JAPAN DESTINATIONS

JAPAN DESTINATIONS
Japan has a great many attractions that will entice tourists from all over the World.  Whether it be the beautiful landscapes, the state of the art sports venues, the technology, the food or the history, there is enough to keep you tantalised until it's time to go home.
We have listed below our top destinations that we feel offer the most for people visiting Japan.  Among them is Tokyo, the more well known of our destinations.  In Tokyo you will find a wealth of attractions including palaces, monasteries, shrines, landmarks and amusement parks.  The list really does go on!
SAPPORO

A large clock tower and trendy shopping center. Odori Avenue Park is the location of a magnificent snow festival.Sapporo in western Hokkaido is divided up in a grid pattern, and is the largest city on the island. Odori Avenue Park stretches from east to west in the center of the city, and is a symbol of the city - full of art objects, fountains, lilac and acacia plants and lots of flowerbeds. To the north stand trading companies, financial institutions and local government offices, while to the south is a large underground shopping mall, which as the city's main shopping center is always busy. It is connected directly to Sapporo Station, which is the transportation hub for all of Hokkaido and the place to board JR lines, the subway, and both local and tourist buses.The city contains many essential sights: the Sapporo City Clock, which has been marking time for over a century; the old Hokkaido government building, a neo-baroque building known as "Red Brick" that is lit up after dark; and the poplars outside Hokkaido University (formerly Hokkaido Agricultural College).Odori Avenue Park is more than 1,400 meters long. In summer it is full of beer gardens, while in winter it becomes the location for a snow festival. During the festival, this big park is lined with magnificent snow statues and beautiful ice statues.
TOKYO

One of the most populous cities in the world. A thriving center of economy, culture and industry.Tokyo consists of the southwestern part of the Kanto region, the Izu Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, and the place where over 13 million people live, making it one of the most populous cities in the world. When the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu established a government there in the early 17th century, the area started to develop, spreading out around his residence, Edo Castle. Most of the city was devastated by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and then again by the bombing in the WWII, however, Tokyo was able to achieve a remarkably rapid recovery both times.Tokyo is not only the political and economical center of Japan, it has also emerged as a center of the world economy and culture. There are a number of attractions in Tokyo that should not be missed. There are large-scale downtown areas, including Ginza where famous shops from around the world stand side by side, the sleepless Shinjuku that has become the "new city center of Tokyo," Asakusa which is reminiscent of the traditional Edo (the former name of Tokyo), and Shibuya that starts the trends for the young people. Other unique areas include the computer town Akihabara, a dense retail area where numerous electronic shops compete against each other, attracting many shoppers from Japan and overseas, and Tsukiji, an open-air wholesale food market catering to shops and consumers everywhere in Japan.
HAKONE

One of the best international holiday resorts. Home of renowned spas and a large historical zone.The town of Hakone is situated in the southwestern part of Kanagawa, and is part of Fuji Hakone Izu National Park. Hakone is an internationally well-known holiday resort that includes many renowned hot springs. They have about 20 different qualities, nicknamed "Hakone Seventeen Spas."A view of Mt. Fuji is not the only view that you can enjoy in Hakone. There are a number of spots to visit, including O-waku-dani (where volcanic fumes still bear a trace of the Hakone Volcano), Lake Ashi-no-ko (created in the crater of the Hakone Volcano), Susuki-sogen (silver grass field) of Sengokuhara, a stone Buddha and stone towers situated in Moto-Hakone, and cedar trees along Kyu-Kaido Street. Various methods of transportation, such as mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, and cruising boat, are available to bring you to these spots.In addition, Hakone is also home to various museums. The Hakone Open Air Museum, the Narukawa Art Museum for modern Japanese paintings, the Pola Museum of Art featuring Western paintings, and the Venetian Glass Museum are only a few to mention among many that attract a number of visitors.
OSAKA

