very funny to me to see folks who have no social media presence outside of twitter say you have to be on twitter to be influential

I'm unreasonably excited for Slay the Spire 2 Early Access.

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported. He finally died. I am so angry. www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

I accidentally left Fire Emblem Three Houses in the Switch I gave to my brother, but I've been reunited with it after his recent visit. The graphics are pretty rough! Amazing glow up from Three Houses to Engage, although I can't say the same for the story.

Memories of drinking 120 yen coffee in the afternoons when I was studying abroad in Tokyo.

Chatgpt has already pushed people to kill themselves and others. Did it push this teenager to do a mass shooting? www.wsj.com/us-news/law/... Bypass: archive.ph/EqNrW

a lot of you are probably too young to remember this but there was a time when the married dhs secretary using taxpayer money for a custom built fuck palace in the sky for her to bang coworkers wouldve been a big deal

This would make a great lesson for verb forms because in a certain sense, the frog definitely 居る, but also definitely 要らない.

I've lost friends for reposting Will's stuff and largely agree with his view of politics, but it will be very, very difficult for me to stomach voting for Newsom if he ends up being the candidate. Why would we want a candidate who's been platforming people like Ben Shapiro?

He attended the Emperor's Birthday event at the Japanese Consulate at least once while I was working there. Very nice of him to join.

I think my personal hell is being forced to sit in a sugary buttery fog produced by a Japanese bakery and being unable to locate that bakery.

lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard

Am I right in thinking that red light cameras haven't become a thing in Japan?

hello and welcome to the political genius exam. here is question one. which is a more compelling message: - the president is sending armies to occupy cities and kidnap and kill people and your town could be next - a meal at the cheesecake factory that previously cost $100 now costs $104.9

I might have to pick this up. I edited the outsource translation for the original Peace Walker but never finished playing it. We were only credited as "Intac," unfortunately, so the super talented translator never got the recognition he deserved.

I sent out the February newsletter earlier today. I wrote about the phrase 初めて言われました. I think this is a really helpful phrase for new students to access the Japanese passive form. newsletter.howtojapanese.com/hajimete-iwa...

I have no words

I have a folder called "nice things" on my computer, and any time anyone says anything positive about my work, I put it in the folder to look at when I'm feeling discouraged or wallowing in imposter syndrome. It's honestly been so motivating and helpful to my mental health. Would recommend.

Will try to keep this thread going. Easy recipes you can make in Japan.

Someone please come over and change my Mercari password so I can never login again.

I will not support any funding deal that puts money in the hands of Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and this violent agency. Defund and abolish ICE now.

genuinely fascinated by capcom's increasing departure from the Pokemon protagonist aesthetic (and, assumably, audience) with each successive Monster Hunter Stories entry

Columbia will never be free of this stain.

We'll be lucky if radium is a metaphor for AI. Radium has basically been contained. I think the automobile might be a more apt analogy, unfortunately. We let cars remake society and we'll never be able to undo it. Cars are a scourge. One of the most harmful inventions of all time.

I really do think this is an excellent metaphor for the moment.

We should also have the Autumn Olympics: Competitive Apple Bobbing, Trick-or-Treating, Jack O’Lantern Carving, Hay Rides, and Sighing Contentedly and Drinking Coffee on a Couch While Wearing a Sweater.

Kinda scary and cringe how many AI commercials there have been during the Super Bowl. If there's any justice, it will be like the Super Bowl with all the crypto commercials a few years ago and these will all be relics in the near future.

The halftime show was as good as this Super Bowl has been bad.

lmfao

Tickets for this tour were priced between ¥2500 and ¥3900, or $11-17 at the time.

Got hyperfixated on black and white cookies and had to make some.

1. It was not an accident. 2. It was not a staffer. 3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia. 4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares. 5. His base agrees with him. 6. He will do it again. 7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

The entire anti wokeness nonsense of the past decade was about making this kind of gutter racism broadly acceptable again bsky.app/profile/adam...

Murakami has a new novella out today and it's a beast. 250 manuscript pages, 85 actual pages. Probably 40-50,000 words in English translation. The title is "Kaho and the Motorcycle Man, and Scarlett Johansson." My expectations are in check. www.shinchosha.co.jp/sp/shincho/b...

Potential snowpocalypse this weekend!

I'm offering digital downloads of beginner-level Japanese on my kofi! 121 pages, based off the Genki 1 textbook, but explained in my voice, with my unique examples, and with extra grammar, vocab, and tidbits not covered in Genki 1.

our government used a Blackhawk helicopter in a major American city, detained children and zip-tied U.S. citizens all to target... squatters and the alleged Tren de Aragua presence? "It was a brutal lie against the American public." www.propublica.org/article/chic...

Was just on the radio in that there UK talking about the Japanese box office (and hopefully sounding vaguely coherent?). About 48 minutes in:

If you have ever struggled to get digital copies of research material from the NDL while NOT in Japan, this is the survey you want to participate in! ⬇️

Opened our last pack of Lebkuchen from Gyomu Super today. This feeling will need to last me until December... Might have to learn to make these they're so good.

Good to see that many Dem elected officials now want to be seen getting involved in the cases of immigrants who have been wrongly detained by ICE. Let's spare a word for @vanhollen.senate.gov, who did this for Kilmar Abrego Garcia back when wise pundits said this was politically dangerous.

When I die, fill my coffin with Kewpie Deep-roasted Sesame Dressing and light it on fire.

I finally finished reading this novella. Had basically forgotten it until I saw that Murakami has written a third story in the Kaho series that will be out this upcoming Friday 2/6. The novella was pretty bad writing. So maybe it's not a surprise the New Yorker hasn't run a translation yet.

I think Murakami does a good bit of cooking himself, in his defense. He writes about it pretty extensively in his Europe memoir which hasn't been translated.

👀

"Wow, what made you decide to pursue a degree in Japanese Studies?" idk. your country's cultural soft power played right into my poor decision-making skills, I guess??

The Boomers got lucky with housing prices, but they got screwed by primitive dentistry.

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday. 📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

O’Hara was incredible forever, on SCTV, the Christopher Guest movies, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, etc. But she didn’t become as famous as her talent warranted until her 60s. Suddenly it was like everyone caught up to her, and she could’ve worked forever. To have her taken away at this moment? No.

The Tsuyoshi Shinjo-led Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters slogan for 2026 is "Domiれ” which is derived from "Dominate" but apparently easy to say, so the fans will enjoy it.