Geography

Japan is situated in northeastern Asia between the North Pacific and the Sea of Japan. The area of Japan is 377,944
square kilometers, nearly equivalent to Germany and Switzerland combined or slightly smaller than California. Japan
consists of 6,852 islands, including four of the large main islands.
Shown below are the four major islands, their locations and sizes.

Hokkaido (northern island)

Honshu (main island)

83,457 square kilometers

231,121 square kilometers

Shikoku (smallest island)

18,793 square kilometers

Kyushu (southern island)

42,194 square kilometers

Japan has many islands, but also has many forests as well. The forests of Japan cover about 25.12 million hectares,
which adds up to roughly 66% of the entire national land area. This means that Japan has one of the largest forest
coverage rates in the world. Other areas used consist of 5.04 million hectares of agricultural land, 3.06 million
hectares of other land, 1.74 million hectares of residential land, 1.33 million hectares of water surfaces, rivers, and
channels, 1.23 million hectares of roads, and 260 thousand hectares of wilderness areas.
*These figures are from October 1, 2013 (Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
Japan's topographical features include coastlines with varied scenery, towering mountains, which are very often
volcanic and twisted valleys that invite visitors into the mysterious world of nature. The National Area of Japan The
islands of Japan in the Pacific Ocean may cover more territory than you thought. The northernmost, southernmost,
easternmost, and westernmost edges are as shown below.

Island name

Longitude

Latitude

Easternmost edge

Minamitorishima

1535911E

241659N

Westernmost edge

Yonagunijima

1225601E

242659N

Southernmost edge

Okinotorishima

1360411E

202531N

Northernmost edge

Iturup

1484514E

453318N

It is about 3,146 kilometers from the easternmost island of Minamitorishima to the westernmost island of
Yonagunijima, and 2,787 kilometers from the southernmost island of Okinotorishima to the northernmost island of
Iturup.

Language
There is only one official language spoken in Japan, which is of course Japanese. However, many Japanese are able
to understand English to a certain extent since English is the foreign language that everyone must learn as part of
compulsory education.

Even if you don't understand Japanese, you can still certainly enjoy Japan. But if you know a few everyday Japanese
phrases then it will make your trip even more memorable. A few words make a big difference.

Useful Japanese Phrases:

Japanese < > English
Ohayou gozaimasu

Good morning

Kon'nichiwa

Good afternoon

Kon'banwa

Good evening

Oyasumi nasai

Good night

Sayounara

Good-bye

Sumimasen

Excuse me

Gomen nasai

I am sorry

Wakarimasen

I don't understand

Arigatou

Thank you

Hai

Yes

Iie

No

Doko desuka

Where is ___?

Ikura desuka

How much is ___?

Oishii

Delicious

Tanoshii

Pleasing

Population
Japan's population is over 126 million. Most Japanese reside in densely populated urban areas. Japan's capital city is
Tokyo. The population of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area including the city, some of its suburbs and the surrounding area
is approximately 12 million.
Historically, the population of Japan has undergone repeated periods of increase and decrease. During the period
from approximately 400 years ago to 300 years ago, it increased significantly due to the societal change from the
Warring State Period to a peaceful period. Afterward, it remained stable until approximately 150 years ago. Due to the
advancement of medical care, changes in lifestyle, and industrial growth, the population of approximately 33,300,000
rapidly increased to the current 127 million. It is, however, estimated to take a significant downward turn in the future
due to its aging population combined with its declining birth rate.