Osaka Castle with its huge lawn park. The bustling Umeda Underground Mall and Namba are also main attractions.Osaka prefecture located in the center of Kinki region in the Midwest Japan covers the smallest prefecture land area in Japan, but boasts of largest population and highest population density second only after the capital, Tokyo. Mountains surround three sides of the prefecture and the west faces the arc-shaped Osaka Bay. Since it is close to former capitals of Japan Kyoto and Nara, it prospered as an important point for land and water transportation as well as a commercial city.In the Osaka City is the Osaka Castle with a five-layer donjon as its core, on a lawn park that stretches for about 60,000 square meters. During the cherry blossom season in the spring, this park is especially crowded with hanami (cherry blossom viewing) crowd. Osaka's north gate, Umeda, has a gigantic stretch of underground mall that houses many restaurants, fashion and sundry goods stores.In contrast to Kita with Umeda as its core, Minami is an area with core cities Namba, a popular business and shopping district, and Dotonbori with many restaurants on both sides of Dotonbori-gawa River. Minami is known as a town of public entertainment and has many theaters and cinemas.Tenpo-zan Harbor Village, which has a 112 meter-high Ferris wheel, shopping mall and Kaiyukan Aquarium, one of the biggest aquarium in the world, and ATC(Asia Pacific Trade Center), Japan's largest outlet mall, are also popular. Suntory Museum Tempozan will close thier doors on Dec. 2010.

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JAPAN EVENTS

JAPAN EVENTS
Japan is famous for its colourful and enriching events and festivals.  Wherever you may be visiting in Japan with its array of both local (matsuri) and national festivals, you are sure to be close to a celebration or marked occasion of some sort.
Enjoy traditional festivals through to annual sporting festivals.  Below you will find information on a handful of recognised Japanese events

BONDEN-SAI

A contest to become the first to reach the sacred mountain, carrying bonden for the gods to descend.Date: January 17th
Place: Taiheizan Miyoshi Jinja Shrine, Akita
City: Akanuma, Akita City A bonden is a sacred wand measuring almost four meters in length, which serves as a marker for the gods descending to this world. In ancient times, bonden used to be made of paper or rice straw, but in recent years, they are often made by decorating a bamboo basket with colorful fabric. The bonden wands are carried by groups of children, townspeople, or even company employees. Each group entrusts the bonden with their prayers for an abundant harvest, good health for their families and success in business.Although this festival is held in all parts of Akita Prefecture, the festival at this shrine on Mt. Taiheizan (1,171 meters above sea level), the symbol of Akita City, becomes particularly heated. Men race to the shrine to become the first to make offerings of bonden. They even start hustling, jostling and grappling with one another rather violently, which explains why it is also called "Bonden fighting." The excitement reaches its peak around noon.There are various interpretations of this contest, yet the wish to finish first probably stems from the natural desire to be the first to be blessed with divine powers, especially as this festival is held in the New Year. Moreover, the patron deity of Miyoshi Jinja is a god of power, so the fiercer the struggle, the more blessed the participants will be in divine power, which explains the intensity of the struggle. In addition, the onlookers push forward to touch the triangular charms hanging from the bonden and filled with divine power. This makes the festival even more intense. Dedicated to the shrine, the bonden wands are neatly placed in the snow-covered precincts, making a fine spectacle. In former times, the bonden wands were offered to the inner shrine standing on the Taiheizan mountain top.

SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL

Sapporo turns into a snow museum! Internationally renowned and Japan's largest snow festival.Dates: For 7 days, starting in the second week of February
Places: Odori Site, Susukino Site, Satorando Site in Sapporo
City: Chuo-ku & Higashi-ku, Sapporo CityRows of small and large snow statues are on display at three sites in Sapporo City during this festival, which is visited by two million people including overseas tourists.Odori Park which serves as the main venue is located in the city center, and a space extending 1.5km transforms into a snow museum. International Square (Nishi 11 chome, Odori) becomes the stage for the International Snow Statue Contest and every year more than 10 teams compete from all over the world. As this is a park, you can drop by whenever you like. The lit-up snow statues are so beautiful (-22:00). Moreover, the ice sculptures displayed at the Susukino Site, which is also a famous nightspot district, create a truly fantastic world. Here, you will discover unique works with Hokkaido delicacies such as crab, cuttlefish and salmon frozen inside the ice, which are fun to look at.The year 2006 marks the opening of Sapporo Satorando, a park designed on the theme of agriculture (9:00-17:00). In addition to attractions for children, such as the 100m long slide and the snow maze, organizers plan to have visitors experience flying in hot-air balloons and sliding down snowfields on snow rafting boards.Members of the Self-Defense Forces had always played a vital role in the production of the gigantic snow statues and the transportation of snow, but since their dispatch to Iraq, festival preparations have mainly been conducted by citizen volunteers.
HANA-MARSURI (FLORAL FESTIVAL)

