Igloo Festival!
15. The Seikan Tunnel, the longest underwater tunnel in the world, connects Honshu and Hokkaido.
16. In folklore, the crane is said to live for 1,000 years, so in Japan it’s a symbol for long life.
17. You don’t want to mess with the Hokkaido Brown Bear!
18. Ryuhyo (drift ice) in the Sea of Okhotsk attracts tourists.
Springtime Cherry Blossoms
Spring is the time for new beginnings. In April, the new school year starts for children. Companies start the new business year. And throughout most of Japan, the cherry blossoms bloom!
Sakura is the Japanese word for "cherry blossom". When the sakura are in full bloom, people make special visits to parks and other spots with many cherry trees. They enjoy picnicking under the beautiful blossoms, and sometimes sing their favorite songs with a portable karaoke machine!
This is one of the most well known traditional Japanese songs. It is often played on a koto, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument.
Writing Haiku Poems
Another favorite Japanese pastime is to make up poetry for the season. A haiku is a 17-syllable poem that references the season. There are a few basic rules for writing a proper haiku:
• The first line has 5 syllables.
• The second line has 7 syllables.
• The third line has 5 syllables.
• You must include a kigo, or “seasonal word,”
to symbolize which season you are writing about. For example: cherry blossoms indicate spring, cicadas mean summer, maple leaves mean fall, snow means winter.
What season is it now, where you are? Can you create a haiku to express your feelings about it? Here is an example to inspire you, by the Japanese poet Issa...
Nara is famous for the deer that wander around in the large park area where many historic buildings are. On your way to visit the temples, you can pet the deer and feed them special rice crackers.
The largest Buddha statue in the world is inside the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple. The Buddha is 15 meters (49.2 feet) tall and it weighs about 300 tons! One fun thing for kids is to crawl through a hole at the base of a pillar behind the statue. They say the hole is exactly the same size as the Great Buddha’s nostril, and that if you crawl through it, you will be healthy and happy in life.
Nebuta Matsuri is a huge, weeklong street festival and parade in Aomori. Everyone can participate! ... That is, as long as you wear the proper costume, called haneto.
There’s a special hat, a special waistband with a canteen hanging from it, and special shoes. The festival’s main attraction is the nighttime parade of floats that are actually gigantic paper lanterns shaped like famous samurai warriors. They are made of bamboo or wood frames covered with paper. They are lit from inside with hundreds of light bulbs. It’s an amazing sight to see!
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has so many different monuments. There is the A-bomb Dome, which I had seen pictures of, but is huge and scary to see with your own eyes. Then there is the Children’s Peace Monument, which displays thousands of origami cranes, sent from children all over the world!
At the Peace Memorial Museum, they display all kinds of items that were frozen in time, at exactly 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, the moment when the bomb was dropped. It’s kind of spooky, and makes you realize how awful war is. I wish for no more nuclear weapons and guns on earth! I want peace in the world.
Sapporo Snow Festival or Yuki Matsuri is held in the wintertime on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands. (The word yuki means snow—like in that haiku on page 11!—and matsuri means festival, a word you’ll see more of later in this book.)
In Odori Koen, the central park in the middle of the city, people make huge sculptures (there’s about 300 of them) out of ice and snow. They really are HUGE…some as big as buildings and you can walk through them!
Okinawa is the southernmost string of islands in Japan, and the only prefecture that is located in the subtropical climate zone.
What is most surprising is how blue the ocean water is! And the sand is so white that it hurts your eyes! And then once you go into the water, it is so clear, you can see right to the bottom. You can also visit the Ocean Expo Park, and check out the most amazing whale sharks and manta rays!
The Island-Hopping Road or Shimanami Kaido is a fun adventure to bicycle along. It’s a route that’s 80 km (50 miles) long and it connects six islands between Honshu and Shikoku.
And there’s a special route only for bicycle and foot traffic. Don’t forget to pack onigiri for lunch—the perfect picnic or travel-food! (Check out page 23 to learn how to make onigiri!)
The Myth of Japan’s Creation
Izanagi and Izanami Create the Universe
In the beginning, the world was formless and shapeless, just a sea of filmy fog. Then a reed began growing high, and from it were born eight generations of gods.
One day, the first gods chose two divine beings—Izanagi (who was male) and Izanami (who was female)—to create the first land. The gods gave them a jeweled staff and showed them the Bridge of Heaven, which floated between Heaven and Earth.
At first, Izanagi and Izanami did not know what to do. They stood on the Bridge and looked down at the churning liquid below. They dipped the staff in and stirred it around. When they pulled it out, a few drops fell and became solid: this was the first island. Izanagi and Izanami were so pleased with this result, they descended from the Bridge and onto the new island.
They found it so pleasant, they decided to stay there. They built a home and had many, many children, some of whom later became the Islands of Japan. One of
