Welcome to our Japanese world. Japanese culture is very unique in its way as Japanese are always concerned with their cultural values in their life. In our blog post, We will be talking about Japanese culture which are related to their legal and ethics, japanese's social costums, their non-verbal communication, japanese traditional festivals and superstitions, and also their way of conducting business. Hopefully you enjoy our blog :)

Japanese Festivals

Soma Nomaoi

Soma Nomaoi is a Japanese traditional festival. It is a 1,000 years old traditional horse race that is even held in current days. To take part in this festival, the participants would have to dress in traditional samurai armour with their Katana (Sword). Then, they will race each other on their own horses for 1,000 meter. Here are the details for this festival :

(a) This festival is held for 3 days.
(b) This festival is held in Fukushima, Soma City.
(c) This festival is held for 4 days from the month of July 23rd to 25th  every year.

Hina Matsuri

Hina Matsuri is one of the famous festival in Japan.It is a doll's festival which held on 3rd of March  in Katsuura City,Chiba Prefecture. Hina Matsuri is the day to pray for young girls' happiness and growth.In February,most families with girls will display their special dolls which call hina-ningyo and devote peach blossoms to them.After the festival,they will take the dolls down immediately. This is because some believes that once they leave the doll past 4th of march,it will results a late marriage for the daughter.  

*As you can see the the photo above,those dolls are arranged on a 5 or 7-level stand covered with a red carpet.

Japanese festivals unique and beautiful in its way.

Japanese Superstitions

Most country do have customs and beliefs that make them distinct as a people , which included with few interesting superstition of Japanese's culture that do have. There are people still believes that these superstitions would happen and bring bad luck to people. Here is some examples of Japanese superstitions:

(a) Do not lie down after your meal or you will turn into a cow 

(b) You will have a shorter life if you sleep with your head facing the north at night.

(c) You will go blind if you don't eat all your rice during your meal.

(d) You will die if you hiccup (An involuntary contraction of the diaphragm) a hundred times in a row.

(e) A broken geta ( Japanese wooden footwear ) will bring you bad luck.

(f) You will get a ghost or snake to pay a visit if you whistle at night.

(g) The number 4 is an unlucky number for Japanese because it pronounced as "shi" , considered 

     as unlucky since it pronounced the same as "death" in Japanese. Besides that number 4, number

     9 is also an unlucky number for them because it is pronounced "ku", have the same 

     pronunciation of the Japanese words for "agony" and "torment".

Japan's Traffic Rules and Regulations

Rules & Regulation in Japan

There's many rules in Japan. Some of the rules practice there is that foreigners above the age of 16 must bring their alien registration with them all the time. If a foreigner is caught by policeman or any other official, and fail to show their alien registration, the foreigners will be imprison not more than a year or a fine that is not more than 200,000 yen. Another rule that is practice there is whoever that is caught littering will be fine 30,000 yen regardless of nationality or status.

Rules & Regulation on the road of Japan

Before driving in Japan, we must have our driving license first. Here are 2 ways of getting license in Japan, we can change our foreign driving license to a Japanese license by taking their test. If we don't have our license, we must take their exam to get our license. The license have to be renewed every 3 or 5 years. The rules of Japan on the road is that they're only allowed to drive 40 - 50km/h in a city, on highway they're only allowed to drive 100km/h. And the smaller cars in Japan have yellow plate number, the bigger car have white plate number. The use of seat belts is a must for every person in the car, including the backseat passenger. If there is child, then a proper child restrain must be use. The use of handphone while driving is totally not allowed. There's also bicycle rules in Japan, cyclist is allowed to cycle on the footpath. If a cyclist fails to display lights at night, a fine of 30,000 yen will be charged

This sign shows that cycling on the footpaths is allowed in Japan.

 
This shows the difference in colour of a plate number of a big car and a small car.