NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

Do you know Hello Kitty? She is the most popular Japanese mascot character who is particularly loved by young girls in Japan, and there are many women and men who are fans of her in the world as well. In short she represents Japanese “kawaii” (it’s close to “cute” but has a different nuance from cute. People who create the “kawaii” feeling concept are young Japanese girls through some generations). Meanwhile, Japanese people created “Yuru-Chara” mascots. They are a little bit similar to Kitty on the meaning of “kawaii” but they are a little bit different from her in meeting of soft. “Yuru” is the derivative word of “yurui”(it is close to a relaxed feeling but deferent from it), It is difficult to explain the Japanese “yurui” in English, but I think that “yurui” is an important word as well as “kawaii”. So I will introduce some representative local yuru-chara mascots. There are a lot of local yuru-chara mascots at every turn in Japan. The first one which I will introduce is Hiko-nyan,...

Pyeongchang olympics have begun. My interest is to introduce to snow and ice. Hakuba where I enjoyed skiing when I was young is one of the most famous ski resorts and the location of Nagano Olympics. At Hakuba there were two separate restorations in the recent twenty years. One is the symbolic restoration by the energy of the Japanese trait. The stage of this story was at the ski jumping team competition at Hakuba ski jumping stadium during Nagano Olympics in 1998. I will tell the conditions and the situation of the story before telling the core of the story. Firstly ski jumping was popular among Japanese and each member of the ski jumping team had enough ability to win the event. So Japanese people desired the Team Japan to get the gold medal of this event. Secondly this event has two trials, but if the weather was not good to try next trial it was likely to end the event. Thirdly four judges, who were strong ski jumping country men included a Japanese, have the authority of judgein...

Japan has fallen into the grip of a severe cold weather nationwide. This winter has knocked Japan out by the heaviest snow for the first time in seven years. Particularly Hokuriku area containing Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui prefectures has been suppressed by special heavy snow for the first time since 1981. People are getting inconvinience  in their lives due to the burden of snow shoveling and walking or driving cars on deeply accumulated snowy roads. On the contrary, children enjoy making a snowman. And foreign travelers coming from northern countries standing on a snow field have a pleasant experience. It’s not only these. The Japanese people fetch a beauty from snow. Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, which is one of the most famous old gardens, is the most beautiful sight when it is covered with white snow. Instead, it is made so as to attract a watcher in snow. Kanazawa has a long winter season with dull colored clouds. People in Kanazawa want a twinkle under the low snow-cloudy sky. ...

What‘s it like to dance? Ancient Japanese dancing is a sacred function that was devoted to a invisible something strong, who is a deity, by young women. Dancing was a celebration for the deity, on the other hand dancers received vitality from the deity. Well I’ll talk about nowadays. Have you ever read works written by Haruki Murakami?  He is the most famous Japanese novel writer, his popular works are A wild sheep chase, Norwegian wood, The windup chronicle bird, 1Q84 and “Dance Dance Dance”. Last year the winner of the Nobel prize for literature was Kazuo Ishiguro, who is British by nationality but  with Japanese blood. Meanwhile Haruki Murakami has always been the premiere folk candidate of the Nobel prize for literature in Japan. At one time I asked some foreigners who had worked in a English conversation firm whether they knew Haruki Murakami. About one third of them have read his books. They said they loved his works but these were not easy to understand...