Major cities of Japan and their approximate populations

City
Tokyo

Population
13,115,747

Yokohama

3,714,200

Osaka

2,667,830

Nagoya

2,254,891

Sapporo

1,930,496

Kobe

1,553,789

Fukuoka

1,474,326

Kawasaki

1,433,765

Kyoto

1,420,719

Saitama

1,253,582

Hiroshima

1,186,928

Sendai

1,049,578

Kitakyushu

981,891

Chiba

960,051

Hamamatsu

812,286

Niigata

806,525

Kumamoto

734,287

Shizuoka

718,774

Okayama

704,572

*As of January 1, 2014, based on Population Census by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications.
Japan has four distinct seasons. The climate can widely vary depending on the region you visit as the country is long
from north to south. Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu have extratropical climates, Hokkaido has subarctic climates, and
the southern islands such as Okinawa have subtropical climates. For example, springtime skiing can be enjoyed in
the northern areas between March and April, but sea bathing can be enjoyed during the same time of the year on the
islands in the southwestern areas. Japan also has particular climactic events such as a rainy season and typhoons.
The Rainy Season
Rainy days and cloudy days increase as the rain front becomes active from early June to early July in Honshu and
from mid-May to mid-June in Okinawa. The rain may continue to pour over a period of several days so travelers
during this season should plan ahead. Please be careful of hazards such as mold and food poisoning that often result
from the high levels of humidity. Hokkaido is mostly unaffected by the rainy season.
Typhoons
Cyclones over the Pacific Ocean intensify and sometimes pass near Japan from July to October. Statistics show that
they move onshore the most between August and September. Typhoons cannot be prepared for appropriately as their
tracks and the damage they inflict greatly differ each time they hit, but please gather necessary information when they
start to approach. Public transportation may even come to a halt when they are large in scale. In most cases, they
cause serious effects for two days.
Winter (December - February)

The temperature rarely drops below 0C in the plains along the Pacific coast during
wintertime. It is also quite dry and very often sunny. Central Japan and Northern Japan are highly reputed regions for
winter sports. Southern Japan is comparatively mild and pleasant in winter.
Clothing: overcoats, sweaters, etc.
Spring (March - May)
The plum blossom is a good sign that the cold winter will soon end and spring is just around the corner, followed by
the cherry blossom at its best in the Tokyo area between the end of March and the beginning of April to bring this
beautiful season to a climax. Splendid views of mountains, fields and gardens all blanketed in gentle pink abound in
this season.
Clothing: light jackets, light sweaters and other similar kinds of tops.
Summer (June - August)
The Japanese summer begins in June with a three to four week rainy season. This is an important time for farmers to
plant rice. It becomes seriously hot and humid from July onward and many Japanese enjoy bathing in the sea and
relaxing at cool resorts in mountainous areas. Summer is when many interesting festivals and other events are held
all over the country.
Clothing: light clothes (cardigans and other similar kinds are handy, since indoors are mostly air-conditioned.)
Autumn (September - November)
Autumn always brings such freshness with a light breeze and cool temperature after the hot and humid summer. All
forests are dyed in glorious autumn colors. Chrysanthemums create beautiful displays with their abundance of
flowers to enchant visitors to parks and gardens. Autumn is also the season for many exhibitions, music concerts and
sports tournaments in Japan.
Clothing: light jackets, light sweaters and other similar kinds of tops.

Where does the name Japan come from?

The name of the country in Japanese is Nihon orNippon, written in
Chinese characters. The characters mean "the origin of the sun". This
comes from the position of Japan to the east of China. However, neither
"Nihon" nor "Nippon" sounds much like "Japan", so the origin of the word
Japan is mysterious. Marco Polo never visited Japan, only China, but in a
book he mentions the island of Chipangu. Some people say that this is
the origin of "Japan". Others claim that "Japan" came from Malaysian 'Jihpun' or something similar, which came from a southern Chinese dialect
reading of Nippon.
Others say that when Marco Polo visited China, Chinese pronunciation was
close enough to modern Mandarin that the character for "day/sun" () was a
retroflex fricative, something like the "Z" in "Zsa Zsa Gabor", or "j" and "r"
pronounced simultaneously and held for a syllable. The character for
"origin/root/book/scroll" () was read something like "pun" (as in modern
Mandarin, though it sounds more like the English word "bun" to English
speakers), so Marco Polo did the best he could in Italian with what sounded
to him like "jrjrrrpun". The weakest part of this account is the attribution to
Marco Polo; perhaps it was somebody who came along later?
Japan National Flag - Information
The national fl ag of Japan, offi cially called Nisshki ( ), is a white
rectangular fl ag with a stylized sun as a red disk in the center
Japan Flag - Colors - meaning and symbolism
Red Sun Disk represents sun goddess 'Amaterasu', founder of Japan and ancestor of
its emperors. It symbolizes bright future for Japan
White represents honesty, integrity and purity of Japanese people
apan Flag - History, Facts & information for kids
The national flag of Japan is officially called Nisshki () which means "sunmark flag" in Japanese language
Japan flag is commonly known as Hinomaru () which means "Sun Disk" in
Japanese language
Japan flag is traditionally hoisted on a rough natural bamboo
According to tradition, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu founded Japan about 2700 years
ago. Sun Goddess Amaterasu is also believed to be the ancestor of Jimmu, the first
emperor of Japan. So, the emperor is known as the Son of the Sun and Japan is
called the Land of the Rising Sun. The ancient history Shoku Nihongi says that
Emperor Mommu used a flag representing the sun in his court in 701, and this is the
first recorded use of a sun-motif flag in Japan. The sun-disc flag was adopted as the
national flag for merchant ships under Proclamation issued on February 27, 1870.
The Nisshki flag is designated as the national flag in the Law Regarding the

