Japan: Its Culture and Attractions

A geisha stands with sealed lips symbolizing a code of honor. Entertaining Japan’s male elite through music, dance, song, and conversation, geisha are valued as much for discretion as for beauty. The famed icons of Japanese culture have practiced their gei, or art, for over 250 years.




Geisha







A brilliantly decorated lantern float stands out against the summer night sky during the Neputa Festival in Hirosaki. Often depicting warriors and shaped like fans, the floats are accompanied by traditional drums. Folk festivals featuring traditional music, dance, and costume are an important cultural element in Japan.









Sumo wrestlers clash in a ring in Nagoya. Once supported by the patronage of emperors, Japan’s national sport has roots going back nearly 1,500 years. Short but intense, most matches last less than a minute, with the grandly attired gyoji serving as referee.










Paper lanterns decorated with script glow orange in Japan. The Japanese language commonly uses 15,000 kanji characters, which are borrowed from Chinese. Schoolchildren as young as seven must confront the language’s complexities, such as learning to write some of the 200-plus characters for the sound “shou.”






Rice cakes, or mochi, are a favorite in Japan, particularly during the New Year, when they are traditionally given as gifts, set out decoratively in the home, or offered at shrines and temples. Their surfaces dusted with flour, the sticky, glutinous cakes are often stuffed with sweet beans or served in soup and, when not made by hand in a complex process, are widely available in supermarkets.









Photos are from National Geographic.

Japan: Its Culture and Attractions

Soaring bamboo stalks dwarf visitors to Arashiyama Park in western Kyoto. Known for its vertiginous growth, bamboo has numerous uses in Japan, particularly in Kyoto, where it is made into baskets, flutes, pipes, benches, dolls, garden fences, and artifacts for tea ceremonies.

Kyoto










Kinkakuji



Outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo, a crowd of pedestrians crosses a busy intersection beneath the glare of lighted billboards and neon signs. Japan’s capital is the planet's largest urbanized area, with some 36 million people.




Shibuya



Snowcapped Mount Fuji casts a bright spot on the frozen surface of Lake Yamanaka. The 12,388-foot (3,776-meter) volcano, which last erupted almost 300 years ago, is for the Japanese an enduring national symbol of serenity and strength. On a clear day, the iconic peak can be seen from Tokyo, 70 miles (112 kilometers) away.



Mt. Fuji


Standing at low tide, the torii on Miyajima is thrown into silhouette as the sun sinks behind a mountain. The famous vermilion gate was built in 1875 and is the largest in Japan, standing about 53 feet (16 meters) high. Torii are traditionally built as entrances to Shinto shrines.



Miyajima

Pictures are from National Geographic

ShinJon, Pyonkichi, and Shinkun

Shinkun is my first regular kid student. He is fascinated with anything about frogs, including Keroru, with Naruto, and Fairy Tail (Yes, manga can be a good literature especially if you're studying Japanese culture). Shinkun and I started from scratch. He makes me proud for improving a lot nowadays whereas he could barely utter a single English word before.

Shinkun rocks!


Yesterday, he said they bought a frog's house. I thought it was a joke. But it seems he caught two tadpoles in the park's puddle and decided to make them as pets. The name of the first is Pyonkichi. I asked him the name of the second one, and he said, "JONA." Hahaha! I laughed so hard. We decided to give it a name "ShinJon." A combination of our names. Hahaha. How could he distinguish Pyonkichi from ShinJon? Tadpoles look alike. Hahahaha

Where are Pyonkichi and ShinJon? <

Where are they?





Here he is: Shinkun aka the Jake in my iTalk existence with his antics in my class.

























Shinkun having fun stuffing his nose with tissue paper. I did this too while having our class. Hahaha





















Angry Shinkun. We had a Facial Expression class. We practiced basic facial expressions such as "happy," "sad," "tired," and "sick."

Humbling

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.—Ryan Bingham, character of the movie





It is always humbling to know that you contribute something useful to individuals. Learning is an infinite process—it never stops. How could one improve his or her skills? This question is a frequent visitor in my classes. I'm constant with my answer: read and read aloud.



Reading is an advocacy.