Mt. Hiei was a university for studying Buddhism (比叡山は仏教を学ぶ大学だった)
Mt. Hiei is a mountain that straddles Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture and Otsu City in Shiga Prefecture. Many people in Kyoto, which used to be the capital city of Japan, all think that Mt. Hiei is a mountain of…
The humorous Japanese name for Pheropsophus jessoensis which is a ground beetle species
The Japanese name for Pheropsophus jessoensis is “Miidera ground beetle”. The scientific name Jezo means Hokkaido, but in Japan it is a beetle species that is widely distributed except for the southern half of the Nansei Islands. It also lives…
An unconventional Zen Priest named Sojun Ikkyu(型破りな禅僧、一休宗純)
Sojun Ikkyu was a Zen priest who lived mainly in the 15th century. He is a very famous person among modern Japanese people, because, in the 1980s, there was an anime program on TV. This wise boy at a temple,…
Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo（東京明治神宮野球場）
Like Koshien, this is a mecca for student baseball. I feel something sacred. Dome stadiums where games are played in the rain are no good. I think baseball is a sport that stops when it rains. This is the home…
Tokyo Station
Persons with the ability in the countryside work in the capital city. This would have been the same regardless of the world or the time. People who become popular in Osaka tried to be famous nationwide in Tokyo. Some people…
Chinatown in Yokohama
Yokohama is a city that has developed as the outer port of Tokyo. It is often contrasted with Kobe, which has a similar history as the outer port of Osaka. But Yokohama is larger in many ways in terms of…
Secret Buddha statues (秘仏)
There are statues in Buddhist temples, and people pray in front of them. These are the center of faith. Usually, there are many Buddha statues in a temple. One of them is designated as the principal statue (本尊). However, sometimes…
A torii in the lake
The torii is the gate of the shrine and means the entrance to the sacred area. There is a very big torii gate in Heian Jingu in Kyoto. In Miyajima of Hiroshima Prefecture, which island is wholly a secred area,…
Let’s eat raw fish deliciously
As to Japanese custom , what surprises people from overseas is that Japanese people like to eat anything raw. They think they may fed old things and get stomachache. However, although I was born and raised in Japan for about…
Local character Hikonyan （地元キャラクター ひこにゃん）
In Japan, it used to be very popular for municipalities to create cute characters and to introduce their hometowns. There was also a competition to find out which municipality was most cute. Hikonyan in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture was highly…
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