National Flag and National Anthem, which was promulgated and became effective
on August 13, 1999.

The Writing System

The Scripts
Japanese consists of two scripts (referred to as kana) called Hiragana and Katakana, which are two
versions of the same set of sounds in the language. Hiragana and Katakana consist of a little less
than 50 "letters", which are actually simplified Chinese characters adopted to form a phonetic script.
Chinese characters, called Kanji in Japanese, are also heavily used in the Japanese writing. Most of
the words in the Japanese written language are written in Kanji (nouns, verbs, adjectives). There
exists over 40,000 Kanji where about 2,000 represent over 95% of characters actually used in written
text. There are no spaces in Japanese so Kanji is necessary in distinguishing between separate
words within a sentence. Kanji is also useful for discriminating between homophones, which occurs
quite often given the limited number of distinct sounds in Japanese.
Hiragana is used mainly for grammatical purposes. We will see this as we learn about particles.
Words with extremely difficult or rare Kanji, colloquial expressions, and onomatopoeias are also
written in Hiragana. It's also often used for beginning Japanese students and children in place of
Kanji they don't know.
While Katakana represents the same sounds as Hiragana, it is mainly used to represent newer
words imported from western countries (since there are no Kanji associated with words based on the
roman alphabet). The next three sections will cover Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Intonation
As you will find out in the next section, every character in Hiragana (and the Katakana equivalent)
corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound with the single exception of the
and characters (more on this later). This system of letter for each syllable sound
makes pronunciation absolutely clear with no ambiguities. However, the simplicity of this system
does not mean that pronunciation in Japanese is simple. In fact, the rigid structure of the fixed
syllable sound in Japanese creates the challenge of learning proper intonation.
Intonation of high and low pitches is a crucial aspect of the spoken language. For example,
homophones can have different pitches of low and high tones resulting in a slightly different sound
despite sharing the same pronunciation. The biggest obstacle for obtaining proper and natural
sounding speech is incorrect intonation. Many students often speak without paying attention to the

correct enunciation of pitches making speech sound unnatural (the classic foreigner's accent). It is
not practical to memorize or attempt to logically create rules for pitches, especially since it can
change depending on the context or the dialect. The only practical approach is to get the general
sense of pitches by mimicking native Japanese speakers with careful listening and practice.
Hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic script. It represents every sound in the Japanese language.
Therefore, you can theoretically write everything in Hiragana. However, because Japanese is written
with no spaces, this will create nearly indecipherable text.
Here is a table of Hiragana and similar-sounding English consonant-vowel pronunciations. It is read
up to down and right to left, which is how most Japanese books are written. In Japanese, writing the
strokes in the correct order and direction is important, especially for Kanji. Because handwritten
letters look slightly different from typed letters (just like how 'a' looks totally different when typed), you
will want to use a resource that uses handwritten style fonts to show you how to write the characters
(see below for links). I must also stress the importance of correctly learning how to pronounce each
sound. Since every word in Japanese is composed of these sounds, learning an incorrect
pronunciation for a letter can severely damage the very foundation on which your pronunciation lies.

