See all at here.

We are noticed many people send donation for us everyday.
We are encouraged by your voices.
Thank you again for your support.

みなさん、ありがとうございます。

The picture is Sakura which I took April 2nd near my home.

Japanese guitarist Jin Oki won a flamenco guitar contest in Spain, music label Victor Entertainment Inc said Friday. Oki is the first Japanese to win the top prize of the international division of the contest, Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Flamenca Nino Ricardo, which was held in the southeastern city of Murcia for two days from Wednesday, according to Victor Entertainment.

Oki’s management company said the 35-year-old native of Nagano Prefecture beat an Argentine guitarist in the final of the division that featured non-Spanish contestants, going one better than his runner-up finish in the 2008 contest. Oki honed his skills in Canada and Spain after graduating from high school. He wrote one of the theme tunes for the drama serial ‘‘Furinkazan,’’ aired by public broadcaster NHK in 2007.

YouTube – 宇宙ステーション補給機「こうのとり」（HTV）2号機～宇宙船が運ぶ未来～.

引用元: YouTube – GEO～Tracking the Global Carbon Cycle（地球規模炭素循環の監視）～.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 157 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 183 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 43mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 13th with 106 views. The most popular post that day was NISHI IZU.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, digg.com, facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, and kazz12211.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for kinako mochi, mao asada, kimigayo, koinobori, and tenno heika.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

NISHI IZU April 2010
2 comments

MAO ASADA March 2010
4 comments

KINAKO MOCHI March 2010
1 comment

SHIBA INU March 2010
6 comments

CHUSHU NO MEIGETSU – Tsukimi September 2010
6 comments

YouTube – 【http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1BdZ5XqOxY.

Tenno Heika Banzai!
天皇陛下万歳！

In 2010,various events will be held in Nara Prefecture to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of Nara Heijo-kyo Capital.On this special occasion, we will appreciate the fact that the ancient traditions and cultures of Japan have been preserved until today,and communicate to the world our wish to hand down those traditions and cultures to future generations.

For more details, see http://www.1300.jp/foreign/english/index.html.

YouTube – 平城遷都1300年祭.

Tsukimi or Otsukimi, literally moon-viewing, refers to Japanese festivals honoring the autumn moon. The celebration of the full moon typically takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the traditional Japaneselunisolar calendar; the waxing moon is celebrated on the 13th day of the ninth month. These days normally fall in September and October of the modern solar calendar.

The tradition dates to the Jomon period, and is now so popular in Japan that some people repeat the activities for several evenings following the appearance of the full moon during the eighth lunisolar month.

Tsukimi traditions include displaying decorations made from Japanese pampas grass (susuki) and eating rice dumplings called Tsukimi dango in order to celebrate the beauty of the moon. Seasonal produce are also displayed as offerings to the moon. Sweet potatoes are offered to the full moon, while beans or chestnuts are offered to the waxing moon the following month. The alternate names of the celebrations, Imomeigetsu (literally “potato harvest moon”) and Mamemeigetsu (“bean harvest moon”) or Kurimeigetsu (“chestnut harvest moon”) are derived from these offerings.

YouTube – The traditional Making of a Samurai Sword (Katana).

Do you eat Unagi?
I went to Unagi restaurant yesterday.
This restaurant serves their Unagi dish to the Royal Family of Nippon when they visit Hakone.
The combination of Unagi and Wasabi is very Japanese.
If you come to Japan, please try it.

UNAGI is the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica, is a species of eel found in Japan, Korea, Vietnam the East China Sea and the northern Philippines. Like the all the eels of its family, it is catadromous, meaning it lives parts of its life in both freshwater and saltwater. The specific spawning grounds have been recently discovered amongst seamounts to the west of the Mariana Islands. Adult eels migrate thousands of miles from freshwater rivers in East Asia to this location. The larvae, called leptocephali, hatch in the open sea and are carried by the Kuroshio Current to areas close to land where they consume plankton. After reaching adequate size, they enter the headwaters of rivers and travel upstream where they eventually reach adulthood. They are known to sometimes leave water at night and crawl over land. Its diet consists mainly of shrimp, insects and small fish. The eels are eaten in Japan, where they are called unagi, and also have uses in Chinese medicine.

Wasabi , originally Wasabia japonica, Cochlearia wasabi, or Eutrema japonica) is a member of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, andmustard. Known as “Japanese horseradish”, its root is used as a spice and has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard rather than the capsaicin in a chili pepper, producing vapors that stimulate the nasal passages more than the tongue. The plant grows naturally along stream beds in mountain river valleys in Japan. There are also other species used, such as W. koreana, and W. tetsuigi. The two main cultivars in the marketplace are W. japonica cv. ‘Daruma’ and cv. ‘Mazuma’, but there are many others.

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (Rikujō Jieitai^?), or JGSDF, is the militaryground force (army) of Japan. The largest of the three services of the JSDF, the Ground Self-Defense Force operates under the command of the chief of the ground staff, based in the city ofIchigaya, Tokyo. The present chief of ground staff is General Yoshifumi Hibako. The JGSDF numbers around 147,000 soldiers.

For Imperial Japanese Army (1871–1947), please see that article.

Yamato (大和), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was the lead ship of theYamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. Neither survived the war.

Laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned in late 1941, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan’s main rival in the Pacific. Throughout 1942 she served as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and in June 1942 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the disastrous Battle of Midway. Musashi took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early 1943, and Yamato spent the rest of the year, and much of 1944, moving between the major Japanese naval bases ofTruk and Kure in response to American threats. Although she was present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, Yamato played no part in the battle. The only time she fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October 1944, when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On the verge of success the Japanese force turned back, believing they were engaging an entire US carrier fleet rather than the light escort-carrier group that was all that stood between Yamato and the vulnerable troop transports.

During 1944 the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan, and by early 1945 the Japanese fleet was much depleted and critically short of fuel stocks in the home islands, limiting its usefulness. In April 1945, in a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance,Yamato was dispatched on a one-way voyage to Okinawa, where it was intended that she should protect the island from invasion and fight until destroyed. Her task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew.

YouTube – 今甦る　戦艦大和　1/11.

I go to Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th every year.
There are many relics and last words of warriors are displayed in Yushukan of Yasukuni Shrine.
The following is one from those  last words.

I respectfully say to the Divine souls of Yasukuni Shrine.
I have received my discharge order today. What could I possibly say to you, the Divine souls of Yasukuni Shrine, who believed in the certain victory of the Empire and thoroughly carried out your important duty of defending it? I simply regret that I was unable to fulfill my obligations to the Empire and I apologize through my own death.

Iwao Kondo, Sergeant, Military Police, Japanese Army

My Last Words

I respectfully say to my parents,
I have received my discharge order today. Unavoidable circumstances prevented me from returning home. I am terribly mortified. Many of my fellow soldiers have gone before me. Without having fulfilled my long-cherished desire as a soldier how could I return home at this belated hour? Please understand how I feel.
As a soldier and to advance on the great path of my convictions, I have resolved to die. Please forgive me.
It is more than twenty-four years since I came into the world. I am sincerely grateful to you for your troubles to raise me. I ask that you train my remaining two brothers well to devote to the protection of the Empire.
Please take good care of yourselves.
August 18, 1945
Iwao
To: Father and Mother

Iwao Kondo Mikoto
Sergeant, Military Police, Japanese Army
Suicide From a Sense of Responsibility on August 19, 1945 in Tokyo Metropolis
Born in Aichi Prefecture
Age: 22

[Original]

「謹みて靖国神社の神霊に申す」

陸軍憲兵軍曹 近藤巖命
(昭和二十年八月十九日 東京都にて自決 愛知県出身 二十二歳)

謹みて靖国神社の神霊に申す
本日復員の命下れり。皇国の必勝を信じ、護持の大任を完ふされし靖国の神霊に何と申し上げべきや。只、吾が責務の完からざるを思ひ、此処に一死を以て詫びんとす。

陸軍憲兵軍曹 近藤巖

遺言
謹みて御両親様に申し上げます。
本日復員の命下り、帰郷の余儀なきに至りました。真に無念に存じます。多くの戦友に先立たれ、軍人の本分を完ふせず、今更何んで帰られませう。巖の胸中、お察し下され。
武人として、又、自己の信念の大道を進むべく、此処に死を決します。お許し下され。
生を受けてより此の方、二十四余年余。此の間の御両親様の御辛労、深く深く感謝致します。後に残りし弟二人、立派に御薫陶の上、皇国護持の為に尽さしめられたくお願ひ申し上げます。
折角御自重遊されなく。
昭和二十年八月十八日

巖
御両親様

I’m sorry that I can’t translate those words into English perfectly because the words include very rich meanings which can’t be translated easily into another language.

[Original]

教育勅語

朕惟フニ我カ皇祖皇宗國ヲ肇ムルコト宏遠ニ德ヲ樹ツルコト深厚ナリ
我カ臣民克ク忠ニ克ク孝ニ億兆心ヲ一ニシテ世世厥ノ美ヲ濟セルハ此
レ我カ國體ノ精華ニシテ教育ノ淵源亦實ニ此ニ存ス爾臣民父母ニ孝ニ
兄弟ニ友ニ夫婦相和シ朋友相信シ恭儉己レヲ持シ博愛衆ニ及ホシ學ヲ
修メ業ヲ習ヒ以テ智能ヲ啓發シ德器ヲ成就シ進テ公益ヲ廣メ世務ヲ開
キ常ニ國憲ヲ重シ國法ニ遵ヒ一旦緩急アレハ義勇公ニ奉シ以テ天壤無
窮ノ皇運ヲ扶翼スヘシ是ノ如キハ獨リ朕カ忠良ノ臣民タルノミナラス
又以テ爾祖先ノ遺風ヲ顯彰スルニ足ラン
斯ノ道ハ實ニ我カ皇祖皇宗ノ遺訓ニシテ子孫臣民ノ倶ニ遵守スヘキ所
之ヲ古今ニ通シテ謬ラス之ヲ中外ニ施シテ悖ラス朕爾臣民ト倶ニ拳々
服膺シテ咸其德ヲ一ニセンコトヲ庶幾フ

明治二十三年十月三十日
御名御璽

[Modern Japanese]

教育勅語

私の思い起こすことには、我が皇室の祖先たちが国を御始めになったのは遙か遠き昔のことで、そこに御築きになった徳は深く厚きものでした。我が臣民は忠と孝の道をもって万民が心を一つにし、世々にわたってその美をなしていきましたが、これこそ我が国体の誉れであり、教育の根本もまたその中にあります。

あなた方臣民よ、父母に孝行し、兄弟仲良くし、夫婦は調和よく協力しあい、友人は互いに信じ合い、慎み深く行動し、皆に博愛の手を広げ、学問を学び手に職を付け、知能を啓発し徳と才能を磨き上げ、世のため人のため進んで尽くし、いつも憲法を重んじ法律に従い、もし非常事態となったなら、公のため勇敢に仕え、このようにして天下に比類なき皇国の繁栄に尽くしていくべきです。これらは、ただあなた方が我が忠実で良き臣民であるというだけのことではなく、あなた方の祖先の遺(のこ)した良き伝統を反映していくものでもあります。

このような道は実に、我が皇室の祖先の御遺(のこ)しになった教訓であり、子孫臣民の共に守らねばならないもので、昔も今も変わらず、国内だけでなく外国においても間違いなき道です。私はあなた方臣民と共にこれらを心に銘記し守っていきますし、皆一致してその徳の道を歩んでいくことを希(こいねが)っています。

明治二十三年十月三十日

（天皇陛下の署名と印。）

[English Translation]

The Imperial message on Education

Know ye, our subjects;

Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue； Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof．This is the glory of the fundamental character of our Empire，and herein also lies the source of Our education． Ye， Our subjects，to be filial to your parents , affectionate to your brothers and sisters； as husbands and wives be harmonious , as friends true； bear yourselves in modesty and moderation； extend your benevolence to all；pursue learning and cultivate arts，and thereby develop intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers；furthermore advance public good and promote common interests； always respect the  Constitution and observe the laws； should emergency arise，offer yourselves courageously to the State； and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth．So shall ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects，but render illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers．

The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors， to be observed alike by Their Descendants and the subjects，infallible for all ages and true in all places．It is Our wish to lay it to heart in all reverence， in common with you，

Our subjects， that we may all thus attain to the same virtue．

The 30th day of the 10th month of the 23rd year of Meiji，

(Imperial Sign Manual， Imperial Seal)

Nishiizu (Nishiizu-chō) is a town located in Kamo District, Shizuoka, Japan. As of 2009, the town has an estimated population of 9,720 and a density of 92.1 persons per km². The total area is 105.52 km².

