山岳信仰 mountain worship

・古来より、日本人は自然を崇拝し、その超越的な力（superpowers）に対して畏敬の念を抱いてきた。

・We have believed that deities reside everywhere in nature especiall in mountains.

・So, when disasters such as an eruption of a volcano occurred, people considered it as a punishment from deities residing in mountain.

・神道でも仏教でも山はとても重要で神聖な場所。

・In Shinto, Mt.Fuji or Nikko has been regarded as sacred places.

・In Buddhism also, mountains have been impotant places for Buddhist monks to train themselves to reach enlightenment.

・Among many Buddhist temples constructed in mountainous area, I reccomend you to visit Mt.Koya in Wakayama prefecture.

・The height of Mt.Fuji is 900m. Once you reach the temple, you may feel as if you are in the religious city in a sky.

・Here, you can experience Buddhist activities such as eating Buddhist vegetarian foods and 

  reading the Buddhist scriptures in the very eary morning. 

コスプレ cosplay

・Cosplay is a shorten term of costume play.

　practice of dressing up as a character especially from 漫画or アニメ

・After1990s, エヴァンゲリオン　→　cosplay got popular among some enthusiastic fans.

・ワンピース、NARUTOなども。

・日本で一番コスプレを見るのがハロウィン。

 Unlike western countries, halloween is supposed to be a day of cosplay event.

 渋谷　→　You can find a lot of people wearing costumes of zombi or other anime characters.

 USJ　→　scary halloween night

・「コスプレ」　so well-known word that it can be used all over the world.

 There are many la-ge-scale events of cosplay in major cities in the world such as Paris, New York and Beijing.

・Of course　in Tokyo, コスプレサミット。2003スタート。one of the most long-lasting event.

千羽鶴 Sembazuru

・a string of thousand paper cranes

・It is usually sento to a person who is ill or injured in order to pray for recovery

・Since the ancient times, cranes have been a symbolic animal representing longivity, so paper cranes are sent.

・Each crane is made by folding colored paper called 折り紙。

・ほとんどの子どもは小学生や保育園で鶴の折り方を学ぶ。

・千羽鶴を最もよく見かける場所は広島の平和記念公園。

・It is based on a tradegy of a girl named Sadako Sasaki.

・原爆の後遺症の影響で12歳で亡くなってしまったが、病院で回復を祈りながら、千羽以上もの鶴を一人で折った。

・オバマ大統領も。

・折り鶴は広島の平和を願う象徴。

うちわ uchiwa

・round and flat paper fan

・used to keep oneself cool  →　in summer, you may sometimes get uchiwa for free for advetisement of a company

 it is common for Japanese couples in Yukata, light cotton kimono to have Yukata in a summer festival

・it is also used to fan a fire  →　焼き鳥屋やうなぎ屋のcookが火をあおっているところを見ることも。

・生産量日本一は香川県丸亀市。90％以上のシェア。

・During the Edo period, Uchiwa got popular among visitors to Konpirasan, known as a deity of the sea

・A feudal lord of the area protect craftmen in order to increase the production

・うちわは薄く、軽いので、お土産にも最適。ぜひ、買い求めてみては？

本音と建前 honne and tatemae

・本音　：　one's true feelings

・建前　：　behaviors or opinions that are expected by society

・Japanses people often distinguish honne and tatemae depending on the time and opportunity.

・本音 and 建前 sometimes embarass foreign people because it is difficult to understand these concepts deeply.

・例）　Please imagine the situation of a business meeting as follows.

・When Japanese people have a proposal about a strategy of something from a foreign client,

  they sometimes say "It is difficult".

  In this case, the word "difficult" is likely to be used as "impossible", but for Japanese people,

  it is natural to say so because they do not want to reject it directly.

・According to a widely-known folk story in Japan, people living in Kyoto often use Tatemae

  instead of Honne. 

  「お宅の娘さんはピアノが上手どす」　→　「ピアノの音がうるさいよ」

・変に感じるかもしれないし、建前の文脈を読むのは難しいかもしれないけど、

　あなたの国の文化との違いを比較するのも一興かも。