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Japanese culture

Learn about Japanese culture from this Japanese language blog by the JOI's professional Japanese teachers.


Japanese Shinto culture The Japanese culture has a religion of Shinto embedded within it. This is followed at the many shrines around the country. One of their important jobs is the process of purification for health and good luck. In this blog about one of these cultures, Aizawa sensei gives a brief introduction to one of these Shinto beliefs and traditions. Read the Japanese to learn more voca...
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Japanese roll sushi There are many types of sushi in Japan. But in the United States and around the world, the most common type you can find is the sushi roll. This is usually composed of colorful ingredients and wrapped in Nori seaweed. One type of sushi roll is popular in Japan during the month of February. Below Igarashi sensei gives us a brief introduction to this new custom that has been sw...
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Seven Lucky Gods The seven lucky gods are images that you can find all over Japan. They have long histories and have been worshiped all over Asia as part of local folklore and Buddhist and Taoist cultures - all except the god Ebisu who seems to have origins in Japanese culture. Ueno sensei, a Japanese teacher at JOI introduces this interesting topic and explains more about these traditional figu...
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Japanese card games Japan has a rich history of pastimes, board games and card games. There are competitive versions of many games and the game introduced by Yokozuka sensei below is one of these. The national competition for this game receives news coverage and there have been a number of comic books, movies and dramas featuring this game. Read the Japanese without or with Kanji furigana help, ...
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NHK TV Japan's national public broadcasting organization is called the NHK, which stands for Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai. NHK has two TV channels on the terrestrial TV and 2 satellite television services as well as several radio programs. One of the best known shows by the broadcasting organization is the 'Kōhaku Uta Gassen' or the Red and White Show. And in this blog by Sakude sensei, she shares her's a...
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