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Onna-bugeisha women warriors were known to be to be every bit as strong, capable, and courageous as their male counterparts.
This young women dream to become a Merceds Benz mechanic has turned into reality. Next year from April she starts out on her special journey fixing Mercedes Benz, with not only high level mechanic skills, but with the warm and tender touch that can only be brought to the job by a motivated and subtly powerful woman.
I was never consciously aware of wabi-sabi, but like many unspoken mysteries of Japan, awareness of wabi-sabi is an innate trait in the spirit of the Japanese. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.
The personal seal is a piece of stone engraved with your family’s ideogram, or in my case the first three initials of my name. Company chops have elaborate engraving of the company’s name, and these designs are complex and extremely difficult to duplicate.
The server gruffly pointed to a seat at the very narrow counter where the patrons were elbow-to-elbow, snarfing skewers and quaffing drinks. This is where a cheap wet towel was then slapped in front of me and I was tersely asked “what da ya wanna drink!
One of the most important film critics of all time. Nagaharu Yodogawa devoted his life to the cinema.
Indeed, understanding ikigai will lead to ΩNE's own fulfilment, as all search for, and discover the meaning to one’s own life.
Traditionally, the Japanese women were happy to be stay-at-home mothers, running the house, taking their children to their extracurricular activities, and visiting with their friends.
A catalyst for many young aspiring baseball stars to go on to bigger things, in particular those who aspire to the ultimate goal of playing on a major league team, especially an American one.
I fondly remember the first time I was invited to an elementary school as a guest, it was my very first experience for the school lunch in Japan.
I have a relationship with a subsidiary of a large corporation since 1992. There was a gruff but kind engineer who had been with this company from its inception in 1970. He called me “anchan” all the time, which I guess was an appropriate suffix for him to use in this ridged Japanese hierarchal system.
Japan’s natural religion, Shinto (神道), consist of 2 ideograms: “God (神)” and “Way (道)”. I noticed there are many different Japanese disciplines contain “Way (道)”. The “Way (道)” to be the most important thing in ones own life, and the quest for all is to find ones own “Way (道)”.
Bathing is truly a unique experience in Japan. I never thought about the art of bathing while growing up in Central British Columbia, when as a child, I was taking my weekly bath on Sunday evening. Jump in, scrub up, wash off the soap (yes, while in the same water one soaped up in is where one also rinsed)
Stinky, Slimy, Savoury, Succulent and So on… One get a mixed reaction from many of the Japanese, and uniform abhorrence of this miracle food from foreigners.
What may look like just a gigantic party in Japan, is actually something that has much deeper meaning and significance to the Japanese. The time when cherry blossoms are bloom is when the Japanese gather to reflect on just how fleeting and ephemeral life can be, all the while sitting, eating, drinking, and some times singing and dancing as they congregating beneath the majestic cherry trees.
Of course the party always starts with some long winded speech by a couple of “important people”, of the group. These speeches tend to drone on and every one wants them to shut up and start the party. There’s always an amazing array of delicious food and lots and lots of “junkatsu yu” or social lubricant.