Sandwiched between the Amagi Mountains to the west and Suruga Bay on the Pacific Ocean to the west, Nishiizu has a hill hinterland and a rocky, indented coast. The area has numerous hot springs. Warmed by the warm Kuroshio Current, the area enjoys a warm maritime climate with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters. Parts of the town are within the borders of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park,

Lake Ashi (Ashino-ko), or Hakone Lake, Ashinoko Lake, is a scenic lake in the Hakone area of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshū, Japan. It is a crater lake that lies along the southwest wall of the caldera of Mount Hakone, a complex volcano. The lake is known for its views of Mt. Fuji and its numerous hot springs. Several pleasure boats and ferries traverse the lake, providing scenic views for tourists and passengers. One of the boats is a full-scale replica of a man-of-war pirate ship.

Most visitors to Lake Ashi stay in the nearby resorts or visit some of the local attractions, including taking the aerial tram Hakone Ropeway to The Great Boiling Valley. From Togendaion Lake Ashi, the Hakone Ropeway aerial tram connects to Sounzan, the upper terminus of the Hakone Tozan Cable Car funicular railway. This in turn connects to the Hakone Tozan Line mountain railway for the descent to Odawara and a connection to Tokyo by the Tōkaidō Shinkansen.

These pictures were taken at Shizuka Hobby Fair (2010/7/24 – 2011/3/27).
If you like toys and models, please visit there.

Mobile Suit Gundam (Kidō Senshi Gandamu, lit. Mobile Soldier Gundam, also known as First Gundam, Gundam 0079 or simply Gundam 79) is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network between April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes. It was the very first Gundam series, which has subsequently been adapted into numerous sequels and spin-offs.

The series was later re-edited for theatrical release and split into three movies in 1981. The characters were designed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Kunio Okawara was responsible for the mechanical designs, including the titular giant robot, the RX-78-2 Gundam. When the first movie was released on February 22, 1981, it was regarded as the new age of Anime and an event called Declaration of new age of Anime in Shinjuku and director Tomino delivered a speech questioning the then social concept in which stereotypical Anime was portrayed as being bad and poorly made to the gathered 15,000 youngsters.

The series was the first winner of the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, in 1979 and the first half of 1980. By the end of 2007, each episode of the original TV series averaged a sales figure of 80,928 copies, including all of the different formats it was published in (VHS, LD, DVD, etc.). The first DVD box set sold over 100,000 copies in the first month of release, from December 21, 2007 to January 21, 2008.

As part of the 30th Anniversary of the Gundam series, the company officially announced a project on March 11, 2009 called Real-G, a plan to build a 1/1 real size scale Gundam in Japan. It was completed in July, 2009 and taken down later. However, Bandai now plans to rebuild it near their factory.

Minako Honda (Honda Minako), born Minako Kudo (Kudō Minako, July 31, 1967 – November 6, 2005) was a Japanese “idol” pop-star and musical singer. She became famous and popular as “Japan’s Madonna” because of her sexy fashion and live performances in the mid to late 1980s. She was also one of the singers to sing Japanese and English languages.

As with most teenaged “idol” singers, her J-Pop career was spectacular but short. In 1989, at the advanced age of 22, she made an attempt to revive her flagging career and attain “street cred” by forming the edgy all-girl band “Minako with Wild Cats”. This effort was unsuccessful, and it seemed that she would fade into obscurity.

By 1992, however, she had reinvented herself. She took formal acting and singing lessons, and became a notable theatrical singer andactress. In auditions for the Tokyo production of Miss Saigon, she won out over 12,000 other candidates for the part of Kim, earning the nickname “Tokyo’s Miss Saigon”. She also appeared in numerous other theatrical performances.

Towards the end of her life, she released several classical albums demonstrating her soprano singing voice, including religious works such as Amazing Grace and Ave Maria. She also sang the theme songs for several anime programs.

She did not abandon pop music in her adult career; indeed, she became recognized for her vocal improvement in the adult pop genre. Her song “Tsubasa” (Wings) is famous for the “long note” that she holds for 30 seconds.

Her career was cut short by leukemia. After she became ill in late 2004, she served as a celebrity spokesperson for the Live for LifeProject, a campaign for the treatment of leukemia. At that time, she also changed her name to add a dot after the end of her name, thus increasing the number of strokes to 31. In Japanese “uranai” fortune-telling, a person’s fate is associated with the number of strokes in the name. Following a severe misfortune, many Japanese change their name to change their fortune. As a result, albums released after 2004 show her name as “本田美奈子．” in kanji and/or “Honda Minako.” in romanization.

Since her death, numerous posthumous albums and videos have been released, including some previously-unreleased songs.

YouTube – 本田美奈子 – “見上げてごらん夜の星を”.

Mitama Matsuri is the one of annual celebration at Yasuku Shirine.
It held in mid summer and celebrates the spirits of the ancestors. The entry walk is decorated with 40 foot high walls of 29000 or more lanterns, and thousands of visitors come to pay respects to their lost relatives and friends.

For further information about Yasuku Shrine, please see this Wikipedia’s entry.

YouTube – Story of people in town of whale fishing of Japan 1/3.

The ginkgo that had stood next to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū’s stairway almost from its foundation and which appears in almost every old print of the shrine was completely uprooted and irreparably damaged at 4:40 in the morning on March 10, 2010. According to an expert who analyzed the tree, the fall is likely due to rot. The tree was nicknamed kakure-ichō (hiding ginkgo) because according to an Edo period urban legend, a now-famous assassin hid behind it before striking his victim.

Under heavy snow on the evening of February 12, 1219 (Jōkyū 1, 26th day of the 1st month), shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo was coming down from Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū ‘s Senior Shrine after assisting to a ceremony celebrating his nomination to Udaijin. His nephew Kugyō, son of second shogun Minamoto no Yoriie, came out from next to the stone stairway of the shrine, then suddenly attacked and assassinated him. (No contemporary text mentions the tree). For his act he was himself beheaded a few hours later, thus bringing the Seiwa Genji line of the Minamoto clan and their rule in Kamakura to a sudden end.

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is the center of much cultural activity and both Yabusame, (archery from horseback), and kyūdō (Japanese archery) are practiced within the shrine. It also has extensive peony gardens, three coffee shops, a kindergarten, offices and a dōjō. Within its grounds stand two museums, the Kamakura Museum of National Treasures, owned by the City of Kamakura, and the prefectural Museum of Modern Art

A lot of people are wishing O-ICHO will grow again there.
Can you see “Ganbare O-Icho” and messages from people on EMA?

Photo taken at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Kamakura.

Happy wedding!
Wish your happy family and happy life.

TANABATA MIKOSHI

I went to see TANABATA festival held at Hiratsuka, Kanagawa.

Tanabata ( meaning “Evening of the seventh”) is a Japanese star festival (“The Night of Sevens“)．

It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). According to legend, theMilky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The celebration is held at night.

We held a day of the beginning of the mountaineering season of Mt. Fuji (3776 meters above sea level) on 1st July and climbers near the summit worshiped the rising sun. There were 30 climbers from Fuji Yoshida of the Yamanashi Prefecture , aimed at the summit in time for sunrise at 4 am after a day.

From YouTube.

Tokyo Tower is a communications and observation towerlocated in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.5 metres (1,091 ft), it is the second tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safetyregulations.

Built in 1958, the tower’s main sources of revenue are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening. FootTown, a 4-story building located directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants and shops. Departing from here, guests can visit two observation decks. The 2-story Main Observatory is located at 150 meters (492 ft), while the smaller Special Observatory reaches a height of 250 meters (820 ft).

The tower acts as a support structure for an antenna. Originally intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were installed in 1961 and the tower is now used to broadcast both signals for Japanese media outlets such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. Japan’s planned switch from analog to digital for all television broadcasting by July 2011 is problematic, however. Tokyo Tower’s current height is not high enough to adequately support complete terrestrial digital broadcasting to the area. A taller digital broadcasting tower known as Tokyo Sky Tree is currently planned to open in 2012.

At Zojoji Temple which located near Tokyo Tower.

Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a “cold light”, with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red — wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers.

There are 2,000 species of firefly found in temperate and tropical environments. Many are in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food. These larvae emit light and are often called “glowworms“, particularly in Eurasia. In the Americas, “glow worm” also refers to the related Phengodidae.

(from Wikipedia)

A mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine. Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle of a divine spirit in Japan at the time of a parade of deities. Often, the mikoshiresembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda and a railing. Typical shapes are rectangles, hexagons, and octagons. The body, which stands on two or four poles (for carrying), is usually lavishly decorated, and the roof might hold a carving of aPhoenix.

During a matsuri, or Japanese festival, people bear a mikoshi on their shoulders by means of the two or four poles. They bring the mikoshi from the shrine, carry it around the neighborhoods that worship at the shrine, and in many cases leave it in a designated area, resting on blocks, for a time before returning it to the shrine. Some shrines have the custom of dipping the mikoshi in the water of a nearby lake, river or ocean. At certain festivals, the people who bear the mikoshi wave it wildly from side to side.

A mikoshi was believed to have been first used to transport Hachiman to Tōdai-ji temple from Usa Shrine in 749.

People write their wishes on Ema (wooden board) and hang it in Shrine.
When you come to Japan, please try to wish something on Ema.

(from Wikipedia)

Ema are small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshippers write their prayers or wishes. The ema are then left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami(spirits or gods) receive them. They bear various pictures, often of animals or other Shinto imagery, and many have the word gan’i, meaning “wish”, written along the side. In ancient times people would donate horses to the shrines for good favor, over time this was trasferred to a wooden plaque with a picture of a horse, and later still to the various wooden plaques sold today for the same purpose.

Ema are sold for various wishes. Common reasons for buying a plaque are for success in work or on exams, marital bliss, to have children, and health. Some shrines specialize in certain types of these plaques, and the larger shrines may offer more than one. Sales of ema help support the shrine financially.

At some shrines, such as Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, one can find ema in many languages, as tourists leave their own wishes and prayers.

Today, there were a lot of people in Kamakura for seeing Ajisai.
We like to see season’s flowers and always feel season is changing.
We have Ajisai in this season and I have in my garden too.

(from Wikipedia)

Hydrangea (common names Hydrangea and Hortensia) is a genus of about 70–75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (China,Japan, Korea, the Himalayas, and Indonesia) and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea. Most are shrubs 1–3 m tall, but some are small trees, and others lianas reaching up to 30 m by climbing up trees. They can be either deciduous or evergreen, though the widely cultivated temperate species are all deciduous.

Having been introduced to the Azores Islands of Portugal, they are now very common there, particularly on Faial Island, which is known as the “blue island” due to the vast number of hydrangeas present on the island, and on Flores Island.

Species in the related genus Schizophragma, also in Hydrangeaceae, are also often known as hydrangeas. Schizophragma hydrangeoides and Hydrangea petiolaris are both commonly known as climbing hydrangeas.

There are two flower arrangements in hydrangeas. Mophead flowers are large round flowerheads resembling pom-poms or, as the name implies, the head of a mop. In contrast, lacecap flowers bear round, flat flowerheads with a center core of subdued, fertile flowers surrounded by outer rings of showy, sterile flowers.

The acidic soil conditions common in Japan due to volcanic eruptions have made the paddy field the most productive farming method. Paddy fields are represented by the kanji 田 (commonly read as ta) that has had a strong influence on Japanese culture. In fact, the character 田, which originally meant ‘field’ in general, is used in Japan exclusively to convey the meaning ‘rice paddy field’. One of the oldest samples of writing in Japan is widely credited to the kanji 田 found on pottery at the archaeological site of Matsusaka, Mie that dates to the late 2nd century. Ta (田) is used as a part of many place names as well as in many family names. Most of these places are somehow related to the paddy field and in many cases, are based on the history of a particular location. For example, where a river runs through a village, the place east of river may be called Higashida (東田), literally “east paddy field.” A place with a newly irrigated paddy field, especially those during or later than Edo period, may be called Nitta or Shinden (both 新田), “new paddy field.” In some places, lakes and marshes were likened to a paddy field and were named with ta, like Hakkōda (八甲田).

