Posted in life, calendar, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 1st, 2006 No Comments »
Chugen (or o-chugen) now refers to the mid-year gift-giving season, but in China the term originally meant the 15th day of the 7th month.
It was a day to celebrate the well-being during the first half of the year of friends and acquaintances, and at the same time people believed that it was auspicious to entertain […]
Posted in life, travel and places, museums on Jun 28th, 2006 No Comments »
The Japanese are extremely fond of fish, either dead or alive. They eat more fish than almost all other nations, and - what I want to address here - they also have the largest number of (often gorgeous) aquariums on earth.
The earliest aquarium dates from 1882 and was located in the Zoo of Ueno - […]
Posted in culture, life, intercultural on Jun 20th, 2006 3 Comments »
Gestures are so different in other cultures that they are in fact an altogether different language. It is safest not to use them until you are sufficiently familiar with that other culture. There are after all several cases where the same gesture has a radically different meaning… Here is a Japanese example: you form […]
Posted in travel and places, life, culture, history, religion and philosophy, intercultural on Jun 18th, 2006 No Comments »
In his recent review of a study about funerals in modern Japan, Modern Passings by Andrew Bernstein, Donald Richie writes that what he has learned from this study, is that funerals in Japan are modern inventions. Apparently, Richie had thought that Japanese funerals were less hypocritical than in the West, and that may still be […]
Posted in life, travel and places, intercultural on Jun 6th, 2006 No Comments »
Healing, iyashi, is much sought after in Japan since the economic crisis.
It has given rise to a whole new culture, which is typically Japanese. People are willing to spend a lot of money on stress relief, sponsoring a $30 billion industry.
Traditional massage and herb therapy are a long passed station. Now you have animal therapy […]
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