日本語

When I tell people around the world that I've been living in Japan for over a decade, many look both impressed and mystified at once. The place has a good reputation. Some folks are in awe at the temples and the gardens, others at the nature or the food. The extreme tidiness and civility of the local culture are the target of universal admiration. ... See more

Iwakan is one of my favorite Japanese phrases. It consists of three Chinese characters, 違 ( i , meaning difference, deviation), 和 ( wa , meaning harmony, peace) and 感 ( kan , meaning feeling, sense), that together form a single word that loosely translates as a ‘sense of disharmony’. In daily interactions, I use the term casually when something fee... See more