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 …

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 …

2010 World Most Expensive City
Last year, the city ranked second but this year, due to the rising strength of yen has brought back Tokyo, Japan to the number one spot in the top 10 listing of most expensive cities in the world, as per information provided by BusinessWeek, beating Luanda, Angola down to number three this year. If you haven’t noticed or realized just how expensive it is the cost of living in Japan, perhaps knowing that in just the first 10 of the expensive cities in the world list, …

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 …

Almost every nation has their taxes to pay, including Japan. The national Japanese domestic tax system is administered by the National Tax Administration in Japan, a semi-independent body of the Ministry of Finance, of which oversees a total of 12 regional taxation bureaus and 517 local tax offices. Whereby their tax policy and international tax negotiation are handled by an internal bureau of the Ministry of Finance called Tax Bureau. However, for tax matters, a general framework is established by the Local Tax Law, which is overseen by the Local …

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 …