Today, many family names have ta as a component, a practice which can be largely attributed to a government edict in the early Meiji Period requiring all Japanese people to have a family name. Many chose a name based on or near the place they lived or the job they had, and with nearly three fourths of population being farmers, many made family names using ta. Some common examples are Tanaka (田中) and Nakata (中田), literally meaning “middle of paddy field,” Kawada (川田), “paddy field by a river,” and Furuta (古田), “old paddy field.”

The story of the birth of Nippon.

YouTube – 映畫「日本誕生」豫告　昭和三十四年公開作品.

YouTube – NASA Team Captures Hayabusa Spacecraft Reentry.

This is a screen capture of digital book for iPad.
You can download several Japanese books in English for free.
If you have iPad, please check it out!

This is standing in Ashinoko (lake) and lighted up in the night.
It’s so beautiful, I think.

The Hakone Shrine (Hakone Jinja) is a Shinto shrine in the town of Hakone in Ashigarashimo District Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is also known is the Hakone Gongen (箱根権現^?). It is located on the shores of Lake Ashi. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on August 1.

The primary kami of Hakone Shrine are Ninigi-no-Mikoto, Konohanasakuya-hime, and Hoori-no-Mikoto, collectively known as the Hakone Gongen.

There are numerous small subsidiary shrines to various kami within the shrine grounds.

Hakone Shrine has a small museum, in which are displayed a number of the shrine’s treasures. These include five items which are ranked as national Important Cultural Property.

MORI = forest, MIZU = water, KUNI = country/land

65 percent of Japan’s land is forest. People from ancient time have preserved forests. Forest produce clean water. Forest reserve water and protect people from disasters. Forest give life to animals and protect them.

Since 2,600 years ago when Japan has established, former Tennos (Emperors) have been protecting forest.
They understood the importance of forest and cycle of life very well.

We must keep forest in good condition for future human and animal.

Fuurin is wind chime in English.
Wind chimes are chimes constructed from suspended tubes, rods or other objects and are often made of metal or wood. Wind chimes are usually hung outside of a building or house and are intended to be played by the wind. Sound can be produced when the tubes or rods come in contact with a suspended central clapper, in the form of a ball or horizontal disk, or each other. Wind chimes may be used to observe changes in wind direction, depending on where they are hung.
Often, mark trees are mistakenly called wind chimes, but they are different instruments.

I feel somehow nostalgic when I listen to this song.
She sings the memories of days spent with her grandmother.
The title is “God of toilet” in English.

There are a lot of visitors at Mikasa Park, Yokosuka.

Mikasa is a pre-Dreadnought battleship, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, launched in Britain in 1900. She served as the flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō during the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904, and the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. Currently, she is preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka. Mikasa is the last remaining example of a pre-dreadnought battleship anywhere in the world. She was named after Mount Mikasain Nara, Japan.

A preservation movement resumed in 1958, with United States participation through financial support and the direct involvement of AdmiralChester Nimitz. Restoration work was completed on 27 May 1961, at a cost of 180 million yen. A substantial quantity of the missing parts and fittings were provided from the Chilean Navy battleship Almirante Latorre, which was being scrapped in Japan at the time.

The tourist brochure given to visitors boarding the Mikasa describes the ship as one of the “Three Great Historical Warships of the World”, together with Victory in Portsmouth, UK, and Constitution in Boston, USA.

In England, at Barrow-in-Furness where Mikasa was built, there is a street of local shops on Walney Island named Mikasa Street.

WA = Japanese
SHOKU = Food or meal

As an island nation,Japan has access to vast aquatic resources from its surrounding seas.
The international popularity of Japanese cuisine continues to grow, driving active exports of Japan’s marine products.
The steady growth of exports is transforming the landscape for Japan’s marine products.

The Toyota 2000GT is a sports car that was produced in very limited numbers byToyota in Japan. First seen at the Tokyo Motor Show of 1965, production vehicles were built between 1967 and 1970. It revolutionized the automotive world’s view of Japan, formerly seen as a producer of imitative and stodgily practical vehicles, and showed that the Japanese makers could produce a sports car to rival those ofEurope.

Reviewing a pre-production car in 1967, Road & Track magazine summed up the 2000GT as “one of the most exciting and enjoyable cars we’ve driven”, and compared it favorably to the Porsche 911. Today, the car is seen as the first seriously collectible Japanese car, the first “Japanese Supercar“, and examples change hands for fairly high prices.

Quote from Wikipedia.

The Toyota 2000GT was featured in “You Only Live Twice”, the fifth spy film of James Bond series.

SAN = Mountain.
So FUJISAN = Mt. Fuji.

This shot was taken at Enoshima.
I like the view of Mt. Fuji in sunset from this place.
A lot of people were shooing this view there.

Today we have strong winds.
I saw the Tako which mentioned in recent article is flying

This is a view of Enoshima from Chigasaki Beach.

Shōnan is the name of a region along the coast of Sagami Bay in central Japan. Centered on Enoshima, an island about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, the Shōnan region stretches from Ōiso in the west to Hayama in the east, including Kamakura and Hiratsuka. Because of the bay, the region benefits from a mild climate and long beaches covered with dark volcanic sand.

In postwar times, the Shōnan region gained prominence in Ishihara Shintaro‘s prize-winning 1955 novel, Taiyō no Kisetsu (Season of the Sun). The novel, which was also made into a popular movie, portrayed the hedonistic lifestyle of young sun-worshippers from elite families (taiyo-zoku, the “sun-tribe”), who hung out on Shōnan beaches. Lying as it does on the edge of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, the Shōnan region is nowadays a leading resort area, oriented to surfing, sailboating, and other water sports.

The region’s name, Shōnan, derives from a scenic region in Hunan, China, encapsulated in the phrase  (Chinese pinyin: “xiāo xiāng hú nán”; Japanese: “shōshō konan“). This phrase refers to a beautiful area centered on the Xiao River and the Xiang River (湘江) south of the Yangtze River in Hunan. Often praised in Chinese poetry, its scenery became a popular subject of paintings in both medieval China andJapan. In Japan, the scenery of the Shōnan area was thought to be similar to the scenery around the Xiao and Xiang rivers in Hunan, China; hence the term “Shōnan” (Chinese pinyin: “xiāng nán”, another name for the southern Hunan region) came to be applied to the area around Enoshima in Japan.

Besides the similarity in scenery, the two areas both had flood-basin lakes. The lake in China, which still exists, is Lake Dongting. Among others, the lake is fed by the Xiang and Xiao rivers (the Xiao is a tributary of the Xiang). In Japan, the corresponding flood-basin lake (which no longer exists but was mentioned in the Enoshima Engi) was probably located along the course of the Kashio River, which flows into Sagami Bay (via the Katase River) at Enoshima.

Origami (from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper”) is the traditionalJapanese folk art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD and was popularized in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form. The goal of this art is to transform a flat sheet of material into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques, and as such the use of cuts or glue are not considered to be origami.

The number of basic origami folds is small, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The most well known origami model is probably the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints. Contrary to popular belief, traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (1603–1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper or using nonsquare shapes to start with.

These pictures taken by myself when I went to cycling there yesterday.
Unfortunately, weather was not perfect, so some of them don’t show Mt. Fuji clearly.
It is nice place to do camping, fishing, walking and cycling.
I hope you would have a chance to visit there.

Yamanaka-ko

Kawaguchi-ko

Sai-ko

Shoji-ko

Motosu-ko

This event was held by Sakura House which has accomodation facilities for foreigners.

About 20 foreign guests challenged and enjoyed MIKOSHI.

INAKA = country side
KESHIKI = landscape

You may find tombstones behind the house.
This is the typical landscape of country side in Japan.
Basically, Shintoism is a rutual for ancestors.
The ancestors wish for health, safety and happiness of their descendants.
Japanese people are living with the ancestors.
You can see by this picture that the ancestors are watching their descendants’ life and their daily production of food in rice fields.
And the descendants think their ancestors are saving them.
We  value a society built by ancestors and build and improve the society for descendants.
As a result, we value nature and people.
I strongly recommend you to visit country side and remind my words.
This is the one of ways to understand Japan and Japanese.

I think no explanation is needed.

Look into Wikipedia or Google by “Lake Inawashiro” or “Mountain Bandai”.
When I met this sight, I wanted to have a nice camera with wider lens.

Today I went to a beach in Kamakura and saw an old man was preparing this TAKO (Kite) for flying.
In my childhood, my father used to make TAKO for me and enjoyed flying it with.
A boy is impressed to see  his father make TAKO and respect him. Then the boy try to make TAKO like his father did.

The old man said to me : “I’m so disappointed that wind is not strong today. I wanna fly TACO with a lot of KOINOBORI for children but I can’t do now because wind is no strong.”

I don’t know how many men can make TAKO now but I think it is important to tell children knowledge and skills with fun.
Of course, I can make TAKO!

Omikuji (御御籤, 御神籤, or おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally “sacred lottery“, these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a five-yen coin as it is considered good luck) and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. (Nowadays, these are sometimes coin-slot machines.)

The omikuji is scrolled up or folded, and unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it. It includes a general blessing which can be any one of the following:

• Great blessing
• Middle blessing
• Small blessing
• Blessing
• Half-blessing
• Near-blessing
• Near-small-blessing
• Curse
• Small curse
• Half-curse
• Near-curse
• Great curse

It then lists fortunes regarding specific aspects of one’s life, which may include any number of the following:

• One’s wish or desire
• A person being waited for
• Lost article(s)
• Travel
• Business dealings
• Studies or learning
• Market speculation
• Disputes
• Romantic relationships
• Moving or changing residence
• Childbirth or pregrancy
• Illness
• Marriage proposal or engagement

Interesting!

I took this picture while cycling.
This JIZO BOSATSU (we call it o-jizo-san) is praying for traffic safely.
You will find this kind of JIZO in many places.

Ksitigarbha (Sanskrit: क्षितिगर्भ Kṣitigarbha) is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism, usually depicted as a Buddhist monk in the Orient.

In Japan, Ksitigarbha, known as Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents. Since the 1980s, he has been worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or abortedfetuses, in the ritual of mizuko kuyō. In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.

Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld. (The act is derived from the tradition of building stupas as an act of merit-making.) The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children’s clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō’s features are commonly made more babylike to resemble the children he protects.

As he is seen as the saviour of souls who have to suffer in the underworld, his statues are common in cemeteries. He is also believed to be the protective deity of travellers, and roadside statues of Jizō are a common sight in Japan. Firefighters are also believed to be under the protection of Jizō.

TOUGE is “pass” and CHAYA is “Tea shop and rest place” in English.
There are a lot of mountain in Japan and travelers must go through passes.
They used to have a break at CHAYA and have tea and food.

This is typical sweets called “KINAKO MOCHI” served at CHAYA.

As to KINAKO MOCHI, please check this article.

You can find HASHI (chopstick) in this picture.
It is made by the technique of YOSEGI ZAIKU (parquetry). The place of the picture was taken at Hakone and Hakone is famous in YOSEGI ZAIKU.
There are a lot of ONSEN (hot spring) there and I’m sure Hakone is recommended place to visit.

Yabusame is a type of Japanese archery, one that is performed while riding a horse. The archer shoots a special “turnip-headed” arrow at a wooden target.

This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period. Minamoto no Yoritomobecame alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai had. He organized yabusame as a form of practice.

Nowadays, the best places to see yabusame performed are at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū inKamakura and Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto. It is also performed in Samukawa and on the beach atZushi, as well as other locations.

I finally got Genji Monogatari in modern Japanese translation.
It’s not easy for us Japanese to read this book in old Japanese.

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century, around the peak of the  Heian Period. It is sometimes called the world’s first novel, the first modern novel, the firstpsychological novel or the first novel still to be considered a classic, though this issue is a matter of debate (see Stature below).

The first partial translation of Genji Monogatari into English was by Suematsu Kenchō. A free translation of all but one chapter was produced by Arthur Waley. Edward Seidensticker made the first complete translation into English, using a more literal method than Waley. The most recent English translation, by Royall Tyler (2001), also tries to be faithful to the original text.

See “Recommended Reading” link at left side of this page to get Genji Monogatari in English.

This is the trash box placed in fast food restaurant.
We normally discard garbages after sorting them, for example, papers, vinyl and plastic, bottle and can.
How do you do in your country?

