Anime

Gallery: Summer Wonder Festival 2016

July 28, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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Attention all resident resin junkies! This years Summer Wonder Festival was held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba last weekend. A smaller affair than last years, there was still more than enough geeky goodness to satiate just about any pop-culture cravings you might have. Browse our gallery below, but best keep hold of your credit cards. […]

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Culture

The Life of Live – Life in Japan

July 3, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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Regular readers of this column will, in the not so recent past, have read about what it’s like to be a fledgling musician in the land of the rising sun. It’s a difficult path to navigate, with pay-to-play venues and unique pre and post-show rituals, but those who fight through those difficulties will reap the […]

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Culture

Idolize/Fetishize – Life In Japan

June 12, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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I’ve talked a lot about idols on this site, in this column, other columns, and most recently, in an interview with some idols themselves. If you were to scour those articles with a fine-toothed word-comb, you’d likely notice a pattern of near-psychotic positivity; I’m a big fan of idol music and idol culture, and generally […]

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Culture

Interview: Dela – Idol Music & Conquering The World

May 25, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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In the underground car park of Akihabara’s UTX building (which some of you may know from Love Live!), Tokyo’s summer’s-coming humidity is intense, to say the least. My best shirt is pasting itself to my back and I can feel my face flushing with every step through the dense, soggy corridors in search of Dela, […]

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Culture

5 Reasons Japan Is Actually Pretty Great – Life In Japan

May 22, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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In my last Life in Japan column, I may have come across a little negative. While I absolutely stand by what I wrote, and can do so comfortably because Japanese people are too polite to argue with me, there is a reason I’m still here. Japan is a pretty great place all things considered, and […]

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Culture

5 Reasons Japan Is Not That Great – Life In Japan

May 8, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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I’ve been living in Japan for just under a year and a half now and have been, for the most part, using this column as an excuse to gush about it. Fourteen years ago something awoke in me that would, fourteen years later, take me to the land of the rising sun, and while I’ll […]

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Culture

Life In Japan: Life, Lies and Live Music

February 7, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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I’m usually hesitant to rely on cultural tropes or stereotypes, partially because they’re reductive and potentially offensive, but mostly because as an Irishman, I tend to live up to a lot my own. As the old saying goes, men in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I don’t however, having lived in Japan for just over […]

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Culture

Life In Japan: Nippon New Year

January 10, 2016 Andy Kavanagh

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As I mentioned previously in this very column (yes, you should be keeping up), the Japanese don’t really see Christmas as a very big deal. Certainly not in the same way us god-fearing western nations do, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a big winter celebration to look forward to as the cold weather […]

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Culture

Life In Japan: A Reductive Guide To Japanese Christmas

December 20, 2015 Andy Kavanagh

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Japan doesn’t really do religion in the same way the West does. The land of the rising sun, predominantly a shinto/buddhist nation, is also increasingly a land of rampant religious apathy. It’s pretty common to hear elderly folk complain quite vocally about how uninterested the youth of today are in ancient traditions, even though almost […]

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Buzz

Tokyo’s Plus-Size Maid Cafe Is Very Much Still A Work In Progress

December 6, 2015 Andy Kavanagh

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Maid Cafe’s are, as I’ve written about before, a cultural institution in Japan. So much so that over the years, the conceptual offshoots that have opened in Akihabara’s back alleys range from cute and quirky to batshit bonkers. It’s difficult then to believe that the recently opened Shangrila is Tokyo’s first maid cafe staffed by […]

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