Date: April 8th
Place: All over JapanHana-Matsuri refers to the memorial service performed at temples throughout Japan to celebrate the birth of Buddha on April 8th. It is formally called Kanbutsue. On this day, small buildings decorated with flowers are made at temples and a tanjobustu (baby Buddha figurine) is placed inside. This figurine is sprinkled by worshippers using a ladle with ama-cha, which is a beverage made by soaking tealeaves in hot water Some people take this ama-cha home and drink it as holy water.
TAKIGI O-NOH (BONFIRE NOH PERFORMANCE), KYOTO

A graceful musical theater performed at night in a symbolic shrine of KyotoDates: June 1st and 2nd
Place: Heian Jingu Shrine
City: Nishi-Tenno-cho, Okazaki, Sakyo-ku, KyotoNoh, which is the most ancient form of musical theater in Japan, is performed in the evening darkness amid the illumination of the burning torches. Heian Jingu Shrine, where the stage is set up, is a famous shrine built as a partial reproduction of the palace constructed in 794, and its red torii gate at the entrance serves as a symbol of Kyoto. Many people gather to watch the Noh performances in an atmosphere evocative of the ancient capital.Noh is performed by actors wearing lacquer-coated wooden masks and dressed in gorgeous costumes. Emotions are neither expressed on the face nor by voice. The movements are also limited, yet in this style of performance, we Japanese are able to appreciate a serene aestheticism peculiar to Japan. In contrast, the kyogen which is performed during intervals of Noh, is a comic drama with plenty of lines and movements as well as lots of humor.

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Japanese tourist

Tourism in Japan attracted 8.3 million foreign visitors in 2008, slightly more than Singapore and Ireland. Japan has 16 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. Kyoto receives over 30 million tourists annually. Foreigners also visit Tokyo and Nara, Mount Fuji, ski resorts such as Niseko in Hokkaido, Okinawa, ride the shinkansen and take advantage of Japan's hotel and hotspring network.
History of Tourism

                                                   Himeji Castle in Himeji (WHL)


The origins of early traditions of visits to picturesque sites are unclear, but early sight-seeing excursions was Matsuo Basho's 1689 trip to the then "far north" of Japan, which occurred not long after Hayashi Razan categorized the Three Views of Japan in 1643. During the feudal era of Japan, from around 1600 to the Meiji Restoration in 1867, travel was regulated within the country through the use of shukuba or post stations, towns in which travelers had to present appropriate documentation. Despite these restrictions, porter stations and horse stables, as well as places for lodging and food were available on well-traveled routes. During this time, Japan was a closed country to foreigners, so no foreign tourism existed in Japan. Following the Meiji Restoration and the building of a national railroad network across Japan, tourism became more of an affordable prospect for domestic citizens and visitors from foreign countries could enter Japan legally. As early as 1887, government officials recognized the need for an organized system of attracting foreign tourists; the Kihinkai (貴賓会?), which aimed to coordinate the various players in tourism, was established that year with Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi's blessing. Its early leaders included Shibusawa Eiichi and Ekida Takashi. Another major milestone in the development of the tourism industry in Japan was the 1907 passage of the Hotel Development Law, as a result of which the Railways Ministry began to construct publicly owned hotels all throughout Japan.
Tourism Today

Domestic tourism remains a vital part of the Japanese economy and Japanese culture. School children in many middle schools see the highlight of their years as a visit to Tokyo Disneyland or perhaps Tokyo Tower. High school students visit Okinawa or Hokkaido. The extensive rail network together with domestic flights sometimes in planes with modifications to favor the relatively short distances involved in intra-Japan travel allows efficient and speedy transport. In inbound tourism, Japan was ranked 28th in the world in 2007. In 2009, the Yomiuri Shimbun published a modern list of famous sights under the name Heisei Hyakkei (the Hundred Views of the Heisei period).
Neighbouring South Korea is Japan's most important source of foreign tourists. In 2010, the 2.4 million arrivals made up 27% of the tourists visiting Japan.
Chinese travellers are the highest spenders in Japan by country, spending an estimated 196.4 billion yen (US$2.4 billion) in 2011, or almost a quarter of total expenditure by foreign visitors, according to data from the Japan Tourism Agency.
Tourism after the Fukushima disaster
After the triple melt-down of the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, the number of foreign visitors declined for months in a row. To boost tourism the Japanese Tourism Agency announced in October 2011 a plan to give 10,000 round-trip air tickets to Japan away in order to encourage visitors to come to Japan. In 2012 free tickets would be offered on condition that the winners would write online about their experiences in Japan. They also would need to answer some questions, about how they felt while visiting Japan after the earthquake, and how the interest in tourism in Japan could be renewed. In September 2011 some 539,000 foreign people visited Japan, this was 25 percent down compared with the same month in 2010. This decline was largely attributed to the Fukushima nuclear accident, but also the stronger yen made a visit to Japan more expensive. About 15 million dollars would be spent on this program. On December 26, 2011, The Japan Tourism Agency reported on their site that the "Fly to Japan! Project", which would have given out 10,000 round-trip tickets to Japan, was not approved by the government for fiscal year 2012.

