Tag: Buddhism

My daughter continues her adventures in junior high school, a place of learning and Japanese-style character building. Because her school ...

One of the more interesting things about Japan is haikyo, or exploring the ruins of our modern civilization, and whether ...

Japan started its history more or less as a blank slate, with most of its architecture, religion and even written ...

Soon after arriving in Japan, I walked to a Seven Eleven to buy some onigiri, those triangle-shaped rice balls that ...

I caught an article on the New York Times website the other day about Japan's little secret, the class of ...

Today is New Year's Eve, known in Japan by the odd-sounding name of o-miso-ka, which sounds like it means "Big ...

As December draws to a close, Japan is getting ready for Oshogatsu (New Year's Day), by far the most important ...

I've always been a huge fan of Christmas, and when the season approaches you can always see me with a ...

I recently talked about Buddhism and how many of Japan's customs are tied to the religion, sometimes without people being ...

America's election is almost here, and the whole world is watching, including the Japanese, who get regular reports from the ...

Like most questions related to Japan, religion is complex and interesting. The major religion of Japan is Buddhism, distributed among ...

When you think of traditional images from the Edo Period, firemen probably don't immediately spring to mind. And yet for ...

Japan's next Prime Minister has been decided, and as expected, it's to be Taro Aso, who received more than 95% ...

"Children who are able to greet others properly won't be steered wrong in life." This is one of the many ...

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda surprised everyone by suddenly announcing his resignation on Monday. He's stepping down, he says, to ...

Speaking of graves, Japan is in the middle of Obon (pronounced "oh, bone!"), a three-day Buddhist holiday to remember the ...

One of the stranger aspects of Japan's kanji-based writing system is the way many people lose some ability to write ...

Hello from Japan, where the pound key on a phone (#) is called "sharp" (as in a musical note) and ...

One of the coolest images of Japan, to me, are the Daruma, the unique red, roundish dolls that are quite ...

One of the things I've liked about my years of learning Japanese is what I've come to call the "joy ...

There are some big differences between how elections work in Japan compared to the U.S. Because Japan uses a British-style ...

An interesting aspect of Japanese polite grammar is the honorific "o" that goes in front of some words to give ...

I've written before about how, while studying Japanese, it's easy to find yourself latching on to words or kanji characters ...

The subject of religion in Japan is a complex one. The two main religious traditions here are Buddhism, which was ...