As part of our Messages from Earth project, The Planetary Society, in conjunction with The Planetary Society of Japan and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), invites the world to participate in the "Wish Upon the Moon" campaign to send names and messages to Earth’s Moon on Japan's SELENE mission. Adults and children alike can submit names and brief good wishes for inclusion on the spacecraft. I will join this campaign.
Karuta is a traditional card-matching game in Japan. A set consists of 2 types of cards-'Reading Cards' and 'Playing Cards'. The essential rule of game is as follows: A reciter reads the Reading Cards, and two or more players compete to be the first to touch the matching Playing Cards. The 100 poems for this game are taken from the anthology of Japanese traditional poetry.
Beside that it is kind of traditional event in New year season, I define Karuta as "Sports" because it require quick motion and considerably high skill to be "professional". Among them, identifying and slapping the card is completed within one second immediatly after just one or two syllables are read.
Kappa is one the most familiar mythcal creature in Japan. They are child-sized humanoids and look like frog. The most distinctive feature is that they have "dish" on their head and turtle's shell on their back. They inhabit rivers and are sometimes mischievous like kidnapping children into river. I think they used to play a roll to warn children to swim river without adults supervision.
Kappa are not entirely antagonistic to mankind, however. They are curious of human civilization, and they can understand and speak Japanese. They may even befriend human beings in exchange for gifts and invite children to play Sumo with. Because Kappa likes cucumber, the sushi rolling up cucumber are called "Kappa roll".
Nara, my hometown, is the ancient capital of Japan (i.e. 1500 years ago) located in south of Kyoto and east of Osaka which is the second largest city in Japan. The most interesting spot for tourlists would be Nara park that is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Deer, themselves officially protected as National Treasures and regarded as messengers of the gods by Shinto. Nara has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Tōdai-ji temple. Tōdai-ji (東大寺), the Eastern Great Temple, is the largest wooden building in the world, and houses a giant statue of the Buddha.
I want to introduce you about Shitajiki that are very common in Japan but I can't see these kind of things here. Shitajiki are pencil board or desk pad made of plastic pad. Typically, shitajiki are placed underneath the top sheet of a notebook to prevent marking on the sheets below and to provide a stiffer surface for writing. It's useful when you write on paper on the textured surface as well. Doesn't American care if writing are traced below the top sheet?
I didn't know that what Shinto exactly is and I found the reason. The key is Shinto has no dogma, no holy scripture but has a lot of gods. Though Shinto practices and teachings are not popular, Shinto beliefs and ways of thinking are deeply embedded in the subconscious fabric of Japanese.
Shinto has adjusted to modern society throughout history, and I think adjustment is one of distinctive feature of Japanese personality.
Japanese old style toilet is used in squat style. For private, western style restroom is getting common recently. Still public restrooms has both style of toilet (squat style and western style). So you can choose either style of toilet.
Japanese consider about restroom as their private room rather than only for toilet. Sometimes they spend a long time reading newspapers or books and being relaxed in the restroom. To make sure one's private space, bath tub are usually in other room with toilet. So the term "Bath room" means just a room for taking a bath literally in Japanese. And in public restrooms, unlike in US, the doors cover each room from floor to ceiling so that one can't not see anything inside the each room. At first time, I feel something uncomfortable with US open restroom because I feel as if someone looked at me from under the door.
This is the target marker used especially in Japanese men's restrooms. Three centimeter square target sticker are putted on men's standing toilet bowl. It's not so popular at this time, but it does good job that prevents men to scatter their shots outsides of toilet bowls. Males of species can't resist the temptation to take aim and strike at the target if they find it. Stickers exploit men's that feeling well. You can see target stickers in Kanasai International Airport and try to get 10 points.
