Nature & Culture of Japan

To make your trip to Japan more interesting

Month: August 2021

Maxim in front of the temple

If you come to Japan for sightseeing, you may be visit so-called famous temples such as Todaiji, Kiyomizudera and Horyuji. But there is always one Buddhist temple in each village in any country, and they say that there are 80,000…

Origin of the place name of Osaka

The place name of Osaka, which is the second largest city in Japan, is not derived from the Chinese words, but is surely based on a name unique to Japan. This is unlike the cases of Tokyo and Kyoto. The…

Meaning of Japanese place names

From a global perspective, the origin of place names varies and is often unknown. Washington DC in the United States is based on G. Washington, the first president of the United States, but the origin of the place names are…

Why don’t you experience the ancient forest in Nara

The power of human development is enormous and has had a negative impact on the natural environment throughout the world. In Japan, people originally lived hunting in the forest, then thousands of years ago they settled down and began cultivating…

You can see ancient dragonflies in Japan

There are two types of dragonflies. One is a group of damselflies. Their bodies are thin and flutters. The other group includes darners and red dragonflies: Their bodies are solid and fly fast. To tell the truth, there is the…

Japanese people think that everyone becomes God after death by no means

The Shinto religious facilities called shrines (jinja) worship God. God is usually the person who died. Originally, the shrines that have continued since ancient times enshrine the ancestors of the local people. People in the old days thought that the…

History and difference between shrines and temples

When you come to Japan for sightseeing, you often visit historical facilities related to religion. There are some Christian churches, but many of them are new. Most of the old buildings you see for sightseeing are shrines and temples. Both…

Let’s find insects on the chests of the new Buddha statues in the old Buddhist city, Koyasan

Many people appreciate the historically old Buddha statues. However, some Buddha statues are very new. One of the gates at the center of Koyasan, “Chumon” was built in 819 AD, but it was often hit by fire. It had not…

Is Osaka the most noisy city of cicadas in the world?

In 2003, I had a survey of cicadas in big cities in Japan and South Korea. The scenery of the city is rather similar, but the cicadas that scream there are surprisingly different. Sendai and Seoul had many green cicadas…

Raw horse meat

Previously, when I went out for dinner with visitors from North America, one of the most rejected was horse meat. In particular, a friend from Canada who lived in Japan for about two years and worked with me together said,…