The Anime Blog – We Go Beyond Anime!

It’s coming soon! White Day is this Friday! It’s our day ladies! Our day to rake in the goodies after we forked ‘em over on Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day in Japan, to those who are unfamiliar, is a day when women give men chocolate (choco) and don’t get diddly in return. That’s right, nadda. Women even [...]

Senbei, okaki, and arare, the elusive Japanese rice crackers. Or I should say, good senbei, okaki and arare are elusive. I’ve had my fair share of senbei and arare mixes, most of which have been underwhelming in terms of excitement and enjoyability. They all seem to taste the same with varying [...]

Ninjas. The elusive deadly assassins of feudal Japan. These stealthy characters with their mystic depictions in popular culture, have inspired many a young person to take up some form of martial arts. In anime, where fantasy rules, ninja are showcased as godlike in their ninpo skills.
Well, not every anime depicts ninja to be godlike. [...]

Last year, I posted a brief write-up of Valentine’s Day in Japan. To refresh our memories:

On Valentine’s Day in Japan, the women give all the men in their lives chocolate (choco- チョコ). If the recipient is a co-worker, or someone the woman sees casually, she gives him giri choco (obligation chocolate). [...]

Love it or hate it, one can’t help but be intrigued by modern Japanese fashion. With their loud colors, strange accessories, and daunting hairstyles, trendy fashions among Japanese young people seem almost alien in comparison to America’s goth, punk, and emo fashions.

It’s perplexing how some of the obnoxious, brash, and downright garish street fashions evolved [...]

When it gets cold, we all like to munch on comfort foods in the warmth of our cozy abodes. Many comforting foods happen to be cooked in one pot, making them easy and delicious. One simple Japanese comfort food is oden. Oden is a popular winter Japanese hot pot stew, with regional ingredients [...]

Ninjutsu has captivated Americans since it first arrived in the US via movie and television screens in the nineteen eighties. Ever since the “ninja craze”, kids and adults alike have been fascinated by the notion of stealthy, secretive assassins lurking in the shadows, bringing silent death to any who see them.
But, how true is this [...]

Christmas, as it’s celebrated in America, is definitely a Western custom. The shopping season leading up to this most generous of holidays starts in the States the day after Thanksgiving: Black Friday. We Americans have a proud tradition of getting up at 3:30a.m.on Black Friday to shove lil’ old ladies down in the [...]