Ryoji

What Japanese things do you want to show to the world?

1. Anime

2. Manga

3. Food

4. Scenery

5. Games

6. Traditional performing arts

7. Films

8. Manga artists

9. Fashion

10. Idols

Source: Net Asia Co., Ltd. (Conducted among Japanese between 15 and 49)

AKIHABARA WASHINGTON HOTEL has started servicing a special room for trainspotters amid the wave of a new trend among women. More and more women are getting hooked on trains. They talk about how cool this or that type of shinkansen is and they stand near railways and don’t miss any Kodak moments to take their favorite photos of their Mr. train. Also popular with ordinary salaried men and children, during the summer vacation season the room was almost fully booked up, even though the price for a one-night stay is between 23,000 and 25,000 yen, about 300 US dollars.

Looking out the window you can spot various trains every minute in busy hours and if you get bored you can try the dynamic diorama of little Tokyo and run your favorite trains to your heart’s content. The making of the diorama cost 3 million yen, satisfying even fussy trainspotters. Akihabara is a famous spot in Tokyo for electrical gadgets and anime. The hotel intends to come up with another special room catering to Akiba goers.

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One of the Japanese traditions foreign travelers are interested in is geisha, geiko or maiko.

Geisha are recently becoming more popular outside Japan thanks to some movies or novels.  What do you think about geisha or maiko?

A geisha is a female professional entertainer who has knowledge of traditional arts, is skilled at verbal repartee and has an ability to keep a secret to win the respect of the customers. Kyoto especially is one of the famous cities to meet geisha, and Kyoto’s geisha prefer the term “geiko.” Synonymous with geiko is a “maiko,” an apprentice geiko, who undergoes a long and strict period of training before stepping up to be a geiko. The unsophisticated but yet dazzling image of maiko, dressed in kimono, with distinctive white makeup and floral decorations flickering in a traditional hairstyle, is the very essence of purity. Maiko entertain guests in tatami rooms with enchanting dance performances and traditional games. They are consummate professionals who revere traditions and offer attentive and dedicated hospitality to customers. The dinner party hosted by maiko provides a chance for a more profound experience of the spirit of hospitality that so characterizes Kyoto.

Maiko are teenage girls featuring a long obi (a broad sash around the kimono waist), tall clogs called “koppori,” and an embroidered collar. When becoming full-fledged geiko, they change the embroidered collar for a white one, a transition known as eri-kae, or collar change.

Geiko and maiko entertain mainly at an ochaya or “geisha house,” where they sing, dance, and play traditional Japanese instruments to entertain their regular customers or patrons. Geiko and maiko entertain in five small districts in Kyoto called “Kagai,” which literally means “Flower Town.” The Kagai areas of Kyoto are respectively called Kamishichiken, Pontocho, Miyagawacho, Gion-higashi and Gion-kobu. These areas are also places where geiko and maiko lead their normal lives and are among the most touristy places in Kyoto for sightseeing in the night time. You can catch sight of them in gorgeous kimono walking through the quaint streets of Gion, the main downtown district in Kyoto. In the Edo Period many ochaya were built in this area. The part of Gion in the south side of Shijo-dori street retains its old-fashioned tranquil charm.

If you are lucky enough to see geisha, there is a rule you have to observe. Today it is becoming more and more popular among foreign travelers to see them, and they are often interrupted when going about their business. When you spot them, you must not follow them or touch their kimono. You are required to respect their privacy. If you want to take a photo, you are advised to ask their permission first.

Long, long ago, there was a man called Urashima Taro, who was about 24 or 25 years old. He supported his parents through fishing.
One day, he saw some children teasing a turtle by the water’s edge. Although he had only a very little money on him, he gave it to the children, and set the turtle free.
The turtle offered to take Taro to the Dragon Palace under the sea, to express his thanks. So Taro climbed on the turtle’s back, and went to visit a huge palace under the sea.

When he was taken inside, a princess came out to greet him. Taro was welcomed and given many delicacies to eat, while watching dancing and other performances by sea bream and flounders. In this way, he passed several very pleasant days with the princess.

However, feeling worried about the parents he’d left behind, one day Taro said he wanted to go home. The princess was very disappointed, but granted Taro his wish. And, as a parting gift, she gave him a treasure box (dressing case), telling him, “You must never, ever open this.”

Taro got on the turtle’s back again, and went back to the beach near where he had lived. But the village he had lived in was nowhere to be seen, and of course neither was the house in which he had lived.

He didn’t know any of the people he saw passing by either. And when he asked at a house about the Urashima family, he was told that an old tumulus nearby 塚 was the grave of a Taro Urashima’s parents.

The time Taro had spent at the Dragon Palace was just a few days in the undersea experience, but in earth time, a whole 50 years had passed! Deeply disappointed, Taro felt that if he just opened the box, his old home and everything else would come back again. So he broke his promise and opened the box. But when he did, white smoke swirled out of the box and Taro became an old man with white hair.

