Like this post? Help us by sharing it! Current Tokyo resident, ex-Kyoto university student, martial-arts practitioner and Buddhism scholar, InsideJapan’s own Thomas Siebert went headfirst into his adopted Japan. Delving into his background and knowledge, he gives us a little overview of Buddhism and Shintoism, how they help him and can help you find ‘calm’. […]
Culture & History
Invitations to Stillness: Japanese Gardens as Metaphorical Journeys of Solace
Kōmyō-in (光明院) garden sub-temple of Tōfuku-ji, Kyoto. Photo by John Einarsen, courtesy of Kyoto Journal
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! This post, courtesy of our friends at Kyoto Journal, is adapted and condensed from an article by Japanese garden expert Mark Hovane. You can click here to read the entire article, and read other insightful stories about Japan and Asia in Kyoto Journal. There is a significant […]
How we can use “wa” 和 now more than ever
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! The beauty of Japanese kanji characters is that they can convey so much meaning in so few strokes. Take the kanji “wa” 和 for example. It has numerous connotations wrapped up in just eight simple lines, and one those meanings, “harmony”, is particularly significant during this time of worldwide crisis. Let’s […]
Shojin-ryori: Cuisine of spiritual progression
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! I know it sounds bizarre, but some of my first impressions of Japan are of vegetables. There’s a scene in Hiyao Miyazaki’s animated classic My Neighbor Totoro in which two little girls, having recently moved out to the country, explore a neighbouring granny’s garden in the early summertime. They chill fresh-picked tomatoes and cucumbers in a running stream, then crunch […]
Salaryman vs. Kawaii
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! When I first started learning Japanese at high school, I was interested only peripherally in Japanese pop culture. This made me stand out from my classmates, who were strides ahead of me already because of their love of Japanese comics, animation, and movies. They could confidently introduce […]
Paper Screens: Book Recommendations
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! So many wonderful books have been written to help us better understand the Japanese people. These books help us reconcile the contradiction of a culture that finds beauty in unrefined simplicity and yet feels infinitely bizarre and complex to most foreigners. Travellers, scholars, and Japanophiles have written volumes about […]
Like this post? Help us by sharing it! So many wonderful books have been written to help us better understand the Japanese people. These books help us reconcile the contradiction of a culture that finds beauty in unrefined simplicity and yet feels infinitely bizarre and complex to most foreigners. Travellers, scholars, and Japanophiles have written volumes about […]