japanese culture– tag –

What would you do if you won the lottery of 10 million dollars? Quit a job, charter a plane, and go for luxury travel abroad? I believe everyone has such an experience to talk about something silly like this, but seriously think about it for a moment. Are you sure you can keep on doing only what you want to do even if you're alone?

Have you ever seen "jewelry ice?" It is completely different from drift ice, made of not sea water but fresh water, and so, it's highly transparent like a diamond. River water turns into ice on the surface at river mouth, and the ice pieces, before getting washed ashore, drift in the sea for a while, get rounded off, and are more brightly polished. According to Wikipedia, this natural phenomenon occurs only along the coast of a small town in Hokkaido even in all the wide world.

Do you know Theodore Levitt? He is a legendary marketer, well-known for his saying "Sell the hole, not the drill." He argued "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole." His point is that we marketers should focus not on products or services themselves but rather on the purposes people want to achieve by using the products or services.

Many Japanese people have misunderstood or even don't know the spirit of Christmas. Due to the misunderstanding or ignorance, I think we celebrate Christmas in a unique and funny way, like rushing to Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants on Christmas Eve.

Why Are People Attracted to Handmade Products? Do we want to sacrifice others for better quality? In fact, it's not only for quality. We need something else, like meaning or stories behind things.

The king of mashrooms in Japan is definitely pine mushrooms, Matsutake in Japanese. They are very expensive, like about 300 USD for one piece, but funnily enough, it's not popular at all outside Japan. Let's see the long history of eating mushrooms in Japan.

Fascination and awe for fire. We have such slightly conflicting emotions probably because that should be the optimal condition for survival, but now we can fully satisfy our feelings of fascination for fire under a safe environment here in Hokkaido.

In Japan, baseball is still the most popular sport, and the national high school baseball championship (Koshien) is a popular seasonal sport event. It has a long history of about 100 years. The shaved head of high school players is one of the traditions, funnily enough.

Almost all the Japanese people can't help feeling "I have to go home" whenever hearing the Scottish folk song "Auld Lang Syne." The song is very popular and recognized in Japan as a song to inform closing time of shops, restaurants, etc. The Japanese title of the song is "The Light of Fireflies." People in Hokkaido have been working hard to recover the environment to see fireflies again.

There are so many hidden gems in Hokkaido. You can see beautiful scenery e.g.; lakes, mountains, forest, sea and so on. I would like to share some gems in Hokkaido. 【Hell Valley in Hokkaido】 Hokkaido is like a heaven but there is the H...