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Culture of Japan

The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe, and North America. The inhabitants of Japan experienced a long period of relative isolation from the outside world during the Tokugawa shogunate, until the arrival of "The Black Ships" and the Meiji period.
Japanese language
Main articles: Japanese language and Japanese dialects
Japanese is the official and primary language of Japan. Japanese is relatively small but has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. Early Japanese is known largely on the basis of its state in the 8th century, when the three major works of Old Japanese were compiled. The earliest attestation of the Japanese language is in a Chinese document from 252 AD.
Japanese is written with a combination of three scripts: hiragana, derived from the Chinese cursive script, katakana, derived as a shorthand from Chinese characters, and kanji, imported from China. The Latin alphabet, rōmaji, is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when inputting Japanese into a computer. The Hindu-Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also common.
Literature


Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan. Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a separate style in its own right as Japanese writers began writing their own works about Japan. Since Japan reopened its ports to Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th century, Western and Eastern literature have strongly affected each other and continue to do so.
Music


The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles both traditional and modern. The word for music in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 ("on" sound) with the kanji 楽 ("gaku" enjoyment). Japan is the second largest music market in the world, behind the United States, and the largest in Asia, and most of the market is dominated by Japanese artists.[citation needed]
Local music often appears at karaoke venues, which is on lease from the record labels. Traditional Japanese music is quite different from Western Music and is based on the intervals of human breathing rather than mathematical timing. In 1873, a British traveler claimed that Japanese music, "exasperates beyond all endurance the European breast."
Painting

Painting has been an art in Japan for a very long time: the brush is a traditional writing tool, and the extension of that to its use as an artist's tool was probably natural. Chinese papermaking was introduced to Japan around the 7th century by Damjing and several monks of Goguryeo, later washi was developed from it. Native Japanese painting techniques are still in use today, as well as techniques adopted from continental Asia and from the West.
Calligraphy

The flowing, brush-drawn Japanese rendering of text itself is seen as a traditional art form as well as a means of conveying written information. The written work can consist of phrases, poems, stories, or even single characters. The style and format of the writing can mimic the subject matter, even to the point of texture and stroke speed. In some cases it can take over one hundred attempts to produce the desired effect of a single character but the process of creating the work is considered as much an art as the end product itself.
This calligraphy form is known as ‘shodō’ (書道) which literally means ‘the way of writing or calligraphy’ or more commonly known as ‘shūji’ (習字) ‘learning how to write characters’.
Commonly confused with Calligraphy is the art form known as ‘sumi-e’ (墨絵) literally means ‘ink painting’ which is the art of the paintings a scene or object.
Sculpture

Traditional Japanese sculptures mainly consisted of Buddhist images, such as Tathagata, Bodhisattva, and Myō-ō. The oldest sculpture in Japan is a wooden statue of Amitābha at the Zenkō-ji temple. In the Nara period, Buddhist statues were made by the national government to boost its prestige. These examples are seen in present-day Nara and Kyoto, most notably a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana in the Tōdai-ji temple.
Wood has traditionally been used as the chief material in Japan, along with traditional Japanese architecture. Statues are often lacquered, gilded, or brightly painted, although there are little traces on the surfaces. Bronze and other metals are also used. Other materials, such as stone and pottery, have had extremely important roles in the plebeian beliefs.
Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e, literally "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of woodblock prints that exemplifies the characteristics of pre-Meiji Japanese art. Because these prints could be mass-produced, they were available to a wide cross-section of the Japanese populace — those not wealthy enough to afford original paintings — during their heyday, from the 17th to 20th century.
Ikebana

Ikebana (生け花, 活花, or 挿花?) is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It has gained widespread international fame for its focus on harmony, color use, rhythm, and elegantly simple design. It is an art centered greatly on expressing the seasons, and is meant to act as a symbol to something greater than the flower itself.
Performing arts