(n)

(o)

(shi)

(chi)

(tsu)

(fu)

Hiragana - Click for stroke order and sound

* = no longer used

You can listen to the pronunciation for each character by clicking on it in chart. If your browser
doesn't support audio, you can also download them
at http://www.guidetojapanese.org/audio/basic_sounds.zip. There are also other free resources with
audio samples.
Hiragana is not too tough to master or teach and as a result, there are a variety of web sites and free
programs that are already available on the web. I also suggest recording yourself and comparing the
sounds to make sure you're getting it right.
When practicing writing Hiragana by hand, the important thing to remember is that the stroke order
and direction of the strokes matter. There, I underlined, italicized, bolded, and highlighted it to boot.
Trust me, you'll eventually find out why when you read other people's hasty notes that are nothing
more than chicken scrawls. The only thing that will help you is that everybody writes in the same
order and so the "flow" of the characters is fairly consistent. I strongly recommend that you pay close
attention to stroke order from the beginning starting with Hiragana to avoid falling into bad habits.
While there are many tools online that aim to help you learn Hiragana, the best way to learn how to
write it is the old fashioned way: a piece of paper and pen/pencil. Below are handy PDFs for
Hiragana writing practice.

japanese-lesson.com
Hiroshi & Sakura

As an aside, an old Japanese poem called was often used as the base for ordering of
Hiragana until recent times. The poem contains every single Hiragana character except for
which probably did not exist at the time it was written. You can check out this poem for yourself
in this wikipedia article. As the article mentions, this order is still sometimes used in ordering lists so
you may want to spend some time checking it out.

KATAKANA
As mentioned before, Katakana is mainly used for words imported from foreign languages. It can
also be used to emphasize certain words similar to the function of italics. For a more complete list of
usages, refer to theWikipedia entry on katakana.
Katakana represents the same set of phonetic sounds as Hiragana except all the characters are
different. Since foreign words must fit into this limited set of [consonants+vowel] sounds, they
undergo many radical changes resulting in instances where English speakers can't understand
words that are supposed to be derived from English! As a result, the use of Katakana is extremely
difficult for English speakers because they expect English words to sound like... well... English.
Instead, it is better to completely forget the original English word, and treat the word as an entirely
separate Japanese word, otherwise you can run into the habit of saying English words with English
pronunciations (whereupon a Japanese person may or may not understand what you are saying).


(n)

*
(o)

(shi)

(chi)

(tsu)

(fu)

Katakana - Click for stroke order and sound

* = obsolete or rarely used
Katakana is significantly tougher to master compared to Hiragana because it is only used for certain
words and you don't get nearly as much practice as you do with Hiragana. To learn the proper stroke
order (and yes, you need to), here are links to practice sheets for Katakana.
Also, since Japanese doesn't have any spaces, sometimes the symbol is used to show the
spaces like for "rock and roll". Using the symbol is completely optional
so sometimes nothing will be used at all.

What is Kanji?
In Japanese, nouns and stems of adjectives and verbs are almost all written in Chinese characters
calledKanji. Adverbs are also fairly frequently written in Kanji as well. This means that you will need
to learn Chinese characters to be able to read most of the words in the language. (Children's books
or any other material where the audience is not expected to know a lot of Kanji is an exception to
this.) Not all words are always written in Kanji however. For example, while the verb "to do"
technically has a Kanji associated with it, it is always written in Hiragana.
This guide begins using Kanji from the beginning to help you read "real" Japanese as quickly as
possible. Therefore, we will go over some properties of Kanji and discuss some strategies of learning
it quickly and efficiently. Mastering Kanji is not easy but it is by no means impossible. The biggest

part of the battle is mastering the skills of learning Kanji and time. In short, memorizing Kanji past
short-term memory must be done with a great deal of study and, most importantly, for a long time.
And by this, I don't mean studying five hours a day but rather reviewing how to write a Kanji once
every several months until you are sure you have it down for good. This is another reason why this
guide starts using Kanji right away. There is no reason to dump the huge job of learning Kanji at the
advanced level. By studying Kanji along with new vocabulary from the beginning, the immense job of
learning Kanji is divided into small manageable chunks and the extra time helps settle learned Kanji
into permanent memory. In addition, this will help you learn new vocabulary, which will often have
combinations of Kanji you already know. If you start learning Kanji later, this benefit will be wasted or
reduced.

