TFO Bee in Japan photodump!!

As a young boy in school, Masaki Sashima would be dragged out of his classroom and beaten by his fellow students.

Masaki, now 72, was different to the other kids. 

He was Ainu, an Indigenous people from the country's northern regions, most notably the large island of Hokkaido.

"During recess, the hallway door would open, and several guys would yell at me to come out," he said.

"I clung to my desk in the classroom and kept quiet.

"Everyone would surround me and beat me."

Japan has long portrayed itself as culturally and ethnically homogenous, something that some have even argued is a key to its success as a nation.

More than 98 per cent of Japanese people are descendants of the Yamato people. 

But the Ainu are distinct, with their own history, languages, and culture.

But, as the victims of colonialism, assimilation, and discrimination, much of that identity has been lost. 

An Ainu woman named Chiri Yukie wrote down some of her people's oral traditions into Japanese because, as a child, her people were being displaced by Japanese settlers in Hokkaido. Her language was disappearing, so she (ironically) saw translating the stories into Japanese as a way to preserve them. She died at age 19.

Some of the objects from the Ainu exhibition at Japan House in London this year, showcasing traditional Ainu skills and culture. There is a campaign to get Ainu recognised as an official language, at least in Hokkaido, and small steps are happening, for example, bilingual bus stops. It reminds me of the struggle for Welsh to be revived after suppression for centuries.

most of the best yaoi is written by sadistic lesbians

or straight men who don't know they're writing yaoi

Fascinating. Who writes the best yuri?

also sadistic lesbians

@camshaft22

“can mutuals dm you?” my mutuals can fire me from a cannon through a brick wall, looney tunes style. as long as we’re all having fun

Song: Lost Woods / Saria's Song Artist: Koji Kondo From: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Listen on Youtube:

honestly having a brother is a lot like just knowing some guy

i like to think that reagent tastes like baja blast

i fell into the spring of the drowned ranma 1/2 fan

This is still a Jeffrey Combs blog I swear

THE advantage of memorizing poetry is that when somethings happening, maybe even you’re in a situation or a location, you can just go “ok. lady of shallott time” and boom. you reclaimed your mental space and attention for YOU for the next ten minutes

Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator.

— Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

i know this is humorous but! i learned from one of my college friends (who learned from a therapist) that reciting a poem you have memorized is a great grounding & focusing technique when you’re spiraling into anxiety or panic. i can personally attest that The Tyger has staved off several panic attacks.

so like if said “situation or location” is freaking you out really badly, “lady of shallott time” can help reclaim your mental health too

Ok everybody share what poems you can recite in case we’re trapped in an elevator.

I’ve got the first 42 lines of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, the first 10 lines of Beowulf in Old English, the first canto of Tolkien’s Lay of Beren and Luthien, and Sonnet XVI by Pablo Neruda (“I love the handful of the earth you are”). I used to have the Proem of the Kalevala but I’m a bit shaky on it it now and I think i’ve only got the first two sentences. Anda handful of others I half-remember which i could probably do if I were with someone else who half-remembered the same ones and we could prompt each other back and forth.

What do you mean you can’t find a job? Have you looked on Indeed? What about Linkedin? You should try Upwork. How about Rise? Have you tried Jobera? Take a look on Dribbble. You GOTTA be on Jooble, dude. Get on Jooble. Jooble has it for you.

Calvin's parents decide to take a Hawai'ian vacation. They're not sure how much of it their son will tolerate but they would like to do at least a few things that involve sandy beaches and scenic cycling routes. They are therefore pleased when Calvin seems to make friends with a local girl about his own age and the two of them run off to play

Now, from Calvin's point of view what has happened is that he spotted actual aliens, and starts trying to bring this to the attention if the adults. But the tourists are like, "that's nice, go shoot 'em with your water gun, have a good time," and the locals are like, "yeah, they're an older couple who decided to retire here. Happens all the time." Eventually, it becomes clear that Spaceman Spiff is going to have to handle it himself.

From Lilo's point of view, Jumba and Pleakley are her gay uncles, do you mind? Calvin does mind, and so the two of them spend the rest of the afternoon terrorizing Kaua'i in the effort to destroy one another while the aliens alternate between bailing them out of trouble and attempting to escape.

Hobbes and Stitch, meanwhile, are calmly playing checkers and drinking non-alcoholic margaritas.

OP I’m sorry but the last sentence painted SUCH a vivid picture in my mind I had to draw it immediately.

I love how Stitch looks more like a stuffed animal then Hobbes does.

This is perfect.

the vibes dissonance of ppl online can be crazy. did you know the artist behind those cutesy crow comics that do big numbers on here ran hiveworks into the ground so hard that 100 artists who worked w them came together to put out a statement abt how they and their work had been absolutely fucked by the incompetency and malice of it all

dogs might look like their owners but cat people always have a cat with the same mental illness as them

My last cat was owned by my friend's Trekkie uncle who passed very suddenly in a car crash. The family just couldn't take him and asked me to possibly foster him until they could. I almost immediately adopted him.

I would set my computer to play a video for him when I left for work. He got mad if it wasn't star trek. He learned to hit the spacebar to pause and start it.

I am and have always been a Trekkie. One time I was having a shit day bc I was in the middle of MCAS starting to kick my butt and I was just crying on my couch. He hopped onto the table and started star trek for me

Then he just stared at me like "did that work?"

And this was his staring face so yes of course it did

But I'm forever amused that I shared needing the same comfort show, with a cat

Omg this is amazing

Like learning to pause???

And knowing it comforted you as well???

It took him some trial and error, but he figured out pawing the keyboard in the area of the spacebar made it stop and start. And also at my mouse, which he had stolen bc I was paying too much attention to the video, in that picture

He was a very smart and like. Attenuated cat.

Another one of my favourite character tropes is when one character speaks in a completely different style and genre as any of the other ones, and it's simply Just How They Talk and everyone has to live with that. Bonus points if people who have known them for a long time are so used to it that they don't even notice. But people who just met them find it weird.

"I am not asking you to forgive your uncle, but to at least understand him. The scars of his own past have made him blind to how his own cruelty wounds those around him. His heart was broken long before it froze and turned to stone."

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"

"She's saying that your uncle is a cunt because he had a shitty childhood."