Fall season or autumn (or ‘Aki’) in Japan starts in the early September, and it is also the season of typhoon. This year Japan was visited by infamous Typhoon Melor in the near mid of autumn. Weather resembling that of the rainy season also occurs because of the autumnal rain fronts. The weather clears in mid-October, and the winter winds start to blow. If summer is a season of fun, festivals and holidays, autumn in Japan is more like a season of relaxing and pure enjoyment of nature and it …

Hello all, and welcome to lesson two of Japanese Greeting Etiquette and Customs! This time, it will be on the main form of physical greeting in Japan, which is bowing. Bowing, in the Japanese culture is much more common rather than giving a casual handshake or a hug (for much more casual and friendlier occasions), like people of other nation usually do. Bowing, together with its implication is actually quite complicated, especially for foreigners like us to comprehend.
Most social situations in Japan have an appropriate greeting, and bowing has many …

Whoever has never heard of Doraemon? A manga and anime character that has gain popularity worldwide. Kids everywhere love watching the anime on TV and reading the manga. On the day when the mangaka (a term known in Japan as a person who creates, write stories and draw comics) died, it was the day that many people, especially avid fans of the manga mourn altogether. Not only because there won’t be anymore releases but also because they’ve loved the mangaka, the ideas and good memories brought by him while reading …

Japan may be facing a declining birth rate, but not in the number of vending machines available in the country. In just no more than 4 years, there has been an additional of 100,000 more vending machines of all kinds available nationwide in Japan. In 2006, the number of vending machines was roughly 5.4 millions and in the year 2009, the figure has reached 5.5 million. Ratio is about one vending machine for every 20 people living in Japan.
Vending machines are called as ‘Jidou-hanbaiki‘ in Japan. These intelligent machines are …

One more aspect that the Japanese people of the old times have outsourced from their nearest neighboring countries is the zodiac system, which in nature has many linkages with Buddhism. The Japanese zodiac system is so much similar to that of the ancient Chinese zodiac system, but in truth that is it the same thing after all. The Chinese zodiac system is rather ‘karmatic’ in nature. Something that is very well related to Buddhism. Instead of the linear pattern of the western calendar, the Chinese zodiac system adopted a set …

When it comes to forms of addressing a person while you’re in Japan, you’ll probably come across the –san suffix pretty often. The word –san is added to the end of a person’s name as a sign of respect. As you know, Japanese is classified as an extremely polite people in social and cultural context, especially with people they are not acquainted to. In the everyday life of Japanese people, the word –san is used as an addressing suffix added to a person family.
This is pretty similar to the English …

Japan is a country with a multitude range of festivals, celebrations, holidays and traditional ceremonial occasions, be it of their own origin or those derives form other cultures and later integrated into theirs. For your information, in Japan, festivals falls into two main categories; which are matsuri (simply means festivals) and nenchu gyoji (meaning annual events). Nenchu gyoji is also pronounced as ‘nenju gyoji’. Matsuri are usually festivals of native Japanese and Shinto origin. It is held annually on established dates sometimes decided by the shrine. Festivals which fall under …