Learning Kanji
All the resources you need to begin learning Kanji are on the web for free. You can use dictionaries
online such as Jim Breen's WWWJDIC or jisho.org. They both have great Kanji dictionaries and
stroke order diagrams for most Kanji. Especially for those who are just starting to learn, you will want
to repeatedly write out each Kanji to memorize the stroke order. Another important skill is learning
how to balance the character so that certain parts are not too big or small. So make sure to copy the
characters as close to the original as possible. Eventually, you will naturally develop a sense of the
stroke order for certain types of characters allowing you to bypass the drilling stage. All the Kanji
used in this guide can be easily looked up by copying and pasting to an online dictionary.

Reading Kanji
Almost every character has two different readings called and
. is the original Chinese reading while is the Japanese reading. Kanji that appear
in a compound or is usually read with while one Kanji by itself is usually read with
. For example, is read with the while the same character in a compound
word such as is read with the which is in this case.
Certain characters (especially the most common ones) can have more than one or .
For example, in the word , is read here as and not . Certain
compound words also have special readings that have nothing to do with the readings of the
individual characters. These readings must be individually memorized. Thankfully, these readings
are few and far in between.
is also used in adjectives and verbs in addition to the stand-alone characters. These words
often have a string of kana (called okurigana) that come attached to the word. This is so that the
reading of the Chinese character stays the same even when the word is conjugated to different
forms. For example, the past form of the verb is . Even though the verb has
changed, the reading for remain untouched. (Imagine how difficult things could get if readings

for Kanji changed with conjugation or even worse, if the Kanji itself changed.) Okurigana also serves
to distinguish between intransitive and transitive verbs (more on this later).
Another concept that is difficult to grasp at first is that the actual readings of Kanji can change slightly
in a compound word to make the word easier to say. The more common transformations include the /
h / sounds changing to either / b / or / p / sounds or becoming . Examples include:
and .
Yet another fun aspect of Kanji you'll run into are words that practically mean the same thing and use
the same reading but have different Kanji to make just a slight difference in meaning. For example
means to listen and so does . The only difference is that
means to pay more attention to what you're listening to. For example, listening to music almost
always prefers over . can also mean 'to ask', as well as, "to hear" but
can only mean "to ask". Yet another example is the common practice of writing
as when it applies to watching a show such as a movie. Yet another interesting
example is which means "to write" while means "to draw".
However, when you're depicting an abstract image such as a scene in a book, the reading of the
same word becomes . There's also the case where the meaning and Kanji stays
the same but can have multiple readings such as which can be either
, or . In this case, it doesn't really matter which reading you choose except that
some are preferred over others in certain situations.
Finally, there is one special character that is really not a character. It simply indicates that the
previous character is repeated. For example, can and
usually are written as .
In addition to these "features" of Kanji, you will see a whole slew of delightful perks and surprises
Kanji has for you as you advance in Japanese. You can decide for yourself if that statement is
sarcasm or not. However, don't be scared into thinking that Japanese is incredibly hard. Most of the
words in the language usually only have one Kanji associated with it and a majority of Kanji do not
have more than two types of readings.

Why Kanji?
Some people may think that the system of using separate, discrete symbols instead of a sensible
alphabet is overly complicated. In fact, it might not have been a good idea to adopt Chinese into
Japanese since both languages are fundamentally different in many ways. But the purpose of this
guide is not to debate how the language should work but to explain why you must learn Kanji in
order to learn Japanese. And by this, I mean more than just saying, "That's how it's done so get over
it!".

