Japanese sweet culture One of the most distinctive parts of Japanese culture is the art of Japanese Wagashi sweet making. The sweets are often eaten together with Japanese macha green tea. The range of styles and tastes is incredible and many of the sweet-makers belong to families with long traditions of sweet-making, with recipes and techniques past down from generation to generation. Mitsumoc...

Christmas all around the world Christmas season is celebrated in so many countries now all over the world. Some countries, like Japan, are not traditionally Christian, do not have the same traditional cultures of Western countries or have different climates and local cuisine. Therefore there are often some variations to the Christmas traditions. For example, the Australians are famous for Christ...

Regional festivals and dances in Japan There are many dances and festivals all over Japan, especially during the summer season. Each local area has famous dances, for example, there is the famous Awa Odori in Tokushima prefecture in Shikoku among many others. Kitano sensei, one of the professional Japanese teachers at Japonin(JOI), lives in Sweden, but she was raised in Hokkaido in Japan. In her...

Japanese seasonal fashion In November in Japan, the weather becomes colder, and Japanese people start to change their wardrobes from the autumn and late summer wear to their winter wear. Japanese seasonal fashion is an essential part of the nation's culture. And this blog from Yatabe sensei gives a personal and amusing view of the tough choices some of us have to make. You can read this blog, a...

Okinawan cuisine and culture There are differences between the cultures and food eaten around different parts of Japan. Okinawa, the southern­most island chain of Japan, has a distinct tropical climate and as result different cuisine. One of these is the Hechima sponge cucumber, and Inamoto sensei, who has experience in traveling to various countries, and a lot of experience in teaching Japanese...