There’s no arguing that a lot of what we consider stereotypically Japanese actually came from elsewhere. Japan has China to thank for the Japanese language, which is also where ramen is from. Tempura, konpeito, and castella cake came by way of the Portuguese; likewise, curry was introduced by the British. The gakuran and the sailor [...]
In Japan’s long history, there are lots of instances of foreign culture unexpectedly seeping into Japanese culture. It’s why a stapler is called a “Hotchkiss” in Japanese, and why a lot of Japanese choirs have a Croatian aria in their repertoire. But foreign culture slipped in in more obvious ways too. One of the biggest [...]
People have always had boundless creativity when it comes to doing harm to their fellow man – and a certain morbid appetite for watching them suffer. Nowadays, we get our (considerably tamer) kicks from hazing freshers and watching reality TV shows. Fear Factor, anyone? Another, slightly older example but summarized quite nicely in the following [...]
As an American, it’s sometimes kind of strange to me that other countries have Ministries of Culture. The US, being the melting pot that it is, doesn’t really have the same sort of shared cultural heritage that other countries value so highly. But for countries like Japan that aren’t quite as diverse as the US, [...]
Japan owes a lot to China, there’s no doubt about that. Almost all Japanese kanji were adopted from Chinese characters. Even hiragana and katakana are just random modified bits of Chinese characters. Image sources: 1, 2 Buddhism, although it has begun to diminish somewhat, is still the second most popular religion in Japan, and it [...]
Imagine this: You leave work at 3 am yet again, glumly thinking I’m going to become another karoshi statistic. The nearest capsule hotel is just a half-hour walk away, but you’re knackered and you know a shortcut: straight through an unlit park. It’s dark and you can barely see past your own nose, but you [...]
Kawaii (かわいい), most commonly translated as “cute,” is practically everywhere in Japan – and I do mean everywhere. To paraphrase author Mary Roach, the Japanese save money with cute, pray with cute, and even have sex with cute (yes, there is indeed a Hello Kitty vibrator). Image sources: 1, 2, 3 Pre-teen and teen idols [...]
