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What a License Is
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What a License Is

ByEmily Lemmon

A car isn’t just an engine, some doors, and a windshield; that’s what a car needs. Not what a car is. What a car really is, is freedom, as a wise pirate once pointed out. In our lives and time, it’s the freedom to calculate the cost of gas and tolls against the fares levied by public transportation, the freedom to get lost in the winding nonsensical backroads; it’s the freedom to go where and when we choose, not bound by the bus route or train schedule. Such freedom is important to many a member of the JET community.

Heart of Japan: Takasago Lantern Festival
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Heart of Japan: Takasago Lantern Festival

ByJoshua Kaplan (for Heart of Japan, a Hyogo International Association project)

This article is brought to you through a partnership between the Heart of Japan blog, a project by　the Hyogo International Association, and the Hyogo Times.   Boasting 10,000 candles placed all over the town, Takasago Lantern Festival (高砂万灯祭, Takasago Mantousai) also features jazz and traditional Japanese music performances along with specially illuminated historical buildings, temples…

Happy (Chinese) New Year!
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Happy (Chinese) New Year!

ByHyogo Times Contributor

Festivities in Kobe’s Chinatown during the first weekend of February celebrated Shunsetsu, and the start of the year of the Rabbit. Beginning February 3rd with the new moon (to end January 22nd, 2012), Rabbit years are said to be for catching one’s breath after the dynamism of the Tiger. This year’s Rabbit is associated with the element metal, so the fluffy bunny may have a bit of a sharp edge (perhaps dulled a little by the fact that it’s yin metal, not yang this year)! Nankin-machi was thronged with visitors all weekend long, and on display were performances of dance, acrobatics, tai chi, as well as the famous lion and dragon dances.