Storyboard / Culturalization
Perhaps the most valuable book until now for me is called: Japan and the Shackles of the Past, by Emeritus Professor R. TAGGART MURPHY.
One of the most important holidays in Japan is smack dab in the middle of sticky and humid August, and this is known as “OBON”.
Onna-bugeisha women warriors were known to be to be every bit as strong, capable, and courageous as their male counterparts.
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.
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.
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)”.
My lovely spouse called me an alien the other day (Anata wa uchijin desu ne!). Now what she didn’t know when she called me an “alien”, is we “foreigners” used to be categorized as “aliens” on an official Japan government document.
At one of my favourite restaurants, the young man next to me confessed; “I just quit smoking on April 1”.
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)
I believe this to be one of the most important concepts the Japanese continue to subconsciously practice throughout their lives; it’s in their DNA.
More often than not, I think the neighborhood I live in is sublime. I walked around my neighborhood with my new found friends the other day and one of them turned to me and said “you have such a opulent walking course” and I had to agree.
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.
A new concept of those of the western mindset. The Japanese have an interesting 4-character compound used to describe the weather just around Cherry Blossom season, "san kan shi on".
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.
What can you do with a single sheet of paper? Plenty when your name is Masayo Fukuda, who, after seeing her art I now refer to her as Sensai Tensai or “delicacy genius”.
At the beginning of every March there is the spectacular Girls Festival here in Japan. As you can see, the ancient cultural of Japan is alive and well in modern Japan today.
One's wise wife often chides when the Occxie savage, who stinks of butter, has unthoughtful things to say.
Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring in Japan, and has its origins in a Chinese custom introduced to Japan in the eighth century.
Every year near our house there is a very interesting, if not somewhat bizarre festival ,which takes place at a historic shrine, . This shrine was established in year eighteen of the Jinmu-tennō reign, which began in 660 BCE.