A long, long time ago, an old man and an old woman lived in a certain place. One snowy winter morning, the old man went into town to sell firewood. On his way home, he found a crane that had been caught in a trap. Feeling sorry for the crane, the old man released the crane from the trap.

When he got home, he told his wife what had happened. That night, during a heavy snowstorm, a beautiful young woman came to the couple’s door, saying she’d lost her way and asking for a night’s lodging. The elderly couple showed her warm hospitality.

Since it didn’t stop snowing the following day, or the day after that either, the girl stayed with the elderly couple. During that time, the girl looked after the man and woman very well, and so they were very happy. One day the girl said, “I want to spin some cloth, so please buy me some thread.” The old man did as he was bid. When she began her work, the girl asked the couple, “Please never look inside the room.” When she had finished weaving one bolt of cloth, the girl seemed to have got thinner and looked rather weak.

However, the cloth woven by the girl was extremely beautiful. It soon gained a great reputation in town, and the elderly couple became very wealthy. They asked the girl to weave more cloth, and so she continued to do so. At first the two were obedient and kept their promise never to look. But finally they gave in to their curiosity and peeped inside the room. There, in place of the girl they had expected to see, was a crane! The crane was weaving its own feathers into cloth, and this was the cloth that the couple had been selling. When the girl had finished weaving the bolt of cloth, she confessed that in fact she was the crane that the old man had helped before. But now that she had been seen in her true form, the girl spread both her arms wide and turned into a crane that took off high into the sky, crying, crying. The old couple sadly watched the crane as they made their farewell.

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Here is a place where you can find peace and leave your cares behind. Yagoto is known as Nagoya’s foremost area of natural beauty.

Travel only 20 minutes from Nagoya’s city center, take just few steps into the grounds, and the noise of the city becomes but a distant memory.

The extensive grounds of Yagoto-san Kosho-ji Temple stretch across the slopes of eastern Nagoya. In 1686, the famed monk Tenzui opened a temple among the trees in the peaceful setting of these rolling hills. At that time, the temple was strongly connected with the historically-important lords of the Owari branch of the ruling Tokugawa family. It is also a site on the pilgrimages of the Chita-Shikoku 88 temples, the Tokai 36 Fudoson-reijo, the Owari 33 Kannon, the Nagoya 21 Daishi, and Nagoya 7 Lucky Gods.

The premises cover two hills, Nishiyama to the west and Higashiyama to the east. Nishiyama formerly included the land where the Main Hall and the Five-Story Pagoda are now located. In Higashiyama, you can see numerous structures, including magnificent halls and towers, which have stood among the flourishing trees since the 17th century. Within the grounds you can marvel at the only wooden pagoda in the whole Tokai region. Built in 1808, this elegant Five-Story Pagoda is a National Important Cultural Asset. Everywhere, in the ancient documents kept in the halls and in the Buddhist images and implements, you can see the centuries-old roots of history.

For every generation over 300 years, the gates of Yagoto-san Kosho-ji Temple have been open to all who wish to enter. Even today, young monks come here for training and, more than ever, the local people often come just to enjoy a stroll. On land that has long been revered, among ancient structures and monuments, surrounded by nature, you can find peace and leave your cares behind.

If your image of Japan is one of serenity and quiet, come experience culture shock with purely Japanese local century-old traditions celebrated in lively, and sometimes brash, festive fashion.

Matsuri is among the most colorful aspects of Japanese life. The original meaning “Matsuri” implies “to call a God.” Japan was originally a county of farmers. They gave offerings and comfort to the local deity to show thanks for good harvest and pray for an even better one for next year.

Mikoshi are portable shrines in which the spirit of a god reposes during festivals, carried by bearers pushing it here and there to their chorus of “Wasshoi! Wasshoi!”

Kagura are sacred music and dance performed on a Shinto festival. The performances change from place to place and usually include mythical and legendary tales mimed by masked actors accompanied by kagura orchestra of flutes, drums and other instruments.

During festivals, in some places you enjoy dashi and in other places mikoshi or kagura, dashi are sort of mobile pavilions on wheels, made of wood and usually decorated with flowers, halberds, dolls and so on. Musicians on the dashi play traditional music instruments including flutes, drums, and gongs, cheering up festival mood. Dancers play dance celebrating Shinto gods. Matsuri are mostly celebrated annually during summer and autumn. Many of them are not so large in scale and not so major, but you can enjoy a festival atmosphere with crowds of local people. But it is not too late to enjoy these unique Japanese parties. Below in this article are festivals scheduled to be held in autumn this year. These festivals are all accessible in a single day from Tokyo.

Nikko Toshogu Shunki Taisai –Grand Festival of Autumn

Make October 17th a day to enjoy the autumn festival at Nikko Toshogu Shrine, a complex of beautiful structures dedicated to Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun of the Tokugawa era. Included in the festival is a procession of a thousand warriors dressed up in period costumes.

Experience the Ohara Hadaka Festival, or the Naked Festival on September 23, on the Pacific Coast of Chiba Prefecture! Watch as 18 portable shrines battle each other and are carried into the sea by young men wearing only loincloths.

It feels like you’re actually skiing!