your japanese textbook lied to you, people rarely use ときどき (tokidoki / sometimes) in real life. It's more common to use たまに (tama ni / occasionally) instead.

Our country would rather start wars instead of minding our business and doing something like that ^ 🙃

“Maybe we’re all just living in the past.”

Also places in the countryside will still get flooded.

Japanese Snack Facts (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

You can only get these in Japan????

BUT THE BAKED KIT KATS LOOK SOOOO FREAKIN GOOD…

I have a BONUS FACT you’re gonna love then

Click HERE to treat yourself to a TokyoTreat snack box! It’ll be like a gift to you, from you. You’ll get to try candy and snacks only available in Japan, and get free worldwide shipping.

What how come Japan gets all the fun stuff?

Okay but this post neglects to mention that these flavors are often seasonal limited editions so once you find a flavor you love, it will DISAPPEAR AND YOU'LL NEVER KNOW TRUE HAPPINESS AGAIN.

Kamishikimi Kumanoza Shrine, Kyushu 

The shrine is hidden in the dense forests surrounding the small town of Takamori in the Kumamoto Prefecture. As you climb the ancient stairs and approach the shrine you can feel the highly spiritual atomosphere of this sacred place.⁣

サカナクション (Sakanaction) - 新宝島 (New Treasure Island)

Keep reading for Kanji + English translation

Keep reading

This became our go-to ending song at karaoke!

Why?

At karaoke in Japan, when there’s no set video to go with the music, the system usually substitutes a video that may or may not go with the atmosphere of the song. They’re usually pretty generic and silly, like ‘lonely boy with guitar joins friendly rock band’, or ‘two lovers dramatically pining for each other’, or ‘random white man is running from bad guys through a town in the least cool way possible’. The video that showed up with this song (’Shintakarajima’ by Sakanaction) seemed to be a pretty typical stormy romance video. The weird thing was, the video seemed to end right at the end of the video’s story, with the slightest bit of cliffhanger. If the system randomly chose a video for this theme, how come it ended so perfectly in time with the song? (And why did the man behind the bar look so much like our friend who sometimes came to karaoke? …but that’s irrelevant.)

It turns out that when the band made a music video for the song, they actually made TWO music videos: a regular one, and one specifically in the style of an 80′s~90′s video for karaoke! 

It was done as a tie-in with the live action movie Bakuman, for which the song was written. Apparently, the director for the movie had made his directing debut doing karaoke videos, so he directed this music video himself. The video linked here was a bonus on the movie DVD, so it interrupts itself to include comments about the making of the video, but much of the video you’d see when singing at karaoke is included here!* 

It’s a pretty easy song to sing, and it’s just so much fun to watch the video every time and yell at the characters. Watch out for the lava lamp!!

This pretty much sums up ALT life in Kesennuma perfectly.

Wisteria Tunnel | Kawachi Fuji Gardens | Kitakyushu, Japan || hobopeeba

Gambling Self Intro Board Game

Hey, thanks! It was one I made. I spent probably a good 40 hrs this last week on creating, coloring, cutting, laminating, cutting again, organizing, and slowly gathering together all the individual parts. Essentially, it is a gambling self-introduction board game where the students have to GUESS about what they think they know about me.

I’ll include some pics to illustrate under the cut.

Keep reading

Yamagata, Japan | hatake_s

The real-life shrines of Sailor Moon

One of the main characters in Sailor Moon is Sailor Mars, also known as Rei Hino, who’s a schoolgirl and a Shinto princess at Hikawa Jinja. The manga shrine was modelled on a real shrine called Hikawa Jinja (氷川神社) in Azabu-Jūban; the anime shrine was modelled on another Hikawa Jinja in Akasaka. Both are branch shrines of the main Hikawa Jinja in Ōmiya, Saitama. 

The shrine is written 火川 in the manga, but it's 氷川 in real life. Interesting difference: 火 is fire, 氷 is ice, both can be pronounced hi. The kanji 川, kawa, is river. Sailor Mars’s element is fire, which could explain that change. Here’s a comparison of the real shrine’s entrance and the anime shrine’s entrance:

Let’s go for a visit to Hikawa Jinja in Akasaka. This is what it looks like:

The fields are finally being flooded again.

山口県美祢市厚狭川湖畔

桜のライトアップ

満開の桜が橋から橋の間、

3ヶ所でLED・白色・電球色と違う色で照らされていました(๑ˊ͈ ꇴ ˋ͈)

令和 REIWA the beginning of a new era.

Welcome to year one of Reiwa. The beginning of a new era in Japanese history. The end of Heisei (平成時代). Welcome to the era of the reign of his Royal Highness Emperor Naruhito.

The Reiwa period will start on May 1st 2019 when Prince Naruhito ascends the throne to become the 126th emperor of Japan. 2019 corresponds to Heisei 31 until April 30th, and Reiwa 1 (令和元年 Reiwa gannen, gannen means “first year”) from May 1st.

Reiwa ushers in a new era of significant change in Japanese society. New systems aimed at changing the way people work. The introduction of greater numbers of foreign workers - something that would never have been considered only ten years ago. Major revisions to the Labour Standards law will be implemented to stop the practice of working excessively long hours and to force Japanese people to take more time off work. Companies will be required to force employees to take at least five days of paid leave per year. Regulations with penalties for overtime are being introduced.

In the next five years, with the new visa status of “specified skilled worker” as many as 340,000 foreign workers are expected to move to Japan to work in 14 areas including nursing - and in the biggest shock to Japanese society - agriculture. Imagine that, foreigners tilling the fields and working on farms in Japan. I never thought I’d see that!

Numerous other things will see even more significant changes in Japanese society: the National pension premium will rise by ¥70 to ¥16,410 per month. A tax cut will be introduced for those who purchase electronic cars. Oh, and did I mention more foreigners.  

