NENGAJOU -- season's greetings message card --



In Japan the biggest event through a year is New Year but Christmas.
Like Christmas cards for foreign people, we send NENGAJOU at New Year as season's greetings.

Every year has its sexagenary cycle once per twelve years.
So, the card design will be related to that.

Post office sells public card which has lottery.
But recently many people use own cards made by their PC.

Now it is coming December, it is the season for preparing of season's greetings!

MOMIJI MANJYU -- bun with a form of maple --

I have introduced about trees turned red at previous story.

The main tree is maple.

It becomes red, yellow and orange with autumn sunshine.

Speaking of maple, MOMIJI MANJYU is very famous.

It is bun including bean jam formed as maple.

Particularly as a speciality of Hiroshima prefecture it is well known in Japan.

But you can get it at department store at anywhere of major city in Japan.

KOHYOU -- trees turn red --

I took this photo yesterday.

The famous landscape of autmun is this turning red of trees.

Kohyou starts from the colder area and spreads to south warm area through autumn.

On this weekend it will make heavy traffic jam at those area.

Also on website, many information sites are ready before season.

The way to enjoy Kohyou which I like best is combination with Onsen, hot spring.

After viewing Kohyou, Onsen makes me hot both heart and body.

Further more, if it is possible with viewing from outside bath at Onsen, it is nothing to say.

THE JAPAN TIMES


This is great helpful daily newspaper for English speaking people to know what happens in Japan.
You can get it at convenience store, Kiosk and bookstore.

For the Japanese, it is also helpful for carrier change to foreign foundation company.
So, the readers of it seem to be serious. ( just kidding! )

If you are lucky, you can get it inside airplane forwarding to Japan.

RADIO STATION

While staying in Japan, you can listen to the radio at your hotels, rent-a-cars and shops.

Basically the language is Japanese, but some station has English program, further more there is some English based channel.

Disk Jockey is bilingual, sometimes native speaker.

You can get the latest information of the news, music about your country.

You do not have to worry about becoming homesick!

MUSICAL







For all people of the world, it is associated musical with Broadway in New York.
It is so high quality culture spot.

In Japan, SHIKI THEATRE COMPANY is famous as a professional musical group.
They have private theaters in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka.
Incredibly all theaters are always fully booked.

Ticket's cost is around JPY10000-.
Quite only a few day tickets are available.
Advanced reservation is strongly recommended.

NOH -- Japanese performing art --







NOH is Japanese oldest form in musical theater.
The player wear mask and do not speak just express by their whole body.

The play proceeds with background song which is traditional one called UTAI.

The atmosphere is so mysterious.
The stage located outside suits for NOH, especially night time.

You might feel Japanese spirits.

KABUKI

This is one of Japan's main traditional theater forms.

There are some specialized theaters for KABUKI in Japan.

Not same as other theaters, those have characteristic equipments which are elevated runway, revolving stage, trapdoors.

One of the important things is casting.

KABUKI is played only by actor with no actress.

Because of that reason, they need too much make up when they play as female.

KABUKI is proceeding with slow pace.

And sometimes audience is hard to hear the serif due to their unique and traditional saying.