Evidence-led guides to Japanese language, names, culture, travel, food, anime, the Chinese zodiac and Japanese eras.
n
Japanese Culture
Lucky and Unlucky Numbers in Japan
Four sounds like death and nine like suffering, so Japanese quietly says yon and kyu instead. Eight is lucky for the opposite kind of reason - the shape of the character.
Japanese Culture
Japanese Gift Giving: Occasions, Wrapping and Taboos
Omiyage, temiyage, ochugen, oseibo, and two kinds of envelope that mean opposite things. New notes for a wedding, old notes for a funeral - and why the knot decides.
Japanese Culture
Bowing in Japan: The Three Angles Explained
Eshaku, keirei and saikeirei - fifteen, thirty and forty-five degrees. A visitor spends almost the whole trip inside the first one, and here is when that stops being true.
Japanese Culture
Japanese Festivals by Season: A Year-Round Guide
Hanami in spring, Gion and Obon in summer, autumn leaves and Jidai Matsuri, then New Year. The festival year laid out, with the two weeks when everyone is travelling at once.
Japanese Culture
Japanese Etiquette for Visitors: What Actually Matters
Japanese etiquette splits into rules of form, which nobody minds you getting wrong, and rules of boundary, which everybody notices. Only one of those lists is worth learning.
Japanese Eras
How to Read a Date on a Japanese Document
Seven slots, always in the same order, and five character pairs to recognise. After that, any form in Japan becomes readable.
Japanese Eras
The Four Japanese Years That Belong to Two Eras
1912, 1926, 1989 and 2019 each split between two eras on a specific day. The exact boundaries, and why Showa 64 lasted a week.
Japanese Eras
Kazoedoshi: Japan’s Other Way of Counting Age
You are one at birth and everyone gains a year at New Year. A baby born on 30 December is two years old on 2 January - and that count still decides four ceremonies.
Japanese Eras
Showa, Heisei and Reiwa Year Tables
The tables you can scan instead of calculating, the anchors worth memorising, and how a new era name is actually chosen.
Japanese Eras
Japanese Era Years: Meiji to Reiwa, Explained
Japan runs two calendars at once. Five eras, one subtraction each, and the two details that turn a simple conversion into a wrong answer.
Japanese Phrases
What to Say in Japan When Something Goes Wrong
Three numbers, four situations and a handful of sentences you will hopefully never use. Checked against the national tourism organisation's own page.
Japanese Phrases
Japanese Phrases for Trains and Stations
One phrase, one card and about eight kanji cover the world's best rail network. Plus train types, the exit that matters, and the luggage rule people miss.