NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

Autumn has come to Japan. The blue sky, the light white clouds, the gentle breeze stroking the skin and Japanese silver grass, “susuki” in Japanese, in rural areas invite people to their country-sides. Unlike cherry blossoms which turn people’s bored minds in the deep winter to spring, or the beauty of red maple leaves which is burned into people’s memories before winter, Japanese silver grass never asserts its own self. Japanese silver grass barely shows its beauty in comparison to something else, like the full moon in the night. However Japanese people have loved it since ancient times. Japanese silver grass has a smell of the ground. And it is nostalgic for Japanese people. There is a series of Japanese potteries similar to silver grass, these are the pottery of Japanese bisque. Unlike the Arita pottery which is known to foreign countries, or the Kutani pottery which is mainly used for dishes at high class Japanese restaurants, the pottery of Japanese bisque is used for daily dish...

Osaka is the third biggest city next to Tokyo and Yokohama, and a city of citizens since the Edo period. Osaka has two different faces of citizens’ energy. One is the energetic face. This face has been made by the economic development since the Meiji period. The representation of the energetic face is Doton-bori which is a riverside town with big neon billboards. Almost all foreign travelers in Osaka visit there and take their own photographs in the background of the big neon billboards. This town will excite you, and you will exult at its chaotic energy.   The Osaka Museum of housing and living The other is an emotional (“joucyo-yutakana” in Japanese) face with good relationship with others made by multilayered day-to-day verbal and nonverbal communications between people. It had its peak in the Edo period. Although it shrank by getting pushed by the energetic face after the Meiji period, you can touch the fragments of the emotional face at The Osaka Museum of housing and livi...

Have you ever seen “Noh”? If you are an experienced person, you are deeply familiar with Japan. If you are familiar with Japanese movies even though you haven’t seen Noh, you always know the shadow of Noh without recognition. Akira Kurosawa was a renowned film director, his films are loved by a lot of foreigners and have influenced many other film directors. His films have many breathtaking unstable acting and many beautiful slow scenes. Each of these scenes is able to be independent from the films’ stories. These scenes, especially his latter films, “Kagemusha”, “Ran” and “Dream”, took in methods of Noh. Incidentally, the picture above is one cut of “Ran” of Akira Kurosawa. What is Noh? Noh is traditional theatre in Japan. Noh is musical theatre with dance and music. Noh is moving art. Noh was constructed by Kan-ami and his father Ze-ami approximately 650 years ago. Noh has no director of theatre. And Kabuki theatre stems from Noh. Moreover, it is one of the world’s intangible cul...

Oku-no-in is the most popular place in Koya-san, and the most precious place for all of the priests of Koya-san as well. Oku-no-in is Kukai’s mausoleum, who had entered nirvana (death of a saint) approximately twelve centuries ago, and a big cemetery where multitudinous souls of historically great men who are sleeping. Koya-san is a secret and kind of sexual place Oku-no-in has a lot of stone statues of “Jizo” and “Kannon” and innumerable mossy gravestones along with countless big cedars. In addition the one long lined cobblestone path between the entrance and Kukai’s mausoleum and the surrounding deep silence with the aforementioned things transport you to another world in a good way. A dark cemetery with moss-covered gravestones is weird in general, and a good cemetery with a saintly atmosphere is hard to come by. Besides, walking along the cobblestone path and seeing various statues and gravestones make you have a special mysterious time. Recently the night tour of Oku-no-in is ge...