Golden Week Golden Week is a period of the year around the end of April and beginning of May when many Japanese workers roughly 6 to 8 days off around in the year. It comes about because of a group of holidays that coincidentally fell close to each other. There are 4 National holidays at this time, Green or Greenery Day, the Emperor Showa's birthday, Constitution Day and Children's day. This yea...

Japanese pop and Karaoke music. Karaoke was a huge phenomenon in Japan during the Heisei era especially for Japanese pop music culture. Many young people would use the 'Karaoke boxes' as their primary entertainment spot and older business people would find a method of stress release by singing their favorite oldies. There are many songs from the Heisei era that strike a nostalgic chord among Jap...

Payments in Japan In Japan, there are various ways to make payments. Most people tend to prefer to make payments with cash, but the government and businesses are currently pulling towards a cashless style of payments. Credit card payments and paying with smartphone-based mobile money is increasing. And there are a number of competing services that are fighting for dominance in the growing market...

The collection of ten thousand leaves The Manyoshu or 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves' is an anthology of ancient Japanese poems compiled during the Nara imperial era in Japan. The Manyoshu is often referred to as the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry and the era is regarded as a high point of Japanese poetry. In this blog by a Japanese language teacher, Emi Sakude, she introduces this topi...

Japanese fiscal and school years The fiscal and school years begin in April in Japan. This is the month when schools have their entrance ceremonies and companies welcome new recruits./p> It is also the month when the cherry blossoms bloom all around the country. The image of celebrating the changes in lives and new environments is almost a cliché in Japan. Read this interesting blog by Rie K...