Feel Shitamachi-style in Ueno

February 13, 2008 - 10:42 am by sachie_kobayashi in Others  

When it comes to Ueno, we think of National Museums, the spacious park, Ameyoko Market and so on. However it’s also fun to look for the vertiges of ‘Old Tokyo’,or Shitamachi as it’s called in Japanese.
What is Shitamachi? If you would like to know, I would recommend visiting ‘The Shitamachi Museum’ first; it is the worth the 300 [...]

Internet Access in Japan

June 30, 2007 - 4:49 pm by kiokitok in Travel  

Today, Internet is an essential method in order to collect information. Usually, you can find more updated information in better quality than any other methods. Depending on the environment you are in, you can choose different options.
If you do not have any laptop computers, you should simply go to Manga Kissa or Internet [...]

Football/Soccer in Japan

June 16, 2007 - 1:23 pm by kiokitok in Travel  

Football has gained its popularity for 15 years. It had never been regarded as major sports like sumo, baseball or golf until the professional league was established. On May 15, 1993, J-League had a huge ceremony to inaugurate the professional league. The ceremony was televised, and instantly had a great impact especially [...]

Tsuyu

May 26, 2007 - 11:29 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

Tsuyu season is coming. It keeps raining for nearly a month and a half. That is the period people constantly make complaints. It gets very humid while the temperature increases day by day. The sky gets dark so that they sometimes feel depressed. In the meantime, it is an important [...]

Shinto Festivals

May 12, 2007 - 3:34 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

Quite a few Japanese have their own religions. Others make use of religious events throughout their life. In New Year, many of them visit shrines and pray. Christianity is a popular religion for wedding. When they die, they cry under the name of Buddha. The Japanese enjoy these rituals.
Matsuri is [...]

Children’s Day

May 5, 2007 - 4:16 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

The Japanese celebrates Children’s Day on May 5. That particular day has been celebrated as Tango no Sekku. It was the day they pray for their children’s health and prosperity. This celebration was said to be imported from China although the Koreans claimed and was now recognized that it was born in [...]

Golden Week

April 28, 2007 - 10:54 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

In the end of April, there is about a week of holidays called Golden Week. A lot of Japanese go for a trip. Every tourist site is filled with people both in and outside of Japan. As soon as the days are over, everyone goes back to the business.
Salarymen (white-collar employees) rarely [...]

Baseball in Japan

April 7, 2007 - 6:13 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

Although it is losing the popularity, baseball is still one of the most popular sports in Japan. It was first imported from the U.S., but took a while until it got popularity. Once being popular, baseball became the sport for the Japanese, often defeating sumo.

Baseball was first imported from the U.S. in 1871. [...]

Hanami Party

March 24, 2007 - 9:21 pm by kiokitok in Culture  

The Japanese enjoy mild climate in spring. Various flowers come out in this season. Among those flowers, cherry blossom is probably the most popular. When it comes out, people feel happiness because they just get over the cold winter. On the other hand, they feel sadness in their mind because cherry [...]

Chinese New Year at Yokohama Chinatown

February 18, 2007 - 12:00 am by kiokitok in Travel  

The Chinese are everywhere in the world. They often build Chinatown and make their living on their own. In 1858, Japan opend its door to other countries. Port of Yokohama was opened in the following year. Various countries created their settlements there. The Chinese too moved to Yokohama as the [...]