Japanese Culture and Traditions– category –

I rarely buy flowers. It’s only on Mother’s Day, though I forget even that sometimes. Probably that’s because I don’t really know what flowers I should buy. On Mother’s Day, it’s easy because flower shops offer a wide variety of Mother’s Day bouquet options. In addition, there’s a mental wall in us, I guess. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone who is waiting for his/her date with a flower bouquet, and so I believe it only happens in the movies. In other words, that may be because of Richard Gere in “Pretty Woman” or “Shall We Dance?” Flower gifting becomes a mission impossible for us ordinary people, based on my fully biased opinion.[...]

【Japanese-style job hunting: New graduates start all together】 All the schools (elementary, junior-high, high, and college & university) start from April to next-year March in Japan. March is the season of graduation. As this may s...

【Arrival: Cognitive difference between humans and aliens】 Have you watched the Hollywood movie titled “Arrival” (2016)? Simply put, it’s a science fiction depicting the contact with aliens. I know it may sound same old, but it’s comple...

【Rare and luxury food: honey made by Japanese honey bees】 Have you ever tried honey made in Japan? It's more expensive than ones imported from China and Argentina (I think those two countries are major honey exporters to Japan). The ma...

【First encounter with a high society in Japan】 A noble class still exists in Japan. I learned the surprising fact when I worked for the prefectural government in Nagoya (the fourth biggest city in Japan and TOYOTA’s home ground) about ...

【Tragic inflation will attack Japanese school kids】 Are bananas categorized as snacks for a trip? I ensure this phrase never fails to make Japanese people laugh. Japanese elementary school students (6 to 12 years old) go on a school da...

【Godzilla becomes an academic research subject in Japan】 In my childhood, Godzilla was my hero. I memorized even the height and weight of many monsters in Godzilla movies, let alone their names. I'm sure I would have annoyed many peopl...

【We come to need hotels for another reason】 The COVID destroyed the bright future of the Japanese tourism industry. The number of foreign tourists to Japan was increasing year by year and exceeded 30 million in 2018, when the nationwid...

【This is the reality of the frozen world】 The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen. When you hear this song, you may picture in your mind some beautiful scenes, like Elsa and Anna playing in the snow and...

【What we do for Christmas in Japan】 Almost all the cities are filled with Christmas decorations in this season, though the percentage of the Christian population is only 1% in Japan. As I wrote before, we are good at cream-skimming oth...