You may wonder why Japanese didn't switch from Chinese to romaji to do away with having to
memorize so many characters. In fact, Korea adopted their own alphabet for Korean to greatly
simplify their written language with great success. So why shouldn't it work for Japanese? I think
anyone who has learned Japanese for a while can easily see why it won't work. At any one time,
when you convert typed Hiragana into Kanji, you are presented with almost always at least two
choices (two homophones) and sometimes even up to ten. (Try typing "kikan"). The limited number
of set sounds in Japanese makes it hard to avoid homophones. Compare this to the Korean alphabet
which has 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Any of the consonants can be matched to any of the
vowels giving 140 sounds. In addition, a third and sometimes even fourth consonant can be attached
to create a single letter. This gives over 1960 sounds that can be created theoretically. (The number
of sounds that are actually used is actually much less but it's still much larger than Japanese.)
Since you want to read at a much faster rate than you talk, you need some visual cues to instantly
tell you what each word is. You can use the shape of words in English to blaze through text because
most words have different shapes. Try this little exercise: Hi, enve thgouh all teh wrods aer seplled
icorrenctly, can you sltil udsternand me?" Korean does this too because it has enough characters to
make words with distinct and different shapes. However, because the visual cues are not distinct as
Kanji, spaces needed to be added to remove ambiguities. (This presents another problem of when
and where to set spaces.)
With Kanji, we don't have to worry about spaces and much of the problem of homophones is mostly
resolved. Without Kanji, even if spaces were to be added, the ambiguities and lack of visual cues
would make Japanese text much more difficult to read.

Manners, customs and the Japanese way

Manners and customs are an important part of many facets of Japanese life. Japanese people grow up picking
up the subtleties of this unique culture as they go through life, respecting the invisible and varied societal rules.
There are many aspects of this seemingly complicated culture that as a foreign visitor you will not be expected
to know, but there are some things that will be easier to grasp than others.

Bowing
One of the most obvious social conventions is the bow. Everyone bows when they say hello, goodbye, thank
you or sorry. Bowing is a term of respect, remorse, gratitude and greeting.
If you meet someone in Japan you may wish to give them a little bow, but you do not necessarily need to bow
to everyone who bows to you. Entering a shop or restaurant for example, you will be greeted by shouts
of irrashaimase (welcome) and a bow from the staff as a sign of respect to you as the customer.
As the customer, you will not be expected to bow back as you could be facing a long bow-off as the staff will
feel it necessary to bow back to you. You may prefer to adopt the casual head-nod version of the bow as a sign
of acknowledgement when thanked for your purchase at the end of your shopping experience. Many Japanese
people use the head-nod in more casual everyday situations.

There are several forms of bowing, such as the 45-degree saikeirei bow used for moments for sincere apology
or to show the highest of respect, or the 30-degree keirei bow, which is also used to show respect to superiors.
As a visitor to Japan you will probably have no use for either of these.
The eshaku 15-degree bow is semi-formal and used for greetings when meeting people for the first time. You
may have more use for this bow during your time in Japan, but you will not be expected to use it and Japanese
these days are more than familiar with shaking hands.

Taking off footwear

This is something that confuses many visitors to Japan, but is so easy to understand. It is customary in Japan to
take off your shoes when entering a traditional ryokan (guesthouse), a home, temple or the occasional
restaurant for example.
Traditionally, the Japanese took off their shoes when entering homes as people would sleep, sit and eat on
the tatami-mat floors and footwear worn outside would spread dirt across their living area. Today people still
take off their footwear, partly to keep the inside of the building clean, but also as a sign of respect.
As a visitor to Japan, you may not find yourself entering too many private homes but you will probably find
yourself in a traditional ryokan or minshuku guesthouse or entering a temple building. In these cases you will
be expected to take off your shoes.
As you enter the building you will usually find yourself in the genkan (entrance hall), which will most often be
on a slightly different level to the rest of the floor. You may see a sign asking you to take of shoes, you may see
lots of shoes sitting neatly or you may see an area or lockers to place your footwear. All of these are signs that
you should take off your shoes.
Most Japanese will glide effortlessly in and out of their footwear from genkan to tatami floor in one swift
move. As soon as you step out of your shoes, step up straight onto the main floor and to be polite, you might
like to turn around and reposition your shoes neatly or put them in the appropriate place. Although you may
not have mastered taking off your shoes as well as the Japanese, it is a simple concept that is considered vey
important in Japan.