The four traditional theatres from Japan are noh (or nō), kyōgen, kabuki, and bunraku. Noh had its origins in the union of the sarugaku, with music and dance made by Kanami and Zeami Motokiyo. Among the characteristic aspects of it are the masks, costumes, and the stylized gestures, sometimes accompanied by a fan that can represent other objects. The noh programs are presented in alternation with the ones of kyōgen, traditionally in number of five, but currently in groups of three.
The kyōgen, of humorous character, had older origin, in 8th century entertainment brought from China, developing itself in sarugaku. In kyōgen, masks are rarely used and even if the plays can be associated with the ones of noh, currently many are not.
Kabuki appears in the beginning of the Edo period from the representations and dances of Izumo no Okuni in Kyoto. Due to prostitution of actresses of kabuki, the participation of women in the plays was forbidden by the government in 1629, and the feminine characters had passed to be represented only by men (onnagata). Recent attempts to reintroduce actresses in kabuki had not been well accepted. Another characteristic of kabuki is the use of makeup for the actors in historical plays (kumadori).
Japanese puppet theater bunraku developed in the same period, that kabuki in a competition and contribution relation involving actors and authors. The origin of bunraku, however is older, lies back in the Heian period. In 1914, appeared the Takarazuka Revue a company solely composed by women who introduced the revue in Japan.
Architecture

Japanese architecture
Japanese architecture has as long of a history as any other aspect of Japanese culture. Originally heavily influenced by Chinese architecture, it also develops many differences and aspects which are indigenous to Japan. Examples of traditional architecture are seen at temples, Shinto shrines, and castles in Kyoto and Nara. Some of these buildings are constructed with traditional gardens, which are influenced from Zen ideas.
Some modern architects, such as Yoshio Taniguchi and Tadao Ando are known for their amalgamation of Japanese traditional and Western architectural influences.
Gardens

Garden architecture is as important as building architecture and very much influenced by the same historical and religious background. Although today, ink monochrome painting still is the art form, most closely associated with Zen Buddhism. A primary design principle of a garden is the creation of a landscape based on, or at least greatly influenced by, the three-dimensional monochrome ink (sumi) landscape painting, sumi-e or suibokuga.
In Japan, the garden has the status of artwork.
Traditional clothing

raditional Japanese clothing distinguishes Japan from all other countries around the world. The Japanese word kimono means "something one wears" and they are the traditional garments of Japan. Originally, the word kimono was used for all types of clothing, but eventually, it came to refer specifically to the full-length garment also known as the naga-gi, meaning "long-wear", that is still worn today on special occasions by women, men, and children. Kimono in this meaning plus all other items of traditional Japanese clothing is known collectively as wafuku which means "Japanese clothes" as opposed to yofuku (Western-style clothing). Kimonos come in a variety of colours, styles, and sizes. Men mainly wear darker or more muted colors, while women tend to wear brighter colors and pastels, and, especially for younger women, often with complicated abstract or floral patterns.
The kimono of a woman who is married (tomesode) differs from the kimono of a woman who is not married (furisode). The tomesode sets itself apart because the patterns do not go above the waistline. The furisode can be recognized by its extremely long sleeves spanning anywhere from 39 to 42 inches, it is also the most formal kimono an unwed woman wears. The furisode advertises that a woman is not only of age but also single.
The style of kimono also changes with the season, in spring kimonos are vibrantly colored with springtime flowers embroidered on them. In the fall, kimono colors are not as bright, with fall patterns. Flannel kimonos are ideal for winter, they are a heavier material to help keep you warm.
One of the more elegant kimonos is the uchikake, a long silk overgarment worn by the bride in a wedding ceremony. The uchikake is commonly embellished with birds or flowers using silver and gold thread.
Kimonos do not come in specific sizes as most western dresses do. The sizes are only approximate, and a special technique is used to fit the dress appropriately.
The obi is a very important part of the kimono. Obi is a decorative sash that is worn by Japanese men and women, although it can be worn with many different traditional outfits, it is most commonly worn with the kimono. Most women wear a very large elaborate obi, while men typically don a more thin and conservative obi.
Most Japanese men only wear the kimono at home or in a very laid back environment, however it is acceptable for a man to wear the kimono when he is entertaining guests in his home. For a more formal event a Japanese man might wear the haori and hakama, a half coat and divided skirt. The hakama is tied at the waist, over the kimono and ends near the ankle. Hakama were initially intended for men only, but today it is acceptable for women to wear them as well. Hakama can be worn with types of kimono, excluding the summer version, yukata. The lighter and simpler casual-wear version of kimono often worn in summer or at home is called yukata.
Formal kimonos are typically worn in several layers, with number of layers, visibility of layers, sleeve length, and choice of pattern dictated by social status, season, and the occasion for which the kimono is worn. Because of the mass availability, most Japanese people wear western style clothing in their everyday life, and kimonos are mostly worn for festivals, and special events. As a result, most young women in Japan are not able to put the kimono on themselves. Many older women offer classes to teach these young women how to don the traditional clothing.
Happi is another type of traditional clothing, but it is not famous worldwide like the kimono. A happi (or happy coat) is a straight sleeved coat that is typically imprinted with the family crest, and was a common coat for firefighters to wear.
Japan also has very distinct footwear.
Tabi, an ankle high sock, is often worn with the kimono. Tabi are designed to be worn with geta, a type of thonged footwear. Geta are sandals mounted on wooden blocks held to the foot by a piece of fabric that slides between the toes. Geta are worn both by men and women with the kimono or yukata.
Cuisine

