It is Setsubun today! 今日は節分[せつぶん]です! According to the Lunar Calendar, tomorrow, the 3rd of February, is the first day of Spring this year and this is called Risshun in Japanese. The day before Risshun is Setsubun and Japanese people have all sorts of rituals on Setsubun to welcome Spring . One of such rituals is […]
Continue readingHave you thought of your cultural identity? How important is it for you? I found the following article, which Crystal, a Waikato student, talked about her own precious experience in regard to her cultural identity. This is not about Japan or Japanese culture, but I thought I should share with you! https://www.asianz.org.nz/leadership/thailand-visit-inspires-search-for-cultural-identity/ 自分の文化的[ぶんかてき](= cultural)アイデンティティって考えたことがありますか。文化的アイデンティティは大切[たいせつ]だ(= important)と思いますか。今日、文化的アイデンティティについてのすばらしい記事[きじ](= […]
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Japan has lately experienced heavy snow fall; particularly in the northern areas; many vehicles were stuck on snowy roads in the Hokuriku area. Hopefully, the situation will improve soon. It is summer in New Zealand and has been quite warm. The photo shows a plant called ‘Kyochikuto‘ in Japanese (I do not know what it […]
Continue readingHappy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます🎍 I am pretty sure many of you ate quite a lot over the end-of-year/new year holiday (I did, anyway…) I happened to find the following short video; this is a nice park located in Hamilton, New Zealand. If you want (or need!) to take a walk, this would be a nice […]
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It is now December; time flies indeed… At the moment, we, people in New Zealand, are in a privileged situation; we have not had the COVID-19 community transmission for a while and been having a sort of normal life these days (the Government and Ministry of Health of course, constantly remind us that we should […]
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It is the 6th of August again; 75 years ago today, an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, Japan. Due to COVID-19, the peace memorial ceremony, which is held in Hiroshima on the 6th of August every year, will be delivered in a smaller scale this year. No matter how big or small, we will […]
Continue readingHi everybody! How have you been? I hope you have been copying okay with this unprecedented situation. The situation in New Zealand regarding COVID-19 has been getting better and better. We now can go to all sorts of places. As you might have heard, the Ukiyoe exhibition has been on in Auckland. You can only […]
Continue readingIt is under the COVID-19 lockdown in New Zealand. New Zealand uses its own the COVID-19 alert system, which has four levels. The current situation is Level 4 and this is the lockdown situation. We will be moving to Level 3 next Tuesday. The situation won’t change drastically but more people will be allowed to […]
Continue readingWe hear the COVID-19 related information everyday. It has been reported that five people had been contracted in New Zealand so far. I saw an article today describing what type of food each household should stock up in case for disaster (see the link below). We all hope we would not need to rely on […]
Continue readingJapan experienced a huge earthquake and tsunami nine years ago today; yes, I am talking about the Great East Japan Earthquake. Nearly 50,000 people still live somewhere temporarily. Many people got together to mark the date today for the past years, but not this year – due to COVID-19 (people in Japan are strongly recommended […]
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