as a former California resident. Had to give family members the talk about why Newsom is not the hero we want, need, or deserve. 🙃

Today on Okazu – Flamecon 2025 Event Report This celebration of queer pop culture creators and content made a jubilant return to New York City this summer, filled with amazing cosplay, original content, love for queer comics and a new announcement from Kodansha! okazu.yuricon.com/2025/08/25/f...

Ziff Davis and IGN routinely decide that work done by our laid off colleagues is not important. But inevitably, that crucial work falls onto those who remain. Not this time. Not anymore.

A new book on #Shinto and famous #Kokugaku scholar Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤 (1776-1843) has just been published open access and free for download by the preeminent historian Dr. Ann Walthall! You can check it out here: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

Stalin-ass banners out in DC now

Nice background reading on (what became) background music — nicely paired with discussions of “recession pop” www.npr.org/2025/07/20/n...

Tfw you have to cut a whole case study from your article to make it under the word count 😭 #amwriting

The card game I consulted on as a subject matter expert, #RushofIkorr “Stunning Presence” Deck by Upper Deck, arrived today!!! Torn between doing an unboxing video for Eat Pray Anime @eatprayanime.bsky.social or opening it all right now like a crazy card goblin. 🤩😭👹 #TCG

Excellent piece. And bonus: you get the knowledge and perspectives of two stellar Indigenous scholars—Nick Estes and Kim TallBear (now back below the 49th parallel).

wrote about why the Potato Chip aide lady, who has been an Eric Adams staffer since 2014, is full of shit and cannot pull the culture card and is RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US the-haters-guide-to-international-politics.ghost.io/the-cash-env...

Religion spotted among the aquarium goods at Walmart! Of course I had to get the nikoniko (smiling) Jizō statue for my YouTube background. 😌

The card game I consulted on as a subject matter expert, #RushofIkorr “Stunning Presence” Deck by Upper Deck, arrived today!!! Torn between doing an unboxing video for Eat Pray Anime @eatprayanime.bsky.social or opening it all right now like a crazy card goblin. 🤩😭👹 #TCG

Today in “people have such intense feels about scholars that they convince themselves of things that are not true”: “scholars use a term in talking to each other and this is responsible for electoral outcomes”

I had the pleasure of presenting my research on global #torii gates at the #Corning NY #Rotary Club today. Great questions about Japanese religion & cultural appropriation. Perhaps someday I'll be adding a pin for Corning to my map! Here are the three "Torii Stories" I chose to tell today...🧵 1/6

After some minor travails, I am now a Goodreads Author. Which means it's a great time to add MANGA'S FIRST CENTURY on Goodreads! www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

If you see someone using AI on a comics project