Japanese+Culture



JAPAN OUR EXPERIENCES =
 * Japanese Fall Festival
 * Ang Lee Film Festival - Eat Drink Man Woman
 * Dinner at Jinbeh in Lewisville, Texas
 * Fort Worth Botanic Garden- Japanese Garden

DEEP CULTURE


 * 1) Religion: In the beginning, Japan's national religion was Shinto. This has continued over the years. Buddhism was introduced in the 6th Century and Shinto and Buddhism combined to form a new religion. Confucian religion played a large part in society and philosophy in the 6th through 9th centuries. Taoism throughout Japan's history is hard to trace.
 * 2) Tradition: Japanese tradition is very important. Customs are followed and continued throughout the years. For example, The Tea Ceremony or The Way of Tea, is strictly followed. A full length, formal tea has a meal, two servings of tea, and lasts four hours.
 * 3) Tradition: The Japanese culture is very polite and very traditional. It is very important for the Japanese to come across as respectful. There is even an honorific branch of Japanese language, called //keigo//. This is used to show varying degrees of respect, depending on social status, rank, age, gender, favors done, and favors owed.
 * 4) Holidays- The most important holiday in Japan, the New Year also known as shogatsu, is celebrated on January 1st. However, many people and businesses celebrate and remain closed until the 3rd. During this time, many people hold bonenkai parties, or year forgetting parties, which represent a close to the year.



SURFACE CULTURE


 * 1) Location: Japan is located in Asia, to the east of China and to the west of The United States. Japan is a series of four islands - Hokkadio, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu - and eight regions - Shikoku, Kyushu, Chugoku, Kinki, Chubu, Kanto, Tohoku, and Hokkadio.
 * 2) Food: Japanese Food consists mainly of rice. Sushi is another staple of Japanese food. Following the health food boom of the mid 2000s, there was a large amount of Japanese food imported throughout the world. As a result, there are over 20,000 Japanese restaurants worldwide and 10,000 in the United States alone.
 * 3) Fashion: Though Kimonos are not standard sights in Japan anymore, they are still rooted in Japanese fashion. Japan's clothing stayed fairly traditional until about the 1920s, when Japan became more aware of other countries and other fashions. Today, Japanese people wear many Western styles with their own twists on the fashion.
 * 4) Language: Japanese is the sixth most spoken language in the world, however, it is very rarely spoken outside of Japan. When writing, the Japanese use //Kana//, a phonetic script used in conjunction with Chinese characters, //Kanji//. There are two types of Kana, //Hiragana// which was mostly used in the old days by women, and //Katakana.// Japanese is written in vertical lines that are read from top to bottom, right to left.
 * 5) Art – Japanese Art has gone through many different periods typically depending upon the ruler in Japan. Some of the more popular forms include origami (the art of paper folding), sword making, and bamboo weaving. Stages performances such as kabuki are also very popular. [[image:1984_145.jpg]]