So, what’s in a name? 

令和 Reiwa. 令 rei: orders, command, ancient laws, decree, fortunate + 和 wa: harmony, peace, Japan, Japanese style. 

Reiwa signifies order and harmony. This is the first time the kanji for nengō have been chosen from Japanese classical literature. The kanji were selected from the ancient Manyōshu - the oldest extant compilation of Japanese poetry. “初春令月、氣淑風和”, which means “Nice weather in an auspicious month in spring.“ The two kanji used in nengō have always previously been chosen from ancient classical Chinese literature. 

Reiwa is the 248th era in the history of Japan, the worlds oldest monarchy. Reiwa was the first time a new era has been announced while the reigning emperor is still living. Akihito is also the first emperor to abdicate for 200 years. 

An era name, nengō (年号) is an indivisible part of public life and shared memory in Japan. Everything that happens in the years to come — births, deaths, natural disasters, cultural and social circumstances, elections and political scandals —all will be connected to the era name. 

The proclamation of a new era has happened only twice in nearly a century. Japan has had 247 era names since instituting the system under Emperor Kōtoku in 645. From the Meiji era (1868–1912), there has been one era for each emperor. Previously, however, the name often changed several times during an imperial reign, such as in a spirit of renewal after an inauspicious event like a war, earthquake, epidemic, or major fire.

After his May 1 investiture, the new Emperor Naruhito will bear the new era name Reiwa for the duration of his rule and into death, becoming his official name after he passes.

Since Emperor Akihito announced his intention to abdicate, a highly confidential committee has been scrutinising ancient Japanese documents in search of the quintessential two kanji to describe the new era. The process, like the imperial system itself is steeped in Shintō ritual.

The introduction of the new era name brings with it some immediate conundrums in so much as it affects the printing and manufacturing of everything from government documents to calendars, family history registers, money, train tickets to computer software, official documentation to criminal and police records. Printers and programmers will be hard at work over the coming months bringing everything up to date. City offices and government agencies, which mostly use nengō in their computer systems and paperwork, have been preparing for months to avoid glitches. Car, bike, truck, bus, and boat manufacturers have been creating new VIN tags and Identification plates.

Officials will cross out Heisei on thousands of documents and stamp the new nengō above it until all old documents have been used and the new ones will come into use.

Schools and hospitals have been updating their electronic sign on systems and data bases to accept he new nengō.

The nengō is more than just a way of counting years for many Japanese. The introduction of a new nengō brings a lot of weight with it, it defines a period in history. As the Heisei era ends, it is remembered for all that it has defined in the hearts and minds of the Japanese. 

The nengō is a word that captures the national mood of a period, similar to the way "the roaring ‘20s” evokes distinct feelings or images. Nengō gives a certain meaning to a historical period, it’s the same as when historians refer to Britain’s “Victorian” or “Tudor” eras, tying the politics and culture of a period to a monarch. 

The 64-year Shōwa era (昭和時代) was a period of extraordinary pandemonium. The reign of the Shōwa Emperor Hirohito (December 25, 1926 until his death on January 7, 1989) saw Japan move from a minor democracy to outright militarism, bringing aggressive colonial expansion. It pursued a war of aggression that killed millions across the Pacific. Something China and South Korea, even after 73 years, can’t ever forgive. Following the end of defeat in the war, Japan’s remarkable economic growth has been called the “Japanese Miracle,” as the economy grew three times faster than other major nations. Shōwa has then generally come to be identified with Japan’s recovery and rising global prominence in the decades after World War II.

The Heisei era (平成時代) the reign of Emperor Akihito (8 January 1989 until abdication on April 30 2019) began on a high with decades of robust economic growth which saw Japan become a world leader in electronics and manufacturing, textiles and fashion, art and science. But the economic bubble soon popped, ushering a long period of stagnation. A series of disasters, the Kobe earthquake in 1995 and the Tōhoku earthquake in 2011, have marred the image of the Heisei era. Particularly the governments inability to provide efficient and effective relief during these times has given the Heisei era a gloomy image.   

Reiwa is looking already to see major changes in Japanese society. The introduction of more foreigners, the merger of major companies and the closing of others. The, as yet, supposed willingness of the Japanese government to implement better care for the people and a more robust and efficient labour system. Possible changes to the constitution. 

With the 2020 Olympics in Japan and the beginning of a new era, Japan is hoping to move beyond the Heisei era, beyond all the turmoil and stagnation. The accession of a new emperor and the naming of a new era gives the people the sense of a fresh start and it’s certain to have a positive effect on the economy and society as a whole.

March 11, 2019, marks the 8th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake/3.11 disaster. Kesennuma, the town I lived and taught in while on the JET program (’15-’18), was one of the towns that was badly hit by the tsunami. Today I wanted to share with you all my top 10 favorite pictures of Kesennuma as it continues to recover.

Please take a moment today to remember the victims and all of those affected by the 3.11 disaster.

Buddhist monk Sokan Obara prays for the victims of the 2011 earthquake.

regular classes where I end up reading a few things and then stand to the side exhaust me like… mentally? emotionally? idk but it always makes me way more tired than if I had to do something that requires a lot of energy.

This is the truest thing I've ever heard but I'm almost afraid to admit it to non ALTs because I feel like it sounds so lazy...

But it's not that! Give me something to do that actually engages my brain!

Motonosumi - Inari Jinja - Yamaguchi

This series of 123 tori is situated on a rugged piece of coastline in Southern Yamaguchi. It was only built in 1955 after a divine message from a white fox is said to have appeared to a local fisherman telling him to enshrine the area. We were there mid-week in winter and despite a road that hardly fitted our car, and bitter winds, buses were navigating the tight corners filled with tourists, clearly, there was something in this message.