Other social tips

Respect
The suffix "san" is often used when you refer to someone else and is a term of respect. If referring to Mr/Mrs
Suzuki, you would say, "Suzuki-san". However, you would never refer to yourself as "-san" and would only
use your name on its own.
Eating
Before eating a meal, the Japanese put their hands together and use the term "Itadakimasu" (I humbly receive).
After the meal, it is polite to say "Gochiso sama deshita" (thank you for the meal).
Japanese people will understand if visitors do not have proficient use of chopsticks, but there are some rules
you should try and follow:
Do not stick your chopsticks into your bowl of rice or pass food around with them. As well as being slightly
uncouth, these actions have relevance to the Japanese funeral ceremony.
It is also advisable not to douse your rice in soy sauce. The Japanese are very proud of their rice and this
seemingly innocent action may surprise and even offend some ryokan/restaurant owners.
It is not common practice to walk and eat in public and is considered bad manners. You may sit down in a
public place and eat or stand at tachi-gui restaurant/shops, but walking and eating is not polite.
Tipping

There is no tipping in Japanese restaurants or other places that many westerners will expect to tip. The
Japanese will always give the best service they can and do their jobs proudly. A waiter or chef would certainly
not accept a tip for doing their jobs and if you tried to leave one, they would awkwardly return your money, so
don't tip.

Shinto, Buddhism and the Japanese belief system

Religion in Japan is a wonderful mish-mash of ideas from Shintoism and Buddhism. Unlike in the West,
religion in Japan is rarely preached, nor is it a doctrine. Instead it is a moral code, a way of living, almost
indistinguishable from Japanese social and cultural values.
Japanese religion is also a private, family affair. It is separate from the state; there are no religious prayers or
symbols in a school graduation ceremony, for example. Religion is rarely discussed in every day life and the
majority of Japanese do not worship regularly or claim to be religious.
However, most people turn to religious rituals in birth, marriage and death and take part in spiritual matsuri (or
festivals) throughout the year.

Religion and the Emperor

Until World War Two, Japanese religion focused around the figure of the Emperor as a living God. Subjects
saw themselves as part of a huge family of which all Japanese people were members.
The crushing war defeat however, shattered many people's beliefs, as the frail voice of the Emperor was
broadcast to the nation renouncing his deity. The period since has seen a secularisation of Japanese society
almost as dramatic as the economic miracle which saw Japan's post-war economy go into overdrive.
However, much of the ritual has survived the collapse of religious belief. Today, religion defines Japanese
identity more than spirituality, and at helps strengthen family and community ties.

Shintoism versus Buddhism

Shintoism is Japan's indigenous spirituality. It is believed that every living thing in nature (e.g. trees, rocks,
flowers, animals - even sounds) contains kami, or gods.
Consequently Shinto principles can be seen throughout Japanese culture, where nature and the turning of the
seasons are cherished. This is reflected in arts such as ikebana (flower arranging) and bonsai, Japanese garden
design and the annual celebration of sakura - or cherry blossom.
Shinto only got its name when Buddhism came to Japan by way of China, Tibet, Vietnam, and ultimately
Korea. Buddhism arrived in the sixth century, establishing itself in Nara. Over time Buddhism divided into
several sects, the most popular being Zen Buddhism.
In essence, Shintoism is the spirituality of this world and this life, whereas Buddhism is concerned with the
soul and the afterlife. This explains why for the Japanese the two religions exist so successfully together,
without contradiction. To celebrate a birth or marriage, or to pray for a good harvest, the Japanese turn to
Shintoism. Funerals, on the other hand, are usually Buddhist ceremonies.

Shrines versus temples

As a general rule of thumb, shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddhist. Shrines can be identified by the huge
entrance gate or torii, often painted vermillion red. However you'll often find both shrines and temple
buildings in the same complex so it is sometimes difficult to identify and separate the two.
To appreciate a shrine, do as the Japanese do. Just inside the red torii gate you'll find a water fountain or
trough. Here you must use a bamboo ladle to wash your hands and mouth to purify your spirit before entering.
Next, look for a long thick rope hanging from a bell in front of an altar. Here you may pray: first ring the bell,
throw a coin before the altar as on offering (five yen coins are considered lucky), clap three times to summon
the kami, then clasp your hands together to pray.
At a temple, you'll need to take your shoes off before entering the main building and kneeling on the tatamimat floor before an altar or icon to pray.

