The naphtha-deficient Calbee bags have arrived.

My Number was originally posed as an optional system designed to make administrative tasks like paying taxes easier. But in five years, only 40% or so of people opted into the system. The government even started to offer cash incentives to get people to sign up.

Noto Satoyama Airport in Ishikawa will reopen as the world's first "Pokémon With You Airport" on July 7, complete with 111 flying-type Pokémon, themed food, and a branded express bus. The goal: draw visitors to a region still rebuilding from the devastating 2024 earthquake.

"If you’ve ever been a white migrant in Asia, you know exactly how not new this type of Guy is. You have already met this guy, so many times, at so many parties." Or: I finally wrote a thing about "passport bros" and the international marriage market, with receipts.

There are certainly good reasons for every step in the crew recovery process but at this point it feels like they’re just putting the astronauts through as many of the most dramatic methods of transportation they can think of in one day

If you haven’t blocked attie.ai yet, join the hottest trend on BlueSky! #ByebyeAI #NobodyWantsThis

With everything else that’s going on this is quietly getting pushed through. There’s still time to stop it. morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/blm-announ...

Who’s your favorite Pokemon? Wrong answers only

Oh cool, thanks for this too! 😄@jjwalsh.bsky.social

This was fun! Thanks ☺️ @jjwalsh.bsky.social

They mention a resemblance to Japanese characters, but ones with crooked mouths are usually evil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Join me & linguist-anthropologist Dr.Debra Occhi this Saturday 9am for insights on Japan's cute characters & mascots @debraocchi.bsky.social #seeksustainablejapan #talkshow www.youtube.com/live/DsDS7RD...

My declaration for (particularly) Japan studies as the world burns.

This is up till at least Nov something 26 www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

Went to show this video in class and learned that none of the local students have ever been to see these local wild horses that are 1.5 hours drive away youtu.be/2CwXMJEOJzA?...

Wasei Eigo! Plan your bestseller J culture essentializing book on…?? Mine’s about magic tape

Jazz OTD: Pianist David Hazeltine recorded his lyrical, exceptionally well-played tribute to Bill Evans, “Waltz for Debby,” on December 27, 1998 with George Mraz (b) and Billy Drummond (d). #jazzsky

It’s online for a YEAR 🤗

The NSF grant that supported my PhD thesis research was ‘archived’ 😨

The NHK show about my research on Japanese mascots and heroes is now online in English until 12/4 www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

You’ve just died. The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you. 👹

I was studying Japanese and someone gave me some homemade vhs tapes of early An-Pan Man

Keep the Penguin 🐧

Some local culture person heard me on the radio and brought a free ticket to see the locals singing Enka, which I haven’t researched for thirty years. No surprise that nothing’s changed ♬

The local radio station reporter saw me on NHK so our interview will be on the MRT Sunday Daigaku show this weekend (and on radiko for a week if you listen to your radio online) www.miu.ac.jp/news/archive...

It’d probably be better for me to get back from the field more than a week before the paper is due 😅 #acasky

What’s your sign?

Totality of the lunar #Eclipse

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used. As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how Part 1: is your work in Libgen? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

I’m on NHK next week with the heroes and local mascots www.nhk.jp/p/ts/PG7NRXY...

A new bill introduced in the U.S. House on August 1 threatens to block overseas Americans from voting in federal elections.

Stoked about the publication of my co-authored book chapter on Aggretsuko and the characters’ relationships with tech 🤘

I turned off all AI features in DuckDuckGo, and apparently you can now do that in Google search as well. You can hide the AI-generated images, too! (They all look terrible to me, kinda like autotuned voices, but worse.) www.devx.com/daily-news/h...

Coastal friends on the ring of fire take care 🌊

Quick stop in Uji 🍵🌱

Summer reading list! I’ve been dumbbelling my way out of a shoulder injury all year and found her work 💪

Things That Make Me Feel Old #43587: ORANGE RANGE releasing a Reiwa-version music video of イケナイ太陽 (original release: 2007) and they crammed A LOT of cultural references of things that were common or popular with high school students in Japan back then (including myself). youtu.be/fdYFKOMQGUU?...

Did AI write this recipe?

Share a song that still slaps

Loli sighting at the mall 🖤💜💗

Forget auto-tune, listen to these vocals:

The Pokémon that runs this account

I see that Moai and raise you seven official ones 🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿 🗿🌴

Looking forward to ✨💖

Great keynote and so much more going on here ✨💖

🌈🌈

Whut 😶 www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2...

Happy Mother’s Day 💐 #bloomscrolling

✨🗣️ Here is the link to register for the Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures symposium Second Edition 💕🌈🏳️‍⚧️🔥 a free and online event (May 19 to 22) with 20+ participants and three awesome keynotes ✨😎 Program below and at the link here 👉 events.humanitix.com/queer-and-fe...

It’s supposed to be Golden Week, but this year it’s broken. Happy Golden Tuesday 🥳🙃