"New sake earrings let you wear your love for Japanese rice wine on your ears"

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/new-products/new-sake-earrings-let-you-wear-your-love-for-japanese-rice-wine-on-your-ears

Felinization -or- "Sushi for Cats"

Source: JunsKitchen
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcYabz3hYg&t=194s

I'm not sure how I missed this. But as I am immersed in social media in my latest research, I am coming across many interesting things. I hope this form of felinization (glocalization for cats) is not offensive to anyone. I am sure the cats and their owner are not racist nor are they trying to appropriate Japanese culture.

It's a pretty picture, but I still can't get a COVID vaccination in one of the world's richest countries...

Sunrise in Osaka 4:30 AM.

Spikes! 313 new COVID cases in Osaka yesterday. 1,397 new COVID cases in Tokyo yesterday. 79 reported COVID cases related to the Olympics before it even starts on Friday.

And my family and I are unable to get vaccinations. Maybe 20% of the population here has been fully vaccinated. Japan has not purchased enough Pfizer vaccinations to be distributed through local governments. My city cannot tell us when we can get vaccinated. Japan has not purchased enough Moderna vaccinations to be distributed through large companies and universities. My university cannot tell us when we can get vaccinated. (Japan has apparently secured Moderna to be available in 2022). But Japan purchased a lot of the AstraZeneca vaccine and now it is giving it to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Japan also seems to be waiting for their own domestic company's vaccine to be fast-tracked and available sometime this year... Despite being in a (quasi-) state of emergency and the Delta variant, my university is requiring faculty to teach hybrid/in-person classes; although there is a published safety procedure, I witness everyday how it is ignored.

This is our reality. Don't believe the token so-called foreign experts in Japan on CNN who claim Japanese people have a vaccine hesitancy. This is not true for most of us here (I do have informed and intelligent friends with personal situations who question the safety of vaccines and I respect their concerns.). This is not political or cultural; this is not the red & blue USA that offers beer, marijuana, money and guns as incentives to get the jabs. The Japanese government has strange priorities (don't get me started about the Olympic super-spreader, no alcohol and condoms meant not to be used in Japan...) and incompetent policies.

以上です。

Vintage 1970's photo... my Dad was so cool (Mom, too)!

"Disability activists push for more inclusive Pride celebrations"

Story by Zoe Christen Jones, June 30, 2021, (CBS News via msn)

Read the whole story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disability-activists-push-for-more-inclusive-pride-celebrations/ar-AALAVxG?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

Not Japan related, but it is an intersection between my recent projects dealing with disability and gastronomy. This is the part I like:

© Provided by CBS News Alexis Hillyard / Credit: Kevin Tuong

Alexis Hillyard, a YouTuber who was born without her left hand, said it's freeing when she's in a space where she and her disability are accepted.

"Accessibility means that people are able to move through and exist in spaces they deserve to be a part of without feeling like they need to change who they are, make themselves smaller and make sacrifices to be able to be in that space," the 39-year-old said. "It's like being able to be and exist in your full self, as you are, without having to change or adapt to the world around you."

On her cooking channel, StumpKitchen, Hillyard explains how her disability is an important tool she uses every day and an integral aspect of her life. She's also deliberate in making her videos as accessible to her viewers as possible.

"I didn't realize before how much I would subconsciously hide my arm or wonder if people were staring or wondering what they were thinking about me or feeling sorry for me," Hillyard said. "It was a beautiful surprise and just an awareness and release of tension you were feeling that you didn't realize that you had."

"Unsound: The Legacy of Alexander Graham Bell" (in ASL, English and English closed captions)

Description: American Sign Language interpretation of Unsound, a radio documentary from IDEAS exploring the legacy of Alexander Graham Bell and his role in a movement called oralism, and the harmful legacy that still reverberates today.

The great project of Alexander Graham Bell's life was not, perhaps surprisingly, the telephone.

His life's true passion, and the project he focused on his entire life and funded with his earnings from the telephone, was the 'education' of deaf people. He was part of a movement called oralism and believed all deaf people should learn to lipread and speak rather than use sign language.

But not all deaf people can learn to speak. Or believe they should. And the harm of oralism still reverberates today.

This is a great interpretation from a Deaf perspective. Watch in full screen and hit the CC button for captions.

Radio show source: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/unsound-the-legacy-of-alexander-graham-bell-1.6020596

Video source: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1894072899880

For English transcript: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/transcript-unsound-the-legacy-of-alexander-graham-bell-1.5998768

So what kind of job can I get as a visual anthropologist? "Steve Arounsack // Raya and the Last Dragon Interview Final Cut"

"American Anthropological Association - Weekend Reads. How Anthropology Can Learn from 'Asia as Method'" - this weekend, too!

Cultural Consumption and Performance in Asia Series
https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/tag/cultural-consumption-and-performance-in-asia/

Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan
https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/

Constant heavy rain since last night - (pandemic) tears of the prophets - causing the stream behind the house to rise high - no Hanshin Tigers this weekend because several players on the opposing team (Hiroshima Carp) have tested positive for COVID-19 - but you don't really care about any of this do you?

"American Anthropological Association - Weekend Reads. How Anthropology Can Learn from 'Asia as Method'"

Asian Ethnology Podcast 2021. Interview with Steven Fedorowicz: Deaf Communities in Japan. Nanzan University. By Mark Bookman. Transcript: https://asianethnology.org/storage/pagefile/Steven%20Fedorowicz%20Interview%20Transcript.pdf