Mono no Aware: The Japanese Word for Being Moved by Things That Pass
Why do maples spend energy turning red just before their leaves fall? Mono no aware, the Japanese word for being moved by…
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japanese culture
Shinrin-yoku: The Japanese Word for Bathing in a Forest
Shinrin-yoku, Japan's forest bathing, started life as a forestry campaign in 1982. The science came later, smaller and stranger than the slogans,…
The Moon Is Beautiful, Isn’t It? The Japanese “I Love You” Sōseki Never Said
Natsume Sōseki never told a student to translate I love you as the moon is beautiful. The story stuck anyway, because it…
Ma: The Japanese Word for the Space Between Things
The Japanese character for ma is a gate with the sun inside it. What the space between things means in Japan, from…
Taian 2027: Japan’s Lucky Wedding Days, and the Case for the Unlucky Ones
The full Taian 2027 calendar of lucky wedding days in Japan, checked day by day: which dates fill first, why only fifteen…
Yūgen: The Japanese Word for the Feeling Beneath the Feeling
The Japanese call it yūgen. A beauty too deep for words. The ache of noticing how beautiful something is while it is…
Ukiyo: The Floating World
What Is Ukiyo? In Japan’s Edo period, ukiyo meant “the floating world”. A poetic description of life’s fleeting pleasures. Think kabuki theatres, geisha districts,…
Ikigai: What Japan Really Means by a Reason for Being
The famous ikigai diagram isn't Japanese. What the word really means, what Japan's own surveys say gives people ikigai, and why a…
Japan Doesn’t Have 4 Seasons. It Has 72.
Japan's traditional calendar has 72 micro-seasons of about five days, inside 24 solar terms. What they are, the names, and the weeks…