JapaneseCulture
Ofuro or furo (traditional Japanese bath) is a really deep seated tradition in Japan that has carried on until today. The Japanese routine entails showering at night right before going to bed. After a shower, Japanese people get into a bathtub full of really hot water (approximately 45 ºC / 110 ºF) for a few [...]
Pachinko are the quintessential Japanese slot machines. They are machines with small marble-like balls that you have to throw and depending on where they land, you receive money or not. On most playing modes, the only thing you can control is the speed at which you throw the balls, so it’s quite a “stupid” game. [...]
Bruce Lee said: “Be water my friend”, last weekend Garr Reynolds in his talk at TEDxTokyo said: “Be bamboo my friend”. In that sentence, Garr sums up several lessons Japanese people has taught him using bamboo as a metaphor: what looks weak is strong, you do not have to be big to be strong, bend [...]
In one of the temples in Nikko, the ceiling is full of dragons, some of them are holding a ball and others are not. Those that are not holding a ball, are the ones that go up (Nobori Ryu – 昇り龍), they are coming back to the sky. Legend has it that those that are [...]
Hansei (反省) is one of the concepts of Japanese culture that has been the hardest for me to fathom, and I believe that I still have a lot to understand and live within Japanese society to understand the concept like a Japanese person. Han (反) means “change”, “to turn something over”, “to see something from [...]
In this post last week, a reader asked what were those bear looking figures in the penultimate picture. They are tanuki! The “Real” Tanuki The tanuki is considered a member of the canine family, it is usually mistaken for a raccoon. It is a native species of Japan and Manchuria but they can also be [...]
Ukiyo-e literally means “paintings of the floating world”. Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art genre that was produced during the Edo period (1600-1868). During more than 200 years Japan was sealed to any foreign influence, but the life in the cities was completely centered around the pleasures of life and art. Ukiyo-e art was mass-produced using [...]
Taro Okamoto is one of the most important Japanese artists of the 20th century. Most of his works can be enjoyed in Japanese museums and also in open spaces, like for example The Tower of the Sun, built in Osaka as the symbol of Expo ’70. The Myth of Tomorrow (Asu no shinwa – 明日の神話) [...]
