Strange

Gion is a district in Kyōto, which was only formed in the Sengoku period (“time of the warring countries”; ca. 1467 – 1600). It is directly at Yasaka Shrine (formerly Gion Shrine) and not far from Kiyomizu Temple. It has become the best known geisha quarter in all of Japan.

And now once again something done in my (very rare) free time. I was on a short weekend trip to Nagoya. That could be arranged, because a tour from Shizuoka with the Shinkansen doesn’t take that long.

I actually found some time to go on vacation. But only for 5 days, de facto 3 days, because 2 days arrival and departure included. And this is considered a long vacation by Japanese standards. This time I went to Okinawa, the former Ryūkyū Kingdom. Okinawa Hontō is the main island of the prefecture of the same name, which is also called the japanese Hawaii, and Naha is the capital. I went there at the end of August, but I still felt like I would die there every day, because of the heat and humidity. Fortunately it was relatively cloudy, so that I was often spared at least from the burning sun. Without strong sun protection I would have become a roast chicken even in appearance.

This time I simply joined colleagues who wanted to Tokyo, more precisely to Odaiba. Odaiba is an artificial island in the bay of Tokyo and has some attractions. In order to save some money and because we were a larger group, we bought a kind of group ticket for the regional train instead of the Shinkansen or the equally acceptable bus. Continue Reading

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

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

Since I tried last weekend with Japanese colleagues to bake German apple pie, because ingredients are difficult to get and I have in the dorm only the microwave oven, I had no time / interest to write something, so I will today write a little what I noticed about cultural things or what is perhaps also typical for Japan. First of all, I must say that I hadn’t a cultural shock. Japan or at least this area here is totally  Continue Reading