Lucky charms
Luck, fate and superstition are important to the Japanese. Many people buy small charms at temples or shrines,
which are then attached to handbags, key chains, mobile phones or hung in cars to bring good luck. Different
charms grant different luck, such as exam success or fertility.
Prayers are often written on votive tablets: wooden boards called ema that are hung in their hundreds around
temple grounds. At famous temples such as Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera, you'll see votive tablets written in a
variety of languages.
A final way to learn your destiny is to take a fortune slip. Sometimes available in English, a fortune slip rates
your future in different areas: success, money, love, marriage, travel and more. If your fortune is poor, tie your
slip to a tree branch in the temple grounds; leaving the slip at the temple should improve your luck.

Religious ceremonies
The most important times of year in the Japanese calendar are New Year, celebrated from the 1st to the 3rd of
January, and O-Bon, usually held around the 16th of August. At New Year the Japanese make trips to ancestral
graves to pray for late relatives. The first shrine visit of the New Year is also important to secure luck for the
year ahead.
At O-Bon it is believed that the spirits of the ancestors come down to earth to visit the living. Unlike
Halloween, these spooky spirits are welcomed and the Japanese make visits to family graves.
Births are celebrated by family visits to shrines. The passing of childhood is commemorated at three key ages:
three, five and seven, and small children are dressed in expensive kimono and taken to certain shrines such as
Tokyo's Meiji Shrine. Coming of age is officially celebrated at 20. In early January, mass coming of age
ceremonies (like graduations) are held in town halls followed by shrine visits by young people proudly dressed
in bright kimono.
In Japan today, marriage ceremonies are a great clash of East meets West. A Japanese wedding may have
several parts, including a Shinto ceremony in traditional dress at a shrine as well as a Western-style wedding
reception in a hotel or restaurant. In the second part it is now popular for a bride to wear a wedding gown for
a howaito wedingu (white wedding).
Funerals are overseen by Buddhist priests. 99% of Japanese are cremated and their ashes buried under a
gravestone. To better understand Japanese funerals, InsideJapan Tours highly recommend the Oscar-winning
film Okuribito, or Departures, about a concert cellist who goes back to his roots in Yamagata and retrains as an
undertaker.
Japanese matsuri are festivals connected to shrines. In a tradition stretching back centuries matsuri parades and
rituals relate to the cultivation of rice and the spiritual wellbeing of the local community.

Other religions
According to Article 20 of the Japanese constitution, Japan grants full religious freedom, allowing minority
religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism to be practiced. These religions account for
roughly 5-10% of Japan's population. However, the spiritual vacuum left by the Emperor's renunciation was
also rapidly filled by a plethora of new religions (shin shukyo) which sprung up across Japan.
Mainly concentrated in urban areas, these religions offered this-worldly benefits such as good health, wealth,
and good fortune. Many had charismatic, Christ-like leaders who inspired a fanatical devotion in their
followers. It is here that the roots of such famous "cults" as the "Aum cult of the divine truth", who perpetrated
the Tokyo subway gas attack of 1995, can be found.
However, the vast majority of new religions are focused on peace and the attainment of happiness, although
many Japanese who have no involvement appear suspicious of such organisations. Tax-dodging or moneylaundering are, according to some, par for the course.
Some of the new religions, such as PL Kyoden (Public Liberty Kyoden) and Soka Gakkai, have, however,
become very much a part of the establishment in Japan, and it seems their role in politics and business is not to
be underestimated.

Where to visit?
For those who have an interest in Buddhism or Shinto, Japan is full of fascinating places to visit. Nara, in the
Kansai region near Osaka, is thought to be the original home of Buddhism in Japan and features an extensive
museum of Buddhist art and artifacts, as well as the huge statue of Buddha that is Nara's central visitor
attraction.
Kyoto is full of beautiful shrines and temples and can provide a unique look back through history to a time
when religious belief was a more significant part of everyday life, as well as being simply stunning to behold.
In fact, everywhere you go in Japan, you will see the face of the country's religious heritage