BON-ODORI is pretty common annual thing in Japan.
Bon is the week when our ancestors come back in August, and Odori simply means *dance*.
So in August, there are many bon-odori summer festivals in the local communities all through the nation in Japan:)
cute poster of manekineko:)
I hear that the way of beckoning is quite different between Japan(and some other Asian countries) and many Western countries. When we beckon someone in Japan, we move our hand up and down, with the palm downward. But I hear this is almost the same with “go away” in the West. :3
On the other hand, people from many English-speaking countries turn their palms upward and move their fingers for beckoning someone. This could look quite insulting in Japan, although I assure you people understand it’s not on purpose when they see you’re a foreigner. But we may still a bit alarmed at such an arrogant-looking gesture! xD
interesting and curious:)
As to the word “doe”, I found this interesting post about the difference between English and Japanese. It’s not actually about doe, but the author refers the difference.
http://eng.alc.co.jp/kaiwa/davidbarker/2008/12/animals.html
Sometimes English is very difficult for me.
For example, singular and plural is more strict in English. Uncountable nouns bother me a lot, too;p In Japanese, we generally don’t have to think of the numbers unless you really need to add it as information.
“A” and “THE” is still a whole mystery to me. I’m afraid I can’t master them forever.
But on the other hand, sometimes English is difficult because it is more simple than Japanese. For example, there is no equivalent for “a brother” and “a sister” in Japanese. Age is unconsciously but always very important factor in our general relationship, so we always make it clear if it is older brother/sister or younger brother/sister, and we distinguish them in four different nouns.
There is a word “brothers” and “sisters”, but there is no word for a brother and a sister:3
So, when someone talks about her own brother and doesn’t refer if he is older or younger than she is, I somehow feel very uneasy as to I can’t continue the conversation without asking if it’s her older brother or younger brother. lol
It really doesn’t matter, but my Japanese mind gets confused and want to make things clear on the spot:)
Parking and Japanese Time | Mike Plugh
this perspective was quite new to me, so I want to share it with my followers:)
laury-kos replied to your photo: humble home dinner the other day
I wouldn’t know what to eat first..is there some kind of order??
haha. at least as to these *home dinner*, there’s no rule at all. When I was little, I was taught at school to eat *triangly*. A bit of rice/bread, then a bit of soup, and then a bit of side dish, and again a bit of rice/bread…
As for this dinner photo, I sip a bit of miso soup, eat a mouthful of rice, and then pick up a bit of fish, and then eat some rice again…we are so so used to it as to think nothing particular about manner or rules, but come to think of it, my husband and I usually tend to eat everything very equally, so not one particular side dish finish too soon.
some random photos from Shimogamo shrine, Kyoto
squke replied to your photo: Kyo Sablé 京 is Kyo, meaning the place where…
So that’s why Edo changed its name to To-kyo when the government moved there?
YES.＼(^o^)／ good question! Let’s be logical here.
Kyoto is 京都, and the individual kanji roughly means, 京 for the place where the Imperial family lives in (thus the most important, prosperous city), and 都 is “the metropolitan”.
Tokyo is 東京. As 東 means “the east”, it naturally means the eastern metropolitan where the government(and the imperial family) is located.
While Tokyo(東京） literally means “eastern city”, there is a counterpart word Saikyo（西京）, which of course means “western city”.
There is a famous cooking method called Saikyo-yaki(Saikyo grill). It’s usually a grilled fish fillet which was marinated in white miso, sugar, and some mirin(sweeten sake) for a day or two. Kyoto is famous for its traditional white miso(and usually slightly sweet) cookings even today:)
squke said: That’s very interesting. Thanks for the information! Is ever ‘Saikyo’ used for Kyoto in some other sense?
“Saikyo” remains as a name of a place. Kyoto city is divided in several wards, and one of them is Saikyo-ward. There are local companies such as Saikyo bank and Saikyo bus…it’s just a name now:)
Japanese Star Festival is drawing near.
People write their wishes on strips of colored paper,hang them on the branches of leafy bamboo stems and put them outside.
I wrote “people”, but few families do it at home. Bamboo is hard to find in the first place. So, in many cases, children do it at kindergarten or schools, and grown-ups do it at shopping centers or the stations, or Disneyland…somewhere like those:)
Tanabata is officially July 7th, but in northern regions, they celebrate it on August 7th. I feel more familiar with it on August 7th:)
So far, this year, this photo above is the only Tanabata decorations I have found. I saw this today at the nearby supermarket.
socks
(this post is continued by the previous reply text post)
There is one place I think THIS IS MUST-VISIT.
It’s definitely TOKYU HANDS. It is a big shop that sells whatever you could think of.
You can grasp general trend of Japanese culture once you visit here.
There are some in Tokyo (and other cities), but as far as you are visiting one of them in Tokyo, the one in Shibuya or Ikebukuro is the best choice.
