The world has children’s day, however, Japan has been celebrating their little ones since long time ago.
Shichi Go San is a festival to celebrate the children in Japan. It is the coming of children of age seven, five and three. The word ‘Shichi Go San’ itself directly translates to seven-five-three. Shichi Go San is not a national holiday, however, on this day girls of age three and seven, boys age three and five are celebrated. Their parents will have the children dress in elaborated children kimono with traditional obi (for …

It is summer again and it calls for the time of summer festivals in Japan, where there are various kinds of stalls (or yatai), hanabi (fireworks), yukata, beaches and watermelons!
July and August marks the peak of summer in Japan. And in these months Japanese people celebrate summer festivals which may vary from place to place. One such festival is called Obon or Bon Festival which is a Japanese custom festival celebrated as part to honor the deceased spirits of their ancestors. It is actually a customary tradition closely related to …

Washi paper, is probably one of the many basics in numerous Japanese papercrafts and arts.
It is used as foundation in most traditional Japanese arts and papercrafts, which were applied in rituals and daily life of the Japanese people ever since they knew how to make paper on their own. Washi was developed from the traditional Chinese art of paper-making process, and by using their own method, material and some re engineering of the technology, washi is produced.
The word ‘washi’ itself means Japanese paper. ‘Wa’ meaning Japanese and ‘shi’ meaning paper, …

Learning something that you really like should be a very pleasant experience for everyone, such in the case when you are trying to learn a new language. Japanese language is a very interesting language to begin with. It helps a lot knowing certain words and phrases in Japanese while living or touring Japan. Therefore, I wanted to provide something useful for people who wants to learn just the simple and basic Japanese language phrases and words for free and most importantly, it should fun too!
So meet Natsu Sensei~ She will …

I received one reply to my previous post on the issue of ‘Ohaguro’ or Black Teeth Custom, which was once a very popular custom in the ancient Japan. The question pertain to the reason as to why the practice was banned in the Meiji period, well, instead of replying straight, I find this is a very interesting issue to discuss and research on and so I did, and decided to write a post on it. By the way, you can read more on the introduction from my previous post titled …

Japan, like its many other oriental companion countries takes huge pride in the profuse numbers of shrines and temples within the country. Some of them are dedicated to Shinto religion while some are of Buddhism origin. One such temple that I will write about this time is the Mimurodo-ji, which is also the 10th temple of the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage.
Japan too, as we might have noticed before is a country that place grave importance towards nature and and its surrounding. The Japanese love to fuse themselves with natural surrounding and …

Akoh Gishi Sai or “The Forty-Seven Loyal Retainers in Akoh” is one of the many festivals in Japan, which is traditional in nature.
If you’ve heard of the samurai movie ‘Chushingura’, then you have all the reason to know about Akoh Gishi Sai. If you are a follower of the Japanese culture, history and lifestyle, you will probably have noticed the extent of loyalty in their lives. Being loyal to one’s Country, King, Lords, Masters and Parents is basic knowledge and ethic in the Japanese people since the ancient times. Although …