Japanese cuisine
Through a long culinary past, the Japanese have developed sophisticated and refined cuisine. In recent years, Japanese food has become fashionable and popular in the United States, Europe, and many other areas. Dishes such as sushi, tempura, and teriyaki are some of the foods that are commonly known. The Japanese diet consists principally of rice; fresh, lean seafood; and pickled or boiled vegetables. The healthy Japanese diet is often believed to be related to the longevity of Japanese people.
Sports and leisure


In the long feudal period governed by the samurai class, some methods that were used to train warriors were developed into well-ordered martial arts, in modern times referred to collectively as koryū. Examples include kenjutsu, kyūdō, sōjutsu, jujutsu, and sumo, all of which were established in the Edo period. After the rapid social change in the Meiji Restoration, some martial arts changed into modern sports, called gendai budō. Judo was developed by Kanō Jigorō, who studied some sects of jujutsu. These sports are still widely practiced in present day Japan and other countries.
Baseball, football, and other popular western sports were imported to Japan in the Meiji period. These sports are commonly practiced in schools, along with traditional martial arts.
Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. Football is a popular sport in Japan, after J League (Japan Professional Football League) was established in 1991. In addition, there are many semi-professional organizations, which are sponsored by private companies: for example, volleyball, basketball, rugby union, table tennis, and so on. The motorsport of drifting was also invented in Japan.
Popular culture

Japanese popular culture not only reflects the attitudes and concerns of the present day, but also provides a link to the past. Popular films, television programs, manga, music, and video games all developed from older artistic and literary traditions, and many of their themes and styles of presentation can be traced to traditional art forms. Contemporary forms of popular culture, much like the traditional forms, provide not only entertainment but also an escape for the contemporary Japanese from the problems of an industrial world. When asked how they spent their leisure time, 80 percent of a sample of men and women surveyed by the government in 1986 said they averaged about two and a half hours per weekday watching television, listening to the radio, and reading newspapers or magazines. Some 16 percent spent an average of two and a quarter hours a day engaged in hobbies or amusements. Others spent leisure time participating in sports, socializing, and personal study. Teenagers and retired people reported more time spent on all of these activities than did other groups.
Many anime and manga are very popular around the world and continue to become popular, as well as Japanese video games, music, fashion, and game shows;[11] this has made Japan an "entertainment superpower" along with the United States and the United Kingdom.
In the late 1980s, the family was the focus of leisure activities, such as excursions to parks or shopping districts. Although Japan is often thought of as a hard-working society with little time for leisure, the Japanese seek entertainment wherever they can. It is common to see Japanese commuters riding the train to work, enjoying their favorite manga, or listening through earphones to the latest in popular music on portable music players.
A wide variety of types of popular entertainment are available. There is a large selection of music, films, and the products of a huge comic book industry, among other forms of entertainment, from which to choose. Game centers, bowling alleys, and karaoke are popular hangout places for teens while older people may play shogi or go in specialized parlors.
Together, the publishing, film/video, music/audio, and game industries in Japan make up the growing Japanese content industry, which, in 2006, was estimated to be worth close to 26 trillion Yen (USD$ 400 billion.).
National character

The Japanese "national character" has been written about under the term Nihonjinron, literally meaning "theories/discussions about the Japanese people" and referring to texts on matters that are normally the concerns of sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, and philosophy, but emphasizing the authors' assumptions or perceptions of Japanese exceptionalism; these are predominantly written in Japan by Japanese people,though noted examples have also been written by foreign residents, journalists and even scholars.

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