This is a news about the first live concert of Hatsune Miku (VOCALOID).
There are thousands of original musics using Hatsune Miku on the net here.
It’s a new movement of creativity for online people in Japan.

Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody.

See Vocalod on wiki for further reference.

Nishiizu (Nishiizu-chō) is a town located in Kamo District, Shizuoka, Japan. As of 2009, the town has an estimated population of 9,720 and a density of 92.1 persons per km². The total area is 105.52 km².

NANOHANA TO FUJI = Rapeseed and Mt. Fuji.
The current kanji for Mount Fuji, 富 and 士, mean wealth or abundant and a man with a certain status of respectively. However, these characters are probably ateji, meaning that the characters were likely selected because their pronunciations match the syllables of the name but do not carry a particular meaning.
The origin of the name Fuji is unclear. A text of the 10th century Tale of the Bamboo Cutter says that the name came from “immortal” (fushi, fuji) and also from the image of abundant (富 fu) soldiers (士 shi, ji) ascending the slopes of the mountain. An early folk etymology claims that Fuji came from 不二 (not + two), meaning without equal or nonpareil. Another claims that it came from 不尽 (not + exhaust), meaning neverending. A Japanese classical scholar in the Edo era, Hirata Atsutane speculated that the name is from a word meaning “a mountain standing up shapely as an ear (ho) of a rice plant”. A British missionary John Batchelor (1854–1944) argued that the name is from the Ainu word for ‘fire’ (fuchi) of the fire deity (Kamui Fuchi), which was denied by a Japanese linguist Kyōsuke Kindaichi (1882–1971) on the grounds of phonetic development (sound change). It is also pointed out that huchi means an ‘old woman’ and ape is the word for ‘fire’, ape huchi kamuy being the fire deity. Research on the distribution of place names that include fuji as a part also suggest the origin of the word fuji is in the Yamatolanguage rather than Ainu. A Japanese toponymist Kanji Kagami argued that the name has the same root as ‘wisteria‘ (fuji) and ‘rainbow’ (niji, but with an alternative word fuji), and came from its “long well-shaped slope”.

External Links

• Shizuoka prefecture Fujisan view system
• Live Webcams of Mount Fuji
• Mount Fuji travel guide from Wikitravel
• PDMZ.com’s year-round pictures of Mt. Fuji
• Kawaguchi Lake Immersive Virtual Tour
• Mt. Fuji as viewed from Lake Tanuki
• Mt. Fuji as viewed from Biodiversity Center of Japan
• The latest Mt. Fuji
• Pictures of routes up Mount Fuji

This picture was taken in Yokohama Minato Mirai Area.

Yakatabune is a type of Japanese boat equipped with a roof and living room. We have party and enjoy a meal on board.

I’d like to quote his speech “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” here.

Speech by Mr. Taro Aso, Minister for Foreign Affairs
on the Occasion of the Japan Institute of International Affairs Seminar
“Arc of Freedom and Prosperity: Japan’s Expanding Diplomatic Horizons”

I understand that three years from now, in December of 2009, the Japan Institute of International Affairs  will be reaching an important milestone, the 50th anniversary of its founding. In 1959 when the JIIA was launched I was in my first year of university. It might have been that I was busy devoting all my energies to simply enjoying college life, but the fact is I had very little knowledge of what Shigeru Yoshida was up to at the time–certainly much less knowledge than I had had as a youngster when I used to see him every weekend down in Oiso.

But as I prepared to speak to you today I came to be fully aware of what exactly the situation was–yes, I know now, it was at that time that you were creating the JIIA, Granddad Yoshida.

Today I am going to be speaking on the topics of “value oriented diplomacy” and “the arc of freedom and prosperity.” Both of these are new bases for our foreign policy and new expressions at that, but I very much hope that you remember these two phrases when you leave here today.

The basis of Japan’s foreign policy is to strengthen the Japan-US alliance, as well as a strengthening of our relationships with our neighboring countries, such as China, ROK, and Russia. Now, this is, of course, not in need of being repeated here. What I would like to tell you today is that beyond that, we are aiming to add a new pillar upon which our policy will revolve.

First of all there is “value oriented diplomacy,” which involves placing emphasis on the “universal values” such as democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law, and the market economy as we advance our diplomatic endeavors.

And second, there are the successfully budding democracies that line the outer rim of the Eurasian continent, forming an arc. Here Japan wants to design an “arc of freedom and prosperity”. Indeed, I believe that we must create just such an arc.

I know that there will be people who hear this and insist that this smacks of a Western approach somehow–that it is unbefitting for Japan, saying, tell the man who looks at home in traditional wooden geta clogs not to go fancying himself dressed up in a Western suitcoat.

So too will there be people saying, when exactly did this country that suffered such a heavy defeat in a war and caused such great adversity both at home and abroad suddenly arrive at such a “virtuous conscience” that it now can lecture to others?

And yet to that I can only reply that it is not normal to insist that the “self” that one sees in the mirror is merely an imitation or a clever invention; what one sees when one looks in the mirror is the real thing.

You can forget everything else you hear today. But Japan is already of age, and what we need is to let go of that way of thinking that makes us squirm when we see our reflection in the mirror. We need to be able to look at it without feeling ill at ease. That is my view on things.

Generally speaking, it is the attitude that is rooted in neither arrogance nor servility that is most appropriate, and if we examine things with an open mind, shedding ourselves of our preconceived notions, what we find is that–obvious as it may be–modern Japan is the country it is today through the long succession of events in her history.

In the case of democracy, a long string of experiences and failures is necessary for a democracy to mature. In Japan’s case, we typically say that democracy started in the Meiji era, but concepts such as the rule of law and observance of contracts are those that Japan has had from quite long ago. There is some lively discussion going on about what we should consider the proper start line to be, such as the Seventeen Article Constitution that existed some 1400 years ago, or the Joei Shikimoku code formulated some 800 years ago during the Kamakura era.

Yet what I regard as critically important was the blossoming of a civic civilization that took place during the Edo period.

If you look for example at the book lenders of the day, it seems that a single book lender would have over a hundred customers. When a new title was released, the book lenders would put it into a bag and take it round to their customers. The customers would then slice open the seal on the bag to get the latest release. This, incidentally, is where the word for “the latest release,” fukiri–literally “seal-slicing”–has its origins, and we still use that word to this day, although in recent years to describe the release of new movies.

What we know from the advertisements printed within the books and other such clues was that the reading public spanned a broad segment of the population, from samurai to townsmen to their wives and kids. What’s more, this was not a phenomenon limited to Edo or Osaka and its surroundings by any means; it seems that there were any number of these book lenders carrying their wares around in every corner of the country.

With such a large proportion of the common folk reading things for entertainment even in the Edo era, then it is no wonder that in modern Japan manga has flourished.

In any event, the Japan of the Edo era was a society characterized by peace and amicable goodwill, to such an extent that we can say it was truly rare. If we were to rephrase that in the terminology of the modern day we could say it was a society in which there was relatively good governance. It was because these foundations existed that in the case of Japan modern institutions could be fitted atop them with ease. This is how I view it.

Now when it comes to freedom or democracy, or human rights or the rule of law, there is not a single country on the planet that can claim perfection. Yet, that said, as we look back on history, with Japan having been honoring these universal values, what we see is that Japan deserves to be considered as one of the true veteran players out there on the field.

In addition to this, since the end of the war, Japan has been making achievements in pacifism, such that no one can possibly point a contemptuous finger at Japan. Find for me even one other country that has an organization like Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, that for 60 years has shot not a single round of artillery, nor a single bullet from a gun.

Recently members of the Self-Defense Forces have been giving their all in Iraq and various other places around the globe. Thanks to those efforts, the image of a Japanese in uniform has changed dramatically. The image of Japanese in uniform as scary has disappeared, replaced instead by an image of Japanese as smiling and enthusiastic. Japanese are viewed as people who will stand alongside and undertake efforts hand-in-hand with the local people.

Now, coming as we are from this background with such achievements, when it comes to talk of “universal values” that are commonly held in the world in general, whether it be talk of democracy, or peace, freedom, or human rights, Japan will no longer hesitate to state its views. This is what I am referring to when I speak of value oriented diplomacy, and my remarks to you here today constitute both a declaration of our qualifications and an expression of our determination.

Next I would like for you to take a look around the outer edge of Eurasia–just follow that line all the way around. This belt has seen great changes upon the end of the Cold War as the curtain was being drawn on the confrontation between East and West.

It is these countries in which we hope to help build “the arc of freedom and prosperity” of which I spoke, and I would like to address this issue from now.

Why not Africa, you might say. Or what about Latin America–clearly a very important region, you could argue, keeping an eye on other parts of the globe.

I will be speaking about this in greater detail later in my remarks, but one consideration for Japan is that we are looking to strengthen our cooperation with both the EU and NATO. What naturally comes to mind upon me mentioning this fact is the band of countries I mentioned earlier forming this nice arc. This region includes countries whose systems have been undergoing great changes now that the confrontation between the East and the West has ended. My statement was that we should make that into an “arc of freedom and prosperity”.

Now of course the Middle Eastern region also lies within this arc. I believe that I need another speech to address our policies concerning the Middle East, so I will not be discussing those issues in any detail today.

Concretely speaking, what I have in mind right now is Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, for example, which as a belt is sometimes referred to by the countries’ initials of “CLV.” In addition, there is the example of the countries of Central Asia, and the countries of the Caucasus region, such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, which are extremely important with regard to the supply of natural resources to the globe. Still further we have Ukraine, which I visited this summer, and whose capital, Kyiv, and other major cities I felt share the atmosphere of the cities of the world powers, as might be expected.

Japan seeks regular interaction with all of these countries, such as through Foreign Ministers’ meetings. Through such efforts it has become much easier to grasp the situation existing in these countries.

If I were to put it into a single phrase, I would say that many countries are now walking down the road to “peace and happiness through economic prosperity and democracy.” And, as I am fond of saying, this is exactly the road that Japan herself walked down after the war, and the road down which the countries of ASEAN are currently making their way.

However, democracy is a never-ending marathon. And it is the first five kilometers or so that are widely understood to be the most difficult part of all.

It is at this stage that young democracies produce a tremendous amount of what we might call “growth hormones.” Those can be channeled towards creating systems which settle the society down. But within these early years there is also the case that the impulse for destruction prevails.

By no means is this pointing the finger at anyone else. A year ago, during a speech I delivered on Asian diplomacy, I noted that both before and after the war Japan too went through many times in which the pendulum of events swung drastically, and it was a result of those experiences that she has arrived at the calm stability that she now enjoys.

From now I would like to make a public commitment regarding these countries, speaking as Japan’s Foreign Minister.

I will work to ensure that in the future, in this sweeping arc stretching from Northeast Asia to Central Asia and the Caucasus, Turkey, Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, Japan will serve as an “escort runner” to support these countries that have just started into this truly never-ending marathon.

Let it be such that within this broad area in which this arc is drawn, these countries find their freedom and democracy, market economies, the rule of law, and respect for human rights expanding bit by bit, growing in the same way that a mere reef over time becomes an island, and later even a mountain range.

In assisting countries as they take these steps forward, Japan aims to usher in a world order that is tranquil and peaceful.

Japan is one of the major powers whose vital interests are entrusted to the stability of the world system. As Japan pursues its three major points of national interest, namely her own survival, stability, and prosperity, what is clear is that for a country of Japan’s size, no event occurring in the world can be ignored as being of no relation or interest.

With that in mind, I firmly believe that Japan must make its ties even firmer with friendly nations that share the common views and interests, namely of course the United States as well as Australia, India, and the member states of the EU and NATO, and at the same time work with these friends towards the expansion of this “arc of freedom and prosperity”.

If you will allow me to add one small supplementary note here, it would be that Japan’s relations with India certainly pale in comparison to, for example, her relations with China. If we look at the flow of people between our countries, we see that Japan and China have a flow of some 4.17 million people annually, whereas Japan and India have only 150,000. And whereas some 80,000 Chinese students are studying in Japan every year, the number of Indians studying here is only a small fraction of that, at about 400 students. Furthermore the number of direct flights between Japan and China now total 676 a week, whereas weekly direct flights between Japan and India number only 11. In light of this, I believe that we must take steps to improve the situation dramatically over the next few years.

I believe that you have come to understand what I mean by designing an “arc of freedom and prosperity”, but I believe the natural question then becomes one of what exactly that effort entails.

None of this should be construed as Japan merely striking some sort of dramatic pose without any sort of achievements to back up its stance.

