children's favorites (cross-culturally)

...great survey data that could be easily incorporated into language lessons, such as Japanese children's favorite subjects, relationships with friends, even "the effects of bullying." 
http://www.childresearch.net/RESEARCH/DATA_JCHILD/index.html
[Jessica H]

early ages - classroom culture in Japan

Child's Play: Japan's Groundbreaking Child-Development Web Site: When the conformist Land of the Rising Sun forges ahead in education innovation, we'd better pay attention. [from http://www.edutopia.org/global-education-2008]

textbooks page online

The Japanese Textbook Information Board is online at
http://www.japaneseteaching.org/projects/textbook/

We invite all teachers to explore the site and send updated information as well as feedback on the textbooks that are listed there. Publishers are also welcome to send information on new textbooks that are not yet included on the site.

Susan Schmidt, Executive Director
Alliance of Associations of Teachers of Japanese
Phone: 303-492-5487, Fax: 303-492-5856
http://www.colorado.edu/ealld/atj

kana stroke order - on screen, iphone or ipod-touch

stroke order online thanks to s. shinagawa: http://iphone.marinebat.com/
see also original site for web-browser use: http://gahoh.marinebat.com/

top 10 words in Japanese 2007

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ek20080115a1.html
Kyushu dialect, golf prince top 2007 buzzwords
By MARK SCHREIBER, Special to The Japan Times Jan. 15, 2008

[excerpt]...other buzzwords that finished the top 10 included kieta nenkin (vanished pension funds), a phrase muttered by Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe to describe the mismanagement of pension payment records by the Social Insurance Agency (3rd place) and shokuhin giso (false labeling of foods), following a year of successive stories revealing manufacturers' mislabeling the contents of food products, disregard for the freshness dates of ingredients or use of slipshod sanitation methods (7th place).

"king of Sushi" on CBS news investigation show, "60 minutes"

on 60 Minutes! The segment is "The King of Sushi," about the journey of Atlantic bluefin tuna. It will be broadcast Sunday, January 13th, 2008, at 7pm ET in the United States. After it airs on the West Coast, it will become available on the CBS News website. Click on this link http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

and there will be a list of stories from this broadcast. [cross-posting from EASIANTH e-list for East Asia Anthropology]
=-=-= GP Witteveen, sjmi AThotmail DOTcom

images & articles (cabinet, JP)

http://www.gov-online.go.jp/eng/publicity/book/hlj/