Category About Japan

If you’re familiar with geisha culture–and not the Western stereotype that a geisha is a Japanese prostitute–you know that formally entertaining a guest is an integral part of Japanese culture. There’s a proper Japanese way to interact with guests and…

This week we’ll take another look at a famous Japanese ghost story. Look over last week’s entry and compare the two–you’ll find some similarities. This week is the tale of Banchou Sarayashiki, another ghost story with its origins in a…

Summer is the season of Obon in Japan, so it’s high time for another look at a traditional Japanese ghost story. This time we’ll take a look at Botan Dourou and the two most common versions of the tale.  Also…

If you enjoy Japanese food, you owe it to yourself to learn about Japanese table manners. Not only does the knowledge of this aspect of Japanese culture broaden your mind, but if you ever find yourself eating in Japan or…

Bloody Mary, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow… How many ghost stories from Western culture can you name? In Japan, where cultural beliefs born from the Shinto religion dictate that everyone and every thing–even inanimate objects–have spirits, there are quite a…

Knock on wood, don’t open an umbrella indoors… All cultures have superstitions and the Japanese are no exception. If you spend time in Japan or even if you just watch Japanese TV shows and movies, you may notice a few…

The traditional rounin is a wandering samurai–a samurai who lost his master, either to death or to his master’s fall from grace. Since the samurai’s entire life revolved around devotion to the master, the samurai loses his sense of of…

A controversial subject for decades has been Japan’s decision to engage in annual whale hunts for what it deems a scientific program, a study to determine the status of population and species that the Japanese government insists does not significantly…