Ten years ago, at the Lyon Summit of 1996, Japan announced the Partnership for Democratic Development, or PDD for short, a name which was given to it by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time. The PDD was a means for lending a hand to young democracies as they built their mechanisms for governance.

As one part of this, Japan has a history of various achievements, having provided concentrated assistance in the form of fundamental groundwork in nation-building, most notably the formulation of legal systems and judicial systems, for countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in the CLV nations as well as Mongolia and Uzbekistan. All of these had experienced the difficulties of moving towards democratization and market economies. Yet such assistance constitutes only a fraction of what PDD entails. If you do not know what else it entails, that has implications for how poorly we have been getting our message out.

Allow me to mention one more thing here along those lines of not getting our message out sufficiently. In the closing months of the Cold War, Japan provided tremendous amounts of assistance to the countries of Eastern Europe, and I would like to tell you more about that today.

It was the summer of 1989, and the Berlin Wall had still not fallen, but predictions to that effect were getting stronger by the day. At that juncture, the Government of Japan took the opportunity of the Arch Summit to hammer out a proposal, saying that it was prepared to provide large-scale financial assistance to Poland and Hungary.

The following January, during a trip to Berlin, which had literally just experienced the fall of the Wall, then-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu announced financial assistance measures to Poland and Hungary totaling 1.95 billion US dollars, which was more than 280 billion Japanese yen, thereby making good on that pledge.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the closing weeks of the conflict in 1995, Japan pledged to deliver 500 million dollars in financial assistance. That was the second-largest bilateral contribution after that of the United States, and the reaction at the time was largely one of “Why would Japan go to such lengths?” Yet today the understanding there seems to be that it was Japan that provided the most useful assistance of all.

If this was not a case of value oriented diplomacy, then tell me, what was it? Japan has a commendable track record demonstrating her commitment toward the formation of an “arc of freedom and prosperity”, and this commitment has existed since long before anyone expressed the concept of this arc explicitly in words.

Japan’s accomplishments in Asia have also been particularly noteworthy, I would argue. From 1997 to 1998, Korea and the major countries of ASEAN all experienced a currency crisis simultaneously. At that time Japan was experiencing the very worst of its deflationary recession. Yet in October 1998, Japan provided financial assistance measures to these countries totaling 30 billion US dollars, that is, over 4 trillion Japanese yen, with Korea receiving 8.4 billion US dollars, Indonesia receiving 3.0 billion dollars, and so on. Roughly ten years have passed since that time, and what we find is that both Korea and ASEAN have become champions of the “arc of freedom and prosperity”.

In other words, this new axis for our diplomacy of which I am speaking today is really nothing new for Japan at all. It is in fact nothing more than giving a name to the diplomatic achievements that Japan has built up one by one in exactly this area over the last 16 or 17 years, as well as giving it a new positioning within our overall diplomacy.

That said, without such a name, you can hardly be aware of the deeper significance of what you yourself are doing. Policies lacking a name are soon forgotten by the public at large, whether the public at home or the public abroad. Therefore, having that label is crucial. Renewing our awareness of this fact and giving a clear label to this diplomacy are in fact what constitute the truly “new” part of this new diplomatic axis I have been describing today.

The CLV-Japan Summit and the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the CLV and Japan, Central Asia + Japan Dialogue, and dialogues with the Visegrad Four, or “V4″ group of four Central European nations, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, are among the key meetings that have been convened to date. Japan considers it critical to build up dialogues with these groups, making them regular meetings, and working to fully realize the potential of those that already convene regularly, first and foremost ensuring that the meetings with the relevant countries are held with sufficient frequency. On a bilateral level, Japan has already begun this process with Afghanistan.

At such times, the wisest way for us to go about building these connections is to count on nearby countries with a deep understanding of Japan as a toehold, so to speak. Some examples that immediately spring to mind are Turkey, which is truly a treasure house of knowledge about the Middle East and Central Asia, and Poland, which is so very dependable in coming to understand Ukraine.

Poland I am afraid I have never had the good fortune to visit, but former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a visit in August of 2003 and was delighted to find that Poland is much, much more than the land of Chopin.

Andrzej Wajda, world-renowned director of such movies as Ashes and Diamonds, used the money he received upon being awarded the Kyoto Prize by Dr. Kazuo Inamori of the Kyocera Corporation to create the Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow. The “manggha” in the Centre’s name refers to none other than the Hokusai Manga, and the Centre itself houses Ukiyoe works that the young Wajda had found moving, gathered from certain collectors.

The degree to which modern Japanese manga has become popular in Poland today is truly amazing, and in my own manga collection I am honored to have a copy of the Polish version of Inu Yasha, a gift to me from the Polish Foreign Minister.

Now in Poland there is a university that has the name “Japan” in it, namely the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology. This university, in cooperation with the UNDP, or United Nations Development Programme, has received financial assistance from Japan of some 350,000 US dollars in total, and using this financing as a base it has been undertaking the project “Transfer of IT Technology to Ukraine.” This project attempts to establish a distance learning system utilizing leading-edge technology.

In other words, we are looking to increase our cooperation with countries that have a deep understanding of Japan and that have advantages both geographically and culturally in providing assistance strategically to promising countries within the “arc of freedom and prosperity”. Cooperation with countries in just that position, such as Poland, proves to be tremendously worthwhile.

Many former socialist countries, such as Poland, Hungary, and the three Baltic states, joined the European Union in May of 2004. In so doing, they underwent a sudden transformation from aid-receiving nations to aid-providing nations.

With the “arc of freedom and prosperity” extending all the way to the Baltic Sea, in order not to see gaps develop within this belt, it is essential to bring stability to the so-called “GUAM” nations–that is, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.

It was awareness of this that brought Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, and Romania together to form the Community of Democratic Choice, or CDC, a year ago. The objective of the Community is quite straightforwardly the formation of stronger roots for democracy in the Baltic-Black Sea region as well as in the Caspian Sea area–that is, in this very region where I have envisioned an “arc of freedom and prosperity”.

Japan is of the view that we should foster as many opportunities as possible for contact with the countries of the CDC as well as countries such as those in the GUAM nations. To reiterate a point I made earlier, we consider that in such cases it is best to pursue cooperation with countries that are capable of partnering with Japan.

Incidentally, Japan is now working to increase significantly its number of overseas establishments as well as its number of foreign service personnel as part of its efforts to strengthen Japan’s diplomatic effectiveness. Japan does not currently have what I would consider satisfactory diplomatic functions within the countries of the GUAM that I mentioned earlier or certain other regions, and it is imperative that we enhance the level at an early time.

In closing today, I would like to leave you with some final thoughts.

We all know the line from the English poet Kipling that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” To tweak that line slightly, we can say that East and West don’t have many opportunities to meet up with each other.

Yet this past May, I was on a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and when I was there I delivered a rather in-depth speech. In brief, I stated that the Self-Defense Forces of Japan and NATO will surely have the opportunity to expand the scope of their cooperation with regard to conflict prevention and peacebuilding around the globe. I also proposed that in anticipation of this, we should have close interaction starting in the immediate future.

And so East heads West, and West heads East, and with wings thus spread to fly, it is no longer a rarity to see Japan and NATO working side by side, undertaking efforts in places from the Indian Ocean to Afghanistan.

Today I spoke to you about Japan’s enthusiasm for building an “arc of freedom and prosperity” around the outer rim of the Eurasian continent through diplomacy that emphasizes values.

Japan is second to none in holding dear the values of freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. I would be very pleased if Japan were to devote the first half of the 21st century to taking up appropriate issues together with other countries that share the same beliefs. This would of course include the United States, as well as Australia and most likely India to an increasing extent, as well as the member states of the EU, NATO, among others.

Now if you have come to this point thinking that Taro Aso is elaborating on nothing more than a pipe dream, let me leave you with two final thoughts. The first is that you may be thinking of this as a pipe dream, and yet almost every true vision starts out sounding like a pipe dream. And, my friends, what Japanese diplomacy needs is a vision.

The reason for this is also my second closing point, which is that Japan’s diplomatic vision is also the vision of the people of Japan. That is, it is a vision which each individual Japanese can respect and be proud of.

One of the roles of diplomacy is to foster in citizens a well-grounded, realistic, tranquil sense of self-esteem. As the Foreign Minister, I seek ways to bring enthusiasm and confidence to the Japanese people, and for that reason I hope to continue to deliver remarks that will bring about such energy and confidence. Allow me to close here today on that thought.

Quoted from Ministry of Foreign Affiars of Nippon web site.

Bijin means “beautiful girl/lady”.

Miss Kamakura was selected from 144 applicants and take a role to PR of ancient city of Kamakura sightseeing for a year.

There was an ancient capital in Kamakura. The period is called Kamakura shogunate period.
The Kamakura shogunate (Kamakura bakufu) was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 (or 1192, when it was formally recognized) to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate.
However, from 1203 onwards, the family of the first Shogun Yoritomo’s wife, the Hōjō clan, effectively had total control over the nation with the title Shikken (Regent), setting up a Hojo family only court that discussed and made most of the significant decisions.

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Originally built in Zaimokuza in 1063 by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, it was moved to its present location by the founder of the Kamakura shogunate Minamoto no Yoritomo. A Shinto shrine now, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū was also a Buddhist temple for most of its history. The shrine is at the geographical and cultural center of the city of Kamakura, which has largely grown around it and its 1.8 km approach. It is the venue of many of its most important festivals, and hosts two museums. At the left of its stairway stood a 1000-year old ginkgo tree, which was uprooted by a storm in the early hours of March 10, 2010. The shrine is an Important Cultural Property.

I sometimes visit Yasukuni Shrine to have war dead memorial.
Brave Kamikaze pilots said “Let’s meet under the cherry blossom tree at Yasukuni” then took off.

Yasukuni Shrine (Yasukuni Jinja) is a Shinto shrine located in　Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the kami (spirits) of soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of Imperial Japan, particularly to those killed in wartime. It also houses one of the few Japanese War Museums dedicated to World War II. There are also commemorative statues to mothers and animals who sacrificed in the war.

Yasukuni is a shrine to house the actual souls of the dead as kami, or “spirits/souls” as loosely defined in English. It is believed that all negative or evil acts committed are absolved when enshrinement occurs. This activity is strictly a religious matter since the separation of State Shinto and the Japanese Government in 1945. The priesthood at the shrine has complete religious autonomy to decide to whom and how enshrinement may occur. They believe that enshrinement is permanent and irreversible. According to Shinto beliefs, by enshrining kami, Yasukuni Shrine provides a permanent residence for the spirits of those who have fought on behalf of the emperor. Yasukuni has all enshrinedkami occupying the same single seat. The shrine is dedicated to give peace and rest to all those enshrined there. It was the only place to which the Emperor of Japan bowed.

Oden is a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi (Japanese mustard) is often used as a condiment.

Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu was boiled and one ate them with miso. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.

Oden is often sold from food carts, and most Japanese convenience stores have simmering oden pots in winter. Many different kinds of oden are sold, with single-ingredient varieties as cheap as 50 yen.

MIKI or OMIKI (“O” prefix is polite expression) is a composition of MI (God) and KI (Sake).
At the festival, the participants receive the honor libation. To reach a stage of non-daily intoxication, it means to deepen exchanges with God.
You can see in this way to dedicate Sake at  Shrine.

Hello Kitty, is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Ikuko Shimizu. She is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. The character is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow and no drawn mouth. The character’s first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States in 1976. This debut came under the Sanrio company lineup, where her various products are still developed and sold.

The Hello Kitty trademark has since spread globally and developed licensing arrangements worth more than $1 billion annually. Examples of products depicting the character include dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes and home appliances. Her fame as a recurring Sanrio character has led to the creation of two officially licensed Hello Kitty theme parks, Harmonyland and the indoor Sanrio Puroland.

For example, we have 43 poems which mention Sakura in Manyoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves – around 759 A.D). You may also find Sakura in many other poem collections and books.
We admire the beauty of the cherry blossoms while they scatter quickly and think of short, uncertain and changing or transitional things. Yes, our life is short, uncertain and mutable.

Prunus × yedoensis (Yoshino Cherry; Japanese: 染井吉野 Somei-yoshino) is a hybrid cherry of unknown origin, probably between Prunus speciosa and Prunus subhirtella. It occurs as a natural hybrid in Japan, where it has also long been cultivated in Yoshino (after which it is named) and elsewhere; it is now one of the most popular and widely planted cultivated flowering cherries (sakura) in temperate climates worldwide.

It is a small deciduous tree that at maturity grows to be 5-12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. It grows well inhardiness zones 5-8 and does well in full sun and moist but well drained soil. The leaves are alternately arranged, 6-15 cm long and 4-7 cm broad, with a serrated margin; they are often bronze-toned when newly emerged, becoming dark green by summer. The flowers emerge before the leaves in early spring; they are fragrant, 3-3.5 cm diameter, with five white or pale pink petals. The flowers grow in clusters of five or six together. The fruit, a small cherry, is a globose drupe 8-10 mm in diameter; they are an important source of food for many small birds and mammals, including robins and thrushes. The fruit contain little flesh and much concentrated red juice, which can stain clothing and brick. The fruit is only marginally sweet to the human palate.

She is a champion of all Japan high school contest. She sings Kimigayo at the opening ceremony of all Japan high school baseball tournament game.

“Kimigayo” is Japan’s national anthem. It is also one of the world’s shortest national anthems in current use, with a length of 11 measures and 32 characters. Its lyrics are based on a Waka poem written in the Heian period (794-1185), sung to a melody written in the later Meiji period. The current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed eleven years earlier.

Many Japanese do the Shinto-style ceremony and Buddhist-style ceremony.
Foreigners who believe in single religion are often incomprehensible about our culture.
In our culture, multiple religions are coexisting without conflicting.
For example, we celebrate new year’s day at Shinto shrine, some married in a church and, after the death, we will be buried in the tomb of the Buddhist temple.
With very few exceptions, we have never had war because of religious conflict.

Higan is a Buddhist holiday celebrated in Japan during both the Spring and Autumnal Equinox. It is observed by nearly every Buddhist sect in Japan. The tradition extends from mild weather that occurs during the time of equinoxes, though the origin of the holiday dates from Emperor Shomu in the 8th century. People who normally worked in the fields had more leisure time to evaluate their own practices, and to make a renewed effort to follow Buddhism. Today, special services are usually observed in Japanese Buddhist temples, and Japanese temples abroad, based on the particular Buddhist tradition or sect.

The etymology of higan means “the other or that shore of sanzu river“, which is a common euphemism used in Buddhist literature to refer to Enlightenment. One crosses from this shore of ignorance and suffering to the other shore of Enlightenment and peace. In the Alagaddupama Sutta (MN 22) of the Pali Canon the Buddha uses a simile of a person constructing a raft to cross one shore to the other, symbolizing realization or Enlightenment. In the Heart Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism is the mantra:

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

Gone, gone, gone beyond, everyone gone beyond [to the Other Shore], Enlightenment Hail

Emphasis on Ohigan is the teaching of the Six Perfections, as well as a renewed resolve to reach Enlightenment.

This is a typical lunch dish here.
For those who don’t have the habit of eating raw fish , it may not be easy to eat SASHIMI, It is very luxurious eating habits to eat fresh seafood. I like it.

Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy primarily consisting of very fresh raw seafood, sliced into thin pieces and served with only a dipping sauce (soy sauce with wasabi paste or other condiments such as grated fresh ginger, orponzu), depending on the fish, and simple garnishes such as shiso and shredded daikon radish. Dimensions vary depending on the type of item and chef, but are typically about 2.5 cm (1″) wide by 4 cm (1.5″) long by 0.5 cm (0.2″) thick.

The word sashimi means “pierced body”, i.e. “sashimi = sashi (pierced, stuck) and mi (body, meat), may derive from the culinary practice of sticking the fish’s tail and fin to the slices in identifying the fish being eaten.

Teishoku is a form of dishes serviced by Japanese restaurants.
Generally, it consists of steamed rice, miso soup, pickles and meat or fish.

Three hundred years before Jonathan Swift, satire thrived in the form of kyogen, the Japanese comedic theater. Literally mad words, kyogen originated during the samurai era and features humorous stories of daily life laced with biting social satire directed against the samurai class that was the main audience for the plays. Led by Yamamoto Noritoshi—designated as an Intangible Cultural Asset by the Japanese government—Yamamoto Kyogen offers two kyogen comedies:

Shido Hogaku (Stop in Your Tracks): The classic kyogen tale of a master-servant relationship turned on its head. A servant is sent by his callous master on a shameful errand, and, in his spite, the servant vows to get his revenge. Hijinks ensue as the two engage in a riotous reversal of station, with the servant getting the last laugh.

Tsukimi Zato (Moon-viewing Blind Man): A farce in which a blind man meets a passerby on the road while enjoying a full moon and quickly becomes the object of a cruel trick perpetrated by the stranger.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Pre-Performance Lecture
With Samuel L. Leiter, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre, Brooklyn College, CUNY and the Graduate Center, CUNY. One hour before all showtimes, free to ticket holders.

I．
Of whatever dimension, the temples or shrines of pure Shinto are all built in the same archaic style. The typical shrine is a windowless oblong building of unpainted timber, with a very steep overhanging roof; the front is the gableend; and the upper part of the perpetually closed doors is wooden latticework,－usually a grating of bars closely set and crossing each other at right angles. In most cases the structure is raised slightly above the ground on wooden pillars; and the queer peaked facade, with its visor-like apertures, and the fantastic projections of beamwork ahove its gable-angle, might remind the European traveler of certain old Gothic forms of dormer. There is no artificial color. The plain wood soon turns, under the action of rain and sun, to a natural gray, varying according to surface exposure from the silvery tone of birchbark to the sombre gray of basalt. So shaped and so tinted, the isolated country yashiro may seem less like a work of joinery than a feature of the scenery, －a rural form related to nature as closely as rocks and trees, －a something that came into existence only as a manifestation of Ohotsuchi-no-Kami, the Earth-god, the primeval divinity of the land.
Why certain architectural forms produce in the heholder a feeling of weirdness is a question ahout which I should like to theorize some day; at present I shall venture only to say that Shinto shrines evoke such a feeling. It grows with familiarity instead of weakening; and a knowledge of popular beliefs is apt to intensify it. We have no English ~words by which these queer shapes can be sufficiently described, －much less any language able to communicate the pecu1liar impression which they make. Those Shinto terms which we loosely render by the words
“temple”and “shrine”are really untranslatable;－ I mean that the Japanese ideas attaching to them cannot be conveyed by translation. The so-called “august house”of the Kami is not so much a temple, in the classic meaning of the term, as it is a haunted room, a spirit-chamber, a ghost-house; many of the lesser divinities being veritably ghosts, －ghosts of great warriors and heroes and rulers and teachers, who lived and loved and died hundreds or thousands of years ago. I fancy that to the Western mind the word ghost-house・will convey, better than such terms as “shrine”and “temple,”some vague notion of the strange character of the Shinto miya or yashiro, －containing in its perpetual dusk nothing more substantial than symbols or tokens, the latter probably of paper. Now the emptiness behind the visored front is more suggestive than anything material could possibly be; and when you remember that millions of people during thousands of years have worshiped their great dead before such yashiro,－that a whole race still believes those buildings tenanted by viewless conscious personalities, －you are apt also to reflect how difficult it would be to prove the faith absurd. Nay! in spite of Occidental reluctances,－in spite of whatever you may think it expedient to say or not to say at a later time about the experience, －you may very likely find yourself for a moment forced into the attitude of respect toward possibilities. Mere cold reasoning will not help you far in the opposite direction. The evidence of the senses counts for little: you know there are ever so many realities which can neither be seen nor heard nor felt, but which exist as forces, －tremendous forces. Then again you cannot mock the conviction of forty millions of people while that conviction thrills all about you like the air, －while conscious that it is pressing upon your psychical being just as the atmosphere presses upon your physical being. As for myself, whenever I am alone in the presence of a Shinto shrine, I have the sensation of being haunted; and I cannot help thinking about the possible apperceptions of the haunter. And this tempts me to fancy how I should feel if I myself were a god,－dwelling in some old gray Izumo shrine on the summit of a hill, guarded by stone lions and shadowed by a holy grove.

Elfishly small my habitation might be, but never too small, because I should have neither size nor form. I should be only a vibration,－a motion invisible as of ether or of magnetism; though able sometimes to shape me a shadow-body, in the likeness of my former visible self, when I should wish to make apparition.
As air to the bird, as water to the fish, so would all substance be permeable to the essence of me. I should pass at will through the walls of my dwelling to swim in the long gold bath of a sunbeam, to thrill in the heart of a flower, to ride on the neck of a dragonfly.
Power above life and power over death would be mine,－and the power of self-extension, and the power of self-multiplication, and the power of being in all places at one and the same moment. Simultaneously in a hundred homes I should hear myself worshiped, I should inhale the vapor of a hundred offerings: each evening, from my place within a hundred household shrines, I should see the holy lights lighted for me in lamplets of red clay, in lamplets of brass,－the lights of the Kami, kindled with purest fire and fed with purest oil.
But in my yashiro upon the hill I should have greatest honor: there betimes I should gather the multitude of my selves together; there should I unify my powers to answer supplication.
From the dusk of my ghost-house I should look for the coming of sandaled feet, and watch brown supple fingers weaving to my bars the knotted papers which are records of vows, and observe the motion of the lips of my worshipers making prayer:－
－”Harai tamai kiyome tamae! . . . We have beaten drums, we have lighted fires, yet the land thirsts and the rice fails; Deign out of thy divine pity to give us rain, 0 Daimyojin!
－”Harai-tamai kiyome tamae!. . . I am dark, too dark, because I have toiled in the field, because the sun hath looked upon me. Deign thou augustly to make me white, very white,－white like the women of the city, 0 Daimyojin!”
－”Harai tamai kiyome tamae! . . . For Tsukamoto Motokichi our son, a soldier of twenty-nine: that he may conquer and come back quickly to us, －soon, very soon,－we humLly supplicate, 0 Daimyojin!”
Sometimes a girl would whisper all her heart to me: “Maiden of eighteen years, I am loved by a youth of twenty. He is good; he is true; but poverty is with us, and the path of our love is dark. Aid us with thy great divine pity!－help us that we may become united, 0 Daimyojin!”Then to the bars of my shrine she would hang a thick soft tress of hair,－her own hair, glossy and black as the wing of the crow, and bound with a cord of mulberry-paper. And in the fragrance of that offering, ・the simple fragrance of her peasant youth,－I, the ghost and god, should find again the feelings of the years when I was man and lover.
Mothers would bring their children to my threshold, and teach them to revere me, saying,
“Bow down before the great bright God; make homage to the Daimyojin.” Then I should hear the fresh soft clapping of little hands, and remember that I, the ghost and god, had been a father.
Daily I should hear the plash of pure cool water poured out for me, and the tinkle of thrown coin, and the pattering of dry rice into my wooden box, like a pattering of rain; and I should be refreslied by the spirit of the water, and strengthened by the spirit of the rice.
Festivals would be held to honor me. Priests, black-coiffed and linen-vestured, would bring me offerings of fruits and fish and seaweed and rice-cakes and rice-wine, －masking their faces with sheets of white paper, so as not to breathe upon my food. And the miko their daughters, fair girls in crimson hakama and robes of snowy white, would come to dance with tinkling of little bells, with waving of silken fans, that I might be gladdened by the bloom of their youth, that I might delight in the charm of their grace. And there would be music of many thousand years ago,－weird music of drums and flutes,－and songs in a tongue no longer spoken; while the miko, the darlings of the gods, would poise and pose before me ・・Whose virgins are these,－the virgins who stand like flowers before the Deity? They are the virgins of the august Deity.
“The august music, the dancing of the virgins,ーthe Deity will be pleased to hear, the Deity will rejoice to see.
“Before the great bright God the virgins dance,－the virgins all like flowers newly opened.”
Votive gifts of many kinds I should be given: painted paper lanterns bearing my sacred name, and towels of divers colors printed with the number of the years of the giver, and pictures commemorating the fulfillment of prayers for the healing of sickness, the saving of ships, the quenching of fire, the birth of sons.
Also my Karashishi, my guardian lions, would be honored. I should see my pilgrims tying sandals of straw to their necks and to their paws, with prayer to the Karashishi-Sama for strength of foot.
I should see fine moss, like emerald fur, growing slowly, slowly, upon the backs of those lions;－I should see the sprouting of lichens upon their flanks and upon their shoulders, in specklings of dead-silver, in patches of dead-gold;－I should watch, through years of generations, the gradual sideward sinking of their pedestals undermined by frost and rain, until at last my lions would lose their balance, and fall, and break their mossy heads off. After which the people would give me new lions of another form,－lions of granite or of bronze, with gilded teeth and gilded eyes, and tails like a torment of fire.
Between the trunks of the cedars and pines, between the jointed columns of the bamboos, I should observe, season after season, the changes of the colors of the valley: the falling of the snow of winter and the falling of the snow of cherry-flowers; the lilac spread of the miyakobana; the blazing yellow of the natane; the sky-blue mirrored in flooded levels,－levels dotted with the moon-shaped hats of the toiling people who would love me; and at last the pure and tender green of the growing rice.
The muku-birds and the uguisu would fill the shadows of my grove with ripplings and purlings of melody;－the bell-insects, the crickets, and the seven marvelous cicadie of summer would make all the wood of my ghost-house thrill to their musical storms. Betimes I should enter, like an ecstasy, into the tiny lives of them, to quicken the joy of their clamor,to magnify the sonority of their song.

