We have mentioned it before on this blog that one of the many things that surprise first- (and often second- and third-) time visitors to Japan is the coexistence of two religions, sometimes ...
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Now, the relationship between the Japanese and cats is long and well known. From the cat illustrations in the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo Period (1600-1868) to Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat ...
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The Buddhist Gohonzon Devotion Object Scratching Post for Cats takes the idea of worshipping your pet to the very next level -- or should that be, to an extreme? Created by Japan's most innovative ...
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A train in Kyoto decorated with the limbs of the Thousand-armed Kannon is now transporting tourists around sightseeing spots in the city. Featuring some eighty gold-colored arms bent in the poses ...
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The old capital of Kyoto is associated first and foremost with classical culture, but what about androids? The temple Kodaiji in Kyoto has installed Mindar, the world's first android version of ...
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The first Muslim fashion show will held in Japan in November as part of Hala Expo Japan 2016. Organized in partnership with the Malaysia-based Moslema In Style, Tokyo Modest Fashion Show will take ...
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Buddhism is making a comeback (if it ever went away), in unusual places. From Buddhist bars -- the most famous of which is Vowz in Yotsuya -- to the "monk delivery service" available on Amazon ...
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The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. LP Hartley wrote those words as the opening of The Go-Between, a very English novel about very English themes. But the message ...
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Half British, half Japanese. That alone would set Hana Tajima apart from most, but she is also a Muslim convert (at the age of 17) and a fashion designer and blogger. Tajima has teamed up fast ...
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Amazon Japan has started offering a monk dispatch service, where a Buddhist holy man is sent to conduct memorial services for you. The service starts at a flat ¥35,000 (about $285) anywhere ...
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Searching for Hell is a new continent-crossing documentary covering humanity's universal curiosity about hell and the underworld. The film features five different teams telling stories and ...
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The Japanese have one of these effortless and inimitable attitudes towards religion. It is both part of their lives, sort of, in the form of Shinto customs, visiting shrines, animistic "power ...
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