by Philbert Ono The 79th Japan Games (第79回国民スポーツ大会) were held successfully in Shiga Prefecture for the first time in 44 years from September 28 to October 8, 2025. They were… Read more
by Philbert Ono I recently successfully found long-lost relatives for a Japanese Canadian family whose ancestors immigrated from Shiga to the Vancouver area in the early 20th century. They are… Read more
I’ve been experimenting with AI chatbots ChatGPT and Google Bard and AI image generators such as Bing Image Creator for creating text and image content related to Japan and Shiga… Read more
1. Shiga Prefecture is easy to find on a map of Japan. Just look for the large blue lake near the center of Honshu island. It is next to Kyoto.… Read more
Happy 50th anniversary to the Tokaido Shinkansen! The world’s first high-speed train. After about 5 years of construction and test runs, it was on Oct. 1, 1964 when the shinkansen “bullet… Read more
Updated: May 21, 2023, audio track added Although Shiga has many local legends and folktales, only a few are nationally famous. And fewer still are in English. So I’ve started… Read more
Video link: http://youtu.be/FKchoOLG2TY Pharrell Williams scored a huge hit with his song Happy last autumn. It has since become a worldwide phenomenon with people in cities around the world making street… Read more
Lake Biwa and Hikone are getting a PR boost from this movie called, Idai Naru, Shurarabon (偉大なる、しゅららぼん The Great Shu Ra Ra Boom) currently playing in theaters. (Movie trailer in English… Read more