Food, food and food again. I have to appear pretty gluttonous. As a conclusion to today’s contribution marathon it is now about food, I know someone who always tells me: “You have to eat, otherwise you die”. After all, this person is right and the food belongs to the culture as well. I think I don’t have mentionedContinue Reading
Cultural
Kawaii
I only write about this topic a bit because I do not presume to explain it completely. Nevertheless, it receives its own entry because it is an important part of today’s Japanese culture. Kawaii (in Hiragana わ い い) means something like “sweet, cute, childish, lovely or even attractive”. His derivatives kawaisō and kawairashii can Continue Reading
Christmas
Merry Christmas everywhere, or not? Clearly in a Christian country Christmas is celebrated, but Japan is not Christian. Nevertheless, Christmas is known here, albeit in a different way. For one thing, it’s not celebrated, these are normal days here. But what exists is a commercial variant. This day is also heavily promoted by retailers with discounts. Otherwise, you see only a little Christmas decoration which is also strongly based on the American variant and what I have seen so far in Shizuoka, seemed rarely beautiful, often rather misplaced or cheesy (from my point of view). The Japanese love to dress up, so you can buy a lot of different costumes, from reindeer to Santa Claus. Especially many different Miss Santa Claus costumes were to be had, Shame be to him who thinks evil of it. The Japanese are more in love with the events, but I was told at the expense of their own festivals and culture. Another (miss) need is that the Japanese combine Christmas Eve with chicken wings and potato wedges, thanks to Kentucky Fried Chicken … ..Continue Reading
Year end parties
Actually, this post is a hidden food contribution. Also here in Japan, the end of the year is celebrated with a party. Since in Japan the social constraints are quite strict and hierarchical, these celebrations can be substantially relaxed. In my case it was not yet out of the norm.Continue Reading
Japan – Insects
Hello you out there, I’m not (yet) dead and my blog also not. I’m not experiencing that much right now. Therefore, this time it is only a filler contribution. Although I was today in the Prefecture Art Museum and had the pleasure of a special exhibition about the ancient Japanese art / ink style, but photos are prohibited as always. In addition, museums in Japan seem to be smaller than in Germany (at least the ones I’ve seen so far), I often only need around half an hour. Continue Reading
Tokyo – Imperial Garden
Last week I was once again in Germany, when only very briefly for a conference. Therefore, also no time to visit anybody or enjoy the stay. Fortunately, I was able to visit some, because it was in my old university. Twice in a short timeContinue Reading
Shizuoka -Shizuoka Sengen Shrine
Hello again after a long time. I’m still live, even if I don’t have many experiences that I can blog. Here in Japan the autumn begins, too, but that just means that it’s slightly cooling down and the humidity drops. Cooler means down to 26°C. The last weekend it had only rained so that it was still somewhat cooler and in the night to today was the tropical storm Talim was also active in Shizuoka. He Continue Reading
Shizuoka – O-Bon
The O-Bon or Bon only (the O is an honorary prefix) is a Buddhist feast to honor the ancestors and also to ease the suffering of those in hell. However, O-Bon has also developed into a family festival, in which all of them meet and celebrate. The graves are also visited and specially well-kept.Continue Reading
Shizuoka – Kunōzan Tōshō-gū
Yesterday on 11.08 was a new national holiday, the mountain day. On this day the mountains are to be paid attention. There is also a same UN day of holiday, but it has nothing to do with it, and the Japanese who asked me could not tell me exactly why it really exists.
So I went to the mountain that day to celebrate him…
OK, I would have gone there without the day, but rather because of what is there and that is the Shinto shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu (family / clan name, first name).Continue Reading
Hanabi
Hanabi means fireworks, but at the same time it has a much larger and stronger meaning. Hanabi is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. It belongs to the summer here that there are fireworks. Not just a few, but many and large. A colleague had problems to imagine a summer without fireworks when I told that in Germany there is actually only New Year’s fireworks, apart from a few exceptions. The Japanese fireworksContinue Reading