Japan

Picture Postcards: Kendo in Japan

Most universities have a kendo club in Japan. These students were practising on a winter’s afternoon.

Read more:
Picture Postcards: Japanese lunch
Picture Postcards: Ukon tea from Okinawa
Five unusual servings I’ve encountered in Japan

Mike: “Anywhere you go in the World, you will see Children Smile”

Mike is a retired engineer currently living in Okinawa, Japan, and also one of our regional contributors here at Pocket Cultures. Mike would describe himself not as an “expat” but as a “transplant”. In today’s interview, Mike tells us about his experiences travelling the world and getting to know other cultures and specifically his insight for how to blend and avoid behaving like a “high and mighty foreigner.” And above all, the best advice: listen to Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.”

Photo credit: Luis Sanchez

Here is Mike’s story, in his words:

At age 17, after graduating high school, I left the farm in upstate New York to travel the world.  My first taste of culture shock came soon afterwards.  People, even in the USA, didn’t know someone from New York could be a farmer. People around the world, at least back in the 60′s, thought everyone from New York lived in a big city!  Hopefully the internet has changed all that.

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Picture Postcards: Cars in Japan

Happy New Year to all you Pocketcultures followers!

This month we are looking at means of transport in different countries here on Picture Postcards. I’m starting things off with a snap I took in Japan of a priest blessing a car. This was at Hakusan Shrine in Niigata, Japan.

If you have a photo of some form of transport in your country that you would like to contribute, please consider placing it in our Picture Postcards of the World Flickr group. We’d love to see your pics!

Read more:
Picture Postcards: Cos play girls in Japan
Picture Postcards: Japanese lunch
Conversation with a Japanophile

PocketCultures world tour: best of 2011

Happy New Year! Our roundup of 2011 begins with a reminder that 1st January is not the beginning of a new year throughout the world. Carla wrote that Brazilians consider the year to start after February’s carnival, and Anu wrote about new year celebrations which take place at different times in different parts of India. Of course many parts of the world do celebrate the start of the New Year on January 1st, and Sandra’s post explained all about new year celebrations in Portugal.

Bolo Rei – part of the New Year celebrations in Portugal. Credit.

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Picture Postcards: Cos play girls in Tokyo, Japan

Continuing our look at things people wear around the world, here are a group of girls in the Harajuku area of Tokyo dressed up in Cos (ie. costume) play outfits. These are not usually clothes for everyday wear, but dressing up in them and heading out to certain meet-up areas is a kind of hobby in Japan. The costumes are often based on characters from anime (animated films) or manga (comic books) or even video games. Harajuku is an area famous for this at the weekends.

Read more:
Ukon Tea from Okinawa
Five Unusual Servings I’ve Encountered Living in Japan
Japan Rediscovers Healthy Food

Picture Postcards: Ukon tea from Okinawa

You might notice the special colour of this Okinawan tea in the photo sent in by our contributor, Mike. It is yellow because it contains turmeric which is said to help will all manner of ills. Since Okinawa has a large population of centenarians, there must be something to it!

Read more:
Okinawa Lunch
Shopfront in Naha, Okinawa, Japan
Five unusual servings I’ve encountered in Japan