Aug 17, 2012  •  In Art/Design, Asian, Geek, Video Games

Video Game Characters Reinvented as Traditional Japanese Woodblock Prints

Ukiyo-e Heroes is a project that follows the execution of pop culture in Japanese art. In artist Jed Henry’s own words:

Ukiyo-e is a Japanese word. Ukiyo was the pop culture movement in old Japan. The Ukiyo crowd were the trendsetters of their day. Actors, artists, entertainers. And ‘e’ means pictures. So one interpretation of Ukiyo-e could be pop culture pictures from old Japan. And just like Japan had a huge pop-culture scene back then, Japan still exports tons of popular characters and stories. Especially in the form of video games. And it’s pretty obvious that when modern Japanese designers were…

Jul 18, 2012  •  In Art/Design, Asian, Entertainment, Geek

Wacky Street Fighter Characters

What if Ronald McDonald were to face Colonel Sanders in a Street Fighter-style brawl? How about Waldo (of “Where’s Waldo?” fame) matched up against the Michelin Man?
That’s exactly what Japanese illustrator Kei Suwabe had in mind when he took figures from pop culture and anime and created a series of unexpected Street Fighter characters. Can you recognize them all?…

Mar 13, 2012  •  In Asian, Cool Tool Tuesdays, Food

Cool Tool Tuesdays: Sumo Citrus

Welcome to today’s installment of Cool Tool Tuesdays, where I feature a favorite item from my life and spotlight it so that others who are not familiar with the product may also benefit from it. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, hardware, material, or website that I have personally tried and love.
Do you have any questions about today’s cool tool? Would you like an item featured in the future? Please leave a comment to this post, or send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy!

Today’s cool tool is not actually a tool, but a food — more…

Feb 4, 2012  •  In Asian, Claire, Education, Geek, Information, Parenting

Why Chinese is Hard

Most of my readers know that we have been teaching Claire three languages since she was born. And at this point, at 16 months of age, she understands Cantonese Chinese the best, and more than half the words she speaks are Cantonese.
I have no problem with this. I believe that Chinese — regardless of the dialect — is one of the most difficult languages to learn, and that our children having a good foundation in Chinese will not only help them more easily learn additional languages in the future (because you use both hemispheres of the brain with Chinese…