Nature & Culture of Japan

To make your trip to Japan more interesting

Difference of “鬼” in Japanese and in Chinese and the consideration of the history

There are many known examples with completely different meanings of the same Chinese characters between in Japanese and in Chinese. I have been a little surprised by knowing the meaning of “鬼” in Chinese. Below I will try to explain…

A big and beautiful dung beetle: Blue in Nara, green in Kyoto

Phelotrupes auratus is a kind of insect that mainly appears in the forest. It is very beautiful, but they it has vulgar habit of eating poop. You can often see this insect in Nara Park, which I wrote about before….

Many Japanese people first say “So-desné” to any question

I think Japanese people have less personality. Some people say that this is because the school’s teaching methods are very uniform. The teacher forced us all to have the same qualities. Especially when I was in junior high school (in…

Taiwan Fan dragonfly comes to Osaka due to the global warming

In summer, dragonflies with a small fan at the tail can be seen around ponds in urban parks The Japanese name is Fan dragonfly and the scientific name is Sinictinogomphus clavatus. Fan dragonfly used to be only one species around…

The Lake Biwa midge

In Otsu City, which faces Lake Biwa, the largest in Japan, there starts a problem in November, because a lot of giant chironomids occur. Along the shores, it is hated by people such as at restaurants. People call this “the…

Where the huge ladybug, Callicaria superba, goes?

A ladybug species Callicaria superba is one of the largest in Japan, and is known to live also in western provinces of such as Shaanxi and Guizhou, China. It is interesting that the distribution is isolated. It is found in…

How to see the biggest ladybug

There are over 100 species of ladybugs in Japan. The ones we often see are about 5 mm in size. One of the biggest is Aiolocaria hexaspilota which is over 1 cm in size. Many ladybugs feed on aphids, but…

Human society before farming was peaceful

In Japan, the Paleolithic period in the glacial period ended 10,000 years ago. Before farming began a few thousand years ago, hunting life was long practiced under a warm climate. It was around this time that t The oldest pottery…

Mountain worship in Japan 1: Where the souls of the dead people go

I think everyone has the feeling that a person is made up of a body and a soul. It seems that people in old time actually thought so. In Japan, the excavated vessels indicate that the dead people were buried…

Japan (Yamato) people and Ainu people have a sister relationship

I think it is difficult to consider ethnic groups to be the same anthropologically. People living in mainland Japan and Okinawa Islands are similar but have some differences, though they are surely very close to each other. The Ainu people,…