But I never can become a god,－for this is the nineteenth century; and nobody can be really aware of the nature of the sensations of a god－unless there be gods in the flesh.　 Are there? Perhaps－in very remote districts－one or two. There used to be living gods.
Anciently any man who did something extraordinarily great or good or wise or brave might be declared a god after his death, no matter how humble his condition in life. Also good people who had suffered great cruelty and injustice might be apotheosized ; and there still survives the popular inclination to pay posthumous honor and to make prayer to the spirits of those who die voluntary deaths under particular circumstances,－to souls of unhappy lovers, for example. (Probably the old customs which made this tendency had their origin only in the wish to appease the vexed spirit, although to-day the experience of great suffering seems to be thought of as qualifying its possessor for divine conditions of being;－and there would be no foolishness whatever in such a thought.) But there were even more remarkable deifications. Certain persons, while still alive, were honored by having temples built for their spirits, and were treated as gods; not, indeed, as national gods, but as lesser divinities,－tutelar deities, perhaps, or village-gods. There was, for instance, llama-guchi Gohei, a farmer of the district of Arita in the province of Kishu, who was made a god before he died. And I think he deserved it.

Ⅱ．
Before telling the story of Hamaguchi Gohei, I must say a few words about certain laws－or, more correctly speaking, customs having all the force of laws－by which many village communities were ruled in pre-IMleiji times. These customs were based upon the social experience of ages; and though they differed in minor details according to province or district, their main signification was everywhere about the same. Some were ethical, some industrial, some rehigious; and all matters were regulated by them, even individual behavior. They preserved pence, and they compelled mutual help and mutual kindness. Sometimes there might be serious fighting between different villages,－little peasant wars about questions of water supply or boundaries; but quarreling between men of the same community could not be tolerated in an age of vendetta, and the whole village would resent any needless disturbance of the internal peace. To some degree this state of things still exists in the more old-fashioned provinces: the people know how to live without quarreling, not to say fighting. Anywhere, as a general rule, Japanese fight only to kill; and when a sober man goes so far as to strike a blow, he virtually rejects communal protection, and takes his life into his own hands with every probability of losing it.
The private conduct of the other sex was regulated by some remarkable obligations entirely outside of written codes. A peasant girl, before marriage, enjoyed far more liberty than was permitted to city girls. She might be known to have a lover; and unless her parents objected very strongly, no blame would be given to her: it was regarded as an honest union,－honest, at least, as to intention. But having once made a choice, the girl was held bound by that choice. If it were discovered that she met another admirer secretly, the people would strip her naked, allowing her only a shuro-leaf for apron, and drive her in mockery through every street and alley of the village. During this public disgrace of their daughter, the parents of the girl dared not show their faces abroad; they were expected to share her shame, and they had to remain in their house, with all the shutters fastened up. Afterward the girl was sentenced to banishment for five years.
But at the end of that period she was considered to have expiated her fault, and she could return home with the certainty of being spared further reproaches. The obligation of mutual help in time of calamity or danger was the most imperative of all communal obligations.In case of fire, especially, everybody was required to give immediate aid to the best of his or her ability. Even children were not exempted from this duty. In towns and cities, of course, things were differently ordered; but in any little country village the universal duty was very plain and simple, and its neglect would have been considered unpardonable.
A curious fact is that this obligation of mutual help extended to religious matters: everybody was expected to invoke the help of the gods for the sick or the unfortunate, whenever asked to do so. For example, the entire village might be ordered to make a sendo-mairion behalf of some one seriously ill. On such occasions the Kumi-cho (each Kumi-cho was responsible for the conduct of five or more families) would run from house to house crying, “Such and such a one is very sick: kindly hasten all to make a sendo – mairi! Thereupon, however occupied for the moment, every soul in the settlement was expected to hurry to the temple－taking care not to trip or stumble on the way, as a single misstep during the performance of a sendo-mairi was believed to mean misfortune for the sick….

Ⅲ．
Now concerning Hamaguchi.
From immemorial time the shores of Japan have been swept, at irregular intervals of centuries, by enormous tidal waves,－tidal waves caused by earthquakes or by submarine volcanic action. These awful sudden risings of the sea are called by the Japanese tsunami. The last one occurred on the evening of June 17, 1896, when a wave nearly two hundred miles long struck the northeastern provinces of Miyagi, Iwate, and Aomori, wrecking scores of towns and villages, ruining whole districts, and destroying nearly thirty thousand human lives. The story of Hamaguchi Gohei is the story of a like calamity which happened long before the era of Meiji, on another part of the Japanese coast.
He was an old man at the time of the occurrence that made him famous. He was the most influential resident of the village to which he belonged : he had been for many years its muraosa, or headman; and he was not less liked than respected. The people usually called him Ojiisan, which means Grandfather; but, being the richest member of the community, he was sometimes officially referred to as the Choja. He used to advise the smaller farmers about their interests, to arbitrate their disputes, to advance them money at need, and to dispose of their rice for them on the best terms possible.
Hamaguchi’s big thatched farmhouse stood at the verge of a small plateau overlooking a bay. The plateau, mostly devoted to rice culture, was hemmed in on three sides by thickly wooded summits. From its outer verge the land sloped down in a huge green concavity, as if scooped out, to the edge of the water; and the whole of this slope, some three quarters of a mile long, was so terraced as to look, when viewed from the open sea, like an enormous flight of green steps, divided in the centre by a narrow white zigzag,－a streak of mountain road. Ninety thatched dwellings and a Shinto temple, composing the village proper, stood along the curve of the bay; and other houses climbed straggling up the slope for some distance on either side of the narrow road leading to the Choja’s home.

One autumn evening Hamaguchi Gohei was looking down from the balcony of his house at some preparations for a merry – making in the village below. There had been a very fine rice-crop, and the peasants were going to celebrate their harvest by a dance in the court of the ujigami. The old man could see the festival banners (nobori) fluttering above the roofs of the solitary street, the strings of paper lanterns festooned between bamboo poles, the decorations of the shrine, and the brightly colored gathering of the young people. He had nobody with him that evening but his little grandson, a lad of ten; the rest of the household having gone early to the village. He would have accompanied them had he not been feeling less strong than usual.
The day had been oppressive; and in spite of a rising breeze, there was still in the air that sort of heavy heat which, according to the experience of the Japanese peasant, at certain seasons precedes an earthquake. And presently an earthquake came. It was not strong enough to frighten anybody; but Hamaguchi, who had felt hundreds of shocks in his time, thought it was queer,－a long, slow, spongy motion. Probably it was but the after-tremor of some immense seismic action very far away. The house crackled and rocked gently several times; then all became still again.
As the quaking ceased Hamaguchi’s keen old eyes were anxiously turned toward the village. It often happens that the attention of a person gazing fixedly at a particular spot or object is suddenly diverted by the sense of something not knowingly seen at all,－by a mere vague feeling of the unfamiliar in that dim outer circle of unconscious perception which lies beyond the field of clear vision. Thus it chanced that Hamaguchi became aware of something unusual in the offing. He rose to his feet, and looked at the sea. It had darkened quite suddenly, and it was acting strangely.It seemed to be moving against the wind. It was running away from the land.
Within a very little time the whole village had noticed the phenomenon. Apparently no one had felt the previous motion of the ground, but all were evidently astounded by the movement of the water. They were running to the beach, and even beyond the beach, to watch it. No such ebb had been witnessed on that coast within the memory of living man. Things never seen before were
unfamiliar spaces of ribbed sand and reaches of weed-hung rock were left bare even as Hamaguchi gazed. And one of the people below appeared to guess what that monstrous ebb signified.
Hamaguchi Gohei himself had never seen such a thing before; but he remembered things told him in his childhood by his father’s father, and he knew all the traditions of the coast. He understood what the sea was going to do. Perhaps he thought of the time needed to send a message to the village, or to get the priests of the Buddhist temple on the hill to sound their big bell. . . . But it would take very much longer to tell what he might have thought than it took him to think. He simply called to his grandson:－
” Tada !－quick,－very quick!… Light me a torch..”
Taimatsu, or pine-torches, are kept in many coast dwellings for use on stormy nights, and also for use at certain Shinto festivals. The child kindled a torch at once; and the old man hurried with it to the fields, where hundreds of rice-stacks, representing most of his invested capital, stood awaiting transportation. Approaching those nearest the verge of the slope, he began to apply　the torch to them,－hurrying from one to another as quickly as his aged limbs could carry him.　 The sun-dried stalks caught like tinder; the strengthening sea – breeze blew the blaze landward and presently, rank behind rank, the stacks burst into flame, sending skyward columns of smoke that met and mingled　into one enormous cloudy whirl. Tada, astonished and terrified, ran after his grandfather, crying,－
“Ojiisan! why? Ojiisan!－why?”
But Hamaguchi did not answer: he had no time to explain; he was thinking only of the four hundred lives in peril For a while the child stared wildly at the blazing rice; then burst into tears, and an back to the house, feeling sure that his grandfather had gone mad. Hamaguchi went on firing stack after stack, till he had reached the limit of his field; then he threw down his torch, and. waited. The acolyte of the hill-temple, observing the blaze, set the big bell booming; and the people responded to the double appeal. Hamaguchi watched them hurrying in from the sands and over the beach and up from the village, like a swarming of ants, and, to his anxious eyes, scarcely faster; for the moments seemed terribly long to him. The sun was going down; the wrinkled bed of the bay, and a vast sallow speckled expanse beyond it, lay naked to the last orange glow; and still the sea was fleeing toward the horizon.
Really, however, Hamaguchi did not have very long to wait before the first party of succor arrived,－a score of agile young peasants, who wanted to attack the fire at once. But the Choja, holding out both arms, stopped them.
“Let it barn, lads! ” he commanded,－”let it be! I want the whole mura here. There is a great danger,－taihen da!”
The whole village was coming; and Hamaguchi counted. All the young men and boys were soon on the spot, and not a few of the more active women and girls; then came most of the older folk, and mothers with babies at their backs, and even children,－for children could help to pass water; and the elders too feeble to keep up with the first rush could be seen well on their way up the steep ascent. The growing multitude, still knowing nothing, looked alternately, in sorrowful wonder, at the flaming fields and at the impassive face of their Choja. And the sun went down.
“Grandfather is mad,－I am afraid of him!”sobbed Tada, in answer to a number of questions. “He is mad. He set fire to the rice on purpose: I saw him do it!”
“As for the rice,” cried Hamaguchi, “the child tells the truth. I set fire to the rice. .. Are all the people here?”
The Kumi-cho and the heads of families looked about them, and down the hill, and made reply: “All are here, or very soon will be. . . . We cannot understand this thing.”
“Kita!” shouted the old man at the top of his voice, pointing to the open. “Say now if I be mad!”
Through the twilight eastward all looked, and saw at the edge of the dusky horizon a long, lean, dim line like the shadowing of a coast where no coast ever was,－a line that thickened as they gazed, that broadened as a coast-line broadens to the eyes of one approaching it, yet incomparably more quickly. For that long darkness was the returning sea, towering like a cliff, and coursing more swiftly than the kite flies
“Tsunami!” shrieked the people; and then all shrieks and all sounds and all power to hear sounds were annihilated by a nameless shock heavier than any thunder, as the colossal swell smote the shore with a weight that sent a shudder through all the hills, and a foam-burst like a blaze of sheet-lightning. Then for an instant nothing was visible but a storm of spray rushing up the slope like a cloud; and the people scattered back in panic from the mere menace of it. When they looked again, they saw a white horror of sea raving over the place of their homes. It drew back roaring, and tearing out the bowels of the land as it went. Twice, thrice, five times the sea struck and ebbed, but each time with lesser surges; then it returned to its ancient bed and stayed,－still raging, as after a typhoon.
On the plateau for a time there was no word spoken. All stared speechlessly at the desolation beneath,－the ghastliness of hurled rock and naked riven cliff, the bewilderment of scooped-up deep-sea wrack and shingle shot over the empty site of dwelling and temple. The village was not; the greater part of the fields were not; even the terraces had ceased to exist; and of all the homes that had been about the bay there remained nothing recognizable except two straw roofs tossing, madly in the offing. The after – terror of the death escaped and the stupefaction of the general loss kept all lips dumb, until the voice of Harnaguchi was heard again, observing gently,－
“That was why I set fire to the rice.”
He, their Choja, now stood among them almost as poor as the poorest; for his wealth was gone－but he had saved four hundred lives by the sacrifice. Little Tada ran to him, and caught his hand, and asked forgiveness for having said naughty things. Whereupon the people woke up to the knowledge of why they were alive, and began to wonder at the simple, unselfish foresight that had saved them; and the headmen prostrated themselves in the dust before Hamaguchi Gohei, and the people after them.
Then the old man wept a little, partly because he was happy, and partly because he was aged and weak and had been sorely tried.
“My house remains,” he said, as soon as he could find words, automatically caressing Tada’s brown cheeks; “and there is room for many. Also the temple on the hill stands; and there is shelter there for the others.”
Then he led the way to his house; and the people cried and shouted.

The period of distress was long, because in those days there were no means of quick communication between district and district, and the help needed had to be sent from far away. But when better times came, the people did not forget their debt to Hamaguchi Gohei They could not make him rich; nor would he have suffered them to do so, even had it been possible. Moreover, gifts would never have sufficed as an expression of their reverential feeling towards him; for they believed that the ghost within him was divine. So they declared him a god, and thereafter called him Hamaguchi Daimyojin, thinking they could give him no greater honor;－and truly no greater honor in any country could be given to mortal man. And when they rebuilt the village, they built a temple to the spirit of him, and fixed above the front of it a tablet bearing his name in Chinese text of gold; and they worshiped him there, with prayer and with offerings. How he felt about it I cannot say;－I know only that he continued to live in his old thatched home upon the hill, with his children and his children’s children, just as humanly and simply as before, while his soul was being worshiped in the shrine below. A hundred years and more lie has been dead; but his temple, they tell me, still stands, and the people still pray to the ghost of the good old farmer to help them in time of fear or trouble.
････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････････
I asked a Japanese philosopher and friend to explain to me how the peasants could rationally imagine the spirit of Hamaguchi in one place while his living body was in another. Also I inquired whether it was only one of his souls which they had worshiped during his life, and whether they imagined that particular soul to have detached itself from the rest to receive homage.
“The peasants,” my friend answered, “think of the mind or spirit of a person as something which, even during life, can be in many places at the same instant･･･ Such an idea is, of course, quite different from any Western ideas about the soul.”
“Any more rational?” mischievously asked.
“Well,” he responded, with a Buddhist smile, “if we accept the doctrine of the unity of all mind, the idea of the Japanese peasant would appear to contain at least some adumbration of truth. I could not say so much for your Western notions about the soul.”
・Lafeadjo Hearm.

This is a variation of Japanese curry “Pork Cutlet Curry”.

Curry (karē) is one of the most popular dishes in Japan. It is commonly served in three main forms: curry rice (karē raisu), karē udon (thick noodles) and karē-pan (bread). Curry rice is most commonly referred to simply as ‘curry’ (karē).

A wide variety of vegetables and meats are used to make Japanese curry. The basic vegetables areonions, carrots, and potatoes. For the meat, beef, pork, chicken and sometimes duck are the most popular, in order of decreasing popularity. Katsu-karē is a breaded deep-fried pork cutlet with curry sauce.

Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1869 – 1913) by the British, at a time when Indiawas under the administration of the British. The dish became popular and available for purchase in supermarkets and restaurants in the late 1960s. It has been adapted since its introduction to Japan, and is so widely consumed that it can be called a national dish.

Onigiri, also known as omusubi or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative. Because of the popularity of onigiri in Japan, mostconvenience stores there stock onigiri with various fillings and flavors. There are even specialized shops whose only products are onigiri for take out.

Taiyaki (literally “baked sea bream“) is a Japanese fish-shaped cake. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Other common fillings may becustard, chocolate, or cheese. Some shops even sell taiyaki with okonomiyaki, gyoza filling, or a sausage inside.

Taiyaki is made using regular pancake or waffle batter. The batter is poured into a fish-shaped mold for each side. The filling is then put on one side and the mold is closed. It is then cooked on both sides until golden brown.

Taiyaki was first baked by a sweet shop Naniwaya in Azabu, Tokyo in 1909, and now can be found all over Japan, especially at food courts of supermarkets and Japanese festival and other Asian countries (for example Korea, but they call it bungeoppang).

They are similar to imagawayaki, which are thick round cakes also filled with sweet azuki bean paste or custard.

An onsen is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth. Onsen were traditionally used as public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese domestic tourism.

Onsen come in many types and shapes, including outdoor (rotenburo or notenburo) and indoor baths. Baths may be either public run by a municipality or private often run as part of a hotel, ryokan or Bed and Breakfast.

Onsen are a central feature of Japanese tourism often found out in the countryside but there are a number of popular establishments still found within major cities. They are a major tourist attraction drawing Japanese couples, families or company groups who want to get away from the hectic life of the city to relax. Japanese often talk of the virtues of “naked communion” (hadaka no tsukiai) for breaking down barriers and getting to know people in the relaxed homey atmosphere of a ryokan with an attached onsen. Japanese television channels often feature special programs about local onsens.

This picture shows one of my favorite views.
When it’s fine weather, we can see Enoshima with Mt. Fuji behind.

Enoshima is a small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay in Japan. Part of the city of Fujisawa, it is linked to the Katase section of the same city on the mainland by a 600 meter-long bridge. Adjacent to the closest beach to Tokyo and Yokohama, the island and the nearby coast are the hub of a popular resort area.

Benzaiten, the goddess of music and entertainment, is enshrined on the island. The island in its entirety is dedicated to the goddess, who is said to have made it rise from the bottom of the sea in sixth century. Enoshima is the center of Shōnan, a resort area along the coast of Sagami Bay known for its scenic beauty.

Shinto or kami-no-michi is the natural spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. The word Shinto (“Way of the Gods”) was adopted from the written Chinese, combining two kanji: “shin“, meaning gods or spirits (originally from the Chinese word shen); and “tō“, or “do” meaning a philosophical path or study (originally from the Chinese wordtao).

Shinto incorporates spiritual practices derived from many local and regional prehistoric traditions, but did not emerge as a formal centralized religious institution until the arrival of Buddhism,Confucianism, and Taoism, beginning in the 6th century. Buddhism gradually adapted in Japan to the native spirituality. (See article on “syncretism“.)

Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 7th and 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified “Shinto religion”, but practices associated with harvests and other seasonal clan events, along with a uniquely Japanese cosmogony and mythology, combining spiritual traditions of the ascendant clans of early Japan, mainly the Yamato and Izumo cultures.

Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China. It is served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored withsoy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko, green onions and even corn. Almost every locality in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu ramen of Kyūshūto the miso ramen of Hokkaidō.

Anmitsu is a Japanese dessert that has been popular for many decades. It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae or seaweed. The agar is dissolved with water (or fruit juice such as apple juice) to make the jelly. It is served in a bowl with sweet azuki bean paste or anko (the an part of anmitsu), boiled peas, often gyūhi and a variety of fruits such as peach slices, mikan, pieces of pineapples, and cherries. The anmitsu usually comes with a small pot of sweet black syrup, or mitsu (the mitsu part of anmitsu) which one pours onto the jelly before eating. Anmitsu is usually eaten with a spoon and fork.

A few variations on this dessert do exist. Mitsumame is anmitsu without bean paste, the mamemeaning the peas that are served with the syrup and anko instead. Cream anmitsu is anmitsu with ice cream on top. Shiratama dango are also commonly used as toppings.

This is Kinako Mochi (rice cake with soybean flour).
There are a lot of mountains in Nippon so travelers had to travel across the passes.
They used to stop to the teahouse of the passes and eat sweet food like this.

Kinako, also known as soybean flour, is a product commonly used in Japanese cuisine. In order to create the soybean flour, soybeans are toasted and ground into powder. Its flavor is commonly compared to that of peanut butter.

Kinako, being composed of soybeans, is a healthy topping and flavoring which contains B vitamins and protein. It can also be used as a drink. One example of its use in popular foods is warabi mochi, which is a famous kinako-covered sweet.

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time. Mochi is also a prominent snack in Hawaii, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Book of Five Rings is a text on kenjutsu and the martial artsin general, written by the samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi circa 1645. It is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, much like Sun Tzu‘s The Art of War and Chanakya‘sArthashastra. There have been various translations made over the years, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than only that of martial artists: for instance, some business leaders find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work. The modern-day Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū employs it as a manual of technique and philosophy.

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584–June 13 (Japanese calendar: May 19), 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or by his Buddhist name Niten Dōraku, was aJapanese swordsman and samurai famed for his duels and distinctive style. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and the author of The Book of Five Rings, a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today.

This is a crane of Origami with Yuzen paper.
See http://en.origami-club.com/ and enjoy!

Origami (from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper”) is the traditional Japanesefolk art of paper folding, which started in the mid-1900s and has evolved into a modern art form. The goal of this art is to transform a flat sheet of material into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques, and as such the use of cuts or glue are not considered to be origami.

The number of basic origami folds is small, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The most well known origami model is probably the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints. Contrary to popular belief, traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since theEdo era (1603–1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper or using nonsquare shapes to start with.

Yuzen is a kind of Resist dyeing (resist-dyeing) which is a term for a number of traditional methods of dyeing textiles with patterns. Methods are used to “resist” or prevent the dye from reaching all the cloth, thereby creating a pattern and ground. The most common forms use wax, some type of paste, or a mechanical resist that manipulates the cloth such as tying or stitching. Another form of resist involves using a chemical agent in a specific type of dye that will repel another type of dye printed over the top. The most well-known varieties today include tie-dye and batik.

This pair of chopsticks is made by Kamakura-bori and painted by Japanese lacquer (Urushi).

Kamakura-bori is a form of lacquerware from Kamakura, Japan. It is made by carving patterns in wood, then lacquering it with layers of red, blue, yellow or other colors. It is then polished.

The genre is said to date to the Kamakura period, when Kōun (or, according to another theory, Kōen, a busshi (a sculptor specializing in Buddhist images), began carving Buddhist implements in the manner that Chin Na-kei (or Chin Wa-kei) had introduced from Song Dynasty China.

Japanese lacquerware is a broad category of fine and decorative arts, as lacquer has been used in paintings, prints, and on a wide variety of objects from Buddha statues to bento boxes for food.

A number of terms are used in Japanese to refer to lacquerware. Shikki means “lacquer ware” in the most literal sense, whilenurimono means “coated things”, and urushi-nuri means “lacquer coating.”

The sap of the lacquer tree, today bearing the technical description of “urushiol-based lacquer,” has traditionally been used in Japan. As the substance is poisonous to the touch until it dries, the creation of lacquerware has long been practiced only by skilled dedicated artisans.

Lacquer has been found to have been used in Japan as early as 7,000 BC, during the Jōmon period .The evidence is discovered in kaninosimaB remains of the Minanikayabe town of Hokkaido. Although items produced throughout Japanese history generally began with Chinese influences and experiencing various stylistic influences and innovations over the centuries. The Edo period (1603-1868) saw increased focused cultivation of lacquer trees and the development of techniques, and in the 18th century colored lacquers came into wider use.

Hagakure (meaning In the shadow of Leaves or hidden leaves), or Hagakure Kikigaki is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture in Japan. Tsuramoto Tashiro compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. Hagakure is also known as the The Book of the Samurai, Analects of Nabeshima or theHagakure Analects.

The book records Tsunetomo’s views on bushido, the warrior code of the samurai. Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the “Way of Dying” or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai retainer must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lord.

The book of